CALL PROGRESS ANALYSIS ON THE EDGE OF A VOIP NETWORK

• US 20100189249A1
• Filed: 01/27/2009
• Published: 07/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shah, Maulik, Hassan, Farrukh, Lin, Da C., Shaikh, Mohammed Taher
• Granted Patent: US 8,737,597 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/265.90
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1026 at the edge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2027 Live party detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5158 in combination with automated outdialling systems devices for signalling identity of wanted subscriber H04M1/26
• 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 contact center is provided. The contact center includes a processor; and a memory in communication with the processor. The memory includes computer code executable with the processor. The computer code is configured to place a phone call through a media gateway to a communication device, receive a tone message from the media gateway, the tone message including a call progress event that defines a type of tone that was detected in the audio stream, determine a call treatment as a function of the communication device status, and perform call treatment for the phone call.

Claims

1. A contact center comprising:

a processor; and

a memory in communication with the processor, the memory including computer code executable with the processor, wherein the computer code is configured to;

place a phone call through a media gateway to a communication device,

receive an audio stream from the communication device,

identify a tone message from the media gateway, the tone message including a call progress event that defines a type of tone that was detected in the audio stream,

determine a call treatment as a function of the communication device status, and

perform call treatment for the phone call.

2. The contact center of claim 1, where the computer code is also configured to establish a messaging session with the media gateway.

3. The contact center of claim 2, where the computer code is also configured to communicate using the messaging session, such that the audio stream from the communication device is not transmitted from the media gateway.

4. The contact center of claim 1, where the type of tone that was detected indicates that the phone call was answered by the communication device.

5. The contact center of claim 4, where call treatment includes connecting a contact center resource to the phone call when the type of tone that was detected indicates that a human voice was detected.

6. The contact center of claim 1, where call treatment includes disconnecting the phone call when the type of tone that was detected indicates that a human voice was not detected.

7. The contact center of claim 1, where the computer code is also configured to update a media address list that includes the phone number, the media address list being updated to include the type of tone that was detected.

8. A media gateway comprising:

a processor; and

a memory in communication with the processor, the memory including computer code executable with the processor, wherein the computer code is configured to;

receive an audio stream from a communication device,

detect one or more call progress characteristics in the audio stream,

determine a call progress event based on the one or more call progress characteristics, the call progress event defining a type of tone that was detected; and

transmit a tone message to a contact center, the tone message including the call progress event.

9. The media gateway as claimed in claim 8, where the computer code is also configured to establish a messaging session with the contact center.

10. The media gateway as claimed in claim 9, where messaging session is a session initiation protocol (SIP) messaging session and the tone message is a SIP message.

11. The media gateway as claimed in claim 9, where the computer code is also configured to communicate using the messaging session, such that the audio stream from the communication device is not transmitted to the contact center.

12. The media gateway as claimed in claim 8, where determining a call progress event includes comparing the one or more call progress characteristics to a list of predefined tone characteristics and types of tones.

13. The media gateway as claimed in claim 12, where the list of predefined tone characteristics and types of tones is stored in memory.

14. The media gateway as claimed in claim 8, where the tone message is transmitted to the contact center using a Voice over Internet Protocol network and the audio stream is received from the communication device using a public switched telephone network.

15. A method comprising:

establishing a messaging session with a contact center;

receiving an audio stream from a communication device,

detecting one or more call progress characteristics in the audio stream;

determining a call progress event based on the one or more call progress characteristics, the call progress event defining one or more types of tones; and

transmitting a tone message including the call progress event, such that the contact center may determine a call treatment based on the communication device status, without transmitting the audio stream from the communication device to the call center.

16. The method of claim 15, where establishing a messaging session includes establishing a session initiation protocol (SIP) messaging session.

17. The method of claim 15, where transmitting the tone message includes transmitting a SIP message using the SIP messaging session.

18. The method of claim 15, where detecting tone characteristics includes detecting a frequency, temporal pattern, or volume.

19. The method of claim 15, where determining a type of tone includes comparing the tone characteristics to a database stored in memory.

20. The method of claim 15, comprising updating an address list, such that the address list includes the type of tone received from the communication device.