System and method for managing telephony endpoint inventory

• US 9,338,280 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2014
• Issued: 05/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Inventors: Corcoran, Christopher, Milliron, Timothy S., Ballai, Adam
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Huy D
• Assistant Examiner(s): Duffy, James P
• Application Number:
  US14/309,709
• Publication Number:
  US 20140376389A1
• Time in Patent Office: 691 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2263 Network management
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/229 Wire identification arrangements; Number assignment determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42144 by service provider

Abstract

A system and method for managing an endpoint repository of a communication platform that includes managing a set of telephone endpoints that can be in an allocated state or an unallocated state; classifying endpoints of the set of telephone endpoints with a set of classifiers; evaluating endpoint inventory across a set of endpoint classification groupings and detecting at least one classification grouping that, based in part on the allocated and unallocated state of corresponding endpoints, satisfies an inventory update condition; generating an endpoint transfer request that specifies the endpoint classifiers of the classification grouping; and selectively adding endpoints from the inventory source to the endpoint repository.

Claims

1. A method for managing a telephone endpoint repository of a communication platform system comprising:

at the communication platform system;

managing a set of telephone endpoints that can be in an allocated state or an unallocated state;

classifying telephone endpoints of the set of telephone endpoints with a set of telephone endpoint classifiers;

processing a request to allocate a telephone endpoint to an account of the communication platform system and transition the telephone endpoint to an allocated state, the telephone endpoint being managed at the communication platform system, the account being associated with an entity that is external to the communication platform system, the request being received at the communication platform system from an external system of the entity;

responsive to the request to allocate the telephone endpoint, evaluating telephone endpoint inventory across a set of telephone endpoint classification groupings and detecting at least one telephone endpoint classification grouping that, based in part on the allocated and unallocated state of corresponding telephone endpoints, satisfies a telephone endpoint inventory update condition;

generating a telephone endpoint transfer request that specifies the telephone endpoint classifiers of the detected telephone endpoint classification grouping;

upon fulfillment of the telephone endpoint transfer request, adding a set of new telephone endpoints to the communication platform in a quarantined state, each telephone endpoint in the quarantined state being both unavailable and unallocated; and

for each telephone endpoint of the set of new telephone endpoints in the quarantined state;

executing automated quality testing on the telephone endpoint by;

monitoring a number of incoming communications to the telephone endpoint for a duration of time, and

determining whether the monitored number of incoming communications for the duration of time is below a threshold number of incoming communications for the duration of time; and

responsive to a determination that the monitored number is below the threshold number, removing the telephony endpoint from the quarantined state and setting the telephony endpoint to an available and unallocated state,

wherein the set of telephone endpoint classifiers includes at least a communication capability classifier, and a quality classifier,

wherein evaluating telephone endpoint inventory across a set of telephone endpoint classification groupings and detecting at least one telephone endpoint classification grouping that satisfies a telephone endpoint inventory update condition comprises;

analyzing usage for a telephone endpoint classification grouping of the allocated telephone endpoint to detect if action should be taken to adjust inventory of the telephone endpoint classification grouping of the allocated telephone endpoint,

wherein analyzing usage for the telephone endpoint classification grouping comprises;

accounting for inventory metric history of the telephone endpoint classification grouping to predict expected inventory requirements for the telephone endpoint classification grouping,

wherein generating the telephone endpoint transfer request comprises;

selecting a provider for providing the set of new telephone endpoints responsive to the telephone endpoint transfer request,

wherein in a case where the communication platform system detects that action should be taken to adjust inventory of the telephone endpoint classification grouping of the allocated telephone endpoint, the telephone endpoint transfer request specifies the telephone endpoint classification grouping of the allocated telephone endpoint, and the communication platform system selects the provider based on the telephone endpoint classification grouping.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein classifying telephone endpoints of the set of telephone endpoints with a set of telephone endpoint classifiers comprises executing quality testing on a telephone endpoint and generating a quality score classifier for the telephone endpoint.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein classifying telephone endpoints of the set of telephone endpoints with a set of telephone endpoint classifiers comprises classifying a first telephone endpoint along a set of telephone endpoint properties, wherein the set of telephone endpoint classifiers for telephone endpoint properties include numbering plan area code (NPA-NXX) classifier, a mobile capability classifier, and a number pattern classifier.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein classifying telephone endpoints of the set of telephone endpoints with a set of telephone endpoint classifiers comprises executing quality testing on the first telephone endpoint and generating a quality score classifier for the first telephone endpoint.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of telephone endpoint classifiers comprises at least a NPA-NXX classifier, a mobile capability classifier, and a quality classifier.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a telephone endpoint inventory trigger;

wherein evaluating telephone endpoint inventory across a set of telephone endpoint classification groupings is initiated in response to the telephone endpoint inventory trigger.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein receiving a telephone endpoint inventory trigger comprises detecting a change in the quality of at least one telephone endpoint in the inventory repository.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein detecting a change in the quality of at least one telephone endpoint comprises receiving quality feedback notification through an application programming interface (API).

9. The method of claim 7, wherein detecting a change in the quality of at least one telephone endpoint comprises periodically executing automated quality testing of a telephone endpoint.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein receiving a telephone endpoint inventory trigger comprises processing a request to transition an allocated inventory telephone endpoint to an unallocated state in the inventory repository.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the inventory trigger is a scheduled trigger.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein setting the telephony endpoint to an available and unallocated state comprises adding the telephone endpoint to the telephone endpoint repository in an available unallocated state with limited communication capabilities.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein adding the telephone endpoint to the telephone endpoint repository in the available unallocated state with the limited communication capabilities comprises excluding messaging communication when in an allocated state.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein adding the telephone endpoint to the telephone endpoint repository in the available unallocated state with the limited communication capabilities comprises excluding voice communication when in an allocated state.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein setting the telephony endpoint to an available and unallocated state comprises verifying that the telephone endpoint conforms to characteristics of a requested telephone endpoint category.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the telephone endpoints are telephone numbers.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the telephone numbers include short codes.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication platform system is a multi-tenant communication application platform system where users set up applications for facilitating communications to assigned phone numbers.

19. The method of claim 18,

wherein a platform API service of the communication platform system receives the request to allocate a telephone endpoint from the external system of the entity and transmits an internal API request to a telephony endpoint management service of the communication platform system,

wherein responsive to reception of the internal API request, the telephony endpoint management service provides a message to an inventory monitor of the communication platform system to notify the inventory monitor of the telephony endpoint allocation,

wherein responsive to the message, the inventory monitor evaluates the telephone endpoint inventory across the set of telephone endpoint classification groupings, detects the at least one telephone endpoint classification grouping, generates the telephone endpoint transfer request, and adds the set of new telephone endpoints to the telephone endpoint repository.

20. The method of 19, wherein the request to allocate the telephone endpoint to the account of the communication platform system and transition the telephone endpoint to the allocated state is a telephone endpoint inventory trigger;

and wherein evaluating telephone endpoint inventory across a set of telephone endpoint classification groupings is initiated in response to the telephone endpoint inventory trigger.