Managing calls over a data network

• US 6,798,786 B1
• Filed: 08/20/1999
• Issued: 09/28/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: RPX Clearinghouse LLC (RPX Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nortel Networks Limited (Nortel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: Abaye, Alireza, Li, Xuewen, Lo, Wing F.
• Primary Examiner(s): QURESHI, AFSAR M
• Application Number:
  US09/370,984
• Time in Patent Office: 1,866 Days
• Field of Search: 370/352-360, 370/229-236, 370/329, 370/389, 370/392, 370/341, 370/468, 379/88.1, 379/900, 709/224, 709/226, 709/238
• US Class Current: 370/468
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6481 Speech, voice
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/203 composed of PSTN and data network, e.g. the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13034 A/D conversion, code compression/expansion
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13196 Connection circuit/link/trunk/junction, bridge, router, gateway
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13348 Channel/line reservation
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13349 Network management
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13389 LAN, internet

Abstract

A method and system of managing calls over a data network includes determining an available bandwidth of the data network. After a call request is received for establishing a call between at least two network terminals, one or more of a plurality of resource elements are selected in response to the call request based on the bandwidth of the data network. The resource elements, which can include codecs (coders/decoders), packet sizes (for carrying audio data), and others, are used in the requested call between the at least two network terminals. Further, a plurality of communities may be defined each including one or more terminals. One or more usage threshold values may be assigned to a link or links between communities, and a call request is processed based on the one or more usage threshold values. The processing includes at least one of determining whether to admit the call request and selecting resource elements to be used during a call between terminals over the link.

Claims

1. A method of managing calls over a data network, comprising:

determining usage information of the data network;

receiving a call request for establishing a call between at least two network terminals; and

selecting one or more of a plurality of resource elements as candidates for use in the requested call in response to the call request based on usage information of the data network, wherein the resource elements define one or more characteristics of data exchanged between the network terminals,

wherein the selecting includes selecting one or more resource elements based on usage policy set by a policy server.

2. A method of managing calls over a data network, comprising:

determining usage information of the data network;

receiving a call request for establishing a call between at least two network terminals;

selecting one or more of a plurality of resource elements as candidates for use in the requested call in response to the call request based on usage information of the data network, wherein the resource elements define one or more characteristics of data exchanged between the network terminals;

receiving information relating to the plurality of resource elements during establishing of the call; and

selecting one or more of the plurality of resource elements based on support for the one or more resource elements in each of the at least two network terminals.

3. A method of managing calls over a data network, comprising:

determining usage information of the data network;

receiving a call request for establishing a call between at least two network terminals;

selecting one or more of a plurality of resource elements as candidates for use in the requested call in response to the call request based on usage information of the data network, wherein the resource elements define one or more characteristics of data exchanged between the network terminals; and

ranking the resource elements according to merit based on quality of the requested call and expected bandwidth usage of the data network.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the ranking of the resource elements is further based on expected usage of a digital signal processing element of each terminal.

5. A method of managing calls over a data network, comprising:

determining usage information of the data network;

receiving a call request for establishing a call between at least two network terminals;

selecting one or more of a plurality of resource elements as candidates for use in the requested call in response to the call request based on usage information of the data network, wherein the resource elements define one or more characteristics of data exchanged between the network terminals; and

performing call admissions control to accept or deny the call request,

wherein the at least two terminals are defined in at least two communities coupled by a link, and wherein performing call admissions control includes performing call admissions control based on a threshold set for the link between the communities.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein performing call admissions control is based on usage of a link in the data network between groups of terminals.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising bypassing the call admissions control for an intra-community call within each community.

8. A server for managing calls in a system having a network, comprising:

an interface to the network to receive a call request to establish a call between two endpoints on the network; and

a control unit adapted to process the call request and to control selection of one or more of a plurality of resource elements as candidates to be employed by the endpoints in the call based on usage of the network, wherein the resource elements comprise at least one of codecs to be employed by the endpoints in the call and sizes of messages to be used for carrying audio data in the call,

wherein the control unit is adapted to rank the resource elements by one or more predetermined criteria,

wherein the control unit is adapted to present the ranked resource elements to at least one of the endpoints for the at least one endpoint to select a resource element.

9. The server of claim 8, wherein the control unit is adapted to select the resource element having a highest relative rank.

10. The server of claim 9, wherein the control unit is adapted to determine resource elements supported by the endpoints.

11. An article including one or more machine-readable storage media containing instructions to manage calls within a telephony system, the instructions when executed causing a controller to:

receive a call request containing information identifying an origination endpoint, a destination endpoint, and one or more resource elements supported by the origination endpoint;

select one or more of the one or more resource elements based on perceived audio quality and usage of a data network;

present the selected one or more resource elements as available for use in a call between endpoints; and

receive information relating to the one or more resource elements during call establishment.

12. A method of managing calls in a telephony system, comprising:

defining a plurality of communities each including one or more communication endpoints;

assigning at least first and second usage threshold values to a link between communities; and

processing a call request based on the usage threshold values,

wherein the processing includes determining whether to admit the call request over the link based on the first usage threshold value,

wherein the processing further includes selecting one or more resource elements to be used during a call session between endpoints over the link based on the second usage threshold value,

wherein the processing includes admitting the call request over the link and performing selecting of the resource elements if usage over the link exceeds the second usage threshold value but is less than the first usage threshold value.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the assigning includes assigning a threshold value indicating the available bandwidth on the link between the communities.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the assigning includes assigning a usage threshold value over which further outgoing calls from a community is prohibited.

15. A call establishment method, comprising:

determining a candidate list of coding resource members associated with a call request;

checking a usage policy for the call request;

removing from the candidate list a first set of coding resource members whose bandwidth requirements exceed the usage policy;

ranking a second set of coding resource members of the candidate list according to merit, the second set being distinct from the first set;

selecting from the second set a coding resource member having a highest relative merit; and

establishing a call specified by the call request using the selected coding resource member.

16. The call establishment method of claim 15, wherein the determining includes:

receiving at least one supported coding resource of an endpoint specified with the call request; and

assembling the candidate list from the at least one received supported coding resource.

17. The call establishment method of claim 16, wherein the call request specifies an originating endpoint and at least one destination endpoint;

and

wherein the receiving comprises receiving at least one supported coding resource member for each of the originating and at least one destination endpoints.

18. The call establishment of claim 15, wherein the ranking comprises ranking the second set of coding resource members according to at least one of perceived voice quality, bandwidth usage, and endpoint digital signal processing resource usage.

19. The call establishment method of claim 15, wherein the call establishing fails to establish the call when the second set is empty.

20. A method of managing calls over a data network, comprising:

determining usage information of the data network;

receiving a call request for establishing a telephony communications session between at least two network terminals;

selecting one or more of a plurality of resource elements as candidates for use in the requested telephony communications session in response to the call request based on usage information of the data network, wherein the resource elements define one or more characteristics of data exchanged between the network terminals; and

receiving information relating to the plurality of resource elements during establishing of the telephony communications session.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the selecting includes selecting one or more resource elements based on actual usage of the data network.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the selecting includes selecting one or more codecs as candidates for use in each network terminal.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the selecting includes selecting one or more sizes of a packet as candidates for carrying audio data in the requested telephony communications session.

24. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

determining a condition of the data network, wherein the selecting is further based on the determined condition.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the determining includes determining a delay in the transmission of packets in the data network.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the determining includes determining a percentage of packet loss in the data network.

27. The method of claim 24, further comprising determining an expected quality of service based on the determined condition of the data network.

28. A server for managing calls in a system having a network, comprising:

an interface to the network to receive a call request to establish a call between two endpoints on the network; and

a control unit adapted to process the call request and to control selection of one or more of a plurality of resource elements as candidates to be employed by the endpoints in the call based on usage of the data network, wherein the resource elements comprise at least one of codecs to be employed by the endpoints in the call and sizes of messages to be used for carrying audio data in the call,

wherein the control unit is adapted to receive information relating to the plurality of resource elements from an originating one of the two endpoints during call establishment.

29. The server of claim 28, wherein the control unit is adapted to retrieve information regarding usage of the network, the control unit controlling selection of the one resource element based on the usage.

30. The server of claim 28, wherein the sizes of messages are determined by a selected number of frames carrying audio data in each message.

31. The server of claim 28, wherein the calls include telephony calls.

32. The server of claim 28, wherein the control unit is adapted to receive the information in the call request.