Method and systems for an incoming unidirectional outage bypass for a voice over internet protocol private branch exchange system

• US 9,521,049 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 12/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vonage Business Inc (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Original Assignee: Vonage Business Inc (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: Layman, Randy, Smith, Robert Michael, Meyers, Keith, Fleming, Barry
• Primary Examiner(s): Thier, Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nowlin, Eric
• Application Number:
  US13/831,728
• Publication Number:
  US 20140140202A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,369 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0659 by isolating or reconfiguring faulty entities
• 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 41/5087 wherein the managed service relates to voice services management of VoIP services H04M7/0081
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed herein for providing a unidirectional outage bypass for incoming communications via a hosted Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) private branch exchange (PBX) system to a session initiation protocol (SIP) device. An outage monitoring system is in communication with both the unidirectional bypass system and one or more bypass enablers that act at the direction of the unidirectional bypass system. The outage monitoring system detects outages and overloads, as well as, network failures between network components, the VoIP PBX, Client Devices and the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The unidirectional bypass system, in response to detection of an outage, determines error-handling procedures for the unidirectional bypass based on bypass configuration data. The bypass enablers forward incoming communications between the PSTN and a bypass destination following a bypass route in accordance the error-handling procedures, by bypassing components that are currently experiencing failures or overloads.

Claims

1. A system for providing a unidirectional outage bypass for a hosted Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) private branch exchange (PBX) comprising:

a client device or a group of client devices in a network in communication with the hosted VoIP PBX and with an outage monitoring system, the hosted VoIP PBX being hosted remote from the client device or the group of client devices;

the outage monitoring system in communication with a bypass configuration system and in communication with one or more bypass enablers that act at the direction of the bypass configuration system, the one or more bypass enablers being one or more of software and hardware and being configured to intercept incoming communications and perform interactions to reroute or forward the incoming communications from a public switched telephone network (PSTN) to the client device or the group of client devices while bypassing the hosted VoIP PBX, wherein;

the outage monitoring system monitors the hosted VoIP PBX, as well as, network connections between the hosted VoIP PBX, client devices and a public switched telephone network (PSTN) for outages, failures and overload conditions;

the bypass configuration system, in response to at least one of an outage failure, and an overload detection by the outage monitoring system, directs the bypass enablers to route the incoming communications between the PSTN and the client devices while bypassing one or more of the hosted VoIP PBX, and the network connections between the hosted VoIP PBX, client devices and the PSTN that is currently experiencing at least one of outage, failure and overload; and

the bypass configuration system directs the routing of the incoming communications via the bypass enablers based on a set of bypass configuration data.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein a predetermined set of rules for responding to outages and overload conditions in the hosted VoIP PBX is included in the bypass configuration data.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the bypass configuration system directs the bypass enablers to route the incoming communications to the client devices based on the predetermined set of rules.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein an edge server provides Internet protocol (IP) addressing information associated with a specific client device on the network to allow the incoming communication to bypass the hosted VoIP PBX such that the incoming communication is routed directly to the specific client device.

5. The system according to claim 2, further comprising an edge server configured based on the predetermined set of rules for forwarding the incoming communications to an alternate number.

6. The system according to claim 2, wherein the bypass configuration system forwards an incoming communication to a voice mail system based on the predetermined set of rules.

7. The system according to claim 2, wherein the bypass configuration system routes an incoming communication to a caller notification system for playing a pre-configured audio message to a caller.

8. The system according to claim 2, wherein the bypass configuration system routes an incoming communication to a caller notification system for playing a pre-configurable audio message to a caller in response an incoming communication from a specific phone number.

9. A method for providing a unidirectional outage bypass for a hosted Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) private branch exchange (PBX) comprising:

providing a client device or group of client devices on a hosted VoIP PBX, the hosted VoIP PBX being hosted remote from the client device or group of client devices;

monitoring the hosted VoIP PBX with an outage monitoring system in communication with a bypass configuration system and in communication with one or more bypass enablers that act at the direction of the bypass configuration system wherein the monitoring comprises;

monitoring the hosted VoIP PBX for at least one of outages and overload conditions, as well as for network failures between the hosted VoIP PBX and a public switched telephone network (PSTN) and for network failures between the hosted VoIP PBX and the client device or the group of client devices;

directing the bypass configuration system, in the event of at least one of a detected outage, overload, and failure by the outage monitoring system, to route incoming communications between the PSTN and the client device or the group of client devices via the bypass enablers; and

using the bypass enablers to direct the routing of the incoming communications based on a set of bypass configuration data,

wherein the one or more bypass enablers comprise one or more of software and hardware and are configured to intercept incoming communications and perform interactions to reroute or forward the incoming communications from the PSTN to the client device or group of client devices while bypassing the hosted VoIP PBX.

10. The method according to claim 9, further including a predetermined set of rules for responding to outages and overload conditions in the hosted VoIP PBX in the bypass configuration data.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising directing the bypass enablers to route the incoming communications directly to the client device or the group of client devices based on the predetermined set of rules.

12. The method according to claim 10, further comprising using an edge server to provide Internet protocol (IP) addressing information associated with a specific client device on the network to allow the incoming communication to bypass the hosted VoIP PBX such that the incoming communication is routed directly to the specific client device.

13. The method according to claim 10, further comprising routing incoming communications to a client device based on the predetermined set of rules.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising routing incoming communications to an alternative phone number based on the predetermined set of rules.

15. The method according to claim 10, further comprising routing incoming communications to a caller notification system for playing a pre-configured audio message based on the predetermined set of rules.

16. The method according to claim 10, further comprising routing incoming communications to a caller notification system for playing a pre-configured audio message based on the phone number of the incoming call.

17. A system of providing a unidirectional outage bypass for a hosted Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) private branch exchange (PBX) comprising:

an outage monitoring system configured to detect outages and overload conditions of the hosted VoIP PBX, as well as, network failures between the hosted VoIP PBX, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) and one or more client devices, the hosted VoIP PBX being hosted remote from the one or more client devices; and

a bypass configuration system in communication with an edge server, the outage monitoring system and one or more bypass enablers for routing incoming communications based on a set of bypass configuration data,

wherein the one or more bypass enablers comprise one or more of software and hardware and are configured to intercept incoming communications and perform interactions to reroute or forward the incoming communications from the PSTN to the one or more client devices while bypassing the hosted VoIP PBX.

18. The system according claim 17, wherein a predetermined set of rules for responding to outages and overload conditions in the hosted VoIP PBX components are included in the bypass configuration data.

19. The system according claim 18, wherein the predetermined set of rules direct the unidirectional outage bypass system to play a configurable audio message to callers attempting an incoming communication.

20. The system according claim 17, wherein the unidirectional outage bypass system, in response to a network outage, directs incoming communications from the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to a client device by bypassing the hosted VoIP PBX.

21. The system according to claim 17, wherein outages, overloads, and failures of the hosted VoIP PBX include any interruption in network, hardware, or software services.

22. The system according to claim 21, wherein failures of the hosted VoIP PBX hardware and software services includes an inability to complete incoming and/or outgoing communications through the hosted VoIP PBX.

23. The system according to claim 21, wherein failures of the hosted VoIP PBX hardware and software services include an inability to provide calling features including at least one of call transfer, call hold, call forwarding, call parking, call recording, and call monitoring, through the hosted VoIP PBX.

24. The system according to claim 17, wherein the outage monitoring system is capable of detecting outages, overloads, and failures of the hosted VoIP PBX using hardware and/or software monitoring techniques.

25. The system according to claim 24, wherein the hardware monitoring techniques comprise examining at regular intervals data sent to and/or retrieved from the hosted VoIP PBX wherein failure conditions are triggered by specific monitoring data indicating overload or outages in any or all of network latency, or network jitter within the hosted VoIP PBX noticeably affecting the quality of VoIP performance.

26. The system according to claim 24, wherein software monitoring techniques comprise examining at regular intervals data sent to or retrieved from the hosted VoIP PBX wherein failure identifiers are triggered by specific monitoring data indicating overload or outages in any or all of network latency, or network jitter within the hosted VoIP PBX noticeably affecting the quality of VoIP performance.

27. The system according to claim 24, wherein software monitoring techniques comprise examining at regular intervals a mean opinion score (MOS) and other quality of service (QoS) measures for voice call quality to determine if there are performance factors impacting the network and whether the hosted VoIP PBX should be bypassed.

28. The system according to claim 27, wherein software monitoring techniques include a configurable active monitor for MOS or other QoS measures that trigger an alert if network degradation causes the MOS value to drop below a user configured threshold.