Telephony web event system and method

• US 8,964,726 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2009
• Issued: 02/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Inventors: Lawson, Jeffrey, Wolthuis, John, Cooke, Evan
• Primary Examiner(s): O CONNOR, BRIAN T
• Application Number:
  US12/572,258
• Publication Number:
  US 20100150139A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,972 Days
• Field of Search: 370/352, 370/353, 370/354, 370/355, 379/32.01, 379/90.01, 379/100.05, 379/100.06, 379/114, 379/114.01, 379/133, 379/142.04, 379/200.01, 713/179, 713/181
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/44 Augmented, consolidated or itemized billing statement or bill presentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/90 using Intelligent Networks [IN] or Advanced Intelligent Networks [AIN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0104 Augmented, consolidated or itemised billing statement, e.g. additional billing information, bill presentation, layout, format, e-mail, fax, printout, itemised bill per service or per account, cumulative billing, consolidated billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/016 Billing using Intelligent Networks [IN] or Advanced Intelligent Networks [AIN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/018 On-line real-time billing, able to see billing information while in communication, e.g. via the internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2209 for lines also used for data transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2218 Call detail recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42229 Personal communication services, i.e. services related to one subscriber independent of his terminal and/or location diverting calls from one subscriber to another subscriber, i.e. two different subscriptions H04M3/54; selecting arrangements in intelligent networks H04Q3/005
• 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 7/006 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/123 where the packet-switched network is an Internet Protocol Multimedia System-type network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/128 Details of addressing, directories or routing tables

Abstract

An embodiment of the system for publishing events of a telephony application to a client includes a call router that generates events from the telephony application and an event router that manages the publication of events generated by the call router and that manages the subscription to events by clients. The system can be used with a telephony application that interfaces with a telephony device and an application server.

Claims

1. A system for publishing events of a telephony application to a client, wherein the telephony application interfaces with a telephony device and an application server, the system comprising:

a call router configured to manage the telephony application that controls the interaction between the telephony device and the internet application server, to generate events from at least one of the telephony application or the telephony device during the telephony application, to communicate with the telephony device with a telephony protocol, and to communicate with the application server through one of an http or https protocol;

an event router that manages the publication of events generated by the call router;

the event router comprising an event proxy system comprising a set of event proxy servers, wherein each event proxy server of the set of event proxy servers subscribes to the events of the event router and manages the subscriptions to events by remote clients by pushing events to subscribed remote clients through an open HTTP connection; and

wherein the event proxy servers comprise event filters that selectively permit pushing of events to a client according to an event attribute.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the client comprises an API server.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the event router further comprises a load balancer that manages event proxy loads and scales the event proxy system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the event filters selectively pass events from a single call to the client.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the event filter filters selectively pass events associated with a set phone number.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the event filters is implemented by an event publisher to prevent the client from receiving an event type.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the event proxy servers additionally comprise a security policy engine that authorizes clients to subscribe to an event.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the event router includes a plurality of message brokers that manage the publication of events for the event router, and wherein the event proxy servers connect to a message broker to subscribe to an event.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the message brokers are sharded according to an event attribute.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the call router simultaneously manages a plurality of telephony applications and the event router publishes a plurality of events and manages a plurality of subscriptions.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the client generates client events, and the event router additionally manages the publication of client events and manages call router subscriptions to client events.

12. A method for publishing events of a telephony application, the method comprising:

at a call router, managing the telephony application, wherein the telephony application controls the interaction between a telephony device and an internet application server;

at the call router, generating an event from the telephony application during the management of the telephony application;

at the call router, publishing an event to an event router using one of an http or https protocol;

at the event router, identifying a subscriber to an event;

selectively permitting sending of events to the subscriber according an event attribute; and

sending the event from the event router to the subscriber through an open http connection.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein identifying a subscriber comprises an event proxy server managing a subscription and subscribing to an event publication of the event router.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising publishing the event within the event router on a message broker.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the event is published on at least a second message broker, wherein the message brokers manage the publication of events based on different attributes.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising allocating additional event proxy servers to increase subscription capacity and allocating additional message brokers to increase event publication capacity.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving a subscription request from a subscriber for an event;

verifying a subscriber is authorized to subscribe to the event; and

initiating management of the subscription.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein sending the event from the event router to a subscriber comprises detecting if a client is not connected and establishing a connection to the subscriber if a connection is not detected.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising receiving a subscriber generated client event;

publishing the client event to the event router;

identifying a call router subscribed to the client event; and

sending the client event to the call router.

20. The method of claim 12, further comprising sending the event from the event router to a plurality of subscribers.

21. A method for forming a subscription to an event of a telephony application, the method comprising:

at an event router, receiving a request to subscribe to an event publication from a subscriber through an http protocol;

verifying the subscriber is authorized to subscribe to the event publication in response to deconstructing a signed URL;

subscribing to the event publication published by the event router, wherein the event router manages subscriptions of a telephony application;

at a call router, managing the telephony application, wherein the telephony application controls the interaction between a telephony device and an internet application server;

at the call router, generating events from the telephony application during the management of the telephony application; and

returning generated events of the event publication to the subscriber through an event connection, which comprising configuring filters for the subscription and filtering events prior to returning to the subscriber, wherein the filters are specified in the subscription request.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising aggregating subscriptions to the event publication with a plurality of subscriptions from an event proxy server to the event router.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising queuing events to be returned to a subscriber, and returning the events to the subscriber through an event connection after the subscriber establishes the event connection.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising receiving a request to subscribe to a second request from the subscriber;

verifying the subscriber is authorized to subscribe to a second event;

subscribing to the second event published by a event router; and

returning the second event through the event connection of a first event.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein returning generated events of the event publication comprises, at the call router, publishing an event to an event router using one of an http or https protocol, and at the event router, identifying a subscriber to an event and sending the event from the event router to the subscriber through an open http connection.