LOCATION- AND PRESENCE-BASED MEDIA SESSION ROUTING

• US 20090279681A1
• Filed: 05/07/2008
• Published: 11/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Business Network Services, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Sartini, Robert A., Schultz, Paul T., MCKEE, Martin W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,503,643 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/201.20
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42357 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42374 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/10 adapted for application session management, e.g. SIP [Session Initiation Protocol] connection management H04W76/00; arrangements for session management H04L67/14

Abstract

A method includes defining multiple recipient candidates for a media session request; identifying a geographic location of a communication device that initiates the media session request; identifying a geographic location of each of the recipient candidates at the time of the media session request; determining the optimal recipient candidate for the media session request based on the geographic location of the communication device that initiates the media session request and the geographic location of each of the recipient candidates; and automatically routing the media session request over a network to the determined optimal recipient candidate.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

associating a group of recipient candidates in a network for a media session request;

receiving a media session request from a caller'"'"'s communication device;

identifying routing configuration criteria for selecting one of the recipient candidates for establishing a media session in response to the media session request, the routing configuration criteria including location information of the caller'"'"'s communication device and location and presence information of each of the recipient candidates;

receiving location information for the caller'"'"'s communication device;

receiving location information for each of the recipient candidates;

receiving presence information for each of the recipient candidates;

selecting one of the recipient candidates based on the routing configuration criteria; and

automatically routing the media session request from the caller'"'"'s communication device to the selected recipient candidate.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving map data identifying a travel route from the location of each of the recipient candidates to the location of the caller'"'"'s communication device, and where selecting the recipient candidate is further based on a distance comparison of each travel route.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving map data identifying a travel route from the location of each of the recipient candidates to the location of the caller'"'"'s communication device, and where selecting the recipient candidate is further based on a travel time comparison of the each travel route.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing information regarding the selected routing of the media session request.

6. The method of claim 5, where the routing configuration criteria further includes historical routing information for the group of recipient candidates, and where the method further comprises:

retrieving historical routing information regarding previous media session request from the caller'"'"'s communication device.

7. The method of claim 1, where the location information for the caller'"'"'s communication device or the location information for at least one of the recipient candidates includes global positioning system (GPS) coordinates.

8. The method of claim 1, where the location information for the caller'"'"'s communication device or the location information for at least one of the recipient candidates includes an address associated with a wired network connection.

9. The method of claim 1, where the presence information for each of the recipient candidates is received from a separate presence and availability management system.

10. The method of claim 1, where the location information for the caller'"'"'s communication device or the location information for at least one of the recipient candidates includes cellular tower triangulation information.

4. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving traffic data identifying estimated delays along each travel route from the location of each of the recipient candidates to the location of the caller'"'"'s communication device, and where the travel time comparison of each of the travel routes includes the traffic data.

11. A system in a network for enabling a media session between a calling device and a selected recipient candidate in a particular group of recipient candidates, the system comprising:

a session routing engine to;

receive geographic location information for the calling device and geographic location information and presence information for each of the recipient candidates in the particular group, and

automatically route the media session request from the calling device to the selected recipient candidate based on the geographic location information for the calling device and the geographic location information and presence information for each of the recipient candidates in the particular group, the geographic location information for the calling device and the geographic location information for each of the recipient candidates in the particular group corresponding to the time the media session request is received in the network.

12. The system of claim 11, where the session routing engine also receives map data identifying a travel route from the geographic location of each of the recipient candidates to the geographic location of the calling device, and where the session routing engine automatically routes the media session request from the calling device to the selected recipient candidate based on distance comparisons of each travel route.

13. The system of claim 11, where the session routing engine also receives map data identifying a travel route from the geographic location of each of the recipient candidates to the geographic location of the calling device, and where the session routing engine automatically routes the media session request from the calling device to the selected recipient candidate based on travel time comparisons of each travel route.

14. The system of claim 13, where the session routing engine also receives traffic data identifying estimated delays along each travel route from the geographic location of each of the recipient candidates to the geographic location of the calling device, and where the travel time comparisons of each travel route include the traffic data.

15. The system of claim 11, further comprising a memory, where the session routing engine stores in the memory routing information about a completed media session request from the calling device to the selected recipient candidate.

16. The system of claim 15, where the routing engine retrieves from the memory historical routing information relating to the calling device, and where the session routing engine automatically routes the media session request from the calling device to the selected recipient candidate based on the historical routing information.

17. A computer-readable memory comprising computer-executable instructions, the computer-readable memory comprising:

one or more instructions for associating a group of networked recipient candidates for a media session request;

one or more instructions for receiving a media session request from a caller'"'"'s communication device;

one or more instructions for retrieving location information for the caller'"'"'s communication device;

one or more instructions for retrieving location information for each of the recipient candidates;

one or more instructions for selecting one of the recipient candidates from the group of networked recipient candidates based on the retrieved location information of the caller'"'"'s communication device and the retrieved location information of each of the recipient candidates; and

one or more instructions for automatically routing the media session request from the caller'"'"'s communication device to the selected recipient candidate.

18. A method comprising:

defining multiple recipient candidates for a media session request;

identifying a geographic location of a communication device that initiates the media session request;

identifying a geographic location of each of the recipient candidates at the time of the media session request;

determining the optimal recipient candidate for the media session request based on the geographic location of the communication device that initiates the media session request and the geographic location of each of the recipient candidates; and

automatically routing the media session request over a network to the determined optimal recipient candidate.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein defining multiple recipient candidates for a media session request comprises:

identifying presence information for each communication device in a particular group of possible service providers, and

selecting communication devices in the group of possible service providers that have presence information indicating availability.

20. A system implemented within one or more devices, comprising:

means for associating a group of networked recipient candidates for a media session request;

means for receiving a media session request from a caller'"'"'s communication device;

means for retrieving location information for the caller'"'"'s communication device;

means for retrieving location information and presence information for each of the recipient candidates;

means for selecting an recipient candidate from the group of networked recipient candidates based on the retrieved location information of the caller'"'"'s communication device and the retrieved location information and presence information of each of the recipient candidates; and

means for automatically routing the media session request from the caller'"'"'s communication device to the selected recipient candidate.