Systems and methods for scalable hunt-group management
First Claim
1. A hunt group (HG) management system for transferring telephone calls to agents belonging to a HG, the system comprising:
- one or more network connected HG server computers executing one of more instances of HG server software; and
a plurality of network connected agent computers executing instances of agent software, the server and agent software instances exchanging broadcast and unicast messages,wherein an HG server software instance for an HG with one or more ready agents and waiting calls unicasts a call-post message to the agent software instance of a selected ready agent informing the selected agent of a call waiting to be handled;
wherein the agent software instance of an agent that has previously received one or more call-post messages broadcasts a call-acknowledgement message to the HG server instances informing that the agent has selected a call from the received call-post message, andwherein an HG software instance, upon receiving a broadcast call-acknowledgement message of a previously unicast call-post message, transfers the call to the agent to which the previous call-post message was unicast.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides systems, methods, and apparatus for semi-stateless scalable and distributed management of telephone hunt group features in a PBX. In particular, the invention conducts an auction-like phone call handling process in which phone handling decisions are partially delegated from a central resource to the individual client agents. Briefly, phone handling functions offer available call to agents who then decide which available calls to handle. This auction-like process is preferably implemented using broadcast (or multicast) messaging features so that system components do not need to know or access global state information. Messaging is preferably built on a selected instant messaging protocol.
49 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A hunt group (HG) management system for transferring telephone calls to agents belonging to a HG, the system comprising:
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one or more network connected HG server computers executing one of more instances of HG server software; and a plurality of network connected agent computers executing instances of agent software, the server and agent software instances exchanging broadcast and unicast messages, wherein an HG server software instance for an HG with one or more ready agents and waiting calls unicasts a call-post message to the agent software instance of a selected ready agent informing the selected agent of a call waiting to be handled; wherein the agent software instance of an agent that has previously received one or more call-post messages broadcasts a call-acknowledgement message to the HG server instances informing that the agent has selected a call from the received call-post message, and wherein an HG software instance, upon receiving a broadcast call-acknowledgement message of a previously unicast call-post message, transfers the call to the agent to which the previous call-post message was unicast. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method for an instance of server software for managing of a hunt group (HG), the server software instance cooperating with agent software instances for transferring telephone calls to agents belonging to the HG, the method comprising:
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broadcasting readiness-inquiry messages to agent software instances; receiving broadcast readiness-response messages from agent software instances indicating that the broadcasting agent is ready to handle a call, selecting a waiting call and a ready agent to handle the selected call; unicasting a call-post message to the software instance of the selected agent informing that the selected call is available to be handled; and receiving a broadcast call-acknowledgement message from an agent software instance informing of a readiness to handle a previous call-post message; and transferring the posted call to the acknowledging agent. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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16. A method for an instance of agent software for an agent belonging to a hunt group (HG), the agent software instance cooperating with server software instances for transferring telephone calls belonging to the HG to an agent, the method comprising:
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receiving one or more unicast call-post messages informing of calls available to be handled; selecting one of the available calls to handle, broadcasting a call-acknowledgement message that the selected call will be handled; receiving in transfer and handling the acknowledged call; and signaling that the agent is free to handle a new call.
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Specification