Distributed agent reservation in SIP cluster

• US 10,181,974 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 01/15/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Incorporated (Genesys Cloud Services Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Incorporated (Genesys Cloud Services Incorporated)
• Inventors: Rais, Philippe, Sayko, Vyacheslav, Tikin, Alexander, Budilovsky, Grygoriy
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman, Jeff
• Application Number:
  US13/844,190
• Publication Number:
  US 20140156330A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,132 Days
• Field of Search: 705 715
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/04 Network management architectures or arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/26 Route discovery packet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/106 across networks, e.g. mapping telephone numbers to data network addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4541 Directories for service discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4557 Directories for hybrid networks, e.g. including telephone numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1045 Proxies, e.g. for session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/402 Agent or workforce management
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42306 Number translation services, e.g. premium-rate, freephone or vanity number services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5232 Call distribution algorithms

Abstract

A method for reserving agents for handling calls in a distributed contact center environment. A first module identifies, through interactions with other modules, an agent suitable for handling the call. A second module executes a hash function to identify a third module responsible for the agent, makes a request to the third module, to reserve the agent, and routes the call to the third module if the request is granted.

Claims

1. A method for reserving distributed agent resources in a distributed contact center system, the method comprising:

receiving, by a first module executing on a first computing device, a first interaction to be routed, wherein the first module maintains state information for a first set of agent resources, the first set of agent resources including a first set of directory numbers, wherein the first module is a first server instance adhering to a particular communications protocol, the particular communications protocol for controlling communications over an IP network;

transmitting, by the first module, a first request for routing the first interaction;

receiving, by the first module, in response to the first request, a first resource identifier of a first destination directory number to which the interaction is to be routed, the first destination directory number being selected from a second set of resources including a second set of directory numbers different from the first set of directory numbers, wherein a second module maintains state information for the second set of resources, wherein the second module is a second server instance adhering to the particular communications protocol;

determining, by the first module, a module identifier of the second module as a function of the first resource identifier for the first destination directory number;

transmitting, by the first module, a second request to the second module for the first destination directory number;

determining, by the second module, based on the state information maintained for the second set of agent resources, whether to grant the second request;

in response to the second module granting the second request, routing the first interaction by the first module to the first destination directory number, wherein the routing to the first destination directory number is based on the particular communications protocol;

establishing, via a gateway device, a connection with a first agent device associated with the first destination directory, wherein real-time media is exchanged via the connection;

receiving, by the first module a second interaction to be routed;

transmitting, by the first module, a third request for routing the second interaction;

receiving, by the first module, in response to the third request, a second resource identifier of a second destination directory number to which the interaction is to be routed, the second resource identifier and the second destination directory number being different from respectively the first resource identifier and the first destination directory number, the second destination directory number being selected from the second set of resources including the second set of directory numbers;

determining, by the first module, the module identifier of the second module as a function of the second resource identifier for the second destination directory number;

transmitting, by the first module, a fourth request to the second module for the second destination directory number;

determining, by the second module, based on the state information maintained for the second set of agent resources, whether to grant the fourth request;

in response to the second module granting the fourth request, routing the second interaction by the first module to the second destination directory number, wherein the routing to the second destination directory number is based on the particular communications protocol; and

establishing, via a gateway device, a connection with a second agent device associated with the second destination directory number, wherein real-time media is exchanged via the connection.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of whether to grant the request for the agent resource comprises:

receiving a second request for the agent resource during a time interval;

assessing priority of the request relative to the second request; and

granting the request or the second request based on the assessed priority.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the assessing of the priority includes evaluating a plurality of criteria of the request relative to a plurality of criteria of the second request, the criteria being selected from a group consisting of:

a value of a caller, a suitability of the agent resource for an interaction, a suitability of other agent resources for the call, a hold time, and combinations thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second module is responsible for maintaining state information related to the agent resource.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the function is a hash function.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the hash function is a consistent hash function.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the hash function comprises:

a first basic hash function configured to map resource identifiers into a range; and

a second basic hash function configured to map module identifiers into the range.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second basic hash function is further configured to map a replica of each module identifier into the range.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the hash function is configured to map resource identifiers corresponding to directory numbers in a geographic region into module identifiers corresponding to modules executing on computing devices in the geographic region.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the second module is hosted in a server separate from the agent resource.

11. A system for reserving distributed agent resources in a distributed contact center system, the system comprising:

a computing device;

a memory, wherein the memory has stored thereon instructions that, when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to instantiate a first module and a plurality of second modules, the first module being configured to;

receive a first interaction to be routed, the first module being configured to maintain state information for a first set of agent resources, the first set of agent resources including a first set of directory numbers, wherein the first module is a first server instance adhering to a particular communications protocol, the particular communications protocol for controlling communications over an IP network;

transmit a first request for routing the first interaction;

receive, in response to the first request, a first resource identifier of a first destination directory number to which the interaction is to be routed, the first destination directory number being selected from a second set of resources including a second set of directory numbers different from the first set of directory numbers, wherein a second module maintains state information for the second set of resources, wherein the second module is a second server instance adhering to the particular communications protocol;

determine a module identifier of the second module as a function of the first destination directory number;

transmit a second request to the second module for the first destination directory number;

in response to the second module granting the second request, route the first interaction to the first destination directory number, wherein the routing to the first destination directory number is based on the particular communications protocol;

receive a second interaction to be routed;

transmit a third request for routing the second interaction;

receive in response to the third request, a second resource identifier of a second destination directory number to which the interaction is to be routed, the second resource identifier and the second destination directory number being different from respectively the first resource identifier and the first destination directory number, the second destination directory number being selected from the second set of resources including the second set of directory numbers;

determine the module identifier of the second module as a function of the second resource identifier for the second destination directory number;

transmit a fourth request to the second module for the second destination directory number, wherein the second module is configured to determine, based on the state information maintained for the second set of agent resources, whether to grant the fourth request;

in response to the second module granting the fourth request, route the second interaction to the second destination directory number, wherein the routing to the second destination directory number is based on the particular communications protocol; and

a gateway device coupled to the computing device, wherein the gateway device is configured to establish connections with first and second agent devices associated with respectively the first and second destination directory numbers, wherein real-time media is exchanged via the connections.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the determining, by the second module, of whether to grant the request for the agent resource comprises:

receiving a second request for the agent resource during a time interval;

assessing priority of the request relative to the second request; and

granting the request or the second request based on the assessed priority.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the assessing of the priority includes evaluating a plurality of criteria of the request relative to a plurality of criteria of the second request, the criteria being selected from a group consisting of:

a value of a caller, a suitability of the agent resource for an interaction, a suitability of other agent resources for the call, a hold time, and combinations thereof.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the second module is responsible for maintaining state information related to the agent resource.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the function is a hash function.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the hash function is a consistent hash function.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the hash function comprises:

a first basic hash function configured to map resource identifiers into a range; and

a second basic hash function configured to map module identifiers into the range.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the second basic hash function is further configured to map a replica of each module identifier into the range.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the hash function is configured to map resource identifiers corresponding to directory numbers in a geographic region into module identifiers corresponding to modules executing on computing devices in the geographic region.