METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IMPLEMENTING CALL PROCESSING IN PACKET TELEPHONY NETWORKS

• US 20080267387A1
• Filed: 04/25/2008
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/24/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Strathmeyer, Carl R., Finnie, Donald K., Mercer, Hugh P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,693,668 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/265.09
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/51 Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention , e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5166 in combination with interactive voice response systems or voice portals, e.g. as front-ends
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0003 Interconnection between telephone networks and data networks

Abstract

Various method and apparatus are provided to perform call routing, queuing and other call processing in packet telephony networks.

Claims

1. An automatic call distributor (ACD) system to perform call processing for packet telephony calls, the ACD system comprising:

a call control subsystem to handle call control on behalf of one or more other subsystems or endpoints; and

an ACD application coupled to the call control subsystem, the ACD application to control or coordinate call processing for packet telephony calls.

2. The ACD system of claim 1 wherein the ACD application comprises an ACD application to generate standard language media processing scripts to control the generation of media or other call processing for calls.

3. The ACD system of claim 1 and further comprising a media subsystem coupled to the ACD application to generate media.

4. The ACD system of claim 3 wherein the media subsystem comprises a media server to generate media according to instructions in a media processing script provided by the ACD application.

5. The ACD system of claim 1 wherein the ACD application is coupled to the call control subsystem via a standards based communications interface.

6. The ACD system of claim 5 wherein the standards based communications interface comprises a computer-telephony integration (CTI) link.

7. The ACD system of claim 1 wherein the call control subsystem may also register telephone addresses on behalf of one or more virtual endpoints.

8. The ACD system of claim 7 wherein the call control subsystem comprises a call control proxy server to register telephone addresses with a softswitch on behalf of one or more virtual endpoints.

9. An automatic call distributor (ACD) system to perform call processing for packet telephony calls, the ACD system comprising:

an ACD application to control or coordinate call processing for packet telephony calls;

a call control subsystem to handle one or more call control functions based on instructions from the ACD application;

a media subsystem to generate media for calls in accordance with instructions from the ACD application.

10. The ACD system of claim 9 wherein the ACD application comprises an ACD application to generate one or more standard language media processing scripts.

11. The ACD system of claim 10 wherein the media subsystem comprises a media subsystem to generate media in accordance with a standard language media processing script received from the ACD application.

12. The ACD system of claim 10 wherein the standard language media processing scripts may each include one or more instructions to generate or apply media including one or more of audio, speech, video, graphics, and web pages.

13. The ACD system of claim 9 wherein the ACD application comprises an ACD application to dynamically generate standard language media processing scripts based on current call status, and/or information related to the call or caller.

14. An apparatus comprising an automatic call distributor (ACD) application, the ACD application to control or coordinate call processing for packet telephony calls, the ACD application to dynamically generate a standard language media processing script, the script being used by another device or subsystem to apply media processing to a call or caller.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the ACD application may communicate with a call control subsystem and a media subsystem via one or more standards-based communication techniques.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the standards-based communication techniques may include one or more of a standards-based CTI link, one or more standard protocols and standard language media processing scripts.

17. The apparatus of claim 14 and further comprising a call control subsystem to handle one or more call control functions based on instructions from the ACD application.

18. The apparatus of claim 14 and further comprising a call control subsystem to register telephone addresses for one or more virtual endpoints.