System to deploy a disaster-proof geographically-distributed call center
View Patent ↗A redundant Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) call center system has two data centers each having a first and a second SIP server cooperating as a first SIP-server high availability (HA) pair, a set of SW applications executable at each data center, and a plurality of agent stations each comprising a SIP telephone and a computerized appliance executing a desktop application at each agent station. The HA pairs operate as SIP server peers, the agent SIP phones are configured to maintain simultaneous registration with both SIP server peers, and Agent Desktop applications log in to only one SIP server peer, wherein the SIP Server peers collaborate to deliver calls to individual agent SIP phones via the SIP server peer where the agent is logged in, and wherein, upon failure of either data center agent's desktop applications log in to the other data center, allowing the associated agent to continue working.
1. A redundant Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) call center system comprising:
a first and a second SIP server located at a first data center and cooperating as a first SIP-server high availability (HA) pair, wherein the first SIP server is a first primary SIP server and the second SIP server is a first backup SIP server;
a third and a fourth SIP server located at a second data center geographically remote from the first data center and cooperating as a second SIP server high availability (HA) pair, wherein the third SIP server is a second primary SIP server and the fourth SIP server is a second backup SIP server;
wherein the first and second SIP-server HA pairs operate as SIP server peers having active-active redundancy, wherein agent SIP phones are configured to maintain simultaneous registration with the SIP server peers, wherein a first SIP server peer of the SIP server peers receives data from an agent application for logging in an associated agent to the first SIP server peer without logging the agent to a second SIP server peer of the SIP server peers, wherein the SIP server peers collaborate to deliver calls to a SIP phone of the associated agent via the first SIP server peer where the agent is logged in for handling by the agent, and wherein, in response to detecting a failure of primary and backup SIP servers corresponding to the first SIP server peer, the second SIP server peer receives the data from the agent application for logging in the associated agent to the second SIP server peer for continued operation of the agent in handling calls.
2. The call center system of claim 1 further comprising a configuration server storing configuration data for the agent application and the associated agent.
3. The call center system of claim 1 further comprising a statistics server for providing to the agent application real-time report data for call center operations.
4. A method for providing redundant Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) call center performance, the method comprising:
instantiating, by a first processor, first and second SIP servers located at a first data center and cooperating as a first SIP server high availability (HA) pair, wherein the first SIP server is a first primary SIP server and the second SIP server is a first backup SIP server;
instantiating, by a second processor, third and fourth SIP servers located at a second data center geographically remote from the first data center and cooperating as a second SIP server HA pair, wherein the third SIP server is a second primary SIP server and the fourth SIP server is a second backup SIP server, the first and second SIP-server HA pairs operating as SIP server peers having active-active redundancy;
maintaining by the SIP server peers simultaneous registration of agent SIP phones;
receiving, by a first SIP server peer of the SIP server peers, data from an agent application for logging in an associated agent to the first SIP server peer without logging the agent to a second SIP server peer of the SIP server peers;
collaborating by the SIP server peers for delivering calls to a SIP phone of the associated agent via the first SIP server peer where the agent is logged in for handling by the agent; and
in response to failure of primary and backup SIP servers corresponding to the first SIP server peer, receiving by the second SIP server peer the data from the agent application for logging in the associated agent to the second SIP server peer for continued operation of the agent in handling calls.
5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:
storing by a configuration server configuration data for the agent application and the associated agent.
6. The method of claim 4 further comprising:
providing by a statistics server to the agent application real-time report data for call center operations.
7. The call center system of claim 2 , wherein the configuration server is located at the second data center and the configuration data identifies the first data center as a preferred site, wherein in response to the identification of the first data center as the preferred site, the agent application connected to the configuration server at the second data center is configured to re-connect to the configuration server at the first data center.
8. The call center system of claim 1 , wherein the calls are concurrently distributed to both the first SIP server peer and the second SIP server peer.
9. The call center system of claim 3 , wherein each of the SIP server peers having the active-active redundancy are configured to receive calls for the associated agent, to determine, from the statistics server, which one of the SIP server peers the associated agent is logged in, and to route the call to the one of the SIP server peers that the associated agent is logged in.