Central metering system for automatic telephone exchanges

Claim 1

A central metering and supervision apparatus for a telephone exchange provided with common call completing circuits comprising registers, markers and junctors for completing connections from calling lines to trunks and from trunks to called lines, said metering and supervision apparatus comprising a coupler, a plurality of memory units, each unit including a plurality of memory cells with at least one cell allotted to each trunk, a scanner associated with each such unit, each said scanner connected to scan the trunks to determine the condition of trunks connected thereto for transmission of an indication of said condition to the associated unit for storage of such indication in the cell for that trunk, a plurality of line identifiers, means connecting an identifier to one unit for receiving calling number information therefrom on a call through a trunk found to exhibit a calling condition, means for decoding call prefix information determinative of the nature of said call, said decoding means connected through the junctor processing said call to said unit for transferring data corresponding to said call prefix information to said one unit, means in said one unit for accumulating calling line identification information, call nature data and the identity of the trunk processing said call, and means in the coupler for receiving and for storing the identity of the identifier connected to said one unit and the identity of the one unit, peripheral equipment including a peripheral memory unit, and further memory means in said one unit for storing call information in reSponse to a call demand indicated by the presence of a decoded prefix and transmitting said information to said peripheral equipment at the termination of a call.