SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPROVING ROUTING IN A DISTRIBUTED COMMUNICATION PLATFORM

• US 20140269333A1
• Filed: 03/13/2014
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Inventors: Boerjesson, Jonas
• Granted Patent: US 9,001,666 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/123 Evaluation of link metrics techniques for monitoring network metrics H04L43/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/44 Distributed routing

Abstract

A system and method for routing communication in a communication platform that includes generating edge cost scores in the communication network; assigning distribution values within the network; setting a score tolerance; receiving a communication directive; performing network graph search to identify a selected route through a route selection process including considering cost score within the score tolerance and distributing selection of a route associated with the communication directive in accordance to the distribution values; and establishing a media route specified by the selected route.

Claims

1. A method for routing a communication within a communication platform with at least a set of nodes interfacing to outside communication services comprising:

collecting network factors of edges of the communication network;

calculating cost scores from a cost function and the collected network factors

assigning distribution values within the network;

setting a score tolerance;

receiving a communication directive;

performing network graph search to identify a selected route comprising;

identifying a best cost route according to the total cost score of routes in the network,

setting a consideration pool to routes with cost scores within a score tolerance of the cost score of the best cost route, and

selecting the selected route based on determined distribution values of the routes in the consideration pool; and

establishing a media route specified by the selected route.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting a cost function according to a routing profile, wherein one routing profile is a price prioritized routing profile and wherein a second routing profile is a communication quality prioritized routing profile.

3. A method for balancing routing through a network of a communication platform comprising:

generating edge cost scores in the communication network;

assigning distribution values within the network;

setting a score tolerance;

receiving a communication directive;

performing network graph search to identify a selected route through a route selection process including considering routes with cost scores within the score tolerance and distributing selection of a route associated with the communication directive in accordance to the distribution values; and

establishing a media route specified by the selected route.

4. The network of claim 3, further comprising collecting network factors, wherein the edge scores are calculated from the collected network factors that include at least media jitter and latency.

5. The method of claim 3, further processing signaling through the network and of the communication request and determining functional media communication resources to support the communication session.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein performing network graph search to identify a selected route comprises:

identifying a best cost route according to the total cost score of routes in the network,

setting a consideration pool to routes with cost scores within a score tolerance of the cost score of the best cost route, and

selecting the selected route based on determined distribution values of the routes in the consideration pool.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the distribution values are weight values;

and wherein selecting the selected route based on determined distribution values of the routes in the consideration pool comprises selecting a route to substantially promote a distribution between the routes in the consideration pool to be in proportion to the weights.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the weight of a route is assigned to a carrier node in the network.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the distribution values include priority values;

and wherein selecting the selected route based on distribution values of the routes in the consideration pool comprises updating the consideration pool to include only routes with the greatest priority value.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein the communication network includes nodes in at least two regional data centers;

and wherein at least two regional centers are separated by a global distance of at least two thousand miles.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein generating edge cost scores in a communication network comprises collecting network factors and calculating cost scores from a cost function with network factor inputs.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising selecting a cost function according to a routing profile.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the selection of a routing profile is determined by account settings.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the selection of a routing profile is specified in association with the current session of the communication directive.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein a first routing profile is a price-prioritized routing profile and wherein a second routing profile is a communication quality-prioritized routing profile.

16. The method of claim 3, wherein establishing a media route establishes at least a portion of the media communication in a session initiation protocol (SIP) based communication.

17. The method of claim 3, wherein establishing a media route establishes at the video media channel.

18. The method of claim 3, wherein establishing a media route establishes at the voice media channel.

19. The method of claim 3, wherein receiving a communication directive comprises receiving an incoming communication request.

20. The method of claim 3, wherein receiving a communication directive comprises initializing an outgoing communication in response to a programmatic request.

21. The method of claim 3, wherein receiving a communication directive occurs during a communication session;

and wherein establishing a media route specified by the selected route comprises transitioning a previous media route to the selected media route.