System and method for filtering unavailable devices in a presence and availability management system

• US 20020120687A1
• Filed: 02/05/2002
• Published: 08/29/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Unwired Planet LLC (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Original Assignee: Openwave Systems Incorporated (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Inventors: Diacakis, Athanassios, Cohen, Daniel R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,246,371 B2
• 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 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 method includes detecting whether the individual is present on at least one communication network and determining availability of the individual for each access level of a profile of the individual. The method further includes publishing via a network the availability of the individual to the subscriber based on an access level of the subscriber and the presence information. In addition, the method includes filtering the availability of the individual when it is detected that the individual is no longer present on the communication network.

Claims

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

detecting whether the individual is present on at least one communication network;

determining availability of the individual for each access level of a profile of the individual;

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

filtering the availability of the individual when it is detected that the individual is no longer present on the communication network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting whether the individual is present is performed after determining availability.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting whether the individual is present is performed prior to determining availability.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

publishing includes publishing an address for the individual for the communication network; and

filtering includes ceasing to publish the address when it is detected that the individual is no longer present on the communication network.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein detecting 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.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising retrieving the profile of the individual prior to publishing the availability.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

retrieving a second profile for the individual based on an input regarding a change in 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.

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

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

determining availability of the individual for each access level of a profile of the individual;

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

filtering the availability of the individual when it is detected that the individual is no longer present on at least one of the plurality of communication networks.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein detecting whether the individual is present is performed after determining availability.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein detecting whether the individual is present is performed prior to determining availability.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein:

publishing includes publishing an address for each of the plurality of communications networks; and

filtering includes ceasing to publish the address for a first communication network when it is detected that the individual is no longer present on the first communication network.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein detecting 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.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising retrieving the profile of the individual prior to determining availability of the individual.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

retrieving a second profile for the individual based on an input regarding a change in 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.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, having further stored instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

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

publish, via the network, to the subscriber of the individual'"'"'s network availability information whether the individual is on the plurality of communication networks; and

filtering the individual'"'"'s network availability information when it is detected that the individual is no longer present on at least one of the communication networks.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, having further stored thereon instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

publish an address for each of the plurality of communications networks; and

cease to publish the address for a first communication network when it is detected that the individual is no longer present on the first communication network.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein at least one of the communication network is selected from the group consisting of a public switched telephone network, a computer network, and a wireless communication network.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, 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 each of the plurality of communication networks based on whether the individual is present on each of the plurality of communication networks and based on a 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 publish the individual'"'"'s network availability information to the subscriber based on an access level of the subscriber in the profile of the individual.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 20, 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.

15. 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;

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

filtering the individual'"'"'s network availability information when it is detected that the individual is no longer present on the communication network.

22. 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;

an availability management engine in communication with the presence detection engine for publishing to the subscriber, via a network, a communication network availability of the individual; and

an adaptive feedback module in communication with the presence detection engine and the availability management engine.

23. The presence and availability management server of claim 22, wherein the adaptive feedback module is for filtering the communication network availability when it is determined that the individual is no longer on the communication network.

24. The presence and availability management server of claim 23, wherein:

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

the availability management engine is for publishing an address for each communication network for which the individual is available; and

the adaptive feedback module is for ceasing to publish the address of the individual for a first communication network when it is determined that the individual is no longer present on the first network.

25. The presence and availability management server of claim 24, wherein at least one of the plurality of communication networks is selected from a group consisting of a public switched telephone network, a computer network, and a wireless communication network.

26. The presence and availability management server of claim 24, wherein the presence detection engine is in communication with an SS7 network of a public switched telephone network.

27. The presence and availability management server of claim 24, wherein the presence detection engine is in communication with a home location register of a wireless telephone network.

28. The presence and availability management server of claim 24, wherein the presence detection engine is in communication with a short messaging server center.

29. The presence and availability management server of claim 24, wherein the presence detection engine is in communication with a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN).

30. The presence and availability management server of claim 24, wherein the presence detection engine is in communication with a server of a computer network.

31. The presence and availability management server of claim 24, wherein the availability management engine is for publishing to the subscriber whether the individual is available on each of the plurality of communication networks based on whether the individual is present on each of the plurality of communication networks and based on a profile of the individual.

32. The presence and availability management server of claim 31, wherein the server includes a database and wherein the profile of the individual is stored in the database.

33. The presence and availability management server of claim 32, 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.

34. The presence and availability management server of claim 33, wherein a plurality of profiles is stored in the database, each profile corresponding to a different situation for the individual.

36. 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 each of the communication networks based on whether the individual is present on each of the communication networks and based on a profile of the individual.

37. The presence and availability management server of claim 36, 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.

38. The presence and availability management server of claim 36, 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.

39. The presence and availability management server of claim 36, wherein the server includes a database and wherein the profile of the individual is stored in the database.

40. The presence and availability management server of claim 39, wherein a plurality of profiles is stored in the database, each profile corresponding to a different situation for the individual.

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 a plurality of communication networks;

second programmable means for publishing to the subscriber, via a network, an address of the individual for each communication network for which the individual is available; and

third programmable means for ceasing to publish the address of the individual for a first of the communication networks when it is determined that the individual is no longer present on the first communication network.