METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LOCALIZED VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL USAGE

• US 20080095147A1
• Filed: 10/23/2007
• Published: 04/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Jackson, Donald, Epstein, Michael, Verber, Mark, Giannandrea, John
• Granted Patent: US 8,705,519 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/356
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1245 where a network other than PSTN/ISDN interconnects two PSTN/ISDN networks

Abstract

An approach to abstracting the circuit switched nature of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) by using VoIP to provide voice actuated services is disclosed. By carrying a telephone call using VoIP technology for a short distance (frequently within a server room) significant benefits to call handling and capacity management can be obtained. Specifically, a PSTN-to-IP gateway is used to receive (and place) calls over the PSTN and route those calls internally to servers over an IP network in a packet switched format. A number of computer systems can receive and handle the calls in the IP format, including: translating the packets into an audio format suitable for speech recognition and creating suitable packets from computer sound files for transmission back over the PSTN.

Claims

1. A computerized, Internet protocol (IP) based voice response system for servicing a call received over a public switched telephone network (PSTN) comprising:

a PSTN-to-IP gateway for connecting to the public switched telephone network;

an IP network medium connected to the gateway; and

a network server in communication with the network medium for automated interaction with a user participating in the call.

2. The voice response system of claim 1, wherein the network server comprises a host computer for executing a voice application program, a grammar database corresponding to a set of recognizable utterances, and a voice recognition engine for comparing a speech input from the user against the set of recognizable utterances.

3. The voice response system of claim 2, wherein the voice application program is a VoiceXML program.

4. The voice response system of claim 2, further comprising a firewall in communication with the network medium for connecting the network server to an external IP network through the firewall, wherein the voice application program is remotely hosted on the external IP network.

5. The voice response system of claim 2, wherein the network server performs call control communications with the PSTN-to-IP gateway in accordance with a SIP protocol.

6. A scalable, computerized, Internet protocol (IP) based voice response system for servicing a plurality of calls received over a public switched telephone network (PSTN) comprising:

a PSTN-to-IP gateway for connecting to the public switched telephone network;

an IP network medium connected to the gateway;

a plurality of network server in communication with the network medium for automated interaction with a set of users participating in the plurality of calls; and

a proxy server in communication with the PSTN-to-IP gateway for load balancing the plurality of calls amongst the plurality of network servers.

7. The voice response system of claim 6, wherein each network server of the plurality of network servers comprises a host computer having a distinct network identification number.

8. The voice response system of claim 7, further comprising a configuration server for automatically loading and configuring an initial software environment for the host computer during its initial bootup sequence based upon the network identification number.

9. A method of using voice over Internet protocols (VoIP) to handle circuit switched calls in a voice activated system, the method comprising:

terminating a circuit switched call at a conversion device that translates the circuit switched call into a VoIP format as a packet switched call;

forwarding the packet switched call in the VoIP format from the conversion device to a computer system; and

performing speech recognition on the call using audio data extracted from the VoIP format by the computer system.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the conversion device and the computer system are located in close physical proximity.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein there is a second computer system physically distant from the conversion device and wherein the forwarding goes to the second computer system responsive to a failure of the first computer system.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising prior to the forwarding sending a message from the conversion device to a second computer system, the second computer system selecting the computer system from a plurality of computer systems to receive the call.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the selecting according to a predetermined set of criteria to balance number of calls being handled by each of the plurality of computer systems.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the message comprises a session initiation protocol (SIP) request.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the forwarding occurs responsive to a SIP acknowledgement from the computer system.