PACKET HEADERS AS A TRIGGER FOR AUTOMATIC ACTIVATION OF SPECIAL-PURPOSE SOFTPHONE APPLICATIONS

• US 20110116505A1
• Filed: 11/17/2009
• Published: 05/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arlington Technologies, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Hymus, Francis C., Michaelis, Paul Roller, Windhausen, Richard Alan
• Granted Patent: US 9,516,069 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference

Abstract

Methods, devices, and systems for automatically controlling the activation and/or deactivation of communication applications are provided. More specifically, methods, devices, and systems are provided such that the inspection of communication packet headers can be leveraged as a trigger for automatically activating and/or deactivating communication applications and the population of a corresponding user-interface to the application.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

establishing, at a first communication device, a communication session with a second communication device, wherein the first communication device utilizes at least a first application for communicating with the second communication device via at least a first medium, the first medium having been negotiated prior to the establishment of the communication session;

during the communication session, receiving as a part of the communication session a communication packet at the first communication device;

analyzing, by the first communication device, a header portion of the received communication packet; and

based on the analysis of the header portion, invoking by the first communication device at least a second application for communicating via at least a second medium.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second medium was not negotiated during the establishment of the communication session.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first medium comprises one of voice, video, text, and data, wherein the second medium comprises one of voice, video, text, and data, and wherein the first and second media are different.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein only the header portion of the received communication packet is analyzed and wherein the first communication device automatically invokes the at least a second application.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the received communication packet includes data formatted according to a communication standard for the second medium and wherein the header describes at least one of a portion of the data and the communication standard.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the header describes the communication standard.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying a user of the first communication device as to whether or not the first user desires to invoke the second application; and

invoking the second application only in the event that an affirmative response to the query is received from the user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second application is automatically invoked by the first communication device without querying a user of the first communication device and wherein contents of the received communication packet are automatically presented to the user of the first communication device via the second application.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first communication device comprises a softphone.

10. A computer readable medium encoded with processor executable instructions operable to, when executed, perform the method of claim 1.

11. A communication device, comprising:

a first application which facilitates communications via at least a first medium;

a second application which facilitates communications via at least a second medium; and

a packet analyzer adapted to analyze header portions of communication packets received during an established communication session and determine, based on the analysis of the header portions, whether to invoke one or both of the first and second applications for the communication session after the communication session has been established.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein use of the first medium for the communication session was negotiated during the establishment of the communication session, wherein the first application was invoked during the establishment of the communication session, wherein the second medium was not negotiated during the establishment of the communication session, and wherein the packet analyzer determines to invoke the second application after the communication session has been established.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the first medium comprises one of voice, video, text, and data, wherein the second medium comprises one of voice, video, text, and data, wherein the first and second media are different, and wherein the first and second applications are presented via different windows on a user interface of the device.

14. The device of claim 12, wherein only the header portion of the received communication packet is analyzed and wherein the packet analyzer automatically invokes the second application.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the received communication packet includes data formatted according to a communication standard for the second medium and wherein the header describes at least one of a portion of the data and the communication standard.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the header describes the communication standard.

17. The device of claim 12, wherein the second application is automatically invoked by the first communication device without querying a user of the first communication device and wherein contents of the received communication packet are automatically presented to the user of the first communication device via the second application.

18. A computer program product comprising computer executable instructions stored onto a computer readable medium which, when executed by a processor of a computer, cause the processor to execute a method, the method comprising:

receiving a communication packet as a part of and during an established communication session;

analyzing only a header portion of the communication packet; and

based on the analysis of the header portion, invoking a communication application to facilitate communications via a communication medium not originally utilized at the establishment of the communication session.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the received communication packet includes data formatted according to a communication standard for the communication medium and wherein the header describes at least one of a portion of the data and the communication standard.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the header describes the communication standard.