Factoring out dialog control and call control

• US 8,214,503 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2007
• Issued: 07/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Maes, Stephane H.
• Primary Examiner(s): LAZARO, DAVID R
• Application Number:
  US11/848,347
• Publication Number:
  US 20080235380A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,768 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/223, 709226-228
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1046 Call controllers; Call servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1066 Session management
• 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

Systems, methods, and machine-readable media are disclosed for providing session control and media exchange control that can include and combine, for example, call control and voice access concepts such as dialog (voice dialog, prompts and DTMF) or web/GUI elements. In one embodiment, a method of controlling a media session can comprise establishing a call via a signaling protocol, maintaining control of the call, and passing control of aspects of the call other than call control to a separate media processing module. The media processing module can comprise, for example, a dialog manager. In some implementations a voice access enabler providing a an abstract interface for accessing functions of the dialog controller.

Claims

1. A method of controlling a media session, the method comprising:

establishing with an application executing on a web application server a call with at least one endpoint device via a signaling protocol;

maintaining control of the call with the application, wherein maintaining control of the call with the application comprises performing call processing and call control functions other than signaling and initiating the call;

passing control of aspects of the call other than call control from the application to a separate first media processing module without passing control of the call from the application to the first media processing module, wherein the first media processing module collects information from an endpoint participating in the call and updates a state of the media based on the information from the endpoint; and

performing by the application additional call control based on the updated state of the media and the information collected from the endpoint participating in the call.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the call is performed in response to receiving a request via the signaling protocol from an initiating endpoint to initiate the call.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the call is performed based on logic of an application maintaining control of the call.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the application maintaining control of the call establishes the call by performing one or more call control functions.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more call control functions comprise establishing a connection with the first media processing module.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein establishing a connection with the first media processing module is performed via third-party call control.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein establishing a connection with the first media processing module is performed via multi-party call control.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein performing one or more call control functions requesting the one or more call control functions via an Application Program Interface (API).

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the API comprises a Parlay Call Control API.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request from a voice access enabler and wherein establishing the call is performed in response to a request from a voice access enabler.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving the request from the voice access enabler comprises receiving the request via a northbound interface of the voice access enabler.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein passing control of aspects of the call other than call control to the first media processing module comprises requesting execution of a process of the first media processing module via an Application Program Interface (API) of a voice access enabler.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the first media processing module comprises a dialog manager and requesting execution of a process of the first media processing module comprises requesting execution of a dialog by the dialog manager.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein requesting execution of the dialog by the dialog manager comprises sending a message to the dialog manager via the signaling protocol, the message identifying the dialog in a header of the message.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising executing a dialog associated with a port through which execution of the dialog is requested.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising executing a pre-loaded dialog.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein requesting execution of the dialog by the dialog manager comprises invoking a function of the dialog manager via an Application Program Interface (API) of a voice access enabler.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the API of the voice access enabler provides access to a function of the dialog manager for interacting with a human user participating in the call.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the API of the voice access enabler provides access to a function of the dialog manager for providing voice prompts to participants in the call.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the API of the voice access enabler provides access to a Text-To-Speech (TTS) function of the dialog manager.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the API of the voice access enabler provides access to a Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) function of the dialog manager.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the API of the voice access enabler provides access to a function of the dialog manager for performing Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) signaling.

23. The method of claim 13, wherein the dialog manager comprises a Voice eXtensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) gateway.

24. The method of claim 13, wherein the dialog manager comprises an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the state of the media based on the information from the endpoint comprises updating a state of a dialog.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving from the first media processing module the information collected from the endpoint participating in the call.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein receiving from the first media processing module the information collected from the endpoint participating in the call comprises receiving the information via an Application Program Interface of a voice access controller.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the signaling protocol comprises Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

29. The method of claim 1, wherein the call control functions comprise third-party call control functions.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein the call control functions are selected from a group consisting of:

call forwarding;

call hold; and

conferencing.

31. The method of claim 1, wherein performing additional call control functions comprises passing control of aspects of the call other than call control from the application to a separate second media processing module without passing control of the call from the application to the second media processing module.

32. A system comprising:

a communication network;

a first media processing module communicatively coupled with the communication network; and

a web application server communicatively coupled with the communication network and executing an application adapted to establish a communication session with at least one endpoint on the communication network via a signaling protocol, maintain control of the communication session, wherein maintaining control of the call with the application comprises performing call processing and call control functions other than signaling, pass control of aspects of the communication session other than call control to the first media processing module while not passing call control for the communication session to the first media processing module, wherein the first media processing module collects information from an endpoint participating in the call and updates a state of the media based on the information from the endpoint, and the web application server further performs additional call control based on the updated state of the media and the information collected from the endpoint participating in the call.

33. The system of claim 32, further comprising an initiating endpoint communicatively coupled with the communication network and wherein the application establishes the communication session in response to receiving a request to initiate the communication session via the signaling protocol from the initiating endpoint.

34. The system of claim 32, wherein the application is adapted to establish the communication session by performing one or more call control functions.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the one or more call control functions comprise establishing a connection with the first media processing module.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the application establishes a connection with the first media processing module via third-party call control.

37. The system of claim 35, wherein the application establishes a connection with the first media processing module via multi-party call control.

38. The system of claim 32, further comprising a voice access enabler communicatively coupled with the communication network, wherein the voice access enabler provides an Application Program Interface (API) and wherein the application passes control of aspects of the call other than call control to the first media processing module by requesting execution of a process of the first media processing module via the API of the voice access enabler.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein the first media processing module comprises a dialog manager and requesting execution of a process of the first media processing module comprises requesting execution of a dialog by the dialog manager via the API of the voice access enabler.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the API of the voice access enabler provides access to a function of the dialog manager for performing Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) signaling.

41. The system of claim 32, wherein the first media processing module comprises a dialog manager and requesting execution of a process of the first media processing module comprises requesting execution of a dialog by the dialog manager.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the application requests execution of the dialog by the dialog manager by sending a message to the dialog manager via the signaling protocol, the message identifying the dialog in a header of the message.

43. The system of claim 41, wherein the dialog manager is adapted to execute a dialog associated with a port through which the application requests execution of the dialog.

44. The system of claim 41, wherein the dialog manager is adapted to execute a pre-loaded dialog.

45. The system of claim 39, wherein the dialog controller comprises a Voice eXtensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) gateway.

46. The system of claim 41, wherein the dialog controller comprises an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.

47. The system of claim 41 wherein the API of the voice access enabler provides access to a function of the dialog manager for interacting with a human user participating in the call.

48. The system of claim 41, wherein the API of the voice access enabler provides access to a function of the dialog manager for providing voice prompts to participants in the call.

49. The system of claim 41, wherein the API of the voice access enabler provides access to a Text-To-Speech (TTS) function of the dialog manager.

50. The system of claim 41, wherein the API of the voice access enabler provides access to a Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) function of the dialog manager.

51. The system of claim 32, wherein the application is further adapted to receive from the first media processing module the information collected from the endpoint.

52. The system of claim 51, further comprising a voice access enabler communicatively coupled with the communication network, wherein the voice access enabler provides an Application Program Interface (API) and wherein the application is further adapted to receive from the first media processing module the information collected from the endpoint via the API of the voice access enabler.

53. The system of claim 32, wherein the signaling protocol comprises Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

54. The system of claim 32, wherein the call control functions comprise third-party call control functions.

55. The system of claim 54, wherein the call control functions comprise a call forwarding function.

56. The system of claim 55, wherein the call control functions comprise a call hold function.

57. The system of claim 56, wherein the call control functions comprise a conferencing function.

58. The system of claim 32, wherein the web application server comprises a J2EE application server.

59. The system of claim 58, wherein the web application server is implemented on a Service Delivery Platform (SDP).

60. The system of claim 59, wherein the web application server further provides web elements to the media session.

61. The system of claim 32, further comprising a second media processing module communicatively coupled with the communication network and wherein the web application server performs additional call control functions by passing control of aspects of the call other than call control from the application to the second media processing module without passing control of the call from the application to the second media processing module.