Systems and methods for establishing a communication session among end-points

• US 8,750,490 B2
• Filed: 08/22/2007
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GOTO Group Incorporated (LogMeIn, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Murtagh, Richard, Kovalenko, Andrey
• Primary Examiner(s): Matar, Ahmad
• Assistant Examiner(s): Intavong, Jirapon
• Application Number:
  US11/843,516
• Publication Number:
  US 20090055920A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,484 Days
• Field of Search: 379/242, 379/211.02, 379/212.01, 370/352
• US Class Current: 379/342
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0012 Details of application programming interfaces [API] for telephone networks; Arrangements which combine a telephonic communication equipment and a computer, i.e. computer telephony integration [CPI] arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/003 Click to dial services

Abstract

Systems and methods for establishing a communications session among end-points are shown and described. The method can include receiving, from a client computing device at a gateway computing device, a request to establish a communication session with an end-point, the client computing device executing a program that locates address information for the end-point within application output displayed at the client computing device and forwarding at least a portion of the received request to a private branch exchange in communication the gateway computing device, the at least a portion of the received request including the address information of the end-point and address information associated with an end-user of the client computing device.

Claims

1. A method of establishing a communication session, the method comprising:

receiving, by a gateway computing device from a program on a client computing device, a click-to-call request to establish a communication session with an end-point identified by address information comprising a destination phone number of a first end-user, the click-to-call request comprising a second end-user unique identity, the destination phone number of the first end-user, and a destination phone number of the second end-user, the client computing device executing the program that locates via optical character recognition the address information within a screen capture of application output displayed by an application at the client computing device and sends the click-to-call request responsive to the second end-user of the client computing device clicking the address information via a selectable user interface element provided by the program to call the address information of the end-point of the first end-user;

authenticating, by the gateway computing device, the second end-user using the second-end-user unique identity;

converting, by the gateway computing device, the destination phone number of the second end-user from the click-to-call request to a private branch exchange extension by performing a look-up against a local LDAP directory responsive to the authentication of the second end-user;

forwarding, by the gateway computing device, at least a portion of the received click-to call request to the private branch exchange in communication with the gateway computing device, the at least a portion of the received request comprising the address information of the end-point and the destination phone number of the second end-user to call the second end-user of the client computing device, the destination phone number of the second end-user different than the client computing device; and

establishing, via the private branch exchange, a communication session between the endpoint of the first end-user using the located address information and the destination phone number of the second end-user to call the second end-user of the client computing device using the private branch exchange extension, wherein the gateway computing device establishes a first portion of the communications session between the private branch exchange and the address associated with the second end-user before establishing a second portion of the communications session between the private branch exchange and the end-point, joins the first portion of the communications session and the second portion of the communications session, and wherein responsive to joining the first portion of the communications session and the second portion of the communications session, the gateway computing device is released from the communications session.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein establishing a communication session comprises establishing the first portion of the communications session between the private branch exchange and the address associated with the end-user of the client computing device and establishing the second portion of the communications session between the private branch exchange and the end-point.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the address information comprises a telephone number.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the client computing device executing a program comprises executing a plurality of application specific process handlers.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein establishing a communication session comprises establishing an audio communications session.

6. A system for establishing a communications session, the system comprising:

means for receiving, by a gateway computing device from a program on a client computing device click-to-call request to establish a communication session with an end-point identified by address information comprising a destination phone number of a first end-user, the click-to-call request comprising a second end-user unique identity, the destination phone number of the first end-user, and a destination phone number of the second end-user, the client computing device executing the program that locates via optical character recognition the address information within a screen capture of application output displayed by an application at the client computing device and sends the click-to-call request responsive to the second end-user of the client computing device clicking the address information via a selectable user interface element provided by the program to call the address information of the end-point of the first end-user;

authenticating, by the gateway computing device, the second end-user using the second-end-user unique identity;

means for converting, by the gateway computing device, the destination phone number of the second end-user from the click-to-call request to a private branch exchange extension by performing a look-up against a local LDAP directory responsive to the authentication of the second end-user;

means for forwarding, by the gateway computing device, at least a portion of the received click-to call request to the private branch exchange in communication with the gateway computing device, the at least a portion of the received request comprising the address information of the end-point and the destination phone number of the second end-user to call the second end-user of the client computing device, the destination phone number of the second end-user different than the client computing device; and

means for establishing, via the private branch exchange, a communication session between the endpoint of the first end-user using the located address information and the destination phone number of the second end-user to call the second end-user of the client computing device using the private branch exchange extension, wherein the gateway computing device establishes a first portion of the communications session between the private branch exchange and the address associated with the second end-user before establishing a second portion of the communications session between the private branch exchange and the end-point, joins the first portion of the communications session and the second portion of the communications session, and wherein responsive to joining the first portion of the communications session and the second portion of the communications session, the gateway computing device is released from the communications session.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the means for establishing a communication session comprises means for establishing the first portion of the communications session between the private branch exchange and the address associated with the end-user of the client computing device and means for establishing the second portion of the communications session between the private branch exchange and the end-point.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the address information comprises a telephone number.

9. The system of claim 6 wherein the client computing device executing a program comprises executing a plurality of application specific process handlers.

10. The system of claim 6 wherein the means for establishing a communication session comprises means for establishing an audio communications session.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions thereon that when executed cause a processor to establish a communication session, the computer readable medium comprising:

instructions to receive, by a gateway computing device from a program on a client computing device, a click-to-call request to establish a communication session with an end-point identified by address information comprising a destination phone number of a first end-user, the click-to-call request comprising a second end-user unique identity, the destination phone number of the first end-user, and a destination phone number of the second end-user, the client computing device executing the program that locates via optical character recognition the address information within a screen capture of application output displayed by an application at the client computing device and sends the click-to-call request responsive to the second end-user of the client computing device clicking the address information via a selectable user interface element provided by the program to call the address information of the end-point of the first end-user;

instructions to authenticate, by the gateway computing device, the second end-user using the second-end-user unique identity;

instructions to convert, by the gateway computing device, the destination phone number of the second end-user from the click-to-call request to a private branch exchange extension by performing a look-up against a local LDAP directory responsive to the authentication of the second end-user;

instructions to forward, by the gateway computing device, at least a portion of the received click-to call request to the private branch exchange in communication with the gateway computing device, the at least a portion of the received request comprising the address information of the end-point and the destination phone number of the second end-user to call the second end-user of the client computing device, the destination phone number of the second end-user different than the client computing device; and

instructions to establish, via by the private branch exchange, a communication session between the endpoint of the first end-user using the located address information and the destination phone number of the second end-user to call the second end-user of the client computing device using the private branch exchange extension, wherein the gateway computing device establishes a first portion of the communications session between the private branch exchange and the address associated with the second end-user before establishing a second portion of the communications session between the private branch exchange and the end-point, joins the first portion of the communications session and the second portion of the communications session, and wherein responsive to joining the first portion of the communications session and the second portion of the communications session, the gateway computing device is released from the communications session.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11 wherein the instructions to establish a communication session comprise instructions to establish the first portion of the communications session between the private branch exchange and the address associated with the end-user of the client computing device and establish the second portion of the communications session between the private branch exchange and the end-point.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 11 further comprising instructions to cause the client computing device to execute a plurality of application specific process handlers.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 11 wherein the instructions to establish a communication session comprise instructions to establish an audio communications session.