Multicasting notification system
First Claim
1. A system for multicasting a message to subscribers of a telephony system wherein the telephony system comprises a plurality of switches each serving a set of the subscribers, said system comprising:
- a plurality of agents each associated with a switch and comprising a plurality of recipient lists wherein each list specifies one or more subscribers served by the end-office switch to which the agent is associated, a data network for transmitting multicast requests to the agents, and a management system connected to the data network and comprising;
a plurality of master lists wherein each list comprises subscribers from one or more of the recipient lists maintained by one or more of the agents, means for determining a master list from among the plurality of master lists, and means for conveying, through the data network, a multicast request to the agents that are associated with the determined master list.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A message is multicast to recipients by correlating the message at a management system to agents, each agent being responsible for a set of the recipients, and by conveying the message over a network to the correlated agents for transmission to the recipients. The management system maintains recipient lists wherein each list is associated with one or more agents, each agent maintaining a portion of its associated lists. The management system chooses a single recipient list and conveys an indication of the list to its associated agents. Each notified agent accesses the indicated list and sends the message to the listed recipients. In a further embodiment, an independent management system interfaces a plurality of management systems, each with a set of agents. The independent management system chooses a recipient list, the list being associated with a management system and its agents, and conveys the message based on the chosen list.
64 Citations
34 Claims
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1. A system for multicasting a message to subscribers of a telephony system wherein the telephony system comprises a plurality of switches each serving a set of the subscribers, said system comprising:
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a plurality of agents each associated with a switch and comprising a plurality of recipient lists wherein each list specifies one or more subscribers served by the end-office switch to which the agent is associated, a data network for transmitting multicast requests to the agents, and a management system connected to the data network and comprising;
a plurality of master lists wherein each list comprises subscribers from one or more of the recipient lists maintained by one or more of the agents, means for determining a master list from among the plurality of master lists, and means for conveying, through the data network, a multicast request to the agents that are associated with the determined master list. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A system for multicasting a message to a plurality of recipients, each recipient being associated with one or more of a plurality of communication networks, said system comprising:
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a plurality of agents, each agent being associated with a specific group of recipients and comprising means for conveying the message to the specific group of recipients, a plurality of dependent management systems, each management system being associated with a distinct set of agents from the plurality of agents and comprising means for conveying the message through a data network to its agents, and an independent management system comprising means for conveying the message to the plurality of dependent management systems, wherein each agent comprises a plurality of recipient lists wherein each list specifies one or more recipients from among the agent'"'"'s specific group of recipients, wherein each dependent management system comprises the recipient lists maintained by each of its associated agents, and wherein the independent management system comprises a set of the recipients lists maintained by each of the dependent management systems, and, wherein the independent management system initiates the multicasting of the message to the plurality of recipients through the dependent management systems and agents. - View Dependent Claims (11)
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12. A method for multicasting a message to subscribers of a telephony system wherein the telephony system comprises a plurality of end-office switches serving the subscribers, said method comprising:
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receiving at a management system an indication, using the indication to choose from among a plurality of master recipient lists one master recipient list, determining from among a plurality of agents which agents are associated with the chosen master recipient list, conveying a multicast request to one or more of the determined agents wherein the multicast request comprises an indication of the chosen master recipient list, and wherein each multicast request causes an agent to access a list that is associated with the master recipient list indicted in the multicast request and to send the message to the subscribers specified within the accessed list. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14)
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15. A method for multicasting a message to a plurality of recipients wherein each recipient is associated with a communications network, said method comprising:
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receiving at an agent a multicast request, wherein a management system generated the multicast request by choosing from among a plurality of master recipient lists a single master recipient list and by determining that the agent is associated with the single master recipient list, and wherein the multicast request comprises an indication of the single master recipient list, accessing a list associated with the indicated single master recipient list, and establishing communications with recipients specified in the accessed list to deliver the message. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method for multicasting a message to a plurality of recipients wherein each recipient is associated with a communications network, said method comprising:
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receiving at an independent management system an indication, using the indication to choose from among a plurality of maser lists to a single master list, determining from among a plurality of dependent management systems which dependent management systems are associated with the chosen master list, conveying a multicast request to the determined dependent management systems wherein the multicast request comprises an indication of the chosen master list, and wherein the multicast request causes a dependent management system to determine from among a plurality of associated agents which agents are associated with the master list indicated in the multicast request and to convey a second multicast request to the determined agents, and wherein the second multicast request causes an agent to access a recipient list and to send the message to the recipients specified within the accessed list through each recipient'"'"'s associated communications network.
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23. A system for multicasting a message to a plurality of subscribers, groups of said subscribers being connected to one or more communication networks, said system comprising:
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a management system, a data network connected to said management system, and a plurality of agents, each associated with a specific group of subscribers, associated with a different communication element in said one or more communication networks and receiving the message for its specific group of subscribers from said management system through said data network independent of said one or more communication networks, said management system including means for maintaining agent records and subscriber lists, and means for correlating a subscriber indication to the subscriber lists to determine which agents receive the message, and each of said agents including means for maintaining a subscriber list, a call processor, and a notification processor. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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33. A method for multicasting a message to a plurality of subscribers connected to telephone switching offices in a communications network, said method comprising the steps of
receiving in a management system notification of a message to be sent, determining a recipient list specifying a set of subscribers that matches criteria in the received message, correlating the recipient list so determined with an agent associated with its connected telephone switching office, and sending the message to each such correlated agent independent of the telephone switching offices.
Specification