Reservation scheduling system for audio conferencing resources

• US 5,978,463 A
• Filed: 04/18/1997
• Issued: 11/02/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MCI WorldCom, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Reedy, Timothy J., Teal, Roger, Jurkevics, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Wolinsky, Scott
• Application Number:
  US08/844,571
• Time in Patent Office: 928 Days
• Field of Search: 379/202, 379/203, 379/204, 379/205, 379/206, 370/260, 370/261, 370/262, 370/263
• US Class Current: 379/202.01
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/565 relating to time schedule aspects

Abstract

An automated scheduling system schedules audio conferences for an audio conferencing system. The scheduling of an audio conference results in the reservation of audio conferencing resources for a designated time frame. The automated scheduling system identifies what audio conferencing resources are available during the designated time frame and then chooses optimal ones of the audio conferencing resources to achieve load balancing and to prevent overflow of an audio conference between conferencing bridges. A scoring mechanism may be applied to identify the optimal audio conferencing resources for a given audio conference. The automated scheduling system is capable of operating in real-time so that a caller that requests the scheduling of an audio conference may receive confirmation and a phone number to call to participate in the audio conference during a single phone call. The automated scheduling system may also schedule a recurring series of audio conferences that occur at periodic intervals with common participants.

Claims

1. A method of reserving audio conferencing resources including a plurality of audio conferencing bridges for an audio conferencing system having trunk groups, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

providing an automated scheduler for dynamically scheduling reservations of the audio conferencing resources;

receiving a request from a caller to schedule an audio conference having participants;

in response to said request, assigning at least one number from a pool of telephone numbers; and

with the automated scheduler, identifying selected ones of the audio conferencing resources to be used in the audio conference and reserving the selected audio conferencing resources for use in the audio conference to be accessed by calling said assigned number.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the identified ones of the resources to be used in the audio conference include a phone number that the participants in the audio conference may call to participate in the audio conference.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the identified ones of the resources to be used in the audio conference include information that designates one of the trunk groups to be used in the audio conference.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the request includes a start time and end time for the audio conference.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the identifying step entails determining what audio conference resources are available from the start time to the end time.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifying step entails determining optimal audio conference resources for servicing the request.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of providing a confirmation that the audio conference has been successfully scheduled to the caller.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the request and the confirmation are realized during a single phone call with the caller.

9. A method of reserving audio conference resources including a plurality of audio conferencing bridges of an audio conferencing system, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

receiving a request to schedule an audio conference at a given date and time, said audio conference having certain constraints;

in response to said request, assigning at least one number from a pool of telephone numbers;

examining the audio conferencing resources to determine available audio conferencing resources at the given date and time;

identifying which of the available audio conferencing resources fulfill the constraints of the audio conference as qualified audio conference resources; and

selecting some of the qualified audio conference resources as the ones to be reserved for the audio conference to be accessed by calling said assigned number.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the method further comprises the step of applying a linear scoring scheme to at least some of the audio conferencing resources to gauge optimality of the resources and wherein the selecting entails selecting based upon the scoring scheme.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the request is made via a telephone call.

12. A method of scheduling telephone numbers and audio conferencing resources including a plurality of audio conferencing bndges for an audio conferencing system, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

receiving a first request to schedule a first audio conference having participants;

determining and reserving a phone number for the first audio conference that the participants may call to participate in the first audio conference;

determining and reserving audio conferencing resources to be used for the first audio conference independently of the determining of the phone number for the first audio conference;

receiving a second request to schedule a second audio conference having participants; and

determining and reserving a phone number and audio conferencing resources to be used for the second audio conference independently, such that the determining of the phone number determines the audio conferencing resources to be used for the second audio conference.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the audio conferencing system has customers and the phone number and audio conferencing resources to be used for the second audio conference are reserved exclusively for a selected one of the customers.

14. In a computer system that interfaces with an audio conferencing system having audio conferencing resources including a plurality of audio conferencing bridges a method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

providing an automated scheduler for scheduling reservations of the audio conferencing resources for audio conferences;

receiving a request to schedule a series of recurring audio conferences that occur at periodic intervals with common participants;

in response to said request, assigning at least one number from a pool of telephone numbers; and

with the automated schedulers scheduling the series of recurring audio conferences such that audio conferencing resources are reserved for the series of recurring audio conferences to be accessed by calling said assigned number.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the request specifies times and dates for the series of recurring audio conferences.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the method further comprises the step of confirming availability of the audio conferencing resources during the times and dates specified by the request.

17. In a computer system, a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method of reserving audio conferencing resources including a plurality of audio conferencing bridges for an audio conferencing system having trunk groups, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

providing an automated scheduler for scheduling reservations of the audio conferencing resources;

receiving a request from a caller to schedule an audio conference having participants;

in response to said request, assining at least one number from a pool of telephone numbers; and

with the automated scheduler, identifying selected ones of the audio conferencing resources to be used in the audio conference and reserving the selected audio conferencing resources for use in the audio conference to be accessibly calling said assigned number.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the identified ones of the resources to be used in the audio conference include a phone number that the participants in the audio conference may call to participate in the audio conference.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the identified ones of the resources to be used in the audio conference include information that designates one of the trunk groups to be used in the audio conference.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the request includes a start time and end time for the audio conference.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein the identifying step entails determining what audio conference resources are available from the start time to the end time.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the identifying step entails determining optimal audio conference resources for servicing the request.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the method further comprises the step of providing a confirmation that the audio conference has been successfully scheduled to the caller.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23 wherein the request and the confirmation are realized during a single phone call with the caller.

25. In a computer system, a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method of reserving audio conferencing resources including a plurality of audio bridges for an audio conferencing system the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

receiving a request to schedule an audio conference at a given date and time, said audio conference having certain constraints;

in response to said request, assigning at least one number from a pool of telephone numbers;

examining the audio conferencing resources to determine available audio conferencing resources at the given date and time;

identifying which of the available audio conferencing resources fulfill the constraints of the audio conference as qualified audio conference resources; and

selecting some of the qualified audio conference resources as the ones to be reserved for the audio conference to be accessed by calling said assigned number.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 25 wherein the method further comprises the step of applying a linear scoring scheme to at least some of the audio conferencing resources to gauge optimality of the resources and wherein the selecting entails selecting based upon the scoring scheme.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 25 wherein the request is made via a telephone call.

28. In a computer system that interfaces with an audio conferencing system having audio conferencing rsources including a plurality of audio conferencing bridges, a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

providing an automated scheduler for scheduling reservations of the audio conferencing resources for audio conferences;

receiving a request to schedule a series of recurring audio conferences that occur at periodic intervals with common participants;

in response to said request, assigning at least one number from pool of telephone numbers;

with the automated scheduler, scheduling the series of recurring audio conferences such that audio conferencing resources are reserved for the series of recurring audio conferences to be accessed by calling said assigned number.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 28 wherein the request specifies times and dates for the series of recurring audio conferences.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 28 wherein the method further comprises the step of confirming availability of the audio conferencing resources during the times and dates specified by the request.

31. In a computer system, a method of reserving audio conferencing resources for an audio conferencing system having trunk groups, comprising the computerimplemented steps of:

providing an automated scheduler for dynamically scheduling reservations of the audio conferencing resources; and

applying a linear scoring scheme to at least some of the audio conferencing resources to gauge optimality of the resources.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the method further comprises identifying, with the automated scheduler, selected ones of the audio conferencing resources to be used in the audio conference and reserving the selected audio conferencing resources for use in the audio conference.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the method further comprises selecting some of the audio conferencing resources based upon the scoring scheme.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the method further comprises receiving a request from a caller to schedule an audio conference having participants.

35. In a computer system, a method of reserving audio conferencing resources for an audio conferencing system having trunk groups, comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

providing an automated scheduler for dynamically scheduling reservations of the audio conferencing resources;

receiving a request from a caller to schedule an audio conference having participants;

with the automated scheduler, identifying selected ones of the audio conferencing resources to be used in the audio conference and reserving the selected audio conferencing resources for use in the audio conference; and

applying a linear scoring scheme to at least some of the audio conferencing resources to gauge optimality of the resources and selecting some of the audio conferencing resources based upon the scoring scheme.