Methods, systems, and products for providing communications services by incorporating a subcontracted result of a subcontracted processing service into a service requested by a client device

• US 10,230,658 B2
• Filed: 12/08/2015
• Issued: 03/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tischer, Steven N., Kreiner, Barrett M., Hodges, Donna K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Murray, Daniel C.
• Application Number:
  US14/962,204
• Publication Number:
  US 20160094472A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,190 Days
• Field of Search: 370216, 709201, 709223, 709226, 709231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5067 Customer-centric QoS measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5087 wherein the managed service relates to voice services management of VoIP services H04M7/0081
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5096 wherein the managed service relates to distributed or central networked applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/724 at intermediate nodes, e.g. resource reservation protocol [RSVP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/781 Centralised allocation of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/808 User-type aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data

Abstract

Service providers may subcontract some services to subcontractors. Electronic packets of data may be outsourced for a subcontracted processing service provided by a server or other element. A result of the subcontracted processing service may then be received and incorporated.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a hardware processor; and

a memory device, the memory device storing code, the code when executed causing the hardware processor to perform operations, the operations comprising;

receiving electronic packets of data sent via the Internet from a client device, the client device requesting a service associated with a service provider;

determining that at least a portion of the service requested by the client device utilizes a subcontracted processing service provided by a different service provider;

determining individual packets of the electronic packets of data associated with the subcontracted processing service provided by the different service provider;

creating a segment comprising the individual packets associated with the subcontracted processing service provided by the different service provider;

subcontracting the segment via the Internet to a server associated with the different service provider to receive the subcontracted processing service;

receiving a subcontracted result via the Internet of the subcontracted processing service; and

incorporating the subcontracted result of the subcontracted processing service into the service requested by the client device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise sending the subcontracted result of the subcontracted processing service to the client device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise assembling the subcontracted result of the subcontracted processing service into the service associated with the service provider.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise reserving a routing path in a network for the segment subcontracted to the different service provider.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise reserving a routing path in a network to the different service provider.

6. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a server, an electronic request sent via the Internet from a client device requesting a service provided by a service provider;

determining, by the server, at least a portion of the service requested by the client device is associated with a subcontracted processing service provided by a subcontractor service provider;

identifying, by the server, a stream of data associated with the service provided by the service provider;

determining, by the server, individual packets in the stream of data that require the subcontracted processing service provided by the different service provider;

retrieving, by the server, an Internet protocol address associated with the subcontracted processing service provided by the different service provider;

sending, by the server, the individual packets via the Internet to a subcontractor server associated with the Internet protocol address to receive the subcontracted processing service provided by the different service provider;

receiving, by the server, a subcontracted result via the Internet of the subcontracted processing service provided by the different service provider; and

incorporating, by the server, the subcontracted result of the subcontracted processing service into the service requested by the client device.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising sending the subcontracted result of the subcontracted processing service to the client device.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising assembling the subcontracted result of the subcontracted processing service into the service associated with the service provider.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising reserving a routing path for the individual packets sent to the subcontractor server associated with the server address.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising reserving a routing path in a network to the subcontractor server associated with the Internet protocol address.

11. A memory device storing instructions that, when executed by a hardware processor, cause the hardware processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

receiving an electronic request sent via the Internet from a client device, the client device requesting a service associated with a service provider;

retrieving a stream of data to fulfill the electronic request for the service;

determining that at least a portion of the service requested by the client device is associated with a subcontracted processing service provided by a different service provider;

creating a segment comprising packets of data in the stream of data that require the subcontracted processing service provided by the different service provider;

retrieving an Internet protocol address associated with a subcontractor server that is associated with the subcontracted processing service provided by the different service provider; and

sending the segment via the Internet to the subcontractor server associated with the Internet protocol address to receive the subcontracted processing service provided by the different service provider.

12. The memory device of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise receiving a result of the subcontracted processing service provided by the different service provider.

13. The memory device of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise sending the result of the subcontracted processing service to the client device.

14. The memory device of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise incorporating the result of the subcontracted processing service into the service associated with the service provider.

15. The memory device of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise assembling the result of the subcontracted processing service into the service associated with the service provider.

16. The memory device of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise reserving a routing path for the segment sent to the subcontractor server associated with the different service provider.