Endpoint selection for a call completion response

• US 20070097994A1
• Filed: 11/01/2005
• Published: 05/03/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Narayanan, Sankaran, Samdadiya, Parag, Bedekar, Sameer
• Granted Patent: US 7,522,608 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1094 Inter-user-equipment sessions transfer or sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42374 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/48 Arrangements for recalling a calling subscriber when the wanted subscriber ceases to be busy
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0075 Details of addressing, directories or routing tables

Abstract

Techniques for selecting a call completion response from a group of call completion responses based on weights associated with the call completion responses, are provided. A server processes a call invitation for a callee by forwarding the call invitation to each of the callee'"'"'s endpoints. Each of the callee'"'"'s endpoints associates a weight to its call completion response it generates to accept or reject the call invitation. The server waits to receive the call completion responses from each of the callee'"'"'s endpoints or for a predetermined period of time (i.e., a timeout), and uses the weights associated with the received call completion responses to decide which of the received call completion responses to use to complete the call invitation.

Claims

1. A method in a computer system for selecting a call completion response, the method comprising:

at a server,

receiving a call invitation for a callee;

forwarding the call invitation to each of the callee'"'"'s endpoints;

limited by a timeout, receiving from each of the callee'"'"'s endpoints a call completion response, the call completion response specifying a weight;

selecting an appropriate call completion response from the received call completion responses; and

forwarding the appropriate call completion response as a response to the call invitation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the server and callee'"'"'s endpoints communicate using SIP.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the server is a forking server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the server selects the appropriate call completion response based on the weights associated with the call completion responses.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the weight is derived at least in part on the callee'"'"'s presence information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the weight is derived at least in part on the endpoint'"'"'s functional capabilities.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the weight is derived at least in part on the endpoint'"'"'s usage history.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the appropriate call completion response is the first response accepting the call invitation from one of the callee'"'"'s endpoints.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the server selects the appropriate call completion response based on a priority order received with the call invitation.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the cal lee'"'"'s endpoints indicates that the server is to use its call completion response as the appropriate call completion response.

11. A method in an endpoint device for responding to a call invitation, the method comprising:

upon determining to reject a call invitation,

deriving a first weight for a call reject response; and

sending the call reject response and the derived first weight.

upon determining to accept the call invitation,

deriving a second weight for a call accept response; and

sending the call accept response and the derived second weight.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the second weight is larger than the first weight.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the second weight is smaller than the first weight.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the call accept response is an auto-accept response.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the auto-accept response includes an indication to wait for all other responses.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the second weight sent with the auto-accept response is smaller than the first weight.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the call reject response includes an indication to send the call reject response immediately upon receipt.

18. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for selecting a call completion response, by a method comprising:

forwarding a call invitation for a cal lee to each of the cal lee'"'"'s endpoints;

limited by a timeout, receiving from each of the callee'"'"'s endpoints a call completion response, the call completion response having an associated weight;

selecting an appropriate call completion response from the received call completion responses; and

forwarding the appropriate call completion response as a response to the call invitation.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the call invitation specifies a priority order for the call completion responses, and further wherein the appropriate call completion response is selected based on the priority order.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the appropriate call completion response is a call completion responses having an indication that the call completion response is to be used without waiting for the remaining callee endpoints to respond.