Granted Patent B2

US 9,930,076 · App. 15/369,440 · Granted Mar 27, 2018

Inventors: Gregory Thomas Ellison (Erie, CO); Andrew James Broadworth (Thornton, CO)

Assignee: Level 3 Communications, LLC

H04L65/1069H04L12/18H04L12/1818H04L41/0668H04L43/0876H04L47/15H04L61/2007H04L65/1006H04L65/403H04L65/80H04L67/18H04M3/56

Abstract

Claims (61)

1. A method comprising:

maintaining, by a computing device, a list of master identification numbers associated with a plurality of customers of a communications network;

creating a priority list of conference bridges for a first customer of the plurality of customers;

receiving, after creating the priority list for the first customer, a communication from a user associated with the first customer to establish a collaboration conference on a network; and

in response to the receiving step:

associating the user with a first master identification number from the list of master identification numbers;

accessing the priority list;

transmitting one or more requests for performance information from one or more conference bridges associated with the network;

analyzing the performance information from the one or more conference bridges associated with the network;

selecting a first conference bridge of the one or more conference bridges to host the collaboration conference event based at least on the priority list and the performance information; and

automatically causing the collaboration conference to be initiated on the first conference bridge.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the communication from the user of the communications network comprises a telephone number and an access code number.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

maintaining at least one routing rule associated with the first master identification number.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

selecting the first conference bridge based at least on the at least one routing rule.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing the collaboration conference to be initiated further comprises:

transmitting one or more routing messages to the communications network, wherein the one or more routing messages include an indication of the selected first conference bridge.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the performance information from the one or more conference bridges associated with the network comprises an indicator of technical capabilities of the one or more conference bridges.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein at least one of the one or more conference bridges is a session initiation protocol (SIP) based telecommunication device.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein creating the priority list comprises ranking at least the first conference bridge and a second conference bridge based on at least one of: features provided by each conference bridge; and geographic location of each conference bridge.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the priority list includes at least the first conference bridge and a second conference bridge, and the second conference bridge is a higher priority on the priority list, the method further comprising:

based on receiving the communication, determining that the second conference bridge is unavailable; and

removing the second conference bridge from the priority list prior to selecting the first conference bridge.

10. A system for selecting a conference bridge associated with a network for hosting a collaboration conference event, the system comprising:

a network interface unit configured to receive a communication from a user associated with a first customer of a plurality of customers of a communications network to establish the collaboration conference event on the network;

a processing device in communication with the network interface unit; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium configured to maintain a list of master identification numbers associated with the plurality of customers of the communications network including at least a first master identification number associated with the first customer,

wherein the computer-readable medium is connected to the processing device and is configured to store information and instructions that, when executed by the processing device, performs the operations of:

creating a priority list of conference bridges for the first customer;

storing the priority list for the first customer prior to the network interface unit receiving the communication from the user;

associating the user with a first master identification number from the list of master identification numbers stored in the computer-readable medium;

transmitting one or more requests for performance information from one or more conference bridges associated with the network;

analyzing the performance information from the one or more conference bridges associated with the network;

selecting a first conference bridge of the one or more conference bridges associated with the network to host the collaboration conference event based at least on the priority list and the performance information; and

automatically causing the collaboration conference to be initiated on the first conference bridge.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the communication from the user of the communications network comprises a telephone number and an access code number.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the computer-readable medium maintains at least one routing rule associated with the first master identification number and wherein the processing device selects the first conference bridge based at least on the at least one routing rule.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein causing the collaboration conference to be initiated further comprises:

transmitting one or more routing messages to the communications network, wherein the one or more routing messages include an indication of the selected first conference bridge.

14. The system of claim 10 wherein the performance information from the one or more conference bridges associated with the network comprises an indicator of technical capabilities of the one or more conference bridges.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein at least one of the one or more conference bridges is a session initiation protocol (SIP) based telecommunication device.

16. The system of claim 10 , wherein creating the priority list comprises ranking at least the first conference bridge and a second conference bridge based on at least one of: features provided by each conference bridge; and geographic location of each conference bridge.

17. The system of claim 10 , wherein the priority list includes at least the first conference bridge and a second conference bridge, and the second conference bridge is a higher priority on the priority list, the operations further comprising:

based on receiving the communication, determining that the second conference bridge is unavailable; and

removing the second conference bridge from the priority list prior to selecting the first conference bridge.

18. A method comprising:

maintaining, by a computing device, a list of master identification numbers associated with a plurality of customers of a communications network, including at least a first master identification number for a first customer of the plurality of customers;

creating a priority list of conference bridges for the first customer, including at least a first conference bridge and a second conference bridge;

storing the priority list in association with the first master identification number;

receiving, after storing the priority list for the first customer, a communication from a user associated with the first customer to establish a collaboration conference on a network;

in response to the receiving step:

associating the user with the first master identification number;

accessing the priority list;

determining that the first conference bridge on the priority list is unavailable;

removing the first conference bridge from the priority list;

selecting the second conference bridge of the one or more conference bridges to host the collaboration conference event based at least on the priority list; and

automatically causing the collaboration conference to be initiated on the second conference bridge.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein creating the priority list comprises ranking at least the first conference bridge and the second conference bridge based on at least one of: features provided by each conference bridge; volume capabilities of each conference bridge; and geographic location of each conference bridge.

20. The method of claim 18 , further comprising:

maintaining at least one routing rule associated with the first master identification number.

Assignments (3)

Continuity (10)