License modes in call processing

• US 20040044629A1
• Filed: 08/30/2002
• Published: 03/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Serkowski, Robert J., Walker, William T., Rhodes, James E., Gopalakrishna, Mohana Krishnan, Morgan, Lawrence John
• Granted Patent: US 7,698,225 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/121 Restricting unauthorised execution of programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a system, comprising: a license manager 113 operable to identify the occurrence of a predetermined licensing event and a mode setting agent 124 operable to change, in response to the occurrence of the predetermined licensing event (e.g., an absence of a valid license), from a first licensing mode (e.g., a license normal mode) to a second licensing mode (e.g., a license error mode). The second licensing mode is different from the first licensing mode. In each of the first and second licensing modes a common set of features performed by the telecommunication application (e.g., call processing functions) are operational.

Claims

1. A method for protecting actuation of a computational component, comprising:

providing a computational component operating in a first licensing mode;

identifying the occurrence of a predetermined licensing event;

in response to the identifying step, causing the computational component to operate in a second licensing mode, the second licensing mode being different from the first licensing mode, wherein in each of the first and second licensing modes a common set of features performed by the computational component are operational.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined licensing event is associated with the absence of a valid license and the common set of features comprise a plurality of call processing functions.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein in the first licensing mode the computational component is validly licensed and in the second licensing mode the computational component is not validly licensed.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the computational component is a telecommunication application and in the first and second licensing mode the common set of features comprises a plurality of call vectoring, voice mail, call forwarding off net, DCS Internet working, enhanced conferencing, IP trunks, maximum number of ports, holiday vectoring, and automatic call distribution.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

after a predetermined period of time has elapsed, causing the computational component to operate in a third licensing mode, the third licensing mode being different from the first and second licensing modes, wherein in the third licensing mode the features in the common set of features are disabled.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein in the third licensing mode the computational component is not validly licensed and the computational component permits only outgoing and incoming calls to and/or from a predefined set of numbers.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising in response to the identifying step:

generating an alarm notification indicating entry into the second licensing mode.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying step comprises:

retrieving, from the computational component, a first identifier associated with the computational component;

accessing a license file to obtain a second identifier;

comparing the first and second identifiers;

when the first and second identifiers match, permitting the computational component to continue operating in the first licensing mode; and

when the first and second identifiers do not match, performing the causing step.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the license file comprises a plurality of unique identifiers associated with computational components, a duplication flag, a platform type, and a platform identifier.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the license file comprises a plurality of controlled application definitions, each controlled application definition corresponding to one of a plurality of controlled applications.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein each of the controlled application definitions comprises release information, license expiration information, and one or more types feature keyword information.

12. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining that the predetermined licensing event has been corrected; and

returning the computational component to the first licensing mode.

13. A computer readable medium storing instructions for performing the steps of claim 1.

14. An apparatus for performing the method of claim 1.

15. A system for protecting actuation of a computational component, comprising:

a computational component operating in a first licensing mode;

means for identifying the occurrence of a predetermined licensing event;

mode setting means for changing, in response to the occurrence of the predetermined licensing event, the first licensing mode to a second licensing mode, the second licensing mode being different from the first licensing mode, wherein in each of the first and second licensing modes a common set of features performed by the computational component are operational.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the predetermined licensing event is associated with the absence of a valid license and the common set of features comprise a plurality of call processing functions.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein in the first licensing mode the computational component is validly licensed and in the second licensing mode the computational component is not validly licensed.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the computational component is a telecommunication application and in the first and second licensing mode the common set of features comprises a plurality of call vectoring, voice mail, call forwarding off net, DCS Internet working, enhanced conferencing, IP trunks, maximum number of ports, holiday vectoring, and automatic call distribution.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the mode setting means, after a predetermined period of time has elapsed, changes the second licensing mode to a third licensing mode, the third licensing mode being different from the first and second licensing modes, wherein in the third licensing mode the features in the common set of features are disabled.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein in the third licensing mode the computational component is not validly licensed and the computational component permits only outgoing and incoming calls to and/or from a predefined set of numbers.

21. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

means for generating an alarm notification indicating entry into the second licensing mode when the occurrence of the predetermined licensing event is identified.

22. The system of claim 15, wherein identifying means:

retrieves, from the computational component, a first identifier associated with the computational component;

accesses a license file to obtain a second identifier;

compares the first and second identifiers;

when the first and second identifiers match, permits the computational component to continue operating in the first licensing mode; and

when the first and second identifiers do not match, changes the first licensing mode to the second licensing mode.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the license file comprises a plurality of unique identifiers associated with computational components, a duplication flag, a platform type, and a platform identifier.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the license file comprises a plurality of controlled application definitions, each controlled application definition corresponding to one of a plurality of controlled applications.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein each of the controlled application definitions comprises release information, license expiration information, and one or more types feature keyword information.

26. The system of claim 18 wherein the mode setting means:

determines that the predetermined licensing event has been corrected; and

returns the computational component to the first licensing mode.

27. A system for protecting actuation of a telecommunication application, comprising:

a license manager operable to identify the occurrence of a predetermined licensing event; and

a telecommunication application operable to change, in response to the occurrence of the predetermined licensing event, from a first licensing mode to a second licensing mode, the second licensing mode being different from the first licensing mode, wherein in each of the first and second licensing modes a common set of features performed by the telecommunication application are operational.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the predetermined licensing event is associated with the absence of a valid license and the common set of features comprise a plurality of call processing functions.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein in the first licensing mode the telecommunication application is validly licensed and in the second licensing mode the telecommunication application is not validly licensed.

30. The system of claim 27, wherein in the first and second licensing mode the common set of features comprises a plurality of call vectoring, voice mail, call forwarding off net, DCS Internet working, enhanced conferencing, IP trunks, maximum number of ports, holiday vectoring, and automatic call distribution.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the telecommunication application, after a predetermined period of time has elapsed, changes from the second licensing mode to a third licensing mode, the third licensing mode being different from the first and second licensing modes, wherein in the third licensing mode the features in the common set of features are disabled.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein in the third licensing mode the telecommunication application is not validly licensed and the telecommunication application permits only outgoing and incoming calls to and/or from a predefined set of numbers.

33. The system of claim 27, wherein the telecommunication application is operable to generate an alarm notification indicating entry into the second licensing mode when the occurrence of the predetermined licensing event is identified.

34. The system of claim 27, wherein the license manager is operable to retrieve, from the computational component, a first identifier associated with the computational component, access a license file to obtain a second identifier, compare the first and second identifiers, permit the computational component to continue operating in the first licensing mode when the first and second identifiers match, and change from the first licensing mode to the second licensing mode when the first and second identifiers do not match.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the license file comprises a plurality of unique identifiers associated with computational components, a duplication flag, a platform type, and a platform identifier.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the license file comprises a plurality of controlled application definitions, each controlled application definition corresponding to one of a plurality of controlled applications.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein each of the controlled application definitions comprises release information, license expiration information, and one or more types feature keyword information.

38. The system of claim 30 wherein the telecommunication application is operable to determine that the predetermined licensing event has been corrected and, in response, change from the second licensing mode to the first licensing mode.