Automatic failover for phone recordings

• US 9,413,880 B1
• Filed: 01/29/2015
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wolfeld, Jeffrey A.
• Primary Examiner(s): TIEU, BINH KIEN
• Application Number:
  US14/608,510
• Publication Number:
  US 20160227029A1
• Time in Patent Office: 558 Days
• Field of Search: 379/9, 379/9.04, 379/9.05, 379/14.01, 379/15.01, 379/15.05, 379/221.01, 379/221.03, 379/221.04, 379/112.01, 379/112.02, 379/133, 379/266.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1094 Inter-user-equipment sessions transfer or sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/12 Marking faulty circuits "busy"; Enabling equipment to disengage itself from faulty circuits ; Using redundant circuits; Response of a circuit, apparatus or system to an error
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2254 in networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42221 Conversation recording systems at the subscriber's set H04M1/656
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0084 Network monitoring; Error detection; Error recovery; Network testing

Abstract

Techniques that enable automatic failover for media stream (e.g., VoIP call) recording devices or servers are presented. In one embodiment, a technique includes designating, from among a plurality of recording servers in a cluster of recording servers, a home recording node that will record a media stream flowing between a first endpoint and a second endpoint, designating, from the plurality of recording servers, an alternate recording node, providing, from, e.g., the home recording node to the alternate recording node, media stream information sufficient to allow the alternate recording node to take over recording of the media stream in the event the home recording node can no longer record the media stream, detecting that the home recoding node can no longer record the media stream, and causing the media stream to be redirected to the alternate recording node to be recorded thereby.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

designating, from among a plurality of recording servers in a cluster of recording servers, a home recording node that will record a media stream flowing between a first endpoint and a second endpoint;

designating, from the plurality of recording servers, an alternate recording node;

providing, from the home recording node to the alternate recording node, media stream information sufficient to allow the alternate recording node to take over recording of the media stream in the event the home recording node can no longer record the media stream;

detecting that the home recoding node can no longer record the media stream;

causing the media stream to be redirected to the alternate recording node to be recorded thereby; and

notify a metadata database that a continuation of a recording of the media stream begun on the home recording node continues on the alternate recording node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein designating the alternate recording node comprises selecting from among the plurality of recording servers except for the home recording node.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a session that enables the media stream to flow between the first endpoint and the second endpoint is instantiated using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and wherein the media stream information sufficient to allow the alternate recording node to take over recording of the media stream in the event the home recording node can no longer record the media stream comprises SIP dialog details of the session.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the SIP dialog details of the session are provided to the alternate recording node at substantially the same time that the session is instantiated.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting, by the alternate recording node, that the home recoding node can no longer record the media stream comprises monitoring a heartbeat signal that is received by each of the recording servers in the cluster of recording servers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein causing the media stream to be redirected to the alternate recording node comprises sending an INVITE-REPLACE message in accordance with the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning a session identifier to the media stream, and associating the session identifier with a recording of a first portion of the media stream stored on the home recording node, and associating the session identifier with a recording of a second portion of the media stream stored on the alternate recording node.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the alternate recording node notifies the metadata database that a continuation of a recording of the media stream begun on the home recording node continues on the alternate recording node.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising notifying the alternate recording node that a recording on the home record node has terminated normally.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a network interface unit configured to enable communications via a network;

a memory configured to store logic instructions; and

a processor, when executing the logic instructions, configured to;

designate, from among a plurality of recording servers in a cluster of recording servers, a home recording node that will record a media stream flowing between a first endpoint and a second endpoint;

designate, from the plurality of recording servers, an alternate recording node;

provide, from the home recording node to the alternate recording node, media stream information sufficient to allow the alternate recording node to take over recording of the media stream in the event the home recording node can no longer record the media stream;

detect that the home recoding node can no longer record the media stream;

cause the media stream to be redirected to the alternate recording node to be recorded thereby; and

notify a metadata database that a continuation of a recording of the media stream begun on the home recording node continues on the alternate recording node.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processor, when executing the logic instructions, is further configured to:

designate the alternate recording node comprises selecting from among the plurality of recording servers except for the home recording node.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processor, when executing the logic instructions, is further configured to:

provide Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) dialog details as at least part of the media stream information sufficient to allow the alternate recording node to take over recording of the media stream in the event the home recording node can no longer record the media stream.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the processor, when executing the logic instructions, is further configured to:

provide the SIP dialog details to the alternate recording node at substantially the same time that a SIP session between the first endpoint and the second endpoint is instantiated.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processor, when executing the logic instructions, is further configured to:

detect, by the alternate recording node, that the home recoding node can no longer record the media stream by monitoring a heartbeat signal that is received by each of the recording servers in the cluster of recording servers.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processor, when executing the logic instructions, is further configured to:

cause the media stream to be redirected to the alternate recording node by sending an INVITE-REPLACE message in accordance with the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processor, when executing the logic instructions, is further configured to:

assign a session identifier to the media stream, and associate the session identifier with a recording of a first portion of the media stream stored on the home recording node, and associate the session identifier with a recording of a second portion of the media stream stored on the alternate recording node.

17. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processor, when executing the logic instructions, is further configured to:

notify the alternate recording node that a recording on the home record node has terminated normally.

18. A non-transitory tangible computer readable storage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor of a network device configured to perform networking resource resolution, cause the processor to:

designate, from among a plurality of recording servers in a cluster of recording servers, a home recording node that will record a media stream flowing between a first endpoint and a second endpoint;

designate, from the plurality of recording servers, an alternate recording node;

provide, from the home recording node to the alternate recording node, media stream information sufficient to allow the alternate recording node to take over recording of the media stream in the event the home recording node can no longer record the media stream;

detect that the home recoding node can no longer record the media stream;

cause the media stream to be redirected to the alternate recording node to be recorded thereby; and

notify a metadata database that a continuation of a recording of the media stream begun on the home recording node continues on the alternate recording node.