Apparatus and methods for subscriber and enterprise assignments and resource sharing

• US 20070115921A1
• Filed: 10/19/2005
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dudley, David, Schneider, Marco, Cunetto, Philip, Lemay, John, Lee, Jesie
• Granted Patent: US 8,238,327 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for subscriber and enterprise assignments and resource sharing are disclosed. A disclosed method includes managing resources for a communication service having a communication location. The disclosed method comprising associating a group identifier with a sub-group type, and associating a subscriber with the group identifier, wherein the sub-group type is used to determine at least one super-group usable to route an outdial call from the communication location if the outdial call is associated with the subscriber, and wherein the super-group comprises at least one of a circuit group or a voice over internet protocol communication path.

Claims

1. A method of managing resources for a communication service having a communication location, the method comprising:

associating a group identifier with a sub-group type; and

associating a subscriber with the group identifier, wherein the sub-group type is used to determine at least one super-group usable to route an outdial call from the communication location if the outdial call is associated with the subscriber, and wherein the super-group comprises at least one of a circuit group or a voice over internet protocol communication path.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the sub-group type is at least one of a public type, a private type, a shared type, or a voice over internet protocol type.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the group identifier is an outdial resource group.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the subscriber is associated with at least one of a mailbox number or a call tree access number.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein a second subscriber is associated with the group identifier, and wherein the sub-group type is used to determine at least one super-group usable to route an outdial call from the communication location if the outdial call is associated with the second subscriber.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein using the sub-group type to determine the at least one super-group is performed by a policy server.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising defining the sub-group type based upon a type of the super-group.

8. A method as defined in claim 7, wherein the super-group type is at least one of a public type, a private type, a shared type, or a voice over internet protocol type

9. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising associating the group identifier with a second sub-group type.

10. A method as defined in claim 9, wherein the second sub-group type is used to determine at least one super-group usable to route the outdial call.

11. A method as defined in claim 9, wherein the sub-group type and the second sub-group type are used in a predetermined order that is associated with the group identifier.

12. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein a host enterprise shares at least one sub-group of the sub-group type with a client enterprise and wherein the client enterprise associates the subscriber with the group identifier.

13. A method as defined in claim 12, wherein the at least one sub-group comprises a portion of respective ones of at least one super-group.

14. A method as defined in claim 12, wherein the at least one sub-group comprises all of respective ones of at least one super-group

15. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the sub-group type is associated with an outdial communication service type for the group identifier, and wherein the subscriber assigned to the group identifier uses the sub-group type associated with the service type to determine a super-group usable to route the outdial call having the service type.

16. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein a host enterprise shares the at least one super-group with a client enterprise.

17. An article of manufacture storing machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to:

assign a sub-group associated with a communication system from a host enterprise to a client enterprise; and

associate at least one subscriber with an outdial resource group, wherein the outdial resource group is used to identify the sub-group assigned to the client enterprise, wherein the sub-group is usable to route an outdial call from a communication device to an endpoint.

18. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 17 wherein the outdial resource group is unaware of specific identities of resources associated with the sub-group.

19. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 17 wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to select at least one of a circuit group or a voice over internet protocol communication path usable to route an outdial call for one of the at least one subscriber, wherein a type of the at least one circuit group or voice over internet protocol communication path is the same as a type the sub-group.

20. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 19 wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to select the at least one circuit group or voice over internet protocol communication path based on an outdial feature associated with the outdial call.

21. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 20 wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to reference the outdial resource group to select the at least one circuit group or voice over internet protocol communication path used for the outdial feature based on availability and an ordered list of sub-group types.

22. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 17, wherein a type of the sub-group is at least one of a private sub-group type, a public sub-group type, or a shared sub-group type, a voice over internet protocol sub-group type.

23. A method of providing outdial communication services using messaging system physical resources of a first entity, the method performed by a second entity comprising:

associating an outdial resource group with a portion of the physical resources of the first entity; and

assigning a subscriber of the second entity to the outdial resource group to provide messaging services to the subscriber.

24. A method as defined in claim 23 wherein the first entity is a host enterprise and the second entity is a client enterprise.

25. A resource assigner to allocate messaging system resources, the resource assigner comprising:

a super-group assigner to define sub-groups of communication resources;

an outdial resource group sub-group assigner to associate an outdial resource group with a sub-group defined by the super-group assigner; and

a subscriber assigner to associate a subscriber with the outdial resource group.

26. A resource assigner as defined in claim 25, further comprising at least one communication device in communication with the at least one of the super-group assigner, the outdial resource group sub-group assigner or the subscriber assigner.

27. A resource assigner as defined in claim 25, wherein the super-group assigner is structured to assign a resource capacity to the sub-group.

28. A resource assigner as defined in claim 25, wherein the super-group assigner is structured to associate the sub-group with a client.

29. A resource assigner as defined in claim 25, further comprising a feature resource assigner to reserve a portion of communication resources associated with the sub-group for an outdial feature.

30. A resource assigner as defined in claim 29, wherein the reserved portion is at least one of a dedicated resource or a shared resource.

31. A resource assigner as defined in claim 25, wherein the outdial resource group sub-group assigner is structured to de-assign an outdial resource group from the sub-group.

32. A resource assigner as defined in claim 25, wherein the outdial resource group resource assigner is structured to associate an order set of sub-group types to an outdial feature.

33. A resource assigner as defined in claim 25, wherein the subscriber assigner is structured to disassociate the subscriber from the outdial resource group.

34-39. -39. (canceled)