Managing presence state

• US 9,979,795 B1
• Filed: 05/12/2016
• Issued: 05/22/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ShoreTel Incorporated (Mitel Networks Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitel Networks Incorporated (Mitel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: Tovino, Michael S. W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wang, Liangche A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Woldemariam, Ayele
• Application Number:
  US15/152,764
• Time in Patent Office: 740 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

A client application server (CAS) can include a presence layer configured to compute a published presence state for a client of the given CAS that characterizes at least one of an ability and a willingness of the client to communicate with another communication endpoint. The presence layer can also be configured to provide the published presence state for the client to a presence layer of at least another CAS according to a subscription request provided from the another CAS.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a receiving client application server (CAS) from a requesting CAS, a subscription request for a published presence state of a given user;

determining presence information for a plurality of resource objects associated with the given user;

filtering the presence information for each of the plurality of resource objects to a subset of presence information for each of the plurality of resource objects based on the subscription request, the subset of presence information comprises at least one of a level of activity of the resource objects, a geographical location of the resource objects, and an identity of parties communicating with the resource objects therein, wherein the subset of presence information for each of the plurality of resource objects comprises at least a state of a connection between each of the plurality of resource objects and another resource object associated with another user, wherein the state of the connection comprises a plurality of fields, a portion of the plurality of fields including information without relevance to a change in the published presence state of the given user;

determining whether the subset of presence information for each of the plurality of resource objects has experienced an event changing the presence information since last reported to the requesting CAS;

eliminating from the presence information the portion of the plurality of fields comprising information without relevance to the change in the published presence state;

encapsulating only the subset of presence information for each of the plurality of resource objects that has changed since last reported to the requesting CAS, excluding the eliminated portion of the plurality of fields, into the published presence state of the given user, wherein the subset of presence information is encapsulated based on the subscription request; and

sending a message comprising the published presence state from the receiving CAS to the requesting CAS, whereby bandwidth is reduced due to the encapsulation of only the subset of presence information for each of the plurality of resource objects that has changed since last reported to the requesting CAS.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of resource objects comprise at least two of a desktop phone, a smartphone, a soft phone, an instant messaging service, a calendar service, and a location service.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving CAS and the requesting CAS are distributed at different physical locations and communicate over a network.

4. A system comprising a given client application server (CAS) device and another CAS device,

wherein the given CAS device comprises a processor to:

receive a subscription request for a published presence state of a given user from the other CAS device;

determine presence information for a plurality of resource objects associated with the given user;

filter the presence information for each of the plurality of resource objects to a subset of presence information for each of the plurality of resource objects based on the subscription request, the subset of presence information comprises at least one of a level of activity of the resource objects, a geographical location of the resource objects, and an identity of parties communicating with the resource objects therein, wherein the subset of presence information for each of the plurality of resource objects comprises at least a state of a connection between each of the plurality of resource objects and another resource object associated with another user, wherein the state of the connection comprises a plurality of fields, at least a portion of the plurality of fields comprises information without relevance to a change in the published presence state of the given user;

determine whether the subset of presence information for each of the plurality of resource objects has experienced an event changing the presence information since last reported to the requesting CAS;

eliminate a portion of the plurality of fields comprising information without relevance to the change in the published presence state;

encapsulate only the subset of presence information for each of the plurality of resource objects that has changed since last reported to the other CAS device, excluding the eliminated portion of the plurality of fields, into the published presence state of the given user, wherein the subset of presence information is encapsulated based on the subscription request; and

send a message comprising the published presence state of the given user to the other CAS device, whereby bandwidth is reduced due to the encapsulation of only the subset of presence information for each of the plurality of resource objects that has changed since last reported to the other CAS device.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the given CAS device and the other CAS device are distributed at different physical locations and communicate over a network.