There are two quite different types of electronic networks that are evolving: a standard telephone network and a data network (e.g., the Internet). The standard telephone network, such as a wireless telephony network and the POTS network, is designed to carry real-time messaging content. Capacity is allocated in real-time bandwidth and, once you have a connection of adequate bandwidth established between two points, data that is delayed is viewed as a network fault. Examples of communications that may be carried via a standard telephone network(s) include voice communications, multi-party conference calls, video conference calls, or the like.
Another characteristic of standard telephone networks is that each network is typically owned and controlled by a small number (typically a single company in the case of wireless networks) of large companies that historically have provided service directly to end users of the network and therefore have a billing type relationship with them. Where a connection is made through the facilities of another provider, there is typically a commercial contract in place between the two companies. These standard telephone networks, in part because of the relatively close relationship between the service vendors and network users, have the characteristic that the originator of a call can be readily identified, allowing “caller ID” service to be readily implemented and to be widely known and in fact expected.
In contrast, the second type of network (e.g., data networks such as the Internet, LANs, WANs, VPNs, and the like) were designed to move mostly one-way, non-real time data from point to point. In this type of network, the delay of data has typically not been regarded as a network fault. Additionally, some data networks, particularly the Internet, are far more disjoint than a standard telephone network. There are many more companies involved, and there is much less control of individual point-to-point end-user connections. It is typical that a company that provides transmission of data on the Internet has a tenuous commercial relationship with the originators of most of the data packets that it is carrying. In fact, Internet service providers (ISPs) protect the privacy and anonymity of their subscribers.
This tenuous commercial relationship with end users coupled with the relative ease with which the end-user computers that originate much of the traffic on the Internet can be anonymously enlisted in the service of third parties, leads to the fact that a “caller ID” type service is nearly impossible to implement on the Internet.
In recent years, these data networks have begun to evolve to provide real-time, two-way communications between parties. The communications may include, for example, voice-over-IP (VOIP), instant messaging, interactive video conferencing (e.g., web meetings), or the like.
Using the electronic data networks for real-time, two-way communications provide several advantages. In particular, using these electronic networks for real-time, two-way communications is relatively low cost and easily accessible. The proliferation of networks throughout today's society, particularly the Internet, has ensured ready access to a communications device capable of communicating with any other individual communicatively coupled to the same network. Essentially anyone with a computer, a personal data assistant, a wireless telephone, or the like can connect to the Internet and communicate with someone at a remote location within seconds. Likewise, companies can use internal networks (e.g., WANs, VPNs, or the like) to allow geographically dispersed employees to communicate in real-time using many of the same technologies. Notably, the communications can frequently occur with equipment already purchased as networks and access devices are generally already in place to handle data needs.
As this type of communications becomes more widespread, it will inevitably become a target for advertisers and telemarketers as a method to distribute advertising messages in vast quantities. Because of the low cost of distributing massive amounts of advertising, advertisers can economically transmit advertising communications with response rates that are orders of magnitude less than would be necessary to support more traditional means of advertising. Additionally, as discussed above, anonymity given the sender prevents “do not call” lists and caller-ID type mechanisms from providing an adequate solution.
Electronic mail (e-mail) has already seen this problem. E-mail is a store-and-forward communications method in which one-way communications (as opposed to a two-way communications) are sent from one network node to another network node until the final destination is reached, where a recipient may or may not retrieve a message or respond. Because e-mail is inexpensive and advertisers can transmit massive amounts of e-mail quickly (and often automatically), e-mail advertisements (e.g., junk e-mail) are becoming a burden to networks and users alike. This use of e-mail to send massive amounts of advertisements is known as the e-mail “spam” problem.
Attempts have been made to reduce the effect of e-mail spam on the end users. One such attempt is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,052,709, wherein a system that attempts to filter incoming e-mail to identify junk e-mail is described. This system, however, only applies to e-mail, which, as described above, is a one-way communication, and does not apply to two-way, real-time communications, such as voice, video, real-time text, or the like.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and system to identify and filter unsolicited real-time, two-way communications.