DIRECTING MODALITIES OVER DIFFERENT NETWORKS IN MULTIMODAL COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20120047270A1
• Filed: 08/18/2010
• Published: 02/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chandrasekaran, Subramanian, Bell, Anthony
• Granted Patent: US 8,700,782 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/125 based on throughput or bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4025 where none of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. downloading a file in a parallel FTP session, initiating an email or combinational services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066

Abstract

Selected modalities of a multimodal communication session may be diverted over different networks by an administrator or automatically to reduce burden on utilized networks. Modalities may be selected and diverted over different networks including the Internet for the same multimodal communication session based on network conditions, communication session attributes, participant attributes, and similar factors.

Claims

1. A method executed at least in part in a computing device for diverting modalities of a multimodal communication session over different networks, the method comprising:

receiving a request for a multimodal communication session;

determining endpoint locations;

determining system characteristics;

determining alternative paths based on the endpoint locations and the system characteristics; and

facilitating the communication session by routing at least one modality of the communication session over an alternative path.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the system characteristics include at least one from a group of:

a network capacity, a communication session type, a number of modalities in the communication session, types of modalities in the communication session, a number of participants in the communication session, an attribute of the communication session, and attributes of the participants in the communication session.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the attributes of the participants include an organizational position of each participant.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the communication session type includes one of:

a peer-to-peer communication and a one-to-many communication.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the types of modalities include at least one from a group of:

audio communication, video communication, text messaging, application sharing, data sharing, and online presentation.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the attribute of the communication session includes one of:

a confidential communication session, a proprietary communication session, and an open communication session.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the alternative path is selected and the at least one modality routed over the alternative path by an administrator of a communication service managing the communication session.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the alternative path is selected and the at least one modality routed over the alternative path automatically by a communication service managing the communication session.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring network conditions.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the different networks comprise at least one from a group of:

a wide area network (WAN), a local area network (LAN), and a personal area network (PAN), and wherein at least one of the networks is a secure network and one of the networks is an open network.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

routing at least one modality over a non-default network while remaining modalities are routed over a default network.

12. A server facilitating multimodal communication services with modality diversion in an enhanced communication system, the server comprising:

a memory;

a communication module; and

a processor coupled to the memory and the communication module, wherein the processor executes a communication application adapted to;

receive a request for a multimodal communication session;

determine endpoint locations;

determine network conditions;

determine alternative paths based on the endpoint locations and the network conditions;

select an alternative path for at least one modality of the requested communication session; and

facilitate the requested communication session by routing the at least one modality of the communication session over the selected alternative path.

13. The server of claim 12, wherein the communication application is further adapted to route a plurality of modalities over at least three networks.

14. The server of claim 13, wherein at least one of the networks includes the Internet.

15. The server of claim 12, wherein the network conditions include at least one from a group of:

a network capacity, a number of available servers, and a network usage.

16. The server of claim 12, wherein the server is an audio/video edge server of a unified communication system.

17. A computer-readable storage medium with instructions stored thereon for facilitating multimodal communication services with modality diversion, the instructions comprising:

determining endpoint locations for participants in a multimodal communication session;

determining at least one from a group of;

a network capacity, a number of available servers, and a network usage;

determining alternative paths based on the endpoint locations and the network conditions;

selecting an alternative path for at least one modality of the communication session based on at least one from a group of;

a communication session type, a number of modalities in the communication session, types of modalities in the communication session, a number of participants in the communication session, an attribute of the communication session, and attributes of the participants in the communication session; and

facilitating the communication session by routing the at least one modality of the communication session over the selected alternative path.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the alternative path includes one of:

a non-default link of a default network and a non-default network.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the default and non-default networks include at least one from a group of:

a wired network, a wireless network, and an optical network.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the at least one modality is routed over the alternative path at one of:

at the beginning of the communication session and at a time point during the communication session.