Systems and methods for scalable hunt-group management
First Claim
1. A hunt group management system comprising:
- a plurality of server computers, said server computers being distributed and operating asynchronously; and
a plurality of agent computers, said server computers in communication with and exchanging messages with said agent computers,wherein an incoming call to a particular server computer is routed to a selected agent at a particular agent computer, said selected agent being selected via broadcasting a plurality of messages between said server and agent computers, andwhereby the incoming call is transferred to said selected agent upon selection of the agent and acknowledgement by the agent.
1 Assignment
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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.
128 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A hunt group management system comprising:
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a plurality of server computers, said server computers being distributed and operating asynchronously; and a plurality of agent computers, said server computers in communication with and exchanging messages with said agent computers, wherein an incoming call to a particular server computer is routed to a selected agent at a particular agent computer, said selected agent being selected via broadcasting a plurality of messages between said server and agent computers, and whereby the incoming call is transferred to said selected agent upon selection of the agent and acknowledgement by the agent. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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2. A method of hunt group management comprising:
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broadcasting, by a server computer, a first readiness-inquiry message to a plurality of agent computers in communication therewith in connection with handling an incoming call, said server computer being one of a plurality of server computers in communication with and exchanging messages with said plurality of agent computers; unicasting, by said server computer, a call-post message to a selected agent at a particular agent computer; receiving, by said server computer, a broadcast acknowledgment message from the selected agent at the particular agent computer; and transferring, by said server computer, said incoming call to said selected agent. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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3. A method of hunt group management comprising:
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receiving, by an agent computer, a readiness-inquiry message broadcast by a particular server computer to a plurality of agent computers in connection with handling an incoming call, said server computer being one of a plurality of server computers in communication with and exchanging messages with said plurality of agent computers; broadcasting, by an agent at said agent computer, an acknowledgement message to said plurality of server computers that said agent is handling said incoming call; and receiving, by the agent at said agent computer, said incoming call from said particular server computer. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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Specification