SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ROUTING COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20160182735A1
• Filed: 02/26/2016
• Published: 06/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Inventors: Nowack, Mathew D., Malatack, Patrick, Wilsher, Thomas, Selph, Chad
• Granted Patent: US 9,654,647 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/38 Telephone uniform resource identifier [URI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8044 Least cost routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8055 Selecting cheaper transport technology for a given service
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/82 Criteria or parameters used for performing billing operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8351 before establishing a communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/84 Types of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/85 characterised by the type of condition triggering a notification
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/851 Determined tariff
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/852 Low balance or limit reached
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0012 Details of application programming interfaces [API] for telephone networks; Arrangements which combine a telephonic communication equipment and a computer, i.e. computer telephony integration [CPI] arrangements

Abstract

A system and method that includes receiving a communication request of an account, the communication request including communication properties; identifying at least two routing options of a route priority list, the routing options capable of completing the communication request and identified according to a priority heuristic; generating a communication cost from the communication properties; and upon receipt of the routing response and the communication cost response, executing a communication with a routing option of the routing priority list and committing a cost of the communication to the account.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

at a communication service system of a multi-tenant telephony platform;

responsive to a determination that an external communication cost of a communication request of a platform account of the multi-tenant telephony platform is not greater than a maximum cost parameter of the communication request;

selecting a routing option of a route priority list that is compiled according to communication properties of the communication request, the communication properties including at least a destination endpoint,

establishing communication through the selected routing option, and

committing the external communication cost to the platform account;

responsive to a determination that the external communication cost is greater than the maximum cost parameter;

providing a communication failure message to an external system, the communication failure message including alternative routing options, and

responsive to an alternative routing option selection message provided by the external system, the alternative routing option selection message specifying a selection of an alternative routing option, establishing communication through the selected alternative routing option.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication request is received via an application programming interface (API) of the multi-tenant telephony platform.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the API is exposed externally such that requests directly originate from outside entities.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the API is an internal API used during operation of the multi-tenant telephony platform.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the API is an API of the communication service system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the external communication cost is a communication cost that is committed to the platform account.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the alternative routing options includes at least one routing option that is different from routing options of the route priority list.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication failure message includes information about the alternative routing options, wherein information about the alternative routing options includes at least one of:

alternative routing option price and alternative routing option transport mode.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the external system is an external system of a callback universal resource identifier (URI), wherein the communication failure message is an application transport message, and wherein the communication service system transmits the application transport message to the callback URI.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the external system that receives the communication failure message provides a cancellation message to the communication service system, and responsive to the cancellation message, the communication service system cancelling the communication request.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the external system provides the communication request, and wherein the communication failure message is a response to the communication request.

12. The method of claim 1,

wherein the communication service system provides a routing request to a routing service of the telephony platform,

wherein the routing request includes the destination endpoint property,

wherein the routing service compiles the route priority list of routing options according to the communication properties of the communication request,

wherein the routing service provides the route priority list to the communication service system,

wherein the communication service system provides a cost request to a communication cost service of the telephony platform,

wherein the cost request includes the destination endpoint property,

wherein the communication cost service generates the external communication cost of the communication request according to the communication properties, and

wherein the communication cost service provides the external communication cost to the communication service system.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the routing service compiles the route priority list of routing options according to the destination endpoint property included in the routing request, and the communication cost service generates the external communication cost according to the destination endpoint property included in the cost request.

14. A hardware multi-tenant telephony platform system comprising:

a communication service;

a routing service; and

a communication cost service,

wherein the communication service is constructed to;

responsive to a determination by the communication service that an external communication cost of a communication request of a platform account of the platform system is not greater than a maximum cost parameter of the communication request;

select a routing option of a route priority list that is compiled according to communication properties of the communication request, the communication properties including at least a destination endpoint,

establish communication through the selected routing option, and

commit the external communication cost to the platform account;

responsive to a determination by the communication service that the external communication cost is greater than the maximum cost parameter;

provide a communication failure message to an external system, the communication failure message including alternative routing options, and

responsive to an alternative routing option selection message provided by the external system, the alternative routing option selection message specifying a selection of an alternative routing option, establish communication through the selected alternative routing option,

wherein the routing service is constructed to compile the route priority list according to the communication properties of the communication request, and

wherein the communication cost service is constructed to generate the external communication cost of the communication request according to the communication properties.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the communication service is constructed to receive the communication request via an application programming interface (API) of the platform system.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the external communication cost is a communication cost that is committed to the platform account.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the alternative routing options includes at least one routing option that is different from routing options of the route priority list.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the communication failure message includes information about the alternative routing options, wherein information about the alternative routing options includes at least one of:

alternative routing option price and alternative routing option transport mode.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the external system is an external system of a callback universal resource identifier (URI), wherein the communication failure message is an application transport message, and wherein the communication service is constructed to transmit the application transport message to the callback URI.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the external system that receives the communication failure message provides a cancellation message to the communication service, and wherein the communication service is constructed to cancel the communication request responsive to the cancellation message.

21. The system of claim 14, wherein the external system provides the communication request, and wherein the communication failure message is a response to the communication request.

22. The system of claim 14,

wherein the communication service is constructed to provide a routing request to the routing service,

wherein the routing request includes the destination endpoint property,

wherein the routing service is constructed to provide the route priority list to the communication service,

wherein the communication service is constructed to provide a cost request to the communication cost service,

wherein the cost request includes the destination endpoint property, and

wherein the communication cost service is constructed to provide the external communication cost to the communication service.