Anchor Point Servers for Scalable Call Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) systems are limited by their tight binding to specific Private Branch eXchange (PBX) systems, making them difficult to scale, geo-redundant, and lacking in media control mechanisms, with limited high availability and support for large communication endpoints.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of anchor point servers that distribute call sequencing across geo-regions, allowing for unified Communication Session IDs (CSIDs) and remote interfaces for call modeling, control, and media control, enabling applications to manage communication sessions independently and maintain high availability through active-active redundancy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional CTI systems are tightly bound to a specific PBX, then the system provides a useful logical call model and control mechanism, but it becomes difficult to scale to large numbers of endpoints and achieve geo-redundancy
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the CTI functionality by introducing anchor point servers that are distributed across geo-regions. Each anchor point server handles a specific subset of users/endpoints, allowing the system to scale horizontally by adding more anchor points rather than requiring a single monolithic PBX system. This segmentation enables support for thousands of endpoints while maintaining manageable complexity at each node.
Solution Approach 2:
Anchor point servers are introduced as intermediary components between applications and the underlying PBX infrastructure. These anchor points abstract the complexity of multiple PBXs and provide a unified interface for call modeling and control. The anchor points handle call sequencing and coordination, mediating between the application layer and the distributed PBX network, thereby simplifying the overall system architecture while enabling scalability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple PBXs are networked together for scale or geographic distribution, then the system can support more users, but it becomes difficult to construct a complete model of a call spanning multiple PBXs
Solution Approach 1:
The anchor point servers merge the call modeling functionality across multiple PBXs into a unified logical call model. When a call spans multiple PBXs, the anchor point maintains a complete view of the call by integrating information from all involved PBXs, thereby preventing loss of call model completeness. This merging occurs at the anchor point level, allowing geographic distribution while maintaining unified call modeling.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where anchor point servers continuously exchange call state information with multiple PBXs. This feedback loop ensures that the anchor point maintains an up-to-date and complete call model even as the call progresses across different PBXs. The feedback mechanism allows the anchor point to reconstruct the full call model by aggregating partial information from each PBX involved in the call.
3Reliability
If traditional CTI systems rely on PBX-provided availability, then the system is simpler to implement, but high availability is limited by the PBX's availability
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements beforehand cushioning by establishing active-active redundant anchor point servers in advance. Instead of relying on the PBX's availability, the architecture proactively creates multiple anchor points that can take over if one fails. This prior preparation ensures high availability by having backup anchor points ready before any failure occurs, independent of PBX availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the availability parameter from being PBX-dependent to being anchor-point-dependent. By decoupling the availability metric from the PBX infrastructure and making it a function of the distributed anchor point network, the system achieves higher availability. The anchor points can be distributed across different geographic locations and infrastructure, changing the availability parameter to reflect the more resilient architecture.
4Adaptability or versatility
If very few CTI systems provide innate media control mechanisms, then the system requires fewer components, but applications cannot directly control media without adding a third-party endpoint
Solution Approach 1:
The anchor point server is designed with multi-functionality, serving both as a call modeling/control entity and as a media control mechanism. Rather than requiring a separate third-party media endpoint, the anchor point inherently provides media control capabilities as part of its core functionality. This universal design allows applications to control media directly through the anchor point without adding extra call participants.
Data Source
AI summary
A highly scalable and distributed call/media modeling and control framework is described. In particular, a plurality of anchor point servers are provided which enable one or more applications to exert call and media control over in-progress communication sessions even though the applications were not originally bound to the communication session during its setup.