System and method for split SIP

• US 8,767,719 B2
• Filed: 09/23/2011
• Issued: 07/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arlington Technologies, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Hillis, Brian, Simoes, Renato, Tognini, Pier Angelo Filho
• Primary Examiner(s): Jagannathan, Melanie
• Application Number:
  US13/243,741
• Publication Number:
  US 20130077617A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,012 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/356
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for splitting SIP back-to-back user agents and converting SIP communications between a back-to-back user agent server and a back-to-back user agent client to HTTP requests while preserving SIP headers. The back-to-back user agent server receives a SIP invite from a caller and converts the SIP invite to an HTTP request, wherein headers from the SIP invite are preserved in the HTTP request. The server transmits the HTTP request to a user agent client via a wide area network connection and receives, from the user agent client, an HTTP response to the HTTP request. The server converts the HTTP response to a SIP response, and transmits the SIP response to the caller, wherein the SIP response contains instructions for establishing SIP communications between the caller and a callee via a network.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a user agent server, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) invite from a caller device;

converting the SIP invite to a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request, wherein headers from the SIP invite are preserved in the HTTP request;

transmitting, via a wide area network connection, the HTTP request to a user agent client that is separate from the user agent server, wherein the user agent client operates on a first application server and the user agent server operates on a second application server separate from the first application server;

receiving, from the user agent client and via the wide area network connection, an HTTP response to the HTTP request;

converting the HTTP response to a SIP response; and

transmitting the SIP response to the caller device, wherein the SIP response contains an instruction for establishing a SIP communication between the caller device and a callee device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user agent client can convert the HTTP request to a reconstructed SIP invite and send the reconstructed SIP invite to the callee device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the wide area network is the Internet.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the user agent server and the user agent client is associated with a call center.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the headers comprise user-to-user information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein communications between the user agent server and the user agent client do not rely on a public switched telephone network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the headers comprise one of a call ID, an IP address, and a via header.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the SIP communication occurs via real-time transport protocol.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the SIP communication follows a separate network path from the HTTP request.

10. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

receiving, at a user agent client via a wide area network from a user agent server associated with a caller device, a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request containing Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) headers, wherein the user agent client is separate from the user agent server, and wherein the user agent client operates on a first application server and the user agent server operates on a second application server separate from the first application server;

constructing a SIP request from the SIP headers;

transmitting the SIP request to a callee device identified in the SIP headers;

receiving from the callee device an acceptance of the SIP request;

converting the acceptance to an HTTP response; and

transmitting, via the wide area network, the HTTP response to the user agent server.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the HTTP response contains information which the user agent server can convert to a SIP response for establishing a SIP communication between the caller device and the callee device.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the SIP request comprises SIP invite.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the wide area network is the Internet.

14. A computer-readable storage device storing instructions which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

converting, at a user agent server, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) invite from a caller device to a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request, wherein the HTTP request contains headers from the SIP invite;

transmitting, via a wide area network connection, the HTTP request to a user agent client associated with a callee device to which the SIP invite is addressed, wherein the user agent server is separate from the user agent client;

receiving, from the user agent client and via the wide area network, an HTTP response to the HTTP request, wherein the HTTP response is based on a response from the callee device;

converting the HTTP response to a SIP response; and

transmitting the SIP response to the caller device, wherein the SIP response contains an instruction for establishing a SIP communication between the caller device and the callee device, and wherein the user agent client can convert the HTTP request to a reconstructed SIP invite and send the reconstructed SIP invite to the callee device.

15. The computer-readable storage device of claim 14, wherein the headers comprise user-to-user information.

16. The computer-readable storage device of claim 14, wherein communications between the user agent server and the user agent client do not rely on a public switched telephone network.

17. The computer-readable storage device of claim 14, wherein the headers comprise one of a call ID, an IP address, and a via header.