Method and system for transferring control of a conference bridge

• US 8,917,590 B2
• Filed: 12/23/2011
• Issued: 12/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Cazanas, Carlos A., Khan, Azam, Sullivan, Terence John
• Primary Examiner(s): Lai, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): HENSON, JAMAAL R
• Application Number:
  US13/336,691
• Publication Number:
  US 20130163739A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,096 Days
• Field of Search: 370/260, 370/261, 379/202.01, 379/265.01, 709/204, 709/206
• US Class Current: 370/216
• 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 3/563 User guidance or feature selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/58 Arrangements for transferring received calls from one subscriber to another; Arrangements affording interim conversations between either the calling or the called party and a third party substation line holding circuits H04M1/80
• 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 conference calling system enables transfer of control of a conference bridge. The transferor terminal has an option to transfer control of the conference bridge to a transferee terminal. The transferee terminal has an option to accept or reject control of the conference bridge. When the transferee terminal accepts control prior to the transferor terminal severing control, the control of the conference bridge is transferred to the transferee terminal. However, when the transferee terminal rejects or does not accept within a predetermined time the control of the conference bridge, the transferor terminal is provided an option to transfer control of the conference bridge to alternate terminals, one terminal at a time, until an alternate terminal accepts control or the transferor terminal severs control of the conference bridge. As long as a terminal has control of the conference bridge, the conference bridge is not severed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising steps of:

providing control of a conference bridge to a first terminal by a Media Resource Function (MRF) controller during an ongoing conference call using the conference bridge;

receiving by the MRF controller a request from the first terminal to transfer control of the conference bridge to a second terminal;

upon receiving an acceptance of control of the conference bridge from the second terminal prior to the first terminal severing control of the conference bridge, transferring by the MRF controller control of the conference bridge to the second terminal; and

continuing the ongoing conference call through the conference bridge until no terminal has control of the conference bridge, wherein each terminal is an IP Multimedia Core Network Subsystem (IMS) enabled terminal; and

either of;

generating, by the first terminal while in control of the conference bridge in the ongoing conference call, in response to a trigger an alert to a user of the first terminal to transfer control of the conference bridge;

or

automatically offering by the first terminal while having control of the conference bridge, an option to accept or reject control of the conference bridge to a preconfigured hierarchy of alternate terminals, in response to a trigger, and if a first of the alternate terminals rejects or does not accept within a predetermined time the control of the conference bridge, providing the option to accept or reject control of the conference bridge to an alternate terminal one level lower in hierarchy, one terminal at a time, until a terminal in the hierarchy accepts control of the conference bridge or no terminal has control of the conference bridge.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

upon the second terminal rejecting or not accepting control within a predetermined time, providing an option to the first terminal to transfer control of the conference bridge to an alternate terminal; and

offering control of the conference bridge to the alternate terminal, wherein the acceptance is responsive to the offer of control of the conference bridge to the alternate terminal.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

upon the second terminal rejecting or not accepting control within a predetermined time, offering control of the conference bridge to an alternate terminal from a predetermined ordering of alternate terminals on the conference call, wherein the acceptance is responsive to the offer of control of the conference bridge to the alternate terminal.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the first terminal, while in control of the conference bridge, generating an alert to a user of the first terminal to transfer control of the conference bridge in response to a trigger.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising monitoring a power level of the first terminal while in control of the conference bridge, by the first terminal, wherein the trigger relates to the power level falling to or below a threshold.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the trigger is at least one of a scheduling conflict or an intervening event.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising automatically invoking a user interface on the first terminal while having control of the conference bridge, to transfer the control of the conference bridge to another terminal, in response to the trigger, wherein the invoking is by the first terminal.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second terminal is associated with a same user as the first terminal.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the second terminal is not associated with the same user as the first terminal.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically offering by the first terminal while having control of the conference bridge, an option to accept or reject control of the conference bridge to a preconfigured hierarchy of alternate terminals, in response to a trigger; and

if a first of the alternate terminals rejects or does not accept within a predetermined time the control of the conference bridge, providing the option to accept or reject control of the conference bridge to an alternate terminal one level lower in hierarchy, one terminal at a time, until a terminal in the hierarchy accepts control of the conference bridge or no terminal has control of the conference bridge.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the hierarchy is based on an order of invitation to the ongoing conference call.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising notifying remaining conference participants that control of the conference bridge has been transferred to the second terminal when the second terminal accepts control of the conference bridge.

13. A conference bridge maintenance and transfer system in an IP Multimedia Core Network Subsystem (IMS), comprising:

a Media Resource Function (MRF) controller; and

a Telephony Application Server (TAS) for configured to;

receive, during a conference call, a request message from a transferor terminal to transfer control of a conference bridge to a transferee terminal;

interpret a body of the request message from the transferor terminal to determine the transferee identification; and

forward a modified message with the transferee identification to the MRF controller,

wherein the MRF controller is configured to;

interpret the modified message forwarded from the TAS;

in response to interpreting the message from the TAS, transfer the control of the conference bridge from the transferor terminal to the transferee terminal;

send an acknowledgement message to the TAS of the transfer of the control of the conference bridge; and

send a notification to the transferee terminal indicating the successful transfer of the control of the conference bridge.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the MRF controller is further configured to:

transfer control of the conference bridge to the transferee terminal when the transferee terminal accepts control of the conference bridge prior to the transferor terminal severing the conference bridge.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the MRF controller is further configured to:

notify remaining conference participants that control of the conference bridge has been transferred to the transferee terminal when the transferee terminal accepts control of the conference bridge.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the request message received by the MRF controller from the TAS is either a modified REFER message or a modified INVITE message.

17. A method of transferring control of a conference bridge using a session initiation protocol (SIP) REFER infrastructure, comprising steps of:

receiving a REFER request message from a transferor terminal at a Telephony application server (TAS) to transfer control of the conference bridge from the transferor terminal to a transferee terminal;

interpreting a body of the REFER request message from the transferor terminal to determine the transferee identification and forwarding a modified REFER message with the transferee identification to a Media Resource Function (MRF) Controller, wherein the interpreting of the body of the REFER request message and the forwarding of the modified REFER message to the MRF controller is performed by the TAS;

interpreting the modified REFER message from the TAS and sending an acknowledgment message to the TAS that the transferee terminal is to have control over the conference bridge, wherein the interpreting of the modified REFER message and sending an acknowledgment to the TAS is performed by the MRF controller;

sending an acknowledgment message to the transferor terminal by the TAS, indicating that transfer of the control of the conference bridge is successful; and

sending a notification to the transferee terminal by the MRF controller, whereby indicating that transfer of the control of the conference bridge is successful.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the sending of the notification to the transferee terminal by the MRF controller occurs before sending the acknowledgment message to the transferor terminal by the TAS.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the sending of the notification by the MRF controller to the transferee terminal that transfer of the control of the conference bridge is successful occurs at a same time as sending the acknowledgment message by the TAS to the transferor terminal that transfer of the control of the conference bridge is successful.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

repeating the method by going back to the step of receiving a REFER request message from the transferor terminal at the TAS to transfer control of the conference bridge.

21. A method of transferring control of a conference bridge using a session initiation protocol (SIP) INVITE infrastructure, comprising steps of;

receiving an INVITE request message from a transferor terminal at a Telephony application server (TAS) to transfer control of the conference bridge from the transferor terminal to a transferee terminal, wherein the INVITE message includes a history and diversion information in a header;

interpreting the history and the diversion information in the header of the INVITE request message from the transferor terminal to determine the transferee identification and forwarding a modified INVITE message with the transferee identification to a Media Resource Function (MRF) Controller, wherein the interpreting of the header of the INVITE request message and the forwarding of the modified INVITE message to the MRF controller is performed by the TAS;

interpreting the modified INVITE message from the TAS and sending an acknowledgment message to the TAS that the transferee terminal is to have control over the conference bridge, wherein the interpreting of the modified INVITE message and sending an acknowledgment to the TAS is performed by the MRF controller;

sending an acknowledgment message to the transferor terminal by the TAS, indicating that transfer of the control of the conference bridge is successful; and

sending a notification to the transferee terminal by the MRF controller, indicating that transfer of the control of the conference bridge is successful.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the sending of the notification to the transferee terminal by the MRF controller occurs before sending the acknowledgment message to the transferor terminal by the TAS.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the sending of the notification by the MRF controller to the transferee terminal that transfer of the control of the conference bridge is successful occurs at the same time as sending the acknowledgment message by the TAS to the transferor terminal that transfer of the control of the conference bridge is successful.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

repeating the method by going back to the step of receiving an INVITE request message from the transferor terminal at the TAS to transfer control of the conference bridge.