System and method for improved dynamic allocation of application resources
A self-help application platform such as one hosting an interactive voice response (IVR) has a browser that executes application scripts to implement the self-help application. The execution of the application scripts is performed by utilizing various application resources, such as media conversions from text to speech (TTS) and speech to text (automatic speech recognition ASR) and other media servers. The platform is provided with a dynamic resource selection mechanism in which the application is executed with an updated optimum set of application resources distributed over different locations. The selection is based on the profiles of the browser, users, route, and quality of service. The selection is further modulated by the browser's previous experiences with the individual resources. The selection is made dynamically during the executing of the application script.
1. A method of operating an interactive self-help service, comprising:
providing an application script for implementing the interactive self-help service;
providing a deployment platform on an IP network having a plurality of application servers and application resources distributed over the IP network able to execute the application script;
providing a specification for preferred application resources needed for executing the application script;
monitoring the plurality of application resources periodically for status of each from a first node on the network to maintain an updated centralized list of the application resources prioritized by performance;
selecting an application server located at a second node from the plurality of application servers on the network to execute the application script;
maintaining at the selected application server a local list of application resources previously servicing the selected application server, the local list including quality of service of the application resources from the second node;
selecting a central view list of application resources by querying the centralized list by resource type to conform to a predefined specification and prioritized by performance;
querying the local list to select a local view list of previously contacted resources prioritized by availability and indicating a degree of success of previous browser attempts for each previously contacted resource; and
executing the application script by the selected application server with application resources located dynamically from a final prioritized list created based upon the central view list filtered by using the local view list.
2. The method as in claim 1 , further comprising: replicating a copy of the centralized list to each of the plurality of application servers.
3. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the self-help service is an interactive voice response service.
4. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the application resources include media conversion proxy servers.
5. The method as in claim 4 , wherein the media conversion proxy servers include at least one of a server that converts text to speech for a specific language and a sever that converts speech to text for a specific language.
6. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the local view list differentiates unsuccessful browser attempts by failure types and orders with a degree of failure metric.
7. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the specification for preferred application resources needed for executing the application script includes preferred media conversion proxy servers.
8. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the specification for preferred application resources needed for executing the application script includes application resources accessible by a specific network segment.
9. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the specification for preferred application resources needed for executing the application script includes application resources accessible by a specific network route.
10. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the specification for preferred application resources needed for executing the application script includes application resources having a tariff below a predefined limit.
11. The method as in claim 1 , wherein a metric for the performance of the application resources includes at least one of working capacity and access time.
12. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the application resource is located from the final prioritized list by selecting from the final prioritized list in priority order, and using load balancing if several resources of a given type to be selected are of equal order.
13. The method as in claim 1 , wherein a metric for the quality of service of an application resource includes network access rate.
14. The method as in claim 1 , wherein a metric for the quality of service of an application resource includes no access due to exhaustion of licenses of use for the application resource.
15. An interactive self-help application system, comprising:
an application script for implementing the interactive self-help service;
a deployment platform on a network having a plurality of application servers distributed over the network and application resources able to execute the application script;
a specification for preferred application resources needed for executing the application script;
a centralized list of application resources, said centralized list of resources being checked and updated from a first node on the network to maintain a list of application resources prioritized by performance and including resource preference and availability;
a selected application server located at a second node on the network for executing the application script, said selected application server being selected from the plurality of application servers on the network;
a local list of application resources maintained at the selected application server, said local list of application resources listing application resources previously servicing the selected application server including quality of service of the application resources from the second node;
a central view list of application resources obtained by querying the centralized list by resource type to conform to a predefined specification and prioritized by performance;
a local view list of resources generated by querying the local list to select a list of previously contacted resources prioritized by availability and indicating a degree of success of previous browser attempts for each previously contacted resource; and
wherein the application script is executed by the selected application server with application resources located dynamically from a final prioritized list created based upon the central view list filtered by using the local view list.
16. The system as in claim 15 , further comprising: replicating a copy of the centralized list to each of the plurality of application servers.
17. The system as in claim 15 , wherein the self-help service is an interactive voice response service.
18. The system as in claim 15 , wherein the application resources include media conversion proxy servers.
19. The system as in claim 18 , wherein the media conversion proxy servers include at least one of a server that converts text to speech for a specific language and a server that converts speech to text for a specific language.
20. The system as in claim 18 , wherein the local view list differentiates unsuccessful browser attempts by failure type and is ordered with a degree of failure metric.
21. The system as in claim 15 , wherein the specification for preferred application resources needed for executing the application script includes preferred media conversion proxy servers.
22. The system as in claim 15 , wherein the specification for preferred application resources needed for executing the application script includes application resources accessible by a specific network segment.
23. The system as in claim 15 , wherein the specification for preferred application resources needed for executing the application script includes application resources accessible by a specific network route.
24. The system as in claim 15 , wherein the specification for preferred application resources needed for executing the application script includes application resources having a tariff below a predefined limit.
25. The system as in claim 15 , wherein a metric for the performance of the application resources includes at least one of working capacity and access time.
26. The system as in claim 15 , wherein the application resource is located from the final prioritized list by selecting from the final prioritized list in priority order and using load balancing if several resources of a given type to be selected are of equal order.
27. The system as in claim 15 , wherein a metric for the quality of service of an application resource includes network access rate.
28. The system as in claim 15 , wherein a metric for the quality of service of an application resource includes no access due to exhaustion of licenses of use for the application resource.