CODEC SEQUENCE DETECTION

• US 20160105543A1
• Filed: 10/13/2014
• Published: 04/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arlington Technologies, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Ponting, Keith, Skiba, David, Matula, Valentine C.
• Granted Patent: US 9,456,075 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/404 Collaboration among agents
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/406 Rerouting calls between call centers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2209 for lines also used for data transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2227 Quality of service monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/36 Statistical metering, e.g. recording occasions when traffic exceeds capacity of trunks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0072 Speech codec negotiation H04L65/1069 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1205 where the types of switching equipement comprises PSTN/ISDN equipment and switching equipment of networks other than PSTN/ISDN, e.g. Internet Protocol networks

Abstract

In order to detect a specific codec sequence being used, a signal that is based on a codec sequence is analyzed. The signal is analyzed to determine if there is a pattern in the signal. A pattern of a codec sequence can be a unique pattern of frames, frequencies and/or frequency ranges that are generated based on a specific codec sequence. The pattern is compared to one or more previously stored patterns of codec sequences to see if there is a match. If there is a match, an event is generated. For example, if a known codec sequence that has a poor signal quality is determined to be in use for a voice call, the parties may be notified that the call is likely to be a low quality voice call.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, a signal that is based on a codec sequence;

identifying, by the processor, a pattern in the signal, wherein the pattern in the signal is based on a plurality of percentages of occurrences of specific frames in the signal;

determining, by the processor, that there is a match between the pattern in the signal and an expected pattern of a codec sequence; and

in response to determining that there is a match between the pattern in the signal and the expected pattern of the codec sequence, generating, by the processor, an event.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the signal is a digital voice signal or an analog voice signal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the signal a digital video signal or an analog video signal.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the signal is the digital video signal and wherein the pattern of the codec sequence is based on a pixel pattern in the digital video signal.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the event is one of:

alerting a call center agent of a difficult codec sequence;

notifying the call center agent to switch from speakerphone to a handset;

adjusting a rating of the call center agent;

routing the audio signal to a different call center agent;

switching a call for the signal to a different medium;

notifying a customer that the signal may not be a high quality signal;

re-routing the call for the signal;

switching to a different codec in the codec sequence for the signal;

switching a leg of a conference call to a different mixer of the conference call;

sending a message to a communication system to switch to a different codec for the call for the signal;

notifying a service provider of a poor audio signal in the call for the signal;

or

notifying a service provider of a variance to a Quality of Service (QoS) contract.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the signal comprises a plurality of combined voice calls, wherein the plurality of voice calls use a plurality of different codec sequences, wherein the event is to save statistics based on the plurality of different codec sequences, and further comprising:

comparing, by the processor, the statistics based the plurality of different codec sequences to statistics for customer ratings of the plurality of voice calls to identify trends in the plurality of voice calls.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the pattern of the codec sequence comprises a plurality of patterns of codec sequences.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein at least one of the plurality of codec sequences comprises a codec sequence that comprises at least two or more different codecs.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the pattern of the codec sequence is based on a frequency range of a codec.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the pattern of the codec sequence is based on a pattern of a codebook of a codec.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the signal is an audio signal and wherein the pattern of the codec sequence is based on a language spoken in the audio signal.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the signal is an audio signal and wherein the pattern of the codec sequence is determined based on a determining a common pattern of background noise for silence periods in the signal.

13. A system comprising:

a signal analyzer that receives a signal that is based on a codec sequence and identifies a pattern in the signal, wherein the pattern in the signal is based on a plurality of percentages of occurrences of specific frames in the signal; and

an event generator that determines that there is a match between the pattern in the signal and an expected pattern of a codec sequence and in response to determining that there is a match between the pattern in the signal and the pattern of the codec sequence, generates an event.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the signal is a digital video signal and wherein the pattern of the codec sequence is based on a pixel pattern in the digital video signal.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the event is one of:

alerting a call center agent of a difficult codec sequence;

notifying the call center agent to switch from speakerphone to a handset;

adjusting a rating of the call center agent;

routing the audio signal to a different call center agent;

switching a call for the signal to a different medium;

notifying a customer that the signal may not be a high quality signal;

re-routing the call for the signal;

switching to a different codec in the codec sequence for the signal;

switching a leg of a conference call to a different mixer of the conference call;

sending a message to a communication system to switch to a different codec for the call for the signal;

notifying a service provider of a poor audio signal in the call for the signal;

or

notifying a service provider of a variance to a Quality of Service (QoS) contract.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the signal comprises a plurality of voice calls, wherein the plurality of voice calls use a plurality of different codec sequences, wherein the event is to save statistics based on the plurality of different codec sequences, and further comprising a statistics analyzer that compares the statistics based the plurality of different codec sequences to statistics for customer ratings of the plurality of voice calls to identify trends in the plurality of voice calls.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the pattern of the codec sequence comprises a plurality of patterns of codec sequences and wherein at least one of the plurality of codec sequences comprises a codec sequence that comprises at least two or more different codecs.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the pattern of the codec sequence is based on a frequency range of a codec.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the pattern of the codec sequence is based on a pattern of a codebook of a codec.

20. A computer readable medium that is not a signal having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to perform a method, the instructions comprising:

instructions to receive a signal that is based on a codec sequence;

instructions to identify a pattern in the signal, wherein the pattern in the signal is based on a plurality of percentages of occurrences of specific frames in the signal;

instructions to determine if there is a match between the pattern in the signal and an expected pattern of a codec sequence; and

in response to determining that there is a match between the pattern in the signal and the pattern of the codec sequence, instructions to generate an event.