Presence tracking and name space interconnection techniques

• US 20030154293A1
• Filed: 02/14/2003
• Published: 08/14/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Zmolek, Andrew Charles
• Granted Patent: US 7,536,437 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/228
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/30 Types of network names
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/106 across networks, e.g. mapping telephone numbers to data network addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4552 Lookup mechanisms between a plurality of directories; Synchronisation of directories, e.g. metadirectories
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0263 Rule management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2871 Implementation details of single intermediate entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• 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 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/14 Backbone network devices

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a presence and availability system including:

(a) an input (e.g., an interface) operable to receive an agent report from a context sensing agent in a host entity associated with a person, the agent report comprising presence information and the person having an address in an associated name space;

(b) a tracking agent 154 operable to tag at least some of the presence information with at least one classification tag; and

(c) a policy agent 158 operable to determine presence information to be provided to a requestor based on the at least one classification tag.

Claims

1. A method for ascertaining availability of a person having an associated address within a name space, comprising:

providing presence information associated with the person; and

generating at least one classification tag based on at least some of the presence information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one classification tag is an agent classification tag and further comprising:

receiving an agent report from a context sensing agent in a host entity associated with the person, the agent report comprising presence information, wherein the agent report comprises a unique identifier associated with at least one of the context sensing agent and host entity, at least one address associated with the host entity, and at least one time stamp associated with at least one event, and wherein the at least one classification tag is associated with the event.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the agent report further comprises an authentication token and other authentication data.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one address is an Internet Protocol or IP address of the host entity and a Media Access Control address.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the agent report further comprises information regarding at least one of a spatial location, a geopolitical location, and functional location of the host entity.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the host entity is at least one of an Internet Protocol or IP hardphone, IP softphone, Personal Digital Assistant or PDA, wired telephone, wireless telephone, pager, facsimile machine, telephony switch, server, and modem.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the receiving step comprises:

presenting at least one of(a) at least some of the contents of the agent report and (b) at least some current availability intelligence to the person for configuration before the receiving step.

8. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining a probability of the person being at least one of available and unavailable at the host entity.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the determining step comprises the substep of mapping tracking rules associated with the associated contact address within a name space against the presence information to provide availability intelligence.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

mapping policy rules associated with the associated contact address within a name space against the availability intelligence to determine what availability intelligence is to be provided to a requester.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the mapping step comprises the substep of comparing an address in a name space associated with the requester against a listing of related addresses in the same and/or other name spaces via one or more directory services.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

generating at least one server classification tag based at least in part on the agent report and wherein the mapping step comprises comparing the at least one server classification tag against a set of classification tag set forth in one or more policy rules.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the associated address in the name space is a unique identity.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one classification tag is a plurality of tags and the plurality of tags are indicative of a plurality of the following:

the purpose of the host entity, the type of host entity, the geopolitical location of the host entity, the functional location of the host entity, the spatial location of the host entity, the operating mode of the host entity, the event triggering the agent report, the capabilities of the host entity, media type, minimum acceptable contact priority and user customized tag.

15. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving an agent report from a second context sensing agent associated with a second host entity, the second host entity including second presence information; and

at least one of increasing and decreasing the availability probability based on the second presence information.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the second host entity is in close spatial proximity to the host entity.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one classification tag is a server classification tag, the presence information comprises at least one agent classification tag, and the tagging step comprises the substep of:

analyzing the at least one agent classification tag; and

associating a server classification tag with at least one of the person, the associated address, and the name space based on the at least one agent classification tag.

18. A computer readable memory comprising instructions for performing the steps of claim 1.

19. A logic circuit operable to perform the steps of claim 1.

20. A method for determining an availability of a person, object, or other entity comprising:

receiving a first agent report from a first context sensing agent in a first host entity associated with an entity, the first agent report comprising first presence information;

determining a first probability that the entity is contactable through the first host entity;

thereafter receiving a second agent report from a second context sensing agent in a second host entity associated with the entity, the second agent report comprising second presence information; and

changing the first probability based on at least some of the second presence information.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the first host entity is in spatial proximity to the second host entity and the entity is one or more of a person, a group of persons, a computational component, a collection of computational components, a service provider, a group of service providers, a product provider, and a group of product providers.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

parsing and first presence information in the first agent report; and

tagging at least some of the parsed first presence information with at least one classification tag.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the first and second host entities are each at least one of an Internet Protocol or IP hardphone, IP softphone, Personal Digital Assistant or PDA, wired telephone, wireless telephone, pager, facsimile machine, telephony switch, server, messaging system, and modem.

24. A computer readable memory comprising instructions for performing the steps of claim 20.

25. A logic circuit operable to perform the steps of claim 20.

26. A memory of a computational component, comprising:

an address in a name space associated with a person;

a set of availability rules associated with the address; and

availability intelligence, the availability intelligence comprising a probability that the person is available at a specified address

27. The memory of claim 26, wherein the set of availability rules comprise tracking rules and policy rules.

28. The memory of claim 26, wherein the availability intelligence comprises one or more classification tags.

29. The memory of claim 26, wherein the availability intelligence comprises a plurality of unique identifiers corresponding to a plurality of geographically distributed context sensing agents with associated addresses.

30. A presence and availability system, comprising:

a context sensing agent in a host entity associated with a person, the person having an associated address within a name space and the context sensing agent being operable to collect contextual information relating to the location and availability of the person, wherein the context sensing agent periodically outputs an agent report to a presence server and wherein the agent report comprises at least one of a geographical location of the person, a geopolitical location of the person, a functional location of the person, an Internet Protocol or IP address and Media Access Control or MAC address of at least one of the context sensing agent and host entity, default routing information associated with at least one of the context sensing agent and host entity, and one or more agent classification tags associated with the collected contextual information.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the presence server comprises:

an input operable to receive the agent report from the context sensing agent in the host entity;

a tracking agent operable to tag at least some of the contextual information with at least one server classification tag; and

a policy agent operable to determine availability intelligence to be provided to a requestor based on the at least one classification tag.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the agent report comprises a unique identifier associated with at least one of the context sensing agent and host entity, at least one address associated with the host entity, at least one time stamp associated with at least one event, and the one or more agent classification tag identifies the event.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the agent report further comprises an authentication token and other authentication information.

34. The system of claim 30, wherein the agent report comprises the one or more agent classification tags.

35. The system of claim 30, wherein the host entity is at least one of an Internet Protocol or IP hardphone, IP softphone, Personal Digital Assistant or PDA, wired telephone, wireless telephone, pager, facsimile machine, telephony switch, server, messaging system, and modem.

36. The system of claim 30, wherein the context sensing agent is operable to present at least one of (a) at least some proposed contents of the agent report and (b) at least some current availability intelligence to the person for configuration and to forward the agent report to the presence server.

37. The system of claim 31, wherein the tracking agent is operable to determine a probability of the person being at least one of available and unavailable at the host entity.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the tracking agent maps tracking rules associated with the associated address within the name space against the presence information to provide availability intelligence.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein the policy agent maps policy rules associated with the associated address within the name space against the availability intelligence to determine what availability intelligence is to be provided to the requestor.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the policy agent compares an address in a name space associated with the requestor against a listing of related addresses in the same and/or another name spaces set forth in one or more directory services.

41. The system of claim 39, wherein the policy agent compares the at least one server classification tag against a set of classification tags set forth in one or more policy rules.

42. The system of claim 31, wherein the address in the associated name space is a unique identity and the input is an interface.

43. The system of claim 31, wherein the at least one agent classification tag is a plurality of tags and the plurality of tags are indicative of a plurality of the following:

the purpose of the host entity, the type of host entity, the spatial location of the host entity, the geopolitical location of the host entity, the functional location of the host entity, the operating mode of the host entity, the event triggering the agent report, the capabilities of the host entity, media type, minimum acceptable contact priority, and user customized tag.

44. A method for providing information regarding an inanimate object, the inanimate object having at least one of an address and identifier within one or more name spaces presented thereon, comprising:

receiving the at least one of an address and identifier and a corresponding name space on the inanimate object;

mapping at least part of the at least one of an address and identifier against a directory of associated addresses;

identifying a contact address corresponding to the at least one of an address and identifier; and

initiating a contact to the identified contact address.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the name space comprises a Universal Product Code or UPC, an International Standard Book Number or ISBN, a serial number, a MAC address, an IP address, a Session Initiation Protocol address, an email address, a Web address, a URI, a URL, an E.164 number, and a telephone number.

46. The method of claim 44, wherein the at least one of an address and an identifier is an embedded presence token and in the receiving step the at least one of an address and identifier is inputted by at least one of optical, magnetic, electrical, electromagnetic, and magneto-optical techniques and wherein the identified address points to a presence server.

47. The method of claim 44, wherein the identified contact address is at least one of a Uniform Resource Locator and a Uniform Resource Indicator and each address is associated with a different operational option available to a requestor.

48. A computer readable memory comprising instructions for performing the steps of claim 44.

49. A logic circuit operable to perform the steps of claim 44.

50. A method for presenting presence information associated with a contactee to a contactor, comprising:

determining at least a first degree of contactability on at least a first communication device, wherein the first communication device has at least a first mode of communication;

determining at least a second degree of contactability on at least a second communication device, wherein the second communication device has at least a second mode of communication, wherein the first and second modes of communication are different; and

presenting to the contactor at least the first and second modes of communication and at least the first and second degrees of contactability, respectively, and the option to select between the at least the first and second modes of communication.

51. The method of claim 50, wherein the first mode of communication is a live voice communication and the second mode of communication is voice mail.

52. The method of claim 50, wherein the first mode of communication is a live voice communication and the second mode of communication is at least one of voice mail, email, instant messaging, a chat session, Short Messaging Service or SMS, Web session, and video.

53. A computer readable memory comprising instructions for performing the steps of claim 50.

54. A logic circuit operable to perform the steps of claim 50.

55. A method for ascertaining the availability of a person having an associated address within a name space, comprising:

providing a context sensing agent in a host entity associated with the person;

collecting presence information associated with at least one of the person and the associated address;

presenting the presence information to the person for modification;

generating an agent report comprising the modified presence information; and

forwarding the agent report to a presence server.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein the address is the address of the host entity.

57. The method of claim 55, wherein the agent report comprises a unique identifier associated with at least one of the context sensing agent and the host entity, at least one address associated with the host entity, at least one time stamp associated with at least one event, and information identifying the event.

58. The method of claim 55, wherein the agent report further comprises an authentication token and other authentication data.

59. The method of claim 56, wherein the associated address is an Internet Protocol or IP address of the host entity and a Media Access Control address.

60. The method of claim 55, wherein the agent report further comprises information regarding at least one of a spatial location, a geopolitical location, and a functional location of the host entity.

61. The method of claim 55, wherein the host entity is at least one of an Internet Protocol or IP hardphone, IP softphone, Personal Digital Assistant or PDA, wired telephone, wireless telephone, pager, facsimile machine, telephony switch, server, and modem.

62. A computer readable memory comprising instructions for performing the steps of claim 55.

63. A logic circuit operable to perform the steps of claim 55.

64. A method for ascertaining availability of a person having an associated address within a name space, comprising:

receiving an agent report from a context sensing agent in a host entity associated with the person, the agent report comprising presence information;

mapping tracking rules associated with the associated contact address within a name space against the presence information to provide availability intelligence; and

mapping policy rules associated with the associated contact address within a name space against the availability intelligence to determine what availability intelligence is to be provided to a requestor.

65. The method of claim 64, wherein the associated address is the address of the host entity.

66. The method of claim 64, wherein the tracking rules at least one of manipulate classification tags based on presence information and characterize the likelihood that the user is available at a given contact address.

67. The method of claim 66, wherein the availability intelligence comprises at least one classification tag.

68. The method of claim 67, wherein the at least one classification tag is representative of one or more of the purpose of the communication device, the type of communication device, the spatial, functional, and/or geopolitical location of the communication device, the operating mode of the device, the event triggering the agent report, the capabilities or media support of the reporting entity, protocols, minimum usable priority, and visibility class.

69. The method of claim 64, wherein the availability intelligence comprises a plurality of the following:

contact address of the host entity, a context sensing agent identifier, one or more classification tags, one or more time stamps associated with an agent report, one or more time stamps associated with the one or more classification tags, a probability of contacting the person at a contact address, default router and/or proxy address for an associated network, a geographical location, a geopolitical location, a functional location, a spatial location, type of a host entity associated with the context sensing agent, and communication mode capabilities of the host entity.

70. The method of claim 64, wherein the policy rules control at least one of how a requestor of presence information is to be treated and availability probability is to be modified specifically for requester.

71. The method of claim 64, further comprising:

presenting to the person at least one of a tracking rule, availability intelligence, and a policy rule for modification; and

effecting any modification made by the person to the at least one of a tracking rule, availability intelligence, and policy rule.

72. The method of claim 64, wherein the steps of claim 64 are performed by a first presence server and further comprising:

receiving a query from a second presence server, different from the first presence server, for at least some of the availability intelligence; and

providing the at least some of the availability intelligence to the second presence server.

73. A computer readable memory comprising instructions for performing the steps of claim 64.

74. A logic circuit operable to perform the steps of claim 64.