METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING AND DISPLAY OF VOICE DATA

• US 20100169083A1
• Filed: 03/09/2010
• Published: 07/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rossi, Joseph A., Scouras, Gaetane A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,130,924 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/22 Arrangements for supervision, monitoring or testing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2263 Network management

Abstract

Apparatus and methods for creating a composite data source having a common data representation from disparate sources of voice data. Data transmission links are established to heterogeneous messaging data sources, requests for voice data is sent using data access protocols, the voice data is received, and a set of voice data transformation rules are selectively applied to the voice data to transform the data into a common data representation. The common data representation can also be used as a source for reporting and graphical displays to monitor the operational aspects of the sources of voice data.

Claims

1. A method for creating a composite data source having a common data representation from disparate sources of voice data, the method comprising:

establishing at least one data transmission link to each of a plurality of heterogeneous messaging data sources;

transmitting at least one request for voice data to each of the messaging data sources over the at least one established data transmission link using at least one data access protocol;

receiving the requested voice data in response to the at least one transmitted request;

retrieving a set of stored voice data transformation rules; and

selectively applying the voice data transformation rules to the received voice data to transform the received voice data into a common data representation.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of messaging data sources comprises one or more of a message application server and a message storage server.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the messaging data sources utilizes a Unix-based operating system.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the messaging data sources is an Avaya Modular Messaging voice messaging domain.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the voice data represents at least one voice messaging format selected from the group consisting of recorded voice mail, voice-over-IP, paging, facsimile, and OctTelnet.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the voice data is received in one or more binary formats.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one data access protocol is selected from the group consisting of open database connectivity, internet protocol, file transfer protocol, telnet, XModem, lightweight directory access protocol, hypertext transmission protocol, Win32 API protocol, and kermit.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the selective application of the voice data transformation rules comprises:

analyzing a segment of data contained in the received voice data to identify an event represented by the segment of data; and

in response to the identified event, selecting an algorithm to be applied to the segment of data, thus transforming the segment of data into an alternate segment of data.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the prescribed algorithm comprises at least one process selected from the group consisting of data abstraction processes, data aggregation processes, data concatenation processes, and data formatting processes.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising storing the alternate segment of data in a composite data source.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising receiving queries relating to performance metrics of the messaging data sources.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising receiving queries relating to usage metrics of the messaging data sources.

13. A system for creating a composite data source having a common data representation from disparate sources of voice data comprising:

a voice data aggregation server comprising;

a plurality of data collection objects, each object exposing at least one data retrieval method such that connectivity is established with each of a plurality of heterogeneous messaging data sources and thereby facilitating the receipt of voice data from the messaging data sources at the server;

a memory structure for storing the received data and a set of voice data transformation rules relating to the received data; and

a transformation engine for retrieving the stored data and data transformation rules from the memory structure and selectively applying the rules to the data to transform the data into a common data representation.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the plurality of messaging data sources comprises one or more of a message application server and a message storage server.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the at least one of the messaging data sources utilize a Unix-based operating system.

16. The system of claim 13 wherein at least one of the messaging data sources is an Avaya Modular Messaging voice messaging domain.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein the voice data represents at least one voice messaging format selected from the group consisting of recorded voice mail, voice-over-IP, paging, facsimile, and OctTelnet.

18. The system of claim 13 wherein the voice data is received in one or more binary formats.

19. The system of claim 13 wherein the data collection objects utilize at least one protocol selected from the group consisting of open database connectivity protocol, interne protocol, file transfer protocol, telnet, XModem, lightweight directory access protocol, hypertext transmission protocol, Win32 API, and Kermit protocol.

20. The system of claim 13 further comprising:

an expert engine for analyzing a segment of data contained in the voice data to identify an event represented by the segment of data and, in response to the identified event, selecting an algorithm to be applied to the segment of data, thus transforming the segment of data into an alternate segment of data.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the prescribed algorithm comprises at least one process selected from the group consisting of data abstraction processes, data aggregation processes, data concatenation processes, and data formatting processes.

22. The system of claim 21 further comprising a data storage module for storing the alternate segment of data in a composite data source.

23. The system of claim 22 further comprising a reporting module.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the reporting module provides reports relating to performance metrics of the messaging data sources.

25. The system of claim 23 wherein the reporting module provides reports relating to usage metrics of the messaging data sources.

26. The system of claim 23 wherein the reporting module provides a visual representation of the disparate sources of voice data.

27. The system of claim 13 further comprising a user-interface module for producing a graphical representation of the composite data source.

28. A voice data infrastructure monitoring apparatus comprising:

a data store for storing voice data retrieved from a plurality of heterogeneous messaging data sources;

a user-interface in communication with the data store for producing a graphical representation of information relating to the contents of the data store; and

an expert engine in communication with the data store and user-interface for selectively applying a set of transformation rules to the voice data thereby creating a common data representation of the messaging data sources.

29. A user-interface for displaying information relating to the operational aspects of messaging data sources, the user-interface comprising:

at least one display window, each display window comprising a listing of active links wherein each active link, when activated, displays information relating to the operational aspects of a messaging data source.

30. The user-interface of claim 29 wherein the messaging data source is selected from the group consisting of a recorded voice mail server, a voice-over-IP server, a paging server, a facsimile server, and an OctTelnet server.

31. The user-interface of claim 29 wherein the messaging data source is an Avaya Modular Messaging voice messaging domain.

32. The user-interface of claim 29 wherein the operational aspects of the messaging data source is selected from the group consisting of user-based usage statistics, time-based usage statistics, port-based usage statistics, geographic-based usage statistics, quality of service statistics, server-based usage statistics, and configuration data.

33. The user-interface of claim 29 wherein the at least one display window is displayed in a ticker display.