Providing communications services

• US 6,701,366 B1
• Filed: 11/09/1999
• Issued: 03/02/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Nortel Networks Corporation
• Inventors: Kallas, Michel, Lyell, James Michael, Ritenour, Gibson D.
• Primary Examiner(s): CALDWELL, ANDREW T
• Application Number:
  US09/436,562
• Time in Patent Office: 1,575 Days
• Field of Search: 709/227-228, 370/259, 379/201-1-2, 379/201.12, 379/207-2-2
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42144 by service provider
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0054 Service creation techniques

Abstract

A communication system includes packet-based networks that are coupled to terminals capable of participating in telephony sessions. To implement telephony services in such sessions, a telephony scripting language (TSL) is defined. Script modules may be created using TSL. Each script module may include a state machine having a plurality of states. TSL defines triggers that cause the state machine in an executed script module to transition between the states. In addition, TSL also defines actions that are specified in the several states or in transitions between states. The actions represent telephony services that may be performed by nodes coupled to the networks. Each action may be converted to one or more calls to functions or routines provided by application programming interfaces (APIs) residing in the network nodes.

Claims

1. A method of performing telephony services in a communications system having a network, comprising:

providing a plurality of script modules stored in one or more storage media, the script modules responsive to triggers to specify actions indicative of telephony services;

providing at least one scripting engine capable of accessing the script modules;

executing one of the script modules by the at least one scripting engine in response to a request to establish a packet-based telephony session;

receiving one or more triggers to cause the executed script module to specify one or more actions to be performed in the packet-based telephony session, the one or more triggers comprising at least one of an indication of detection of a dual tone multi-frequency signal and an indication of detection of voice data; and

sending one or more requests to one or more nodes coupled to the network to perform the one or more actions specified by the executed script module.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the one or more requests includes sending one or more calls by the executed script module to an application programming interface provided in each node.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising converting each action specified in the executed script module to at least one call to a routine provided by the application programming interface of a node.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the script modules includes describing the script modules according to a telephony scripting language.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising defining a plurality of actions and a plurality of triggers in the telephony scripting language.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising defining each script module as a state machine having a plurality of states, wherein the state machine transitions between states in response to the triggers and specifies actions to be performed.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein sending each request includes sending a call to an application programming interface of the node.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the network is coupled to a plurality of network entities, the method further comprising receiving the request to establish the packet-based telephony session from a first one of the network entities,

wherein sending the one or more requests to one or more nodes coupled to the network comprises sending the one or more requests to one or more nodes other than the first network entity.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving first dual tone multi-frequency signals that are other than dual tone multi-frequency signals representing digits of a destination telephone number, the triggers comprising the first dual tone multi-frequency signals.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a call progress status indicator to indicate progress of a call, the triggers further comprising the call progress state indicator.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving content of a telephony cookie, the triggers further comprising the content of the telephony cookie describing a prior packet-based telephony session between a calling terminal and a called terminal.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the one or more requests to perform the one or more actions comprises sending the one or more requests to perform one or more actions that include playing an announcement, playing a dual tone multi-frequency signal, notifying a terminal of a message, placing a telephony cookie at a remote terminal, and reading content of a telephony cookie.

13. A storage device for storing data accessible by one or more software routines being executed on a system for providing telephony services in a communication system, the storage device comprising:

a data structure stored in the storage device and including instructions defining a state machine having a plurality of states, the instructions specifying one or more triggers to cause the state machine to transition between states, the instructions further specifying one or more actions indicative of telephony services to be performed in the communications system, the telephony services including detecting for input data during a packet-based telephony session, the input data including content of a telephony cookie describing a prior packet-based telephony session between a calling terminal and a called terminal, and a call progress state indicator to indicate progress of a call.

14. The storage device of claim 13, wherein the input data further includes a dual tone multi-frequency signal.

15. The storage device of claim 13, wherein the input data further includes voice data.

16. The storage device of claim 13, wherein the input data further includes a user input.

17. The storage device of claim 13, wherein the instructions specify one or more of the following actions:

play announcement, play tone, detect a dual tone multi-frequency signal, record message, forward call, transfer call, notify device, place telephony cookie, retrieve telephony cookie, and detect voice data.

18. The storage device of claim 17, wherein the instructions further specify one or more of the following actions:

perform global data set or modify and log action.

19. The storage device of claim 13, wherein the data structure is according to an Extensible Markup Language format.

20. An article including one or more machine-readable storage media containing instructions for providing telephony services in a communications system, the instructions when executed causing one or more systems to:

receive a call request;

execute one or more script modules in response to the call request, the one or more script modules responsive to triggers to specify actions indicative of telephony services to be performed in a packet-based telephony session;

receive triggers including content of a telephony cookie and a call progress status indicator; and

send one or more requests to one or more nodes in the communications system to perform telephony services corresponding to the specified actions.

21. The article of claim 20, wherein the one or more storage media contain instructions that when executed cause one or more systems to send the one or more requests to a corresponding application programming interface of each node.

22. The article of claim 20, wherein the one or more storage media contain instructions that when executed cause the one or more systems to execute the one or more script modules defined according to a telephony scripting language.

23. The article of claim 22, wherein the telephony scripting language defines predetermined triggers and actions.

24. The article of claim 22, wherein the one or more script modules are in an Extensible Markup Language format.

25. The article of claim 20, wherein the one or more storage media contain instructions that when executed cause the one or more system to further provide an interface to allow a user to create a script module.

26. Apparatus for use in a communications system, comprising:

one or more storage media containing script modules; and

at least one scripting engine adapted to execute the script modules in response to a call request, the script modules adapted to specify actions to be performed in response to triggers, the actions corresponding to telephony services, the at least one scripting engine adapted to further create requests to be sent to one or more nodes in the communications system to perform the telephony services corresponding to the specified actions, the triggers comprising content of a telephony cookie describing a prior packet-based telephony session, a call progress status indicator to indicate progress of a packet-based telephony session, dual tone multi-frequency signals, and voice data.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the telephony services comprise play an announcement, play a dual tone multi-frequency signal, record a message, and place a telephony cookie at a remote terminal.

28. A method of performing telephony services in a communications system, comprising:

providing a plurality of script modules;

providing at least one scripting engine capable of accessing the script modules, each script module specifying one or more telephony services to be performed in response to one or more triggers; and

executing the script modules by the at least one scripting engine in response to a request to establish a packet-based telephony session, the one or more triggers including content of a telephony cookie describing a prior packet-based telephony session, a call progress status indicator to indicate progress of a packet-based telephony session, dual tone multi-frequency signals, and voice data.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the telephony services comprise play an announcement, play a dual tone multi-frequency signal, record a message, and place a telephony cookie at a remote terminal.

30. A data signal embodied in a carrier wave comprising one or more code segments containing instructions for providing telephony services in a communications system, the instructions when executed causing one or more systems to:

receive a call request;

in response to the call request, execute a script module that specifies one or more telephony services to be performed; and

receive input data during a packet-based telephony session that is provided to the script module during execution for use in specifying the one or more telephony services, the input data including;

content of a telephony cookie describing a prior packet-based telephony session, a call progress status indicator to indicate progress of a packet-based telephony session, dual tone multi-frequency signals, and voice data, and

the telephony services including;

play announcement, play a dual tone multi-frequency signal, record a message, and place a telephony cookie at a remote terminal.