CLEARING HOUSE FOR PUBLISH/SUBSCRIBE OF STATUS DATA FROM DISTRIBUTED TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS

• US 20100080150A1
• Filed: 09/26/2008
• Published: 04/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Steiner, Robert, Flockhart, Derek
• Granted Patent: US 8,116,237 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/260
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42153 by subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42365 Presence services providing information on the willingness to communicate or the ability to communicate in terms of media capability or network connectivity
• 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 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42

Abstract

A distributed contact center and method of managing data transfers between the distributed parts of the contact center is provided. Distributed parts of the contact center are joined together through a known communications initiation protocol such as SIP, then status information and/or control signals are transferred between the distributed parts using lossless communication protocols. The status information and/or control signals may be published to a large number of interested entities through the use of conference call facilities.

Claims

1. A communication method, comprising:

subscribing, at a first communication site, with a conference mechanism;

establishing, by the first communication site, a Real-Time Protocol (RTP) stream with the conference mechanism; and

receiving, at the first communication site, at least one of status information and control signals associated with a second communication site from the conference mechanism via the RTP stream.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, at the first communication site, at least one of status information and control signals associated with a third communication site from the conference mechanism via the RTP stream.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second and third communication sites are different sites each of which are individually subscribed with the conference mechanism.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of status information and control signals associated with the second communication site and received at the conference mechanism comprise an identifier indicating the association of the at least one of status information and control signals with a site that published the at least one of status information and control signals.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the first communication site, that a publication trigger has occurred; and

providing at least one of status information and control signals associated with the first communication site to the conference mechanism via the RTP stream.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising providing, by the conference mechanism, that at least one of status information and control signals received from the first communication site to the second communication site.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing, by the first communication site, authentication information to the conference mechanism as a pre-requisite to establishing the RTP stream.

8. A computer readable medium comprising processor executable instructions that, when executed, perform the steps of claim 1.

9. A communication device, comprising:

a first interface used for communications with a first communication site, wherein a Real-Time Protocol (RTP) stream is established with the first communication site via the first interface; and

a second interface used for communications with a second communication site, wherein an RTP stream is established with the second communication site via the second interface, wherein at least one of status information and control signals received at the second interface from the second communication site are provided to the first communication site via the first interface.

10. The communication device of claim 9, further comprising a third interface used for communications with a third communication site, wherein an RTP stream is established with the third communication site via the third interface, and wherein at least one of status information and control signals received at the second interface are published to the third communication site via the third interface.

11. The communication device of claim 9, further comprising at least one of a publisher list and subscriber list, wherein access permissions defined within at least one of the publisher list and subscriber list define that the first communication site is allowed access to the at least one of status information and control data published by the second communication site.

12. The communication device of claim 9, wherein the RTP stream established via the first interface is different from the RTP stream established via the second interface.

13. The communication device of claim 9, wherein the first and second interfaces comprise a common communication port.

14. The communication device of claim 9, wherein the at least one of status information and control signals associated with the second communication site comprise an identifier indicating the association of the at least one of status information and control signals with a site that published the at least one of status information and control signals.

15. The communication device of claim 9, wherein at least one of status information and control signals received at the first interface from the first communication site are provided to the second communication site via the second interface.

16. The communication device of claim 9, wherein at least one of the first and second communication sites comprise a contact center comprising at least one contact center resource.

17. A method, comprising:

subscribing, at a first communication site, with a conference mechanism;

establishing, by the first communication site, a Real-Time Protocol (RTP) stream with the conference mechanism; and

providing, by the first communication site, at least one of status information and control signals to the conference mechanism for publishing to a second communication site via a separate RTP stream.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising receiving, at the first communication site, at least one of status information and control signals associated with the second communication site from the conference mechanism via the RTP stream.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising determining, by the first communication site, that a publishing trigger has occurred prior to providing the at least one of status information and control signals to the conference mechanism.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising providing, by the first communication site, authentication information to the conference mechanism as a pre-requisite to establishing the RTP stream, wherein authentication information comprises at least one of a conference number associated with the conference mechanism and a password.