Apparatus, and associated method, for a CTI-enabled SIP-phone
A CTI-enabled SIP-Phone, and an associated method, is provided for a telephonic call center. Responsive to a call operation indication, such as delivery to the phone of a SIP invite message, or of a CTI-formatted call instruction, the embedded functionality of the SIP-Phone provides interfacing operations, such as CTI-to-SIP or SIP-to-CTI conversions, to facilitate communications of the phone at the call center.
1. A packet based telephonic station operable for peer to peer session initiation protocol (SIP) communications, comprising:
a computer telephony integration (CTI) sourcing functionality module embedded in the packet based telephonic station operable to convert SIP communications into a CTI format and communicate with a CTI server using CTI protocol;
an initiator module operable responsive to a peer to peer SIP communication for the telephonic station to initiate operation of said CTI sourcing functionality module;
wherein the CTI server controls a CTI application on a computer co-located to the packed based telephonic station in response to CTI communications from the packet based telephonic station and wherein the peer to peer SIP communication for the telephonic station is a SIP invite message transmitted to the telephonic station over a packet data network; and wherein the initiator module is operable to initiate operation of the CTI sourcing functionality module responsive to the SIP invite message.
2. The packet based telephonic station of claim 1 wherein the CTI sourcing functionality module is operable responsive to initiation by the initiator module, to transmit a CTI alert message in CTI format to the CTI server, wherein the CTI alert message includes call related information from the SIP invite message.
3. The packet based telephonic station of claim 2 , wherein the CTI server controls the CTI application on the co-located computer to retrieve database information associated with the call related information in the CTI alert message and display the database information.
4. The packet based telephonic station of claim 3 , wherein the CTI application on the co-located computer includes a customer relationship management application.
5. The packet based telephonic station of claim 1 , wherein the CTI server controls a CTI application on a computer co-located to the packet based telephonic station in response to CTI communications from the packet based telephonic station and wherein the initiator module is operable responsive to a CTI call command from the CTI server, to initiate operation of the CTI sourcing functionality module.
6. The packet based telephonic station of claim 1 , wherein the CTI server controls a CTI application on a computer co-located to the packet based telephonic station in response to CTI communications from the packet based telephonic station and wherein the CTI sourcing functionality module translates the CTI call command from the CTI server and generates a SIP invite message for transmission to a SIP server over the packet data network.
7. The packet based telephonic station of claim 6 , wherein the CTI sourcing functionality module comprises a converter for converting between CTI and SIP formats.
8. A method for peer to peer, session initiation protocol (SIP) communication integrated with computer telephony integration (CTI) applications, comprising:
receiving a SIP invite message at a telephonic station, wherein the telephonic station is operable for SIP communications;
initiating operation of a CTI sourcing functionality module embedded in the telephonic station responsive to the SIP invite message, wherein the CTI sourcing functionality module is operable to translate the SIP invite message into a CTI alert message in CTI format, wherein the CTI alert message includes call related information from the SIP invite message; and
transmitting the CTI alert message by the telephonic station to a CTI server, wherein the CTI server controls a CTI application on a computer co-located with the telephonic station to display database information associated with the call related information in the CTI alert message.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the CTI application on the co-located computer includes a customer relationship management application.
10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
receiving a CTI call command at the telephonic station from the CTI server, wherein the CTI call command is generated in response to a call request from the CTI application on the co-located computer;
translating the CTI call command by the telephonic station;
generating a SIP invite message by the telephonic station for transmission to a SIP server over a packet data network.
11. A packet based telephonic station operable for peer to peer session initiation protocol (SIP) communications, comprising:
a computer telephony integration (CTI) sourcing functionality module embedded in the packet based telephonic station operable to:
receive a peer to peer SIP communication for the packet based telephonic station from a SIP server;
convert the SIP communication into a CTI communication having a CTI protocol format that includes call related information from the SIP communication; and
transmit the CTI communication to a CTI server using CTI protocol, wherein the CTI server controls a CTI application on a computer co-located to the packet based telephonic station in response to the CTI communication from the packet based telephonic station;
an initiator module operable responsive to the peer to peer SIP communication for the packet based telephonic station to initiate operation of the CTI sourcing functionality module;
wherein the peer to peer SIP communication for the telephonic station is a SIP invite message transmitted to the telephonic station over a packet data network; and wherein the initiator module is operable to initiate operation of the CTI sourcing functionality module responsive to the SIP invite message.
12. The packet based telephonic station of claim 11 wherein the CTI sourcing functionality module is operable responsive to initiation by the initiator module, to convert the SIP communication into a CTI alert message having a CTI protocol format that includes call related information from the SIP communication and transmit the CTI alert message in CTI format to the CTI server.
13. The packet based telephonic station of claim 12 , wherein the CTI server controls the CTI application on the co-located computer to retrieve database information associated with the call related information in the CTI alert message and display the database information on the co-located computer.