Universal voice browser framework
View Patent ↗A system and method for providing voice communications over a network, including a media server having a voice rendering platform for supporting voice-based user interactions. The voice rendering platform provides prompting, information collection and validation, and audio recording and transcoding. A separate application server is responsible for performing call control actions. During a user dialog, control is passed to the media server for rendering and receiving data, and passed back to the application server for call control actions. The media server includes a script execution environment for rendering the voice components of the user dialogs. The application server is an execution platform for applications written in a procedural programming language. Voice communications over a network are provided without combining call control and voice rendering functionality into a single, script execution platform.
1. A method for providing voice communications over a network, comprising:
receiving, at a first server system, a first call signaling message, said first call signaling message requesting that a voice communications session be established;
determining, at said first server system, whether said first call signaling message indicates a service to be provided;
in the event that said first call signaling message does not indicate a service to be provided, processing, at said first server system, a default script in a predetermined mark up language;
forming, at said first server system, responsive to said processing of said default script and at least one call parameter of said first call signaling message, a second message including said at least one call parameter of said first call signaling message;
transmitting, from said first server system to a second server system separate from said first server system, said second message;
receiving a new script from said second server system; and
processing said new script from said second server system at said first server system.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, by said second server system, responsive to said at least one call parameter included in said second message, said new script; and
transmitting said new script in a third message to said first server system.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said first call signaling message is a session initiation protocol (SIP) INVITE message, wherein said second message is a hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) message, and wherein said predetermined mark up language is VoiceXML.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said at least one call parameter comprises a telephone number associated with a caller.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said at least one call parameter comprises a destination telephone number.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said at least one call parameter comprises a time of day the call was placed.
7. A system for providing voice communications over a network, comprising:
a first server system including at least one processor communicably coupled to a program memory, said first server system operable to
receive a first call signaling message, said first call signaling message requesting that a voice communications session be established,
determine whether said first call signaling message indicates a service to be provided,
in the event that said first call signaling message does not indicate a service to be provided, process a default script in a predetermined mark up language,
form, responsive to said processing of said default script and at least one call parameter of said first call signaling message, a second message including said at least one call parameter of said first call signaling message,
transmit said second message to a second server system, receive a new script from said second server system, and
process said new script from said second server system.
8. The system of claim 7 , further comprising:
a second server system including at least one processor communicably coupled to a program memory, wherein said second server system is operable to
determine, responsive to said at least one call parameter included in said second message, said new script; and
transmit said new script in a third message to said first server system.
9. The system of claim 7 , wherein said first call signaling message is a session initiation protocol (SIP) INVITE message, wherein said second message is a hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) message, and wherein said predetermined mark up language is VoiceXML.
10. The system of claim 7 , wherein said at least one call parameter comprises a telephone number associated with a caller.
11. The system of claim 7 , wherein said at least one call parameter comprises a destination telephone number.
12. The system of claim 7 , wherein said at least one call parameter comprises a time of day the call was placed.
13. A method for providing voice communications over a network, comprising:
receiving a call initiation signaling message that includes at least one parameter;
determining whether the call initiation signaling message indicates a service to be provided;
responsive to receiving the call initiation signaling message, if the call initiation signaling message does not indicate a service to be provided, executing a first script written in a predetermined mark-up language, the first script calculating an address of a second script, written in the predetermined mark-up language, based on at least a portion of the at least one parameter; and
invoking the second script.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein receiving the call initiation signaling message comprises receiving at least one parameter selected from a list comprising a calling party number, a called party number, a call diversion reason and a time of day at which a call was placed.
15. The method of claim 13 , wherein invoking the second script comprises passing at least a portion of the at least one parameter.
16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising generating a third script, written in the predetermined mark-up language, based on the passed at least a portion of the at least one parameter.
17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising returning the generated third script.
18. The method of claim 13 , wherein executing the first script comprises calculating a uniform resource identifier (URI) of the second script.
19. The method of claim 13 , wherein:
receiving the call initiation signaling message comprises receiving a session initiation protocol (SIP) INVITE message; and
invoking the second script comprises sending a hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) message.
20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the predetermined mark-up language is VoiceXML.
21. The method of claim 13 , wherein receiving the call initiation signaling message comprises receiving an SS7 incoming call indication.
22. The method of claim 13 , wherein:
receiving the call initiation signaling message comprises receiving the call initiation signaling message on a first server; and further comprising:
executing the second script on a second server that is separate from the first server.
23. The method of claim 22 , further comprising generating, on the second server, a third script, written in the predetermined mark-up language, based on at least a portion of the passed at least a portion of the at least one parameter.
24. The method of claim 23 , further comprising returning the generated third script to the first server.
25. The method of claim 24 , further comprising executing the third script on the first server.