SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CUSTOMER wherein said customer premises equipment includes a
PREMISES BROADBAND INTERFACE WITH screen-phone device, comprising first channel means for
ON-HOOK ALERTING communicating telephony information to and from a telephone network; second channel means, separate from the 5 first channel means, for communicating broadband informa
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION tion to and from a broadband network; means for routing
_ . . , „ said telephony information to said customer premises equip
The present invention relates generally to the field of ment connected t0 said Mslfacs deyice; md routi control
customer premises equipment ( CPE ) for telephone means for routin certain broadband Momation t0 said
networks, and more specifically to CPE devices capab e of w ... ^ ^ t m se t0 predetermined
interfacing with both telephone and broadband networks. signals from said network
CPE devices for use in today's telephone network are
becoming more intelligent all the time. Today, screen phone- BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
type CPEs permit sophisticated customer services through ^ ... ....
^telephone network. For example, screen phone-type 15 J1* accompanying drawmgs which are incorporated in
CPEs interface with today's telephone network elements and and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate presently
other computers to transmit and receive voice and data ^mentations of this invention and, together
according to the Analog Display Services Interface TMm ^ ZmJ?u description given above and the detailed
("ADSr) standard. ADSI is an industry standard written by description of the preferred implementations given below,
Bellcore, the assignee of the present application. These 20 serve to explain the principles of the invention.
CPEs, also referred to as "smart phones," receive data and -to me drawings:
programming information via the telephone network to FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a combined telephone/
expand telephone services. broadband network configuration using a CPE device in
Service providers wishing to modify programming infor- accordance with one embodiment of the invention; and mation or send other information to customers prefer to do 25 FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of a broadband CPE so during off hours, when telephone traffic is at a minimum interface device in accordance with one embodiment of the and costs are lower. Because CPEs operate with the tele- present invention, phone network, however, to interface with a CPE, a computer or network element must call the CPE in accordance BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE with conventional call processing protocols. Thus, the CPE 30 INVENTION will ring in response to this call, disturbing the customer. Reference will now be made in detail to the construction There is some movement toward changing the telephone and operation of preferred implementations of the present network elements to allow for an inaudible alert to CPE invention which are illustrated in the accompanying drawdevices, but those changes are very expensive and years jngS.
awa^' 35 The following description of the preferred implementa
At the same time new CPE devices are being developed, tions of the present invention is only exemplary of the
new network elements and services are also being devel- invention. The present invention is not limited to these
oped. For example, today there exists a big emphasis on implementations, but may be realized by other implemen
developing broadband networks for feeding video informa- tations.
tion to customers' homes. These broadband networks 4° FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a combined telephone/
include, for example, digital asynchronous transfer mode broadband netwark configuration using a broadband CPE
( ATM ) switches to route large amounts of digital infor- interface device ^CID") 100 in accordance with a pre
mation quickly and efficiently. Broadband networks provide ferred embodiment of me present invention. BCID 100
yet another source of information for customers and cus- provides m interface between end user device 101, e.g.,
tomer services including, for example, video programs on 45 ... uters? ^ me pubHc Switched Teie.
demand and other forms of interactive TV, High Definition phone NMk ... I02 and a broadband network
Television ( HDTV ), graphics databases, multimedia data, 106 BCID 100 connects t0 the PSTN 102 via a
and data to and from very high speed supercomputers. standard analog telephone ^ 104 and connects to the
Therefore, significant benefits can be derived from CPE broadband network 106 via a broadband access loop 108.
devices that interface with broadband network elements, as 50
Broadband access loop 108 may comprise, for example, a fiber or coaxial cable loop, or some other means capable of Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a CPE system and handling broadband digital transmission signals from the method capable of interfacing with broadband networks as broadband network. Other possible means include, dependwell as today's telephone networks. ^ ing on me bandwidth needed for the supported applications, Additional desires of the invention will be set forth in the Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Lines ("ADSL"), Broaddescription which follows, and in part will be apparent from band Integrated Services Digital Network ("B-ISDN") the description or may be learned by practice of the inven- access lines, radio based access, and interactive cable Teletion. The advantages of the invention may be realized and vision ("TV") channels.
obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations ^ pjo 2 shows a more detailed drawing of the BOD and particularly pointed out in the appended claims. network configuration according to a preferred embodiment
of the invention. The BCID 100 provides access to high speed digital data, To achieve the foregoing desires and objects, and in video, and high definition television applications. Broadaccordance with the purposes of the invention as embodied 65 band network 106 receives and forwards this type of inforand broadly described herein, the present invention provides mation from a variety of sources including broadband video an interface device for customer premises equipment, server 110, broadband data server 112, and intelligent net
