SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING TELEPHONY SESSIONS

• US 20140355600A1
• Filed: 08/14/2014
• Published: 12/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Inventors: Lawson, Jeff, Wolthuis, John, Cooke, Evan
• Granted Patent: US 9,456,008 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0643 Hash functions, e.g. MD5, SHA, HMAC or f9 MAC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2473 Telephone terminals interfacing a personal computer, e.g. using an API (Application Programming Interface) details of API H04M7/0021
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0021 Details of Application Programming Interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/003 Click to dial services

Abstract

In one embodiment, the method of processing telephony sessions includes: communicating with an application server using an application layer protocol; processing telephony instructions with a call router; and creating call router resources accessible through a call router Application Programming Interface (API). In another embodiment, the system for processing telephony sessions includes: a call router, a URI for an application server, a telephony instruction executed by the call router, and a call router API resource.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

initiating a telephony communication to at least one telephony endpoint;

mapping the telephony communication to a first telephony application;

sending a first application layer protocol request to an application resource specified by the first application;

receiving a response to the first application layer protocol request sent to the application resource, wherein the response includes a document of telephony instructions;

executing telephony actions in the telephony communication according to the telephony instructions of the first response;

detecting a redirection action during processing of the telephony instructions of the first response, wherein the redirection action specifies a second telephony application;

sending a second application layer protocol request to an application resource specified by the second application;

receiving a second response to the second application layer protocol request sent to the application resource, wherein the second response includes a second document of telephony instructions;

executing telephony actions in the telephony communication according to the telephony instructions of the second response.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein sending an application layer protocol request to an application resource specified by the first application comprises embedding state information of the telephony communication in the first request;

and wherein sending an application layer protocol request to an application resource specified by the second application comprises embedding at least new state information of the telephony communication in the second request.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the redirection action is a result of processing a telephony instruction that includes a next URI parameter specifying the second application.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the next URI is defined through a URI template.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein mapping the telephony communication to a first telephony application comprises mapping the telephony communication to a first telephony application URI.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first telephony application URI and the next URI reference different application servers.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the redirection action specifies a primary second telephony application used for a first condition and a secondary second telephony application for a second condition.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the telephony instruction is a directive to redirect control of the telephony communication to the next URI.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein executing telephony actions in the telephony communication comprises sequentially at least a subset of the telephony instructions of the first response.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the application layer protocol is hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first and second request are HTTP POST requests.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the first and second requests are HTTP GET requests.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the telephony communication is a voice communication session connected at least one endpoint over the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the telephony communication is a voice communication session connected to at least one endpoint through a session initiation protocol (SIP).

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the telephony communication is a series of communication messages between at least two endpoints.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the series of communication messages are short messaging service (SMS) messages.

17. A method comprising:

initiating a telephony communication session;

mapping the telephony communication session to a first application;

processing the first application during the telephony communication session;

detecting new state information in the telephony communication, wherein the new state information is associated with a second application; and

redirecting application processing of the telephony communication session to the second application.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein processing the first application during the telephony communication session comprises retrieving application instructions of the first application through application layer protocol communication, which is authenticated with a secret token of the first application;

and wherein redirecting application processing of the telephony communication session to the second application comprises retrieving application instructions of the second application through application layer protocol communication, which is authenticated with a secret token of the second application;

19. The method of claim 17, wherein mapping the telephony communication to a first application comprises mapping the telephony communication session to a universal resource identifier (URI) of the first application;

and wherein the new state information is associated with a second application through a mapping between the new state information resulting from a telephony instruction of the first application and a URI of the second application.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein redirecting application processing of the telephony communication session to the second application comprises sending a first application layer protocol request to the URI of the second application, receiving a second application response to the first application layer protocol request, wherein the second application response includes a document of telephony instructions, and executing telephony actions in the telephony communication session according to the telephony instructions of the second application response.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the new state information is embedded in the request to the URI of the second application.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein processing the first application during the telephony communication session comprises sending a second application layer protocol request to the URI of the first application, receiving a first application response to the second application layer protocol request, wherein the first application response includes a document of telephony instructions, and executing telephony actions in the telephony communication session according to the telephony instructions of the first application response.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein detecting a redirection action comprises detecting a redirection action through the processing of the telephony instructions of the first application response.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein processing the telephony instructions comprises performing an action and redirecting at least state information resulting from the action to a second telephony application.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein detecting new state information in the telephony communication comprises receiving an asynchronous instruction to redirect communication control to the URI of the second application.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the asynchronous instruction is an application programming interface (API) request.