Methods, Systems, and Products for Providing Communications Services

• US 20160094472A1
• Filed: 12/08/2015
• Published: 03/31/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tischer, Steven N., Kreiner, Barrett M., Hodges, Donna K.
• Granted Patent: US 10,230,658 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5067 Customer-centric QoS measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5087 wherein the managed service relates to voice services management of VoIP services H04M7/0081
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5096 wherein the managed service relates to distributed or central networked applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/724 at intermediate nodes, e.g. resource reservation protocol [RSVP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/781 Centralised allocation of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/808 User-type aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data

Abstract

Service providers may subcontract some services to subcontractors. Electronic packets of data may be outsourced for a subcontracted processing service provided by a server or other element. A result of the subcontracted processing service may then be received and incorporated.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing code that when executed causes the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising;

receiving electronic packets of data sent from a client device, the client device requesting a service associated with a service provider;

determining at least a portion of the service requested by the client device utilizes a subcontracted processing service provided by a subcontractor;

determining individual packets of the electronic packets of data that utilize the subcontracted processing service provided by the subcontractor; and

subcontracting the individual packets to the subcontractor to receive the subcontracted processing service.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise receiving a result of the subcontracted processing service.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the operations further comprise sending the result of the subcontracted processing service to the client device.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the operations further comprise incorporating the result of the subcontracted processing service into the service associated with the service provider.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the operations further comprise assembling the result of the subcontracted processing service into the service associated with the service provider.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise reserving a routing for the individual packets to the subcontractor.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise reserving a routing in a communications network to the subcontractor.

8. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a server, electronic packets of data sent from a client device, the electronic packets of data containing a request for a service provided by a service provider;

determining, by the server, at least a portion of the service requested by the client device is associated with a subcontracted processing service provided by a subcontractor;

determining, by the server, individual packets of the electronic packets of data that require the subcontracted processing service provided by the subcontractor;

retrieving, by the server, a server address associated with a subcontractor server, the server address associated with the subcontracted processing service provided by the subcontractor; and

sending, by the server, the individual packets into a communications network for routing to the server address to receive the subcontracted processing service provided by the subcontractor.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving a result of the subcontracted processing service subcontracted to the subcontractor.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising sending the result of the subcontracted processing service to the client device.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising incorporating the result of the subcontracted processing service into the service associated with the service provider.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising assembling the result of the subcontracted processing service into the service associated with the service provider.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising reserving a routing for the individual packets sent to the server address.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising reserving a routing in the communications network to the server address.

15. A memory device storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

receiving an electronic request sent from a client device, the client device requesting a service associated with a service provider;

retrieving a stream of data to fulfill the electronic request for service;

determining at least a portion of the service requested by the client device is associated with a subcontracted processing service provided by a subcontractor;

creating a subcontractor segment from the stream of data, the subcontractor segment containing packets of data in the stream of data that require the subcontracted processing service provided by the subcontractor;

retrieving a server address associated with a subcontractor server, the server address associated with the subcontracted processing service provided by the subcontractor; and

sending the subcontractor segment into a communications network for routing to the server address to receive the subcontracted processing service provided by the subcontractor.

16. The memory device of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise receiving a result of the subcontracted processing service provided by the subcontractor.

17. The memory device of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise sending the result of the subcontracted processing service to the client device.

18. The memory device of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise incorporating the result of the subcontracted processing service into the service associated with the service provider.

19. The memory device of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise assembling the result of the subcontracted processing service into the service associated with the service provider.

20. The memory device of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise reserving a routing for the subcontractor segment to the subcontractor.