Method and system for network path discrimination

• US 20080008162A1
• Filed: 06/28/2007
• Published: 01/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Vonage Business Inc (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Original Assignee: Vonage Business Inc (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: Patel, Hiren, Martinez, Jose
• Application Number:
  US11/819,625
• Publication Number:
  US 20080008162A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/12 Shortest path evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing

Abstract

A system and method for provisionable, multi-modal communications, including detecting a provisioning condition, selecting a communications mode based on the provisioning condition from a first usage mode, a second usage mode, and a third usage mode, and displaying an interface corresponding to the selected communications mode. The first usage mode includes a first communications channel supporting a first communication data consisting of instant messages (IM) and in-network voice data. The second usage mode includes a second communications channel supporting a second communication data consisting of IM, in-network voice data and out-of-network voice data. The third usage mode includes a second communications channel supporting a third communication data comprising video data.

Claims

1. A method for discriminating among a plurality of network paths at a remote node, comprising:

evaluating a first path and a second path from the plurality of network paths;

obtaining a first quality rating associated with the first path and a second quality rating for the second path;

selecting a preferred path from one of the first path or the second path according to the first quality rating and the second quality rating; and

commencing a real-time communication over the preferred path.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

evaluating each one of the plurality of paths;

obtaining quality ratings for each one of the plurality of paths; and

selecting the preferred path from the plurality of paths according to the quality ratings; and

commencing a real-time communication over the preferred path.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a list of the plurality of network paths by receiving a SIP NOTIFY message.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting a request for an updated list of the plurality of network paths by transmitting a SIP SUBSCRIBE message.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving preferred route information from a network source, wherein the step of selecting the preferred path includes analyzing the received preferred route information with the first and second quality ratings.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein commencing a real-time communication includes

inserting preferred path information into signaling information, and

transmitting the signaling information to a signaling server.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the signaling server contacts a media server corresponding to the preferred path.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein commencing a real-time communication includes

transmitting signaling information to a point-of-presence corresponding to the preferred path.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein evaluating includes one of a ping test, a trace-route test, a round-trip-time (RTT) test, an E-Model test, a perceptual analysis measurement system (PAMS) test, a perceptual speech quality measure (PSQM) test, and an RTCP-XR-Real-Time Control Protocol extended Report test.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second quality rating each include at least one of a network latency rating, a round-trip-time (RTT) rating, a packet loss rating, a jitter rating, an R-Model rating, a mean opinion score (MOS) rating, a signal-to-noise ratio, a speech impairment rating, a delay impairment rating, an equipment impairment rating, an access transmission rating, a perceptual speech quality measure (PSQM) rating, a packet sequence error rating, an echo rating, and a total packet count.

17. The method of claim 5, further comprising selecting a second preferred path during real-time communication based on the analyzed information.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a list of the plurality of network paths.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of evaluating the first path and the second path is passive.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of evaluating the first path and the second path is active.

11. A computer program product for use with a device on a communications network, comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code modules embodied in said medium for discriminating among a plurality of network paths at a remote node;

a computer readable first program code module for causing a computer to evaluate a first path and a second path from the plurality of network paths;

a computer readable second program code module for causing a computer to obtain a first quality rating associated with the first path and a second quality rating for the second path;

a computer readable third program code module for causing a computer to select a preferred path from one of the first path or the second path according to the first quality rating and the second quality rating; and

a computer readable fourth program code module for causing a computer to commence a real-time communication over the preferred path.

12. A system for discriminating among a plurality of network paths at a remote node of a network, comprising:

a media communications device at the remote node, the media communications device including

a configuration module including a list of available intermediate points on the network,

a testing module adapted to test the quality of communication to at least two of the intermediate points,

a selection module adapted to select at least one of the available intermediate points,

a signaling module configured to transmit signaling information, and

a transmission module adapted to commence real-time communications with the selected intermediate point corresponding to a preferred network path.

13. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a configuration server adapted to transmit the list of available intermediate points to the media communications device.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the media communications device further includes

an encoding module configured to embed path instructions corresponding to the preferred network path into the signaling information.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

a signaling server configured to receive signaling and path instructions from the media communications device; and

a media server corresponding to the preferred network path, the media server configured to communicate with the signaling server and receive real-time communications data from the media communications device.

16. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a point-of-presence server corresponding to the preferred network path, the point-of-presence server configured to receive signaling information directly from the media communications device and commence real-time communications with the media communications device.