Method and system for dynamic trunk group based call routing

• US 10,084,923 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2017
• Issued: 09/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Combellas, Claudia M., Johnston, Dana A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho, Duc C
• Application Number:
  US15/852,888
• Publication Number:
  US 20180124251A1
• Time in Patent Office: 277 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/38 Flow based routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/122 by diverting traffic away from congested entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/36 Statistical metering, e.g. recording occasions when traffic exceeds capacity of trunks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0096 Trunk circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1285 Details of finding and selecting a gateway for a particular call

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure involve systems and methods for providing routing of a communication received at a telecommunications network based on a unique identifier. In particular, a telecommunications network may route one or more communications based on a dynamically updated trunk group identifier associated with an egress user. Thus, in addition to routing the communication based on a telephone number or Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with a user, the network may also route the communication based upon a dynamically updated trunk group identifier included in an updated routing function of the network.

Claims

1. A method for operating a telecommunications network, the method comprising:

routing a communication over the telecommunications network to a routing engine, the communication comprising a first destination device identification associated with a customer of the telecommunications network;

identifying a second destination device associated with the customer of the telecommunications network;

associating a unique identifier with the communication, wherein the unique identifier specifies a dynamically updatable trunk group identifier associated with the customer of the telecommunications network; and

transmitting the communication to the second destination device based at least on the unique identifier associated with the communication.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the first destination device is a time-division multiplex (TDM) component associated with the customer of the telecommunications network.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein associating the unique identifier with the communication comprises including the unique identifier in a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message transmitted to the application server.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the unique identifier is a network defined trunk group identifier and the application server is configured to transmit the communication to the second destination device based at least on the network defined trunk group identifier.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

receiving an indication of an un-connectable circuit associated with the first destination device.

6. The method as recited in claim 5 wherein the indication of the un-connectable circuit associated with the first destination device is received at the routing engine.

7. The method as recited in claim 5 wherein identifying the second destination device comprises:

accessing a location intelligence engine maintaining an indication of the second destination device associated with the customer.

8. The method as recited in claim 7 wherein the second destination device is automatically identified upon receiving the indication of the un-connectable circuit associated with the first destination device.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein transmitting the communication to the second destination device comprises:

routing the communication to an application server in communication with the second destination device, wherein the application server routes the communication to the second destination device based at least on the unique identifier associated with the communication.

10. A telecommunications network comprising:

a routing engine for receiving a communication comprising a first destination device identification associated with a customer of a telecommunications network, the first destination device comprising a time-division multiplex (TDM) component associated with the customer; and

an application server for routing the communication to a second destination device associated with the customer based at least on a unique identifier associated with the communication, the second destination device comprising a networking Internet Protocol (IP) component and the unique identifier comprises a dynamically updatable trunk group identifier;

wherein the routing engine associates the unique identifier with the communication when an indication of an un-connectable circuit associated with the first destination device is received and transmits the communication to the application server for processing by the application server.

11. The telecommunications network as recited in claim 10 wherein the unique identifier is associated with the communication by including the unique identifier in a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message transmitted to the application server.

12. The telecommunications network as recited in claim 10 wherein the unique identifier is a network defined trunk group identifier and the application server is configured to transmit the communication to the second destination device based at least on the network defined trunk group identifier.

13. The telecommunications network as recited in claim 10 further comprising:

a location intelligence engine in communication with the application server and maintaining an indication of the second destination device associated with the customer.

14. The telecommunications network as recited in claim 13 wherein the location intelligence engine receives the indication of the second destination device associated with the customer and stores the indication of the second destination device in a database.

15. A routing device comprising:

a network communication port to receive a communication over a telecommunications network, the communication comprising a first destination device identification associated with a customer of the telecommunications network;

a processor; and

a memory device in communication with the processor for storing one or more instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the routing device to perform the operations of;

identifying a second destination device associated with the customer of the telecommunications network;

associating a unique identifier with the communication, wherein the unique identifier specifies a dynamically updatable trunk group identifier associated with the customer of the telecommunications network; and

transmitting the communication to the second destination device based at least on the unique identifier associated with the communication.

16. The routing device as recited in claim 15 wherein the first destination device is a time-division multiplex (TDM) component associated with the customer of the telecommunications network.

17. The routing device as recited in claim 15 wherein the routing engine further routes the communication to an application server in communication with the second destination device;

and wherein the application server routes the communication to the to the second destination device based at least on the unique identifier associated with the communication.

18. The routing device as recited in claim 15 wherein associating the unique identifier with the communication comprises including the unique identifier in a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message transmitted to an application server.