Connection manager for integrating legacy telephony environments and IP networks

• US 7,406,168 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2002
• Issued: 07/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Moore, Victor S., Celi, Joseph Jr., Gavagni, Brett J., Zabolotskaya, Margarita
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Quynh H
• Application Number:
  US10/324,536
• Publication Number:
  US 20040120501A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,049 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265.01, 379/220.01, 379/221.01, 379/221.06
• US Class Current: 379/265.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4228 in networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5234 Uniform load distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5237 Interconnection arrangements between ACD systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42

Abstract

In a telephony call management system, a method of distributing calls among a plurality of packet-based load balancing resources can include receiving over a telephony channel a call request specifying call information, comparing the call information with selection criteria to select one of the plurality of packet-based load balancing resources, and querying the selected packet-based load balancing resource to resolve the call request. A response from the selected packet-based load balancing resource can be received which indicates whether the call request can be resolved.

Claims

1. In a telephony call management system, a method of distributing calls among a plurality of packet-based load balancing resources comprising:

receiving over a telephony channel a call request specifying call information;

determining based upon the call information a set of parameters, the set of parameters comprising a call termination point, time that the call request is received, telephony channel over which the call request is received, a telephony communications protocol according to which the call request is received, and a priority parameter associated with the call request;

in a first format conversion, parsing said call information to remove unnecessary protocol-specific overhead and converting a format of said call information, the format based upon a resource-specific protocol, into an internal format;

detecting a presence of the plurality of packet-based load balancing resources by monitoring activities of the plurality of packet-based load balancing resources associated with the telephony communications protocol to detect an availability of at least one packet-based load balancing resource to resolve the call request in view of the presence and the telephony communications protocol;

registering the plurality of packet-based load balancing resources in order of the presence, wherein the presence determines whether said call information is converted from the internal format to another format in a secondary format conversion and prevents processing of the secondary format conversion for unavailable load balance resources;

comparing the call information with selection criteria to select one of a plurality of packet-based load balancing resources in the order of presence based upon at least one parameter contained in the set of parameters determined from the call information;

querying the selected packet-based load balancing resource in the order of presence to resolve the call request; and

receiving a response from the selected packet-based load balancing resource indicating whether the call request can be resolved;

if the call request was not resolved, selecting and querying subsequent ones of the plurality of packet-based load balancing resources in the order of presence until no further load balancing resources are left to be queried or until the call request is resolved; and

if the call request was resolved, in the second format conversion, converting said call information from the internal format into another format based upon a protocol utilized by the selected load balancing resource or a subsequently selected load balancing resource;

wherein the selection criteria specifies a priority order for call requests based on the telephony protocol.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving step receives the call request from a circuit-switched telephony network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said call information specifies origination information, said comparing step further comprising:

identifying the origination information for the call request;

comparing the origination information with the selection criteria; and

selecting a packet-based load balancing resource which is associated with the origination information;

wherein the selection criteria specifies the order in which the plurality of packet-based load balancing resources are queried to resolve the call request, and the selection criteria predicates the order of query based upon at least one among a number or exchange, a domain of a network address, and a user name of a network address.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said call information specifies termination information corresponding to the call termination point, said comparing step further comprising:

identifying the termination information for the call request;

comparing the termination information with the selection criteria; and

selecting a packet-based load balancing resource which is associated with the termination information;

wherein the selection criteria specifies the order in which the plurality of packet-based load balancing resources are queried to resolve the call request, and the selection criteria predicates the order of query based upon at least one among a number or exchange, a domain of a network address, and a user name of a network address.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said comparing step comprises:

comparing the telephony communications protocol with the selection criteria; and

selecting a packet-based load balancing resource according to the telephony communications protocol of the call request.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said comparing step comprises:

identifying the telephony channel for the call request;

comparing the telephony channel with the selection criteria; and

selecting a packet-based load balancing resource according to the telephony channel of the call request.