System and method for routing communications

• US 8,948,356 B2
• Filed: 10/15/2013
• Issued: 02/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Inventors: Nowack, Matthew D, Malatack, Patrick, Wilsher, Thomas, Selph, Chad
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, QUOC DUC
• Application Number:
  US14/054,439
• Publication Number:
  US 20140105372A1
• Time in Patent Office: 476 Days
• Field of Search: 379/114.01, 379/114.02, 379/121.02, 379/220.01, 379/221.01, 379/221.02
• US Class Current: 379/114.02
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/38 Telephone uniform resource identifier [URI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8044 Least cost routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8055 Selecting cheaper transport technology for a given service
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/82 Criteria or parameters used for performing billing operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8351 before establishing a communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/84 Types of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/85 characterised by the type of condition triggering a notification
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/851 Determined tariff
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/852 Low balance or limit reached
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0012 Details of application programming interfaces [API] for telephone networks; Arrangements which combine a telephonic communication equipment and a computer, i.e. computer telephony integration [CPI] arrangements

Abstract

A system and method that includes receiving a communication request of an account, the communication request including communication properties; identifying at least two routing options of a route priority list, the routing options capable of completing the communication request and identified according to a priority heuristic; generating a communication cost from the communication properties; and upon receipt of the routing response and the communication cost response, executing a communication with a routing option of the routing priority list and committing a cost of the communication to the account.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

at a communication service, receiving a communication request of an account, the communication request including communication properties that include at least one destination endpoint;

transmitting a routing request to a route option service, the routing request including the communication properties;

at the route option service, identifying at least two routing options capable of completing the communication request and identified according to a priority heuristic, and transmitting a routing response to the communication service, the routing response including a route priority list of identified routing options, wherein each of the routing options includes an associated internal cost to the communication service;

transmitting a communication cost request to a cost service, the communication cost request including the communication properties;

at the cost service, generating an external communication cost from the communication properties, wherein the communication cost is generated independently from identifying the at least two routing options, and returning a communication cost response to the communication service; and

at the communication service, upon receipt of the routing response and the communication cost response, executing a communication with a routing option of the routing priority list and committing the external communication cost to the account.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying at least two routing options comprises querying a route table of routing options indexed by communication properties;

and wherein generating the external communication cost comprises querying a cost model with the communication properties.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising providing a cost interface to the communication cost service;

updating the cost model according to requests received through the cost interface; and

providing a routing interface and updating the route table according to requests received through the routing interface.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising measuring quality of executed communication of a routing option of an executed communication;

and through the routing interface, updating a quality parameter of the used routing option of the route table according to the measured quality.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein routing options of the route table include an internal cost parameter;

and at the route option service, transmitting an internal cost parameter update to the cost service through the cost interface when a new internal cost parameter of a routing option is set;

at the cost service, updating a communication cost within the cost model when an internal cost parameter update is received.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein transmitting the routing request to the route option service and transmitting the communication cost request to the cost service are initiated in parallel.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying at least two routing options according to a priority heuristic comprises analyzing intended communication content and identifying routing options with transport capabilities of delivering intended communication content to the destination endpoint.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising calculating an effective internal cost of communicating intended communication content;

and prioritizing routing options of the route priority list in part according to the effective internal cost of the routing options.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein calculating an effective internal cost comprises calculating a number of message communications executed to communicate the intended communication content multiplied by the internal cost of an executed communication of the routing option.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying at least two routing options according to a priority heuristic comprises prioritizing a routing option that has not fulfilled a usage quota over a routing option that has fulfilled a usage quota.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein executing a communication with a routing option of the routing priority list comprises transforming content of the communication properties to a format compatible with a transport protocol of the selected routing option.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the cost is price of a communication is a monetary price, and committing a cost of the communication includes charging an account the monetary price.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein selection of communication cost is selected independent of route priority list.