Conference Bridge Audio Quality Diagnostic and Self Configuration System and Method

• US 20120082304A1
• Filed: 09/30/2010
• Published: 04/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: O'Sullivan, Gerard, Byrne, Joe, Duddy, Sean
• Granted Patent: US 8,625,767 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/202.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/205 jitter monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/551 Call history
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/568 audio processing specific to telephonic conferencing, e.g. spatial distribution, mixing of participants echo suppression in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/02; sound field processing per se H04S7/30

Abstract

A conference diagnosis system can correlate information about a current teleconference with information about past conferences to make an intelligent assessment as to the potential cause of a poor audio or other condition. A conference bridge conducting the conference can then change various configuration settings on the conference bridge to resolve the problem. A running average of the results of past adjustments can be measured and direct future configuration changes. Thus, past successful adjustments can provide a starting point for changes to a new conference and real-time digital signal processing (DSP) adjustments can help tailor changes to the specific conference.

Claims

1. A method for storing conference information, comprising:

searching historical data in a historical data database for a conference having a configuration similar to that in a conference request for a first conference;

searching the historical data in the historical data database as to a configuration having a good audio quality;

establishing an initial conference configuration based on the configuration similar to the conference request and the configuration having good audio quality;

a conference bridge storing the initial conference configuration for the first conference;

the conference bridge conducting the first conference;

while the conference is being conducted, the conference bridge storing one or more quality measures associated with the first conference;

after the conference is completed, archiving the conference configuration and the one or more quality measures as historical data;

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the conference configuration includes the initial conference configuration and one or more changes to the conference configuration that occur during the conference.

3. The method as defined in claim 2, wherein the initial conference configuration is created in response to receiving a conference request from a communication endpoint.

4. The method as defined in claim 3, wherein the conference configuration and the one or more quality measures are retrieved to establish a second initial conference configuration for a second conference.

5. The method as defined in claim 2, wherein the one or more changes to the conference configuration occur when the conference configuration is changed to address a problem with a quality measure that is recorded during the first conference.

6. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the conference configuration includes one or more of a group comprising:

a PSTN ID, a gateway ID, a PBX ID, a caller ID, an IP address, a line ID, a location, an endpoint ID, a user group, a codec ID, a subnet ID, a site ID, and an address space.

7. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the one or more quality measures include one or more of the group comprising a delay, a packet loss, a jitter buffer statistic, a measurement of echo monitoring, a distortion, an interface measure, a gain control measure, and a signal to noise ratio measure.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

determining if a new configuration to the first conference is created;

when a new configuration to the first conference is created, store the new configuration;

when a new configuration to the first conference is created, store one or more new quality measures associated with the new configuration; and

when the first conference has ended, archiving the new configuration and the one or more new quality measures with the conference configuration and one or more quality measures.

9. The method as defined in claim 8, wherein a new configuration is created to address a problem with one or more of the quality measures.

10. The method as defined in claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a complaint about a quality of the first conference;

determining the conference configuration;

determining the one or more quality measures;

searching historical data in a historical data database for a second conference with a similar conference configuration or a similar quality measure;

based on the historical data, determining a corrective measure for the quality;

conducting the corrective measure;

determining if the corrective measure improved one or more of the quality measures;

if the corrective measure improved one or more of the quality measures, storing the new configuration and one or more new quality measures; and

if the corrective measure does not improve one or more of the quality measures, determining a second corrective measure.

11. A communication network comprising:

two or more communication endpoints;

one or more conference bridges, each conference bridge in communication with at least one of the two or more communication endpoints, each conference bridge comprising;

a conference engine operable to conduct a first conference;

a data collection module operable to;

receive a conference configuration for the first conference;

receive one or more quality measures associated with the first conference;

store the conference configuration and the one or more quality measures in a historical data database;

a quality measurement module operable to;

determine the one or more quality measures associated with the first conference;

provide the one or more quality measures to the data collection module;

a configuration module operable to;

determine the conference configuration module for the first conference;

provide the conference configuration to the data collection module; and

the historical data database operable to store the conference configuration and the one or more quality measures associated with the first conference and at least one other conference configuration and one or more other quality measures associated with at least a second conference.

12. The communication network as defined in claim 11, further comprising:

a conference engine operable to;

receive a conference request for the first conference;

conduct the first conference;

wherein the configuration module is further operable to;

receive the conference request from the conference engine;

receive historical data from the historical data database similar to a configuration requested in the conference request; and

based on the historical data, determine an initial conference configuration.

13. The communication network as defined in claim 12, wherein the conference engine is further operable to receive a complaint about a quality of the first conference, wherein the data collection module is further operable to:

receive the complaint from the conference engine;

receive one or more quality measures from the quality measurement module;

receive the conference configuration from the configuration module;

search historical data in the historical data database for the second conference which has a similar quality measure or a similar conference configuration; and

retrieve the historical data from the historical data database.

14. The communication network as defined in claim 13, wherein the data collection module is further operable to provide the historical data to a user.

15. The communication network as defined in claim 13, wherein the data collection module is further operable to provide the historical data to the configuration module, wherein the configuration module is further operable to:

based on the historical data determine a corrective measure to address the complaint; and

create a new configuration for the first conference based on the corrective measure.

16. The communication network as defined in claim 11, further comprising a best rules database operable to store one or more rules for correcting problems with conference quality.

17. The communication network as defined in claim 11, wherein the historical data database includes two or more historical data data structures, wherein each historical data data structure is operable to store quality measures and configuration information associated with a conference.

18. A computer program product including computer executable instructions stored onto a tangible, non-transitory computer readable medium, which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform a method for automatically correcting an audio quality problem with a teleconference, the instructions comprising:

instructions to receive a conference request to conduct a first conference;

instructions to store a conference configuration for the first conference;

instructions to conduct the first conference;

while the conference is being conducted, instructions to store one or more quality measures associated with the first conference; and

during the conference, instructions to receive a complaint about the audio quality problem from a communication endpoint;

instructions to determine the conference configuration;

instructions to determine the one or more quality measures associated with the audio quality problem;

instructions to search historical data in a historical data database for a second conference with a similar conference configuration and a similar audio quality problem;

instructions to determine a second configuration used to address the similar audio quality problem in the second conference;

based on the second configuration in the second conference, instructions to determine a corrective measure to adjust the conference configuration;

instructions to conduct the corrective measure;

instructions to determine if the corrective measure improved the one or more of the quality measures associated with the audio quality problem;

if the corrective measure improved the quality measures associated with the audio quality problem, instructions to store the adjusted configuration and one or more new quality measures; and

if the corrective measure does not improve the quality measures associated with the audio quality problem, instructions to determine a second corrective measure.

19. The computer program product as defined in claim 18, wherein if the corrective measure does not improve the quality measures associated with the audio quality problem, instructions to provide the historical information to a user.

20. The computer program product as defined in claim 19, wherein the user is an administrator and the historical information is provided to the administrator after the first conference is completed.