Passive recording and load balancing

• US 8,254,262 B1
• Filed: 03/31/2006
• Issued: 08/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Williams, Jamie R., Dong, Thomas Z.
• Primary Examiner(s): HAN, CLEMENCE S
• Application Number:
  US11/395,497
• Time in Patent Office: 2,342 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/24 Multipath
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1023 based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1036 Load balancing of requests to servers for services different from user content provisioning, e.g. load balancing across domain name servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42221 Conversation recording systems at the subscriber's set H04M1/656
• 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

Included are embodiments of a method for routing communication data to a plurality of recorders. At least one embodiment of a method includes passively receiving communication data related to a communication and determining to which recorder the received communication data is to be routed in order to achieve a substantially balanced utilization of the plurality recorders. Other embodiments include routing the communication data to the determined recorder.

Claims

1. A load balancing component coupled to a communications network, the load balancing component comprising:

a memory;

a network interface; and

a processor, wherein the processor executes;

logic configured to route communication data to a plurality of recorders;

logic configured to passively receive communication data related to a communication, wherein the communication data comprises a first stream and a second stream related to the same communication;

logic configured to determine to which recorders of the plurality of recorders the received communication data is to be routed in accordance with the streams associated with the communication data and in order to achieve a balanced utilization of the plurality of recorders, the logic configured to determine to which recorders of the plurality of recorders the received communication data is to be routed includes a determination based on a past utilization of the plurality of recorders; and

logic configured to route the communication data to the determined recorders in accordance with a weighting based on the past utilization, the weighting being related to an amount of utilization of each of the plurality of recorders, wherein the first stream is routed to a different recorder than the second stream.

2. The load balancing component of claim 1, further comprising logic configured to facilitate storage of the received communication data.

3. The load balancing component of claim 1, wherein the logic configured to determine to which recorders the received communication data is routed includes logic configured to determine current utilization of at least one of the plurality of recorders.

4. The load balancing component of claim 1, further comprising logic configured to receive control data related to the communication.

5. The load balancing component of claim 4, further comprising logic configured to send the received control data to the plurality of recorders.

6. The load balancing component of claim 1, wherein the communication includes a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communication.

7. The load balancing component of claim 1, wherein recorders with lesser amounts of utilization are assigned greater weights than recorders with greater amounts of utilization.

8. A method for routing communication data to a plurality of recorders, comprising:

passively receiving communication data related to a communication, wherein the communication data comprises a first stream and a second stream related to the same communication;

determining to which recorders of the plurality of recorders the received communication data is to be routed according to the streams associated with the communication data, a source-destination algorithm, and a determination based on a past utilization of the plurality of recorders; and

routing the communication data to the determined recorders in accordance with a weighting based on the past utilization, the weighting being related to an amount of utilization of each of the plurality of recorders, wherein the first stream is routed to a different recorder than the second stream.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising facilitating storage of the received communication data.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein determining to which recorders the received communication data is to be routed includes determining an amount of current utilization of at least one of the plurality of recorders.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving control data related to the communication.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the communication includes a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communication.

13. A system for routing communication data to a plurality of recorders, comprising:

a load balancing component coupled to the plurality of recorders, the load balancing component being passively coupled to a communication device, the load balancing component being configured to receive data related to a communication, wherein the received data comprises a first stream and a second stream related to the same communication, and determine recorders of the plurality of recorders for sending the received data in accordance with the streams associated with the received data and a determination based on a past utilization of the plurality of recorders, wherein at least one of the plurality of recorders is a fail-over recorder, and further wherein the first stream is sent to a different recorder than the second stream in accordance with a weighting based on the past utilization, the weighting being related to an amount of utilization of the plurality of recorders.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising a data storage unit coupled to at least one of the plurality of recorders, the data storage unit being configured to receive data from at least one of the recorders.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the load balancing component is further configured to facilitate fail-over protection.

16. The system of claim 13, further comprising means for recording at least a portion of the received data.