Telephonic communications – Centralized switching system – Call distribution to operator
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-31
2003-04-29
Tieu, Benny Q. (Department: 2642)
Telephonic communications
Centralized switching system
Call distribution to operator
C370S352000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06556671
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is in the field of CTI telephony including data network telephony (DNT) communication and pertains more particularly to methods and apparatus for routing incoming communication events.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Telephone call processing and switching systems are, at the time of the present patent application, relatively sophisticated, computerized systems, and development and introduction of new systems continues. Much information on the nature of such hardware and software is available in a number of publications accessible to the present inventor and to those with skill in the art in general. For this reason, much minute detail of known systems is not reproduced here, as to do so would obscure the facts of the invention.
One document which provides considerable information on intelligent networks is “ITU-T Recommendation Q.1219, Intelligent Network User's Guide for Capability Set 1”, dated April, 1994. This document is incorporated herein by reference.
At the time of filing the present patent application there continues to be remarkable growth in telephone routing systems, with routing done both at or near point-of origin of incoming calls, and at call destinations. For example, systems are known to the present inventor that perform initial call processing before routing an incoming call to a destination switch, and further routing is done at the call destination in computerized telephony equipment, often termed customer premises equipment (CPE). The present invention pertains most particularly to routing at customer premises.
There is, at the time of the present patent application, a considerable range of CPE systems available for use from various manufacturers, and, as state-of-the-art routing systems are typically computerized, there is a broad variety of software available for such systems as well. It is the software in general wherein routing rules are set, and the routing rules determine the decision-making paths a system follows in routing calls.
A large technical support operation serves as a good example in this specification of the kind of applications of telephone equipment and functions to which the present inventions pertain and apply, and a technical support organization may be used from time to time in the current specification for example purposes. Such a technical support system, as well as other such systems, typically has a country wide or even a world wide matrix of call centers for serving customer's needs. Such call center operations are more and more a common practice to provide redundancy and decentralization.
In a call center, a relatively large number of agents typically handle telephone communication with callers. Each agent is typically assigned to a telephone connected to a central switch, which is in turn connected to a public-switched telephone network (PSTN), well-known in the art. The central switch may be one of several types, such as Automatic Call Distributor (ACD), Private Branch Exchange (PBX), or a Public Access Branch Exchange (PABX). Each agent also typically has access to a computer platform having a video display unit (PC/VDU).
In addition to CTI communications centers, DNT capability including Internet Protocol (IP) communication has been introduced and successfully integrated into the telephony environment. In current art, it is not uncommon to have a CTI-enhanced call center that also practices Internet Protocol Telephony (IPT). With added capability and expanded media options, the term communication center now more appropriately describes the call-in center.
At the time of the present patent application intelligent telephony networks and IP networks share infrastructure to some extent, and computer equipment added to telephony systems for computer-telephony integration (CTI) are also capable of Internet connection and interaction. Therefore, there is often no clear distinction as to what part of a network is conventional telephony, and what part is IPT.
In conventional telephony systems, such as public-switched telephony networks (PSTNs), there are computerized service control points (SCPs) that provide central routing intelligence (hence the term intelligent network). Internet Protocol Networks (IPNs) do not have a centralized routing intelligence, such as a SCP. IPNs, however, have multiple Domain Name Servers (DNS), whose purpose is somewhat similar to that of routers in intelligent networks, which is to control the routing of traffic. Instead of telephony switches (PBXs), IP switches or IP routers are used.
Further to the above, IPT systems at the time of the present patent application are much less sophisticated than are CTI systems in provision of intelligent routing, parallel data transfer, supplemental data provision to agents, and the like. The advantages that embodiments of the invention described below bring to conventional telephony systems may also in most cases be provided to IPT systems and systems in which the form of the network between conventional telephony and IP protocol is blurred.
Telephony routing systems typically rely in part on customer identification, call-destination information, and call origination information to aid in routing. In standard telephony service such information, with the exception of caller identity, is typically provided as part of the service through such as caller line identity (CLID), automatic number identification service (ANIS), destination number identification service (DNIS), and so on. These protocols are well developed in standard telephony services, but are not well defined in DNT systems. Often, identification of a customer (actual person making the call) must be solicited at the time of the call.
One protocol developed to aid wireless communication in telephony is the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). The WAP protocol simplifies communication between wireless devices operating on a given network. WAP compliant devices are typically personalized devices which must have an assigned address and which must be authenticated on a network before use. Therefore, caller identification is a standard part of placing a call from a device that requires authentication to operate on a given network.
In prior art systems, routing protocol is typically institutionalized within a communications center using applicable software. Although there are widely varying systems in the art for creating and implementing routing rules, all such systems exhibit a common drawback. That is to say that once set up (programmed) to follow certain routing rules and practices, such rules cannot easily vary, and individual users or groups of users, cannot easily change or modify the rules.
In all telephony environments callers seeking service from a communications center do not always fit into defined categories that may be covered by existing rigid routing rules. Perhaps a caller has more than one objective when calling a communications center. Perhaps a caller requests a service that could be performed, but is not defined as an task within the center. Flexible routing routines and error routing routines are developed to handle such situations. However, such routines often dispose of callers in ways that the callers themselves do not expect or desire. One example, would be continually routing an individual back to an IVR menu because he or she wants to accomplish a goal that is not specifically defined with specific routing options made available to the caller when placing the call.
A degree of routing flexibility has more recently been achieved in more advanced intelligent systems known to the inventor through introduction of various “flexible” routing techniques. Among these are skill-based routing, predictive routing, priority routing, statistical routing, virtual queuing, and even knowledge-based routing. These routing techniques are known to the inventor, may be implemented in combination, and are typically server-controlled and executed. In some applications, these flexible rules may be changed for special cases at the time of or before a cal
Boys Donald R.
Central Coast Patent Agency Inc.
Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories , Inc.
Tieu Benny Q.
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