Multiplex communications – Pathfinding or routing – Combined circuit switching and packet switching
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-17
2001-10-09
Kizou, Hassan (Department: 2662)
Multiplex communications
Pathfinding or routing
Combined circuit switching and packet switching
C379S030000, C710S068000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06301246
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a method and system for silently monitoring calls routed through an automatic call distributor (ACD) system and, more specifically, to a method and a system for silently monitoring ACD calls in a voice-over-data-network environment.
ACD systems are employed in a wide range of customer service environments and provide ACD users with an economical and powerful means for providing customer service. Calls can be automatically routed to ACD agents who possess the skills required for a particular call. Management of a customer service department is facilitated by the ability of a manager or supervisor to monitor calls directed to agents and to analyze performance of the agents. The supervisor, utilizing a single terminal, is able to conveniently switch between different ACD agent calls and thereby directly monitor the job performance of a large number of ACD agents.
An example of an ACD for providing customer support for computers and peripheral devices might include a greeting which requires the customer to select from a choice of computer related questions regarding printer malfunctions, an inability to run particular applications on the computer, and software installation on a computer. The option which the customer selects causes the ACD system to transfer the call to a particular agent whose skills match the needs of the customer, as indicated by the selection. Once the call has been answered by an ACD agent, a supervisor can silently monitor the call to evaluate the agent's performance and make recommendations.
With the rapid development of computer network communications capabilities, many of the functions provided by an ACD system can now be performed in a distributed network environment. However, certain obstacles remain to providing effective ACD functionality in a distributed network environment. Specifically, the dominant protocols for voice-over-data-network telephony, for instance the H.323 standard of the International Telecommunication Union, do not provide an effective means for silently monitoring a call.
A voice-over-data-network call, for instance a telephony-over-LAN (TOL) call, includes a first voice data stream transmitted from an agent terminal to a customer terminal and a second voice data stream transmitted from the customer terminal to the agent terminal. One known method for enabling a supervisor terminal to monitor the call includes establishing a monitoring call between the agent terminal and the supervisor terminal. The agent terminal utilizes a digital signal processor (DSP) to mix voice samples from the first voice data stream with voice samples from the second voice data stream into a third voice data stream which is transmitted to the supervisor terminal over the monitoring call. Requiring all agent terminals to have the DSP capabilities to mix the voice samples is often impractical, because of the cost associated with DSP resources required for mixing voice samples. The cost of the ACD system becomes significantly greater if each agent terminal must include the sample-mixing sophistication.
What is required is a method and system for enabling a supervisor terminal to silently monitor agent calls without requiring agent terminals to include substantial otherwise unnecessary resources in establishing the monitoring capability.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method and system for enabling monitoring of a first voice-over-data network call between two terminals. A first terminal is configured to transmit first and second voice data of the first network call to a monitoring terminal over a second voice-over-data-network call without integrating voice samples from the first and second voice data. Typically, the first voice data is voice information generated at the first terminal for transmission to a user at a second terminal, while the second voice data is voice information generated at the second terminal for transmission to a user at the first terminal.
The first terminal cooperates with the monitoring terminal to establish the monitoring voice-over-data-network call between the first and monitoring terminals in response to a call-setup request by the monitoring terminal. The first terminal transmits the first and second voice data over the monitoring call without integrating voice samples of the first voice data with voice samples of the second data. Because the first terminal is able to transmit the first and second voice data to the monitoring terminal without having to integrate voice samples, less processing power is required by the first terminal.
In a preferred embodiment the system and method are practiced in a telephony-over-LAN environment, wherein the LAN supports a distributed ACD system. The first terminal is an ACD agent terminal, the second terminal is a customer terminal, and the monitoring terminal is an ACD supervisor terminal. The agent terminal inspects time stamps of data packets in the first call to determine if the time stamps indicate that a first packet of first voice data was transmitted from the agent terminal over the first call at the same time that a second packet of second voice data was transmitted from the customer terminal. If the first packet was transmitted at the same time as the second packet, this indicates that the agent and customer were talking simultaneously. Two different embodiments are employed to transmit first and second voice data over the monitoring call that were simultaneously transmitted in the first call.
In a preferred embodiment, first bytes of first voice data are multiplexed with second bytes of second voice data to form hybrid voice data packets with sequentially alternating first and second bytes. These hybrid voice data packets are transmitted to the monitoring terminal where they are de-multiplexed. Multiplexing first and second voice data prior to transmission to the monitoring terminal is preferred because multiplexing effectively reduces delay which results from real-time transmission in the monitoring call of simultaneously generated first and second voice data.
In an alternative embodiment, prior to transmission over the monitoring call, first voice data is framed into first data packets and second voice data is framed into second data packets such that each first data packet includes first voice data with a transmission time frame which overlaps with the transmission time frame of voice data in consecutive second data packets. Likewise, each second data packet includes voice data with a transmission time frame which overlaps with the transmission time frame of voice data in consecutive first data packets. That is, the framing of the first voice data and second voice data is shifted from the framing alignment in the first call. Consequently, the framing of the first data packets is out of phase with respect to the framing of the second data packets. Preferably, the framing of the first and second voice data is such that the transmission time frame of voice data of each first data packet overlaps with approximately 50% of the voice data in each of two second data packets and, conversely, such that the transmission time frame of voice data in each second data packet overlaps with approximately 50% of the voice data in each of two first data packets.
After the first and second voice data are reframed in the above-described manner, the reframed first and second data packets are alternately transmitted from the agent terminal to the monitoring terminal. In comparison to transmission delay associated with consecutive transmission of first and second data stream packets having 100% overlapping first call transmission time frames, transmission delay is reduced by 50% of the processing time for the preceding packet, because the preceding packet only contains 50% voice data having an overlapping first call transmission time frame.
By refraining from integrating voice samples from the first and second data streams prior to transmitting voice data over the monitoring call, the agent terminal does not require as
Beyda William Joseph
Gheorghiu Florin M.
Shaffer Shmuel
Skrzynski Mark
Kizou Hassan
Pezzlo John
Siemens Information and Communication Networks Inc.
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