Method and system for a multitenancy telephone network

• US 8,570,873 B2
• Filed: 01/16/2013
• Issued: 10/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Inventors: Lawson, Jeffrey G., Wolthuis, John, Cooke, Evan
• Primary Examiner(s): Oveissi, David
• Application Number:
  US13/743,139
• Publication Number:
  US 20130128743A1
• Time in Patent Office: 286 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/235
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2564 for a higher-layer protocol, e.g. for session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• 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 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2473 Telephone terminals interfacing a personal computer, e.g. using an API (Application Programming Interface) details of API H04M7/0021
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/34 Charging, billing or metering arrangements for private branch exchanges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/39 using speech synthesis speech synthesis per se G10L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/36 Statistical metering, e.g. recording occasions when traffic exceeds capacity of trunks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/367 Traffic or load control
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42323 PBX's with CTI arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/51 Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention , e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5158 in combination with automated outdialling systems devices for signalling identity of wanted subscriber H04M1/26
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5235 Dependent on call type or called number [DNIS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0033 Notification or handling of incoming calls by a computer
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method and system for operating a multitenancy telephony system including a call queue that stores call requests received from a plurality of users; an expandable and contractible telephony resource cluster that establishes call sessions for call requests; a analysis system that calculates capacity requirements of the system; a resource allocator that manages the scaling and operation of the telephony resource cluster; and a plurality of telephony network channels that are used as telephony communication channels for call sessions.

Claims

1. A method for multitenant call communication comprising:

through an application programming interface (API) of a telephony resource cluster, receiving a first outbound call request of a first account over HTTP;

through the API of the telephony resource cluster, receiving a second outbound call request of a second account over HTTP;

servicing the first outbound call request with a first resource of the communication resource cluster;

at a second individually assigned call queue, queuing the second outbound call request;

dequeuing the second outbound call request at an inter-call rate of the second account; and

servicing the dequeued second call request with the first resource of the telephony resource cluster, wherein servicing the dequeued call request comprises establishing a call session to a destination telephony endpoint;

wherein the telephony resource cluster can communicate calls over a public switched telephony network (PSTN), and the telephony resource cluster is limited in call capacity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the call capacity is limited by the number of concurrent calls handled by an allocated number of telephony channels of the telephony resource cluster.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the call capacity is limited by processing capacity of the telephony resource cluster.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising dequeuing at least a third call request at substantially the same time as dequeuing the second call request;

and servicing the third call request at substantially the same time as servicing the second call request.

5. The method of claim 1, the dequeuing rate is an entity rate limit.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein queuing the second outbound call request includes queuing the second call request in a queue with call requests from a plurality of users.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second call request is dequeued in round-robin methodology.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second call request is dequeued in a user-weighted fair queuing methodology.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein servicing a second call request includes selecting a load balancing call router of the telephony resource cluster;

and communicating the dequeued call request to the selected call router;

wherein at the call router, servicing the dequeued call request.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein servicing the dequeued call request includes calling a telephony endpoint over the PSTN;

wherein the resource of the communication resource is a telephony channel.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein servicing the second call request includes calling a telephony endpoint over a Session initiation Protocol (SIP) connection.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising provisioning resources to the telephony resource cluster.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising satisfying a dequeuing rate of the second account before dequeuing the second outbound call request.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising queuing the first outbound call request;

and dequeuing the first outbound call request prior to servicing the first outbound call request.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein dequeuing the first outbound call request is dequeued according to a dequeuing rate of the first account;

and wherein dequeuing the second outbound call request is dequeued according to a dequeuing rate of the second account.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the call capacity is limited by the number of concurrent calls handled by an allocated number of telephony channels of the telephony resource cluster.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of queued call requests exceeds the maximum number of call sessions serviceable by the communication resource cluster at one time.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein individually assigned by phone number is assigned to a outbound call requests of a phone number of the second account.

19. A method for multitenant communication comprising:

managing a plurality of queues that are individually assigned to accounts of a multitenant communication platform;

at the communication platform, initiating a call request;

queuing the call request in an individually assigned queue of an account;

dequeuing the queued call request from a plurality of queued call requests, and dequeuing at a dequeuing rate not exceeding the capacity of a multitenant communication resource cluster and not exceeding an inter-call request rate of the account, wherein the communication resource cluster is limited in communication capacity; and

servicing the dequeued call request at a resource of the communication resource cluster that services call requests dequeued from other individually assigned queue, wherein the communication resource cluster can communicate calls over a public switched telephony network (PSTN).

20. The method of claim 19, wherein servicing the dequeued call request includes retrieving application instructions to execute during a telephony session of the call request.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the call capacity is limited by the number of concurrent calls handled by a fixed number of telephony channels of the telephony resource cluster.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the call capacity is limited by processing capacity of the telephony resource cluster.

23. The method of claim 19, further comprising initiating the call request upon, at the multi telephony resource cluster, receiving an outbound call request submitted to a multitenant application programming interface (API).

24. The method of claim 23, wherein servicing a queued communication request includes selecting a load balancing call router of the telephony resource cluster;

and communicating the dequeued call request to the selected call router;

wherein at the call router, servicing the dequeued call request includes calling a telephony endpoint over the PSTN.