Universal state-aware communications

a communication and universal technology, applied in the field of universal state-aware communication, can solve the problem that acds cost significantly more than pbxs

US20100262663A1Inactive Publication Date: 2010-10-14ONSTATE COMM CORP
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Patent Information

Authority / Receiving Office
US · United States
Patent Type
Applications(United States)
Current Assignee / Owner
Publication Date
2010-10-14
Estimated Expiration
Not applicable · inactive patent

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Abstract

A communications system for general business environments that exploits knowledge of user state to provide advantages of efficiency and control for individual users and for the business. The communications system also provides particular advantages in environments where users have multiple communication devices and for communications of a business with external parties. In other aspects, the communication system provides features of application flexibility and system fault-tolerance with broad applicability to communication systems. The communication system includes a controller that receives requests for establishing communications when a user is in an appropriate state to receive communications and communicates state of the user to other users. The controller receives a user request for establishing a communication when the user is not in the appropriate state for communication, receives a user request for a state change to the appropriate state to receive the communication, and initiates the communication without changing state of the user.
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Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 204,589, filed Aug. 15, 2005, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 436,546, filed May 12, 2003, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,970,547 on Nov. 29, 2005. The entire teachings of the above applications are incorporated herein by reference.TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The invention relates to a system and method for establishing communications between users.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] Communications systems arose as mechanisms to connect individual telephones to each other. Users dialed phone numbers and were connected through a network to other telephones associated with those numbers. This is still the primary mode of interaction in telecommunication systems in both public and private networks. For a business, this form of telecommunications function is typically provided by a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) on company premises or by a Centrex system offered by a telephone company. I...

Examples

Embodiment Construction

[0076]A description of example embodiments of the invention follows.

Structure

[0077]FIG. 1 presents an overview diagram of the main elements of a communications system. There are three types of elements: the Call Processing Server 101, the User Clients 102, and the Admin Clients 103. These are familiar functional elements in a communications system: the Call Processing Server is the central control of the system, the User Clients access the system services on behalf of users, and the Admin Clients are the means of configuration and operation of the Call Processing Server. In the particular embodiment described the communication between components is provided by conventional Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP / IP) data networking as supported by the Microsoft Windows operating system. For this description the term “call” refers to a communication without implications for the type of media.

[0078]The communication control system described relies on the underlying enviro...