Clearing house for publish/subscribe of status data from distributed telecommunications systems

• US 8,116,237 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2008
• Issued: 02/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Steiner, Robert, Flockhart, Derek
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Chi
• Assistant Examiner(s): Faroul, Farah
• Application Number:
  US12/239,120
• Publication Number:
  US 20100080150A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,236 Days
• Field of Search: 370/260, 370/262, 370/270
• US Class Current: 370/260
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42153 by subscriber
• 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 3/51 Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention , e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15
• 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

Abstract

A distributed contact center and method of managing data transfers between the distributed parts of the contact center is provided. Distributed parts of the contact center are joined together through a known communications initiation protocol, then one or both of status information and control signals are transferred between the distributed parts using lossless communication protocols. The status information and/or control signals may be published to a large number of interested entities through the use of conference call facilities.

Claims

1. A communication method, comprising:

subscribing, at a first contact center, with a conference mechanism, wherein the first contact center is a collection of communication devices;

establishing, by the first contact center, a first Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) stream with the conference mechanism;

determining, by the first contact center, that a publication trigger has occurred, wherein the publication trigger includes a state change of a sub-entity within the first contact center;

providing, by the first contact center, at least one of status information and control signals associated with the first contact center to the conference mechanism via the first RTP stream;

providing, by the conference mechanism, the at least one of status information and control signals received from the first contact center to a second contact center via a second RTP stream; and

receiving, at the first contact center, at least one of status information and control signals associated with the second contact center from the conference mechanism via the first RTP stream, wherein the second contact center provides the at least one of status information and control signals associated with the second contact center to the conference mechanism via the second RTP stream established between the second contact center and conference mechanism.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, at the first contact center, at least one of status information and control signals associated with a third contact center from the conference mechanism via the first RTP stream, wherein the third contact center provides the at least one of status information and control signals associated with the third contact center to the conference mechanism via a third RTP stream established between the third contact center and conference mechanism.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second and third contact centers are different contact centers each of which are individually subscribed with the conference mechanism.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of status information and control signals associated with the second contact center and received at the conference mechanism comprise an identifier indicating the association of the at least one of status information and control signals with the second contact center that published the at least one of status information and control signals.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing, by the first contact center, authentication information to the conference mechanism as a pre-requisite to establishing the first RTP stream.

6. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising processor executable instructions that, when executed, perform the steps of claim 1.

7. A communication device, comprising:

a first interface used for communications with a first contact center site, wherein a first Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) stream is established with the first contact center site via the first interface, wherein the first contact center site is associated with two or more communication devices;

a conference mechanism in communication with the first interface;

the first contact center site in communication with the first interface and the conference mechanism, wherein the first contact center site is configured to;

determine, by the first contact center site, that a publication trigger has occurred, wherein the publication trigger includes a state change of a sub-entity within the first contact center site;

provide, by the first contact center site, at least one of status information and control signals associated with the first contact center site to the conference mechanism via the first interface;

provide, by the conference mechanism, that at least one of status information and control signals received from the first contact center site to the second contact center site via a second interface; and

the second interface used for communications with the second contact center site, wherein a second RTP stream is established with the second contact center site via the second interface, wherein at least one of status information and control signals received at the second interface from the second contact center site are provided to the first contact center site via the first interface.

8. The communication device of claim 7, further comprising a third interface used for communications with a third contact center site, wherein a third RTP stream is established with the third contact center site via the third interface, and wherein at least one of status information and control signals received at the second interface are published to the third contact center site via the third interface.

9. The communication device of claim 7, further comprising at least one of a publisher list and subscriber list, wherein access permissions defined within at least one of the publisher list and subscriber list define that the first contact center site is allowed access to the at least one of status information and control data published by the second contact center site.

10. The communication device of claim 7, wherein the first RTP stream established via the first interface is different from the second RTP stream established via the second interface.

11. The communication device of claim 7, wherein the first and second interfaces comprise a common communication port.

12. The communication device of claim 7, wherein the at least one of status information and control signals associated with the second contact center site comprise an identifier indicating the association of the at least one of status information and control signals with a contact center site that published the at least one of status information and control signals.

13. The communication device of claim 7, wherein at least one of status information and control signals received at the first interface from the first contact center site are provided to the second contact center site via the second interface.

14. The communication device of claim 7, wherein both the first and second contact center sites comprise a plurality of contact center resources.

15. A method, comprising:

subscribing, at a first contact center site, with a conference mechanism, the first contact center site comprising a plurality of contact center resources, wherein the contact center resources comprise two or more communication endpoints;

establishing, by the first contact center site, a first Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) stream with the conference mechanism;

determining, by the first contact center site, that a publication trigger has occurred, wherein the publication trigger includes a state change of a sub-entity within the first contact center site;

providing, by the first contact center site, at least one of status information and control signals associated with the first contact center site to the conference mechanism via the first RTP stream;

providing, by the conference mechanism, that at least one of status information and control signals received from the first contact center site to a second contact center site via a second RTP stream; and

receiving, at the first contact center site, at least one of status information and control signals associated with the second contact center site from the conference mechanism via the first RTP stream.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising receiving, at the first contact center site and via the first RTP stream, control signals originated from the second communication site for controlling at least a part of the first contact center site.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising determining, by the first contact center site, that a publishing trigger has occurred prior to providing the at least one of status information and control signals to the conference mechanism, wherein the publishing trigger comprises the generation of a control signal.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising providing, by the first contact center site, authentication information to the conference mechanism as a pre-requisite to establishing the first RTP stream, wherein authentication information comprises at least one of a conference number associated with the conference mechanism and a password.