Presence and availability management system

• US 20020116461A1
• Filed: 02/05/2002
• Published: 08/22/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Openwave Systems Incorporated (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Original Assignee: Openwave Systems Incorporated (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Inventors: Diacakis, Athanassios, Cohen, Daniel R.
• Application Number:
  US10/068,761
• Publication Number:
  US 20020116461A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5038 for local use, e.g. in LAN or USB networks, or in a controller area network [CAN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A presence and availability management server and a method for communicating communication network availability information regarding an individual to at least one subscriber of the individual'"'"'s availability information. According to one embodiment, the server includes a presence detection engine for detecting whether the individual is present on at least one communication network. The server also includes an availability management engine in communication with the presence detection engine for publishing to the subscriber via a network whether the individual is available on the communication network.

Claims

1. A presence and availability management server for communicating communication network availability information regarding an individual to at least one subscriber of the individual'"'"'s availability information, comprising:

a presence detection engine for detecting whether the individual is present on at least one communication network; and

an availability management engine in communication with the presence detection engine for publishing to the subscriber via a network whether the individual is available on the communication network.

2. The presence and availability management server of claim 1, wherein the presence detection engine is for detecting whether the individual is present on a communication network consisting of a public switched telephone network, a computer network, and a wireless communication network.

3. The presence and availability management server of claim 1, wherein the presence detection engine is in communication with an SS7 network of a public switched telephone network.

4. The presence and availability management server of claim 1, wherein the presence detection engine is in communication with a home location register of a wireless telephone network.

5. The presence and availability management server of claim 1, wherein the presence detection engine is in communication with a short messaging server center.

6. The presence and availability management server of claim 1, wherein the presence detection engine is in communication with a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN).

7. The presence and availability management server of claim 1, wherein the presence detection engine is in communication with a server of a computer network.

8. The presence and availability management server of claim 1, wherein the availability management engine is for publishing to the subscriber whether the individual is available on the communication network based on whether the individual is present on the communication network and based on a profile of the individual.

9. The presence and availability management server of claim 8, wherein the server includes a database and wherein the profile of the individual is stored in the database.

10. The presence and availability management server of claim 9, wherein the availability management engine is for publishing to the subscriber whether the individual is available on the communication network based on an access level of the subscriber in the profile of the individual.

11. The presence and availability management server of claim 10, wherein:

the presence detection engine is for detecting whether the individual is present on a plurality of communication networks; and

the availability management engine is for publishing an address to the subscriber for each communication network for which the individual is present based on the access level of the subscriber in the profile of the individual.

12. The presence and availability management server of claim 9, wherein a plurality of profiles is stored in the database, each profile corresponding to a different situation for the individual.

13. The presence and availability management server of claim 9, wherein a plurality of profiles is stored in the database, each profile corresponding to a different location of the individual.

14. The presence and availability management server of claim 9, wherein:

a plurality of profiles is stored in the database; and

the availability management engine is for retrieving a profile based on an input from the individual regarding a situation of the individual.

15. The presence and availability management server of claim 9, wherein:

a plurality of profiles is stored in the database; and

the availability management engine is for retrieving a profile based on an input from the individual regarding a location of the individual.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, having further stored thereon instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to detect whether the individual is present on a communication network consisting of a public switched telephone network, a computer network, and a wireless communication network.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 16, having further stored thereon instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to publish to the subscriber whether the individual is available on the communication network based on whether the individual is present on the communication network and based on a profile of the individual.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, having further stored thereon instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to publish the individual'"'"'s network availability information to the subscriber based on an access level of the subscriber in the profile of the individual.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, having further stored thereon instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

detect whether the individual is present on a plurality of communication networks; and

publish an address to the subscriber for each communication network for which the individual is available based on the access level of the subscriber in the profile of the individual.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 18, having further stored thereon instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to retrieve a second profile of the individual when an input regarding a change in situation of the individual is received.

16. A computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

detect whether an individual is present on at least one communication network; and

publish, via a network, to a subscriber of the individual'"'"'s network availability information whether the individual is available on the communication network.

22. A method for communicating communication network availability information regarding an individual to at least one subscriber of the individual'"'"'s availability information, comprising:

determining presence information of the individual, wherein the presence information includes whether the individual is present on at least one communication network;

determining availability of the individual based on a profile of the individual, wherein the profile includes at least one access level; and

publishing via a network the availability of the individual to the subscriber based on the access level of the subscriber and the presence information.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein determining presence information is performed prior to determining availability.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein determining availability is performed prior to determining presence information.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein determining presence information includes detecting whether the individual is present on a communication network consisting of a public switched telephone network, a computer network, and a wireless communication network.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein:

determining presence information includes detecting whether the individual is present on a plurality of communication networks; and

publishing includes publishing an address to the subscriber for each communication network for which the individual is available based on the access level of the subscriber in the profile of the individual.

27. The method of claim 22, further comprising retrieving the profile of the individual prior to determining availability of the individual.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

retrieving a second profile for the individual based on an input regarding a change in a situation of the individual;

determining updated availability of the individual for each access level of the second profile; and

publishing the updated availability of the individual to the subscriber based on the access level of the subscriber and the presence information.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein determining presence information is performed prior to determining availability.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein determining availability is performed prior to determining presence information.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein:

determining presence information includes detecting whether the individual is present on a plurality of communication networks; and

publishing includes publishing an address to the subscriber for each communication network for which the individual is available based on the access level of the subscriber in the profile of the individual.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising receiving an input from the individual regarding a situation of the individual, and wherein retrieving the first profile of the individual includes retrieving the first profile based the input.

34. The method of claim 32, further comprising:

retrieving a second profile for the individual based on a change in situation of the individual;

determining updated availability of the individual for each access level of the second profile based on the presence information; and

publishing the updated availability to the subscriber.

36. The presence and availability management server of claim 35, wherein the first programmable means is for detecting whether the individual is present on a communication network consisting of a public switched telephone network, a computer network, and a wireless communication network.

37. The presence and availability management server of claim 35, wherein the second programmable means is for publishing to the subscriber whether the individual is available on the communication network based on whether the individual is present on the communication network and based on a profile of the individual.

38. The presence and availability management server of claim 37, wherein the second programmable means is for retrieving the profile of the individual before the first programmable means detects whether the individual is present on the at least one communication network.

39. The presence and availability management server of claim 37, wherein the second programmable means is for retrieving the profile of the individual after the first programmable means detects whether the individual is present on the at least one communication network.

40. The presence and availability management server of claim 37, wherein the server includes a database and wherein the profile of the individual is stored in the database.

41. The presence and availability management server of claim 40, wherein a plurality of profiles is stored in the database, each profile corresponding to a different situation for the individual.

29. A method, comprising:

storing a set of availability profiles for an individual, wherein each profile includes at least one access level;

determining presence information of the individual, wherein the presence information includes whether the individual is present on at least one communication network;

retrieving a first profile of the individual from the set of availability profiles based on a current situation of the individual;

determining availability of the individual for each access level of the first profile of the individual based on the presence information; and

publishing the availability of the individual to the subscriber.

35. A presence and availability management server for communicating communication network availability information regarding an individual to at least one subscriber of the individual'"'"'s availability information, comprising:

first programmable means for detecting whether the individual is present on at least one communication network; and

second programmable means for publishing to the subscriber via a network whether the individual is available on the communication network.