CONTINUOUS REPLICATION FOR SESSION INITIATION PROTOCOL BASED COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

• US 20110295957A1
• Filed: 05/26/2010
• Published: 12/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sekaran, Dhigha, Narayanan, Sankaran, Ananthanarayanan, Krishnan
• Granted Patent: US 8,880,725 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

User defined routing rules are managed within a primary/backup architecture through continuous replication between home servers and their corresponding presence servers in an automatic manner. User set-up rules are stored and published by a designated presence server to home servers on which the user can register including the user'"'"'s home registrar and any backup registrars. Changes to the rules may be disseminated and synchronized through comparison of versions and exchange of batches between the presence server and registrars.

Claims

1. A method executed at least in part in a computing device for continuous replication of routing rules in an enhanced communication system, the method comprising:

upon detecting a user log-in at a registrar server, providing a presence server with a version of a current routing rules replica stored at the registrar server;

receiving a list of routing rules and current versions of the routing rules from the presence server;

determining out-of-date routing rules;

requesting updates for the out-of date routing rules from the presence server;

receiving update information associated with the out-of-date routing rules; and

updating the routing rules stored at the registrar server and versions of the updated routing rules.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating the version of the replica of routing rules stored at the registrar upon completion of the update of routing rules.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

upon receiving a routing rule change from the logged in user, routing the change as a request to the presence server; and

receiving updated routing rule from the presence server for storing at the registrar.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the user is enabled to change the routing rule if the presence server is available, wherein calls directed at the user are processed according to routing rules currently stored at the registrar server if the presence server is unavailable.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the registrar is one of:

a home server for the user and a backup server assigned to the home server for the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the routing rules are stored as part of a routing payload, the routing payload comprising at least one from a set of:

the routing rules, a privacy relationship setting, and a hierarchical relationship setting.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

periodically querying the presence server for changes to the routing payload associated with users assigned to the registrar.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

employing versioned batches to exchange update information about out-of-date routing rules.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein each batch includes a major version and a minor version, and the method further comprises:

if a major version for a batch matches a major version of a batch received from the registrar server, determining modified resources in each batch based on a comparison of minor versions of the received and stored batches at the presence server; and

if the major version for a batch does not match the major version of a batch received from the registrar server, obtaining a list of users associated with the batch, and sending back the information for each user in the list that is assigned to the registrar server.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the registrar server and the presence server are part of clusters.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the registrar server and the presence server exchange messages via Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

12. An enhanced communication system capable of providing continuous replication of routing rules, the system comprising:

a registrar cluster configured to;

upon detecting a user log-in, notify a presence server with a version of a current routing rules replica stored at the registrar server;

determine out-of-date routing rules based on a comparison of versions of a list of routing rules received from a presence cluster assigned to the registrar cluster;

request updates for the out-of date routing rules from the presence cluster;

update the routing rules stored at the registrar cluster and versions of the updated routing rules based on updates received from the presence cluster; and

the presence cluster configured to;

in response to the notification from the registrar cluster, send a current replica version and the current list of routing rules to the registrar cluster;

determine update information for each out-of-date routing rule based on the update requests from the registrar cluster;

provide the update information to the registrar cluster; and

update the current replica version.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising at least one backup cluster assigned to the registrar cluster and a backup cluster assigned to the presence cluster, wherein the registrar cluster/presence cluster combination assigned to a user and a backup configuration for the clusters is published globally within the system such that the user is enabled to connect to the system through a registrar cluster other than the assigned registrar cluster.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the presence cluster is further configured to provide the entire routing rules to the registrar cluster during an initial synchronization and provide updates to changed rule during subsequent synchronizations such that a state of the presence cluster is maintained at the registrar cluster assigned to the user.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the routing rules include at least one from a set of:

a time based rule, a relationship based rule, a caller based rule, and an end point selection rule for routing calls associated with the user.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the registrar cluster is one of:

a branch office cluster configured to exchange messages with the presence cluster through Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and a data center cluster configured to exchange messages with the presence cluster via direct call.

17. A computer-readable storage medium with instructions stored thereon for continuous replication of routing rules in an enhanced communication system, the instructions comprising:

periodically querying a presence cluster for changes to a routing payload comprising at least one from a set of;

routing rules, a privacy relationship setting, and a hierarchical relationship setting associated with users assigned to a registrar cluster;

upon detecting a user log-in at a registrar cluster, notifying the presence cluster with a version of a current routing rules replica stored at the registrar cluster;

receiving a list of the routing rules and current versions of the routing rules from the presence cluster;

determining out-of-date routing rules by comparing the received versions to versions of the routing rules cached at the registrar cluster;

requesting individual updates for the out-of date routing rules from the presence cluster;

receiving update information associated with the out-of-date routing rules;

updating the routing rules and versions of the routing rules cached at the registrar cluster; and

updating the version of the current routing rules replica at the registrar cluster.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions further comprise:

if the registrar cluster becomes unavailable, enabling a user to access the system through another registrar cluster and implement the routing rules stored at the presence cluster by providing the routing payload to the other registrar cluster.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions further comprise:

enforcing the routing rules even if the user if logged out and the presence cluster is unavailable.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the routing rules are implemented for multi-modal calls associated with the user comprising at least one from a set of:

an audio communication, a video communication, an email exchange, a text message exchange, a data sharing session, a whiteboard sharing session, and an application sharing session.