System and method for queuing a communication session

• US 9,247,062 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2013
• Issued: 01/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Inventors: Fahlgren, Christer, Wolthuis, John, Shafton, Peter, Schiavone, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Matar, Ahmad F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pope, Kharye
• Application Number:
  US13/921,941
• Publication Number:
  US 20130336472A1
• Time in Patent Office: 951 Days
• Field of Search: 379/202.01, 379/203.01, 379/204.01, 379/205.01, 379/206.01, 379/221, 379/261, 379/266, 379/210.01, 379/265.11, 379/266.07, 379/265.09, 379/266.01, 370/260, 370/261, 370/262, 370/352, 370/353, 370/354, 370/356, 370/357, 719/328, 719/314, 719/315, 455/416
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/407 Call center operated for multiple customers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5141 Details of processing calls and other types of contacts in an unified manner unified messaging in packet-switching networks H04L51/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing

Abstract

A system and method including receiving a request to enqueue a communication session; adding the communication session to the queue of a plurality of communication sessions; upon adding the communication to the queue, transferring control logic to the configured wait-state application; receiving a dequeue request initiated by a second entity; in response to the dequeue request, managing the procession of communication sessions in the queue; and dequeuing a communication session from the queue.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

at a multitenant communication platform that includes at least one programmatic queue, each programmatic queue being configured for a platform account of a plurality of platform accounts of the communication platform, the communication platform including a programmatic queue-control interface available to each platform account associated with a programmatic queue;

establishing a communication session of a platform account in the multitenant communication platform;

through the programmatic queue-control interface, receiving an enqueue request of the platform account from a first entity, the enqueue request being a request to enqueue the communication session of the platform account in a programmatic queue of the platform account that is identified by a queue identifier specified in the enqueue request, the enqueue request specifying a wait-state application uniform resource identifier (URI) of a wait-state application for the communication session when in the queue of the platform account;

adding the communication session to the queue of the platform account, the queue being a queue of a plurality of communication sessions;

upon adding the communication session to the queue, transferring control logic to the wait-state application of the specified URI;

receiving a dequeue request initiated by a second entity; and

in response to the dequeue request, managing the procession of communication sessions in the queue; and

dequeuing a communication session from the queue,

wherein a wait-state application URI is specified for each of a plurality of communication sessions enqueued in the queue of the platform account, each wait-state application URI being specified by a respective enqueue request, and wherein each wait-state application URI references executable instructions specified for the platform account,

wherein each enqueue request for the queue of the platform account is a request of the platform account, and

wherein each enqueue request received through the programmatic queue-control interface specifies at least one of;

an added-state application, the added state application including at least one of;

an application that is invoked before a communication session of the enqueue request is added to the queue, and an application that is invoked directly after the communication session is added to the queue,

a wait-state application that is invoked while the communication session is waiting, and

an action-state application that is invoked in response to the communication session being dequeued.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein dequeuing a communication session from the queue comprises selectively bridging the communication session to the second entity or transferring control logic to an application specified by the second entity.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the enqueue request specifies an action-state application configuration of the communication session, the method further comprising:

upon dequeuing the communication session, transferring control logic to the configured action-state application.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an application programming interface (API) to the queue as at least a subset of the programmatic queue-control interface.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of receiving an enqueue request to enqueue the communication session comprises, through the API, receiving a request to enqueue the communication session as an inactive communication session while in the queue.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of receiving a dequeue request comprises, through the API, receiving a dequeue request from an outside application.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising collecting analytics of the plurality of communication sessions in the queue and providing access to the analytic data through the API.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the received enqueue request to enqueue the communication session is initiated from instructions of an initially executed application.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the initial application is processing an active communication session, and the enqueued communication session is an active communication session.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the enqueue request further specifies an action-state application configuration as a universal resource identifier (URI) referencing executable instructions executed prior to bridging the dequeued communication session;

and wherein the wait-state application URI is a reference to executable instructions executed while the communication is queued.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising collecting analytics of the plurality of communication sessions in the queue, and repeatedly executing the executable instructions of the wait-state application with current analytics of the queue.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein an enqueue request without an explicit queue identifier implicitly specifies a default queue of a requesting account.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein transferring control logic to the wait-state application comprises transmitting a first HTTP request with queue analytics to the wait-state application URI, receiving instructions as part of a response to the first HTTP request, and processing the instructions in controlling logic of the voice call session.

13. A method comprising:

at a multitenant communication platform that includes at least one programmatic queue, each programmatic queue being configured for a platform account of a plurality of platform accounts of the communication platform, the communication platform including a programmatic queue-control interface available to each platform account associated with a programmatic queue;

establishing a communication session of a platform account in the multitenant communication platform;

through the programmatic queue-control interface, receiving an enqueue request of the platform account from a first entity, the enqueue request being a request to enqueue the communication session of the platform account in a programmatic queue of the platform account that is identified by a queue identifier specified in the enqueue request, the enqueue request specifying a wait-state application uniform resource identifier (URI) of a wait-state application for the communication session when in the queue of the platform account;

adding the communication session to the queue of the platform account, the queue being a queue of a plurality of communication sessions;

requesting wait-state application instructions from the wait-state application URI over an HTTP-based protocol, wherein analytics of the queue are included in a request to the wait-state application URI;

while in the queue, executing the wait-state application instructions;

managing the procession of communication sessions in the queue;

providing a queue application programming interface (API) that is responsive to API calls adding or removing communication sessions in a queue and API calls querying analytics of the queue, wherein the queue API is at least a subset of the programmatic queue-control interface;

receiving a dequeue request directed at the queue; and

dequeuing the communication session in response to the dequeue request,

wherein a wait-state application URI is specified for each of a plurality of communication sessions enqueued in the queue of the platform account, each wait-state application URI being specified by a respective enqueue request, and wherein each wait-state application URI references executable instructions specified for the platform account,

wherein each enqueue request for the queue of the platform account is a request of the platform account, and

wherein each enqueue request received through the programmatic queue-control interface specifies at least one of;

an added-state application, the added state application including at least one of;

an application that is invoked before a communication session of the enqueue request is added to the queue, and an application that is invoked directly after the communication session is added to the queue,

a wait-state application that is invoked while the communication session is waiting, and

an action-state application that is invoked in response to the communication session being dequeued.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein dequeueing the communication session comprises transferring control logic of the communication session to an application URI specified by a second entity.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the queue is a persistent queue where an enqueued communication session can be in an inactive state or an active state.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising measuring queue analytics;

and repeating the requesting the wait-state application instructions of the wait-state application with current queue analytics.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the enqueue request further specifies an action-state application universal resource identifier (URI);

further comprising transferring control logic of a dequeued communication session to the application of the action-state application URI prior to bridging the communication session to a second entity.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the enqueue request further specifies an error-state application universal resource identifier (URI);

further comprising transferring control logic of a communication session to the application of the error-state application URI if an error is encountered with the queue.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of receiving an enqueue request to enqueue the communication session comprises, through the API, the enqueue request requesting to enqueue the communication session as an inactive communication session while in the queue.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the received request to dequeue the communication is received through a telephony instruction to call the queue.

21. The method of claim 13, wherein the queue is persistent;

and

wherein active communication sessions in the queue can become inactive while in the queue.

31. The method of claim 13, wherein analytics include at least one of statistics on overall queue properties, individual communication session queue properties, wherein statistics on overall queue properties includes at least one of average wait time and number of queued communication sessions, and wherein individual communication session queue properties include at least one of total wait time and number in line.

22. A method comprising:

at a multitenant communication platform that includes at least one programmatic queue, each programmatic queue being configured for a platform account of a plurality of platform accounts of the communication platform, the communication platform including a programmatic queue-control interface available to each platform account associated with a programmatic queue;

establishing an active voice call session of a platform account in the multitenant communication platform;

through the programmatic queue-control interface, receiving an enqueue request of the platform account from a first entity, the enqueue request being a request to enqueue the voice call session of the platform account in a programmatic queue of the platform account that is identified by a queue identifier specified in the enqueue request, the enqueue request specifying a wait-state application uniform resource identifier (URI) of a wait-state application for the active voice call session when in the queue of the platform account, the enqueue request being initiated by an application instruction of the voice call session;

adding the voice call session to the queue of the platform account, the queue being a queue of a plurality of voice call sessions;

collecting queue analytics;

upon adding the voice call session to the queue, transferring control logic of the voice call session to the wait-state application as specified by the wait-state application URI, wherein control logic of the wait-state application is looped with current queue analytic input while waiting in the queue;

receiving an instruction to call the queue and dequeue a voice call session of the queue, the instruction specifying an action-state application universal resource identifier (URI) of an action-state application;

in response to the instruction to call the queue, managing the procession of voice call sessions in the queue and dequeuing a voice call session from the queue;

upon dequeuing the selected voice call session, transferring control logic to the action-state application specified by the action-state application URI; and

bridging a voice call of the selected voice call session to a second entity,

wherein a wait-state application URI is specified for each of a plurality of voice call sessions enqueued in the queue of the platform account, each wait-state application URI being specified by a respective enqueue request, and wherein each wait-state application URI references executable instructions specified for the platform account,

wherein each enqueue request for the queue of the platform account is a request of the platform account, and

wherein each enqueue request received through the programmatic queue-control interface specifies at least one of;

an added-state application, the added state application including at least one of;

an application that is invoked before a voice call session of the enqueue request is added to the queue, and an application that is invoked directly after the voice call session is added to the queue,

a wait-state application that is invoked while the voice call session is waiting, and

an action-state application that is invoked in response to the voice call session being dequeued.

24. A method comprising:

at a multitenant communication platform that includes at least one programmatic queue, each programmatic queue being configured for a platform account of a plurality of platform accounts of the communication platform, the communication platform including a programmatic queue-control interface available to each platform account associated with a programmatic queue;

establishing a communication session of a platform account in the multitenant communication platform;

through the programmatic queue-control interface, receiving an enqueue request of the platform account from a first entity, the enqueue request being a request to enqueue the communication session of the platform account in a programmatic queue of the platform account that is identified by a queue identifier specified in the enqueue request, the enqueue request specifying wait-state application configuration for the communication session when in the queue of the platform account;

adding the communication session to the queue of the platform account, the queue being a queue of a plurality of communication sessions;

upon adding the communication session to the queue, the communication platform transferring control logic according to the specified wait-state application configuration;

receiving a dequeue request initiated by a second entity; and

in response to the dequeue request, managing the procession of communication sessions in the queue; and

dequeuing a communication session from the queue,

wherein wait-state application configuraiton is specified for each of a plurality of communication sessions enqueued in the queue of the platform account, each wait-state application configuraiton being specified by a respective enqueue request, and wherein each wait-state application configuraiton references executable instructions specified for the platform account,

wherein each enqueue request for the queue of the platform account is a request of the platform account,

wherein each enqueue request of a platform account is provided by a system of the platform account external to the communication platform, and

wherein each enqueue request received through the programmatic queue-control interface specifies at least one of;

an added-state application, the added state application including at least one of;

an application that is invoked before a communication session of the enqueue request is added to the queue, and an application that is invoked directly after the communication session is added to the queue,

a wait-state application that is invoked while the communication session is waiting, and

an action-state application that is invoked in response to the communication session being dequeued.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein each wait-state application configuration is specified by a corresponding external system.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein different wait-state application configuration is specified for each of a plurality of communication sessions enqueued in the queue identified by the specified queue identifier.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein different wait-state application configuration is specified for each of a plurality of communication sessions enqueued in at least one queue of the multitenant communication platform.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein the enqueue request specifies the account of the communication platform.

29. The method of claim 24, wherein at least one external system includes an application server external to the communication platform, the application server being an application server of an application of the associated platform account of the communication platform.

30. The method of claim 24, wherein the communication platform transferring control logic according to the specified wait-state application configuration comprises:

the communication platform requesting the wait-state application executable instructions from a wait-state application URI of the wait-state application configuration; and

the communication platform executing the wait-state application executable instructions.