Systems and methods for simulating a notification system

• US 9,391,855 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 07/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Everbridge Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Everbridge Incorporated
• Inventors: Mouline, Imad, Breen, William Ryan
• Primary Examiner(s): Moise, Emmanuel L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chang, Julian
• Application Number:
  US13/834,068
• Publication Number:
  US 20130304904A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,215 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5096 wherein the managed service relates to distributed or central networked applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/54 Organization of routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2016 Call initiation by network rather than by subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/323 for the arrangements providing the connection (test connection, test call, call simulation)

Abstract

Systems and methods for a cloud management system which utilizes both technical and business metrics to achieve operational efficiencies. The systems and methods can be used to provide an elastic infrastructure model for an emergency notifications system which delivers near infinite scale with guaranteed near 100% uptime. In an embodiment, a mass recipient emulator can be utilized for testing of the notifications system with actual phone call or message exchange.

Claims

1. A system for testing a notification system by simulating phone calls to recipients comprising:

a receiver configured to receive inbound phone calls; and

a processor coupled to the receiver and configured to provide a mass recipient emulator, said mass recipient emulator configured to;

determine a model for end user behavior based on caller identification information associated with the inbound phone calls;

simulate said end user behavior, said behavior selected from the group consisting of;

hanging up after hearing or during a greeting, listening to a few seconds of a message and then hanging up, responding to a message, and listening to a message multiple times; and

derive optimal notification characteristics from historical usage data collected by the notification system during the simulating.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said model for said simulated end user behavior is specified by an operator.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said model for said simulated end user behavior is derived from the historical usage data collected by the notification system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein different models are associated with different caller identification information.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said model indicates one or more percentages corresponding to percentages of end users that perform each behavior, and wherein said behavior is determined from said model based on the one or more percentages.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the optimal notification characteristics comprise sending two or more notifications of different types to a recipient.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the two or more notifications of different types are sent in a particular order.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the two or more notifications of different types comprise a short message service (SMS) message and a phone call, and wherein the particular order indicates that the SMS message is to be followed by the phone call.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the optimal notification characteristics comprise sending a notification of a predetermined length to a recipient.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the mass recipient emulator is further configured to receive feedback information and to modify the model based at least on the feedback information.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more interactive voice response (IVR) systems configured to:

receive at least one of the inbound phone calls;

identify caller identification information for the at least one inbound phone call; and

query the mass recipient emulator with the caller identification information for the at least one inbound phone call.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more IVR systems are configured to prompt a simulated end user for a response, and wherein said end user behavior specified by said model indicates a response for said prompt, and indicates a delay specifying a predetermined period of time before simulating a response to said prompt.

13. A method of testing a notification system comprising:

receiving a notification sent through a network;

linking the notification to a mass recipient emulator module;

querying the mass recipient emulator module to determine a behavior, wherein the behavior is associated with an action and a timing parameter for when the action is performed; and

utilizing the behavior to respond to the notification,

wherein the mass recipient emulator is configured to;

determine said behavior using a model, and wherein said model is determined based on caller identification information associated with the notification; and

derive optimal notification characteristics from historical usage data collected by the notification system during simulation.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the notification comprises a phone call sent through a public switched telephone network.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein said model for said behavior is specified by an operator.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein said model for said behavior is derived from historical usage data.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the mass recipient emulator is configured to derive optimal notification characteristics from the historical usage data.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein different models are associated with different caller identification information.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein said model indicates one or more percentages corresponding to percentages of end users that perform each behavior, and wherein said behavior is determined from said model based on the one or more percentages.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations for testing a notification system by comprising:

receiving a notification sent through a network;

linking the notification to a mass recipient emulator module;

querying the mass recipient emulator module to determine a behavior, wherein the behavior is associated with an action and a timing parameter for when the action is performed; and

utilizing the behavior to respond to the notification,

wherein the mass recipient emulator is configured to;

determine said behavior using a model, and wherein said model is determined based on caller identification information associated with the notification; and

derive optimal notification characteristics from historical usage data collected by the notification system during simulation.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the notification comprises a phone call sent through a public switched telephone network.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein said model for said behavior is specified by an operator.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein said model for said behavior is derived from historical usage data.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein different models are associated with different caller identification information.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein said model indicates one or more percentages corresponding to percentages of end users that perform each behavior, and wherein said behavior is determined from said model based on the one or more percentages.