Patent Application

App. No. 11/819,625

Abstract

Claims (51)

1 . A method for discriminating among a plurality of network paths at a remote node, comprising:

evaluating a first path and a second path from the plurality of network paths;

obtaining a first quality rating associated with the first path and a second quality rating for the second path;

selecting a preferred path from one of the first path or the second path according to the first quality rating and the second quality rating; and

commencing a real-time communication over the preferred path.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

evaluating each one of the plurality of paths;

obtaining quality ratings for each one of the plurality of paths; and

selecting the preferred path from the plurality of paths according to the quality ratings; and

commencing a real-time communication over the preferred path.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving a list of the plurality of network paths by receiving a SIP NOTIFY message.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting a request for an updated list of the plurality of network paths by transmitting a SIP SUBSCRIBE message.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving preferred route information from a network source, wherein the step of selecting the preferred path includes analyzing the received preferred route information with the first and second quality ratings.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein commencing a real-time communication includes

inserting preferred path information into signaling information, and

transmitting the signaling information to a signaling server.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the signaling server contacts a media server corresponding to the preferred path.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein commencing a real-time communication includes

transmitting signaling information to a point-of-presence corresponding to the preferred path.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein evaluating includes one of a ping test, a trace-route test, a round-trip-time (RTT) test, an E-Model test, a perceptual analysis measurement system (PAMS) test, a perceptual speech quality measure (PSQM) test, and an RTCP-XR-Real-Time Control Protocol extended Report test.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second quality rating each include at least one of a network latency rating, a round-trip-time (RTT) rating, a packet loss rating, a jitter rating, an R-Model rating, a mean opinion score (MOS) rating, a signal-to-noise ratio, a speech impairment rating, a delay impairment rating, an equipment impairment rating, an access transmission rating, a perceptual speech quality measure (PSQM) rating, a packet sequence error rating, an echo rating, and a total packet count.

11 . A computer program product for use with a device on a communications network, comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code modules embodied in said medium for discriminating among a plurality of network paths at a remote node;

a computer readable first program code module for causing a computer to evaluate a first path and a second path from the plurality of network paths;

a computer readable second program code module for causing a computer to obtain a first quality rating associated with the first path and a second quality rating for the second path;

a computer readable third program code module for causing a computer to select a preferred path from one of the first path or the second path according to the first quality rating and the second quality rating; and

a computer readable fourth program code module for causing a computer to commence a real-time communication over the preferred path.

12 . A system for discriminating among a plurality of network paths at a remote node of a network, comprising:

a media communications device at the remote node, the media communications device including

a configuration module including a list of available intermediate points on the network,

a testing module adapted to test the quality of communication to at least two of the intermediate points,

a selection module adapted to select at least one of the available intermediate points,

a signaling module configured to transmit signaling information, and

a transmission module adapted to commence real-time communications with the selected intermediate point corresponding to a preferred network path.

13 . The system of claim 13 , further comprising:

a configuration server adapted to transmit the list of available intermediate points to the media communications device.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the media communications device further includes

an encoding module configured to embed path instructions corresponding to the preferred network path into the signaling information.

15 . The system of claim 14 , further comprising:

a signaling server configured to receive signaling and path instructions from the media communications device; and

a media server corresponding to the preferred network path, the media server configured to communicate with the signaling server and receive real-time communications data from the media communications device.

16 . The system of claim 13 , further comprising:

a point-of-presence server corresponding to the preferred network path, the point-of-presence server configured to receive signaling information directly from the media communications device and commence real-time communications with the media communications device.

17 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising selecting a second preferred path during real-time communication based on the analyzed information.

18 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving a list of the plurality of network paths.

19 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of evaluating the first path and the second path is passive.

20 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of evaluating the first path and the second path is active.

Assignments (18)