Scalable call management system

• US 20030091025A1
• Filed: 11/15/2001
• Published: 05/15/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Celi, Joseph Jr., Zabolotskaya, Margarita, Gavagni, Brett
• Granted Patent: US 7,058,046 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13034 A/D conversion, code compression/expansion
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13102 Common translator
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13106 Microprocessor, CPU
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13196 Connection circuit/link/trunk/junction, bridge, router, gateway
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13377 Recorded announcement
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13389 LAN, internet

Abstract

A scalable call management system. The system can include at least one voice server hosting one or more voice browsers, the voice server having a single communications port through which voice call requests can be processed by the voice browsers, each voice browser having a port alias through which call requests can be processed. The system also can include a call processing gateway linking telephony endpoints in a public switched telephone network (PSTN) to the voice server. Finally, the system can include a translation table mapping port aliases to respective voice browsers.

Claims

1. A scalable call management system, comprising:

at least one voice server hosting a plurality of voice browsers, said at least one voice server having a single communications port through which voice call requests can be processed by said voice browsers, each said voice browser having a port alias through which said call requests can be processed;

a call processing gateway linking telephony endpoints in a public switched telephone network (PSTN) to said at least one voice server; and

,

a translation table mapping port aliases to respective voice browsers.

2. The scalable call management system of claim 1, wherein said at least one voice server comprises:

a communications interface to said call processing gateway; and

,

at least one call control component communicatively linked to each of said voice browsers;

wherein call requests received in said call processing gateway can be routed through said communications interface to selected ones of said voice browsers, and resulting call connections can be managed by said at least one call control component.

3. The scalable call management system of claim 1, further comprising:

a distributed call manager server comprising a communications interface to said call processing gateway and at least one call control component linking said voice servers to said distributed call manager server.

4. The scalable call management system of claim 1, wherein each said voice browser executes in a separate virtual machine having a separate process address space.

5. The scalable call management system of claim 4, wherein said at least one voice server can scale to accommodate changes in call activity by instantiating additional voice browsers in additional virtual machines and by associating a port alias for each additional voice browser in said translation table.

6. A scalable call management method comprising:

registering a voice server with a gateway, said voice server having a plurality of registered voice browsers; and

transferring telephone call data to and from each of said voice browsers using a port alias assigned to said voice browser and a port address assigned to said voice server to which each said voice browser is registered.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

responsive to detecting increased levels of call activity in said voice server, adding additional voice browsers to said voice server and assigning additional port aliases to each of said additional voice browsers.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

responsive to detecting increased levels of call activity in said gateway, registering additional voice servers to said gateway, each said additional voice server comprising a plurality of voice browsers.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein said transferring step comprises:

inspecting a mapping of voice server ports and corresponding voice browser port aliases to identify voice servers and corresponding voice browsers which are available to process call requests;

routing each received call request to an available voice browser in an available voice server; and

,

noting in said mapping that each said available voice browser now is unavailable.

10. A machine readable storage having stored thereon a computer program for scalable call management, said computer program comprising a routine set of instructions for causing the machine to perform the steps of:

registering a voice server with a gateway, said voice server having a plurality of registered voice browsers; and

transferring telephone call data to and from each of said voice browsers using a port alias assigned to said voice browser and a port address assigned to said voice server to which each said voice browser is registered.

11. The machine readable storage of claim 10, further comprising:

responsive to detecting increased levels of call activity in said voice server, adding additional voice browsers to said voice server and assigning additional port aliases to each of said additional voice browsers,

12. The machine readable storage of claim 10, further comprising:

responsive to detecting increased levels of call activity in said gateway, registering additional voice servers to said gateway, each said additional voice server comprising a plurality of voice browsers.

13. The machine readable storage of claim 10, wherein said transferring step comprises:

inspecting a mapping of voice server ports and corresponding voice browser port aliases to identify voice servers and corresponding voice browsers which are available to process call requests;

routing each received call request to an available voice browser in an available voice server; and

,

noting in said mapping that each said available voice browser now is unavailable.