Presence enhanced outcalling

• US 7,596,210 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2004
• Issued: 09/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RingCentral Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Siemens Communications Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Blohm, Jeffrey M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Elahee, Md S
• Application Number:
  US10/957,173
• Publication Number:
  US 20060072720A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,825 Days
• Field of Search: 379/88.17, 379/100.16, 379/211.01, 379/201.1, 379/207.12, 379/88.01, 379/88.13, 379/90.01, 379/211.02, 379/41, 379/51, 379/69, 379/88.03, 379/88.22, 379/88.23, 379/93.01, 379/209.01, 379/906, 455/412.2, 455/466, 455/413, 709/206, 709/202, 370/522
• US Class Current: 379/88.22
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2016 Call initiation by network rather than by subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42093 Notifying the calling party of information on the called or connected party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42365 Presence services providing information on the willingness to communicate or the ability to communicate in terms of media capability or network connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42374 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53375 Message broadcasting

Abstract

An outcalling system considers subscriber presence information in determining when to initiate attempts to deliver messages to the subscriber. The subscriber presence state may provide insight into the likelihood of successful message delivery. The outcalling system may decide to initiate or may forgo initiation of a delivery attempt based in part on the subscriber presence state.

Claims

1. An outcalling method performed by a messaging system comprising:

obtaining multiple endpoint availabilities for a subscriber to the messaging system who is associated with multiple endpoints;

aggregating the multiple endpoint availabilities into an overall availability as a whole for the subscriber;

establishing the overall availability as a whole as an aggregated media presence state for the multiple endpoints, where the aggregated media presence state is a current state of the subscriber and is a result of the multiple endpoint availabilities;

determining whether the aggregated media presence state indicates an improved likelihood of successful delivery of the message;

determining that a message is available for the subscriber;

initiating a delivery attempt for the message to the subscriber;

upon delivery failure of the message, setting a retry timer for again attempting delivery of the message; and

responsively retrying delivery of the message prior to expiration of the retry timer when the aggregated media presence state indicates the improved likelihood of successful delivery of the message.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deciding to initiate the delivery attempt for the message when the aggregated media presence state indicates that at least one of the endpoints is presently available to receive the message.

3. The method of claim 1, where obtaining comprises:

obtaining multiple phone endpoint availabilities.

4. The method of claim 3, where aggregating comprises:

aggregating the multiple phone endpoint availabilities into an overall phone availability as a whole for the subscriber.

5. The method of claim 1, where obtaining comprises:

obtaining multiple email endpoint availabilities; and

where aggregating comprises;

aggregating the multiple email endpoint availabilities into an overall email availability as a whole for the subscriber.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forgoing the delivery attempt when the aggregated media presence state indicates that the subscriber is unlikely to receive the message.

7. The method of claim 1, where obtaining comprises:

obtaining multiple instant messaging endpoint availabilities; and

where aggregating comprises;

aggregating the multiple instant messaging endpoint availabilities into an overall email availability as a whole for the subscriber.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

subscribing to a presence information system and receiving presence information for the subscriber from the presence information system.

9. The method of claim 8, where receiving presence information comprises:

receiving presence state updates over time for the subscriber.

10. A messaging system for outcalling, the system comprising:

a memory comprising;

an aggregated media presence state for a subscriber to a messaging system, the aggregated presence state being a current state of the subscriber and a result of multiple endpoint availabilities for the subscriber;

an outcalling program comprising instructions operable to obtain the multiple endpoint availabilities for the subscriber, aggregate the multiple endpoint availabilities into an overall availability as a whole for the subscriber, establish the overall availability as a whole as the aggregated media presence state for the subscriber, initiate a delivery attempt for a message for the subscriber, set a retry timer upon delivery failure of the message for again attempting delivery of the message, and consider favorability of the aggregated presence state for the subscriber and responsively retry delivery of the message prior to expiration of the retry timer; and

a processor coupled to the memory that executes the instructions.

11. The outcalling system of claim 10, further comprising a network interface, and where the processor is operable to receive presence state updates for the subscriber over the network interface.

12. The outcalling system of claim 11, where the presence state updates are subscribed presence state updates received from a presence information system.

13. The outcalling system of claim 10, where the instructions are operable to initiate the delivery attempt when the aggregated presence state is consistent with likely subscriber reception of the message.

14. The outcalling system of claim 10, where:

the multiple endpoint availabilities comprise voice message endpoint availabilities; and

where;

the overall availability as a whole comprises an overall voice message availability as a whole for the subscriber.

15. The outcalling system of claim 10, where the instructions are operable to forgo initiation of the delivery attempt when the presence state is inconsistent with likely subscriber reception of the message.

16. The outcalling system of claim 10, where:

the multiple endpoint availabilities comprise email endpoint availabilities; and

where;

the overall availability as a whole comprises an overall email message availability as a whole for the subscriber.

17. The outcalling system of claim 10, where the instructions are operable to initiate the delivery attempt when the aggregated presence state indicates an improved likelihood of successful delivery of the message.

18. A machine readable medium storing instructions executable by a processor in a machine and that cause the machine to:

obtain multiple endpoint availabilities for the subscriber;

aggregate the multiple endpoint availabilities into an overall availability as a whole for the subscriber;

establish the overall availability as a whole as an aggregated media presence state for the subscriber, the aggregated media presence state being a current state of the subscriber and a result of the multiple endpoint availabilities;

establish an outcalling queue;

queue messages in the outcalling queue;

determine that a selected message from among the messages in the outcalling queue is awaiting delivery to a subscriber;

extract the selected message for the subscriber from the outcalling queue and initiate an outcalling delivery attempt for the message;

upon delivery failure of the message set a retry timer for again attempting delivery of the message; and

considering favorability of the aggregated presence state for the subscriber and responsively retrying delivery of the message prior to expiration of the retry timer.

19. The medium of claim 18, where the medium further comprises instructions that cause the processor to:

subscribe to a presence information system for obtaining updates to the aggregated presence state.

20. The medium of claim 18, further comprising instructions stored on the medium that cause the processor to:

re-queue the selected message in the outcalling queue when the outcalling delivery attempt fails.

21. The medium of claim 18, where:

the multiple endpoint availabilities comprise email endpoint availabilities; and

where;

the overall availability as a whole comprises an overall email availability as a whole for the subscriber.

22. The medium of claim 18, where:

the multiple endpoint availabilities comprise voice message endpoint availabilities; and

where;

the overall availability as a whole comprises an overall voice message availability as a whole for the subscriber.

23. The medium of claim 18, where:

the multiple endpoint availabilities comprise instant message endpoint availabilities; and

where;

the overall availability as a whole comprises an overall instant message availability as a whole for the subscriber.

24. The medium of claim 18, where responsively retrying delivery of the message includes responsively retrying delivery of the message when the aggregated presence state indicates an improved likelihood of successful delivery of the message.