Appeal No. 2002-2174
Application No. 09/263,166 Page 7
change. The Moderator collects the bid information from all of
the carriers, sorts it, and transmits it to an adjunct processor
(computer) at each subscribing switch location, and to all
Carriers. Each subscribing switch (Subscriber) gets the rate
information submitted by all Carriers to the Moderator. From the
list of all Carriers providing bid information to the Moderator,
each Subscriber can select the carriers which it wants to route
the traffic, and can change the selection at any time. The
Subscriber downloads the bid information of the selected Carriers
into routing tables of the "least cost" routing software in the
switch. After each bid is submitted by a Carrier and processed
by the Moderator, it is distributed to the Subscribers and to all
of the Carriers. All Carriers can thereafter submit a lower or
higher bid to stimulate or discourage additional traffic (col. 1,
line 59 through col. 2, line 25). Similarly, the Moderator may
offer a different class of service directly to end users who are
calling parties. In this case, the Moderator will broadcast each
Carrier's bid to an interface unit at each user location. This
information may be displayed for evaluation by the end user, or
processed within the interface unit with direction from the end
user. If the Carrier information is displayed to the end user,
the user can choose a Carrier for a call attempt and key-in the
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