Presence Aggregation Server for Multi-Endpoint Availability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current presence services are unable to accurately depict a user's availability for communication when they are signed into multiple endpoints simultaneously, as they only provide information about a specific endpoint rather than a comprehensive aggregated presence across all devices.
Innovation Solution
A presence aggregation system and server that generates an aggregated presence state from multiple endpoints, including availability and activity information, which is then published to each endpoint and shared with subscribers, allowing users to make informed communication decisions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If presence services provide information about a specific endpoint, then the information is simple and easy to manage, but the information is incomplete and does not reflect the user's overall availability across multiple devices
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary component (presence information aggregation service) that collects presence information from multiple endpoints and synthesizes it into a unified presence state. This intermediary layer handles the complexity of aggregating data from multiple sources while presenting a simplified, comprehensive view to subscribers, thus resolving the contradiction between information completeness and system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges presence information from multiple separate endpoints into a single aggregated presence state. By combining the availability status, activity information, and other presence data from various devices (desktop computer, mobile device, etc.) into one unified representation, the system provides complete information about user availability without requiring subscribers to query each endpoint separately.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a user is signed into multiple endpoints simultaneously, then the user has flexibility to communicate through different devices, but current presence services cannot accurately depict the user's overall availability
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where each endpoint reports its presence state (availability, activity, status) to the aggregation service, which then updates the aggregated presence information accordingly. This continuous feedback loop ensures that the aggregated presence state accurately reflects the user's current availability across all endpoints, enabling precise measurement despite multiple simultaneous sign-ins.
Solution Approach 2:
The aggregated presence state serves as a universal indicator that works regardless of which endpoint the user is currently using. The system consolidates information from multiple endpoints into a single multi-functional presence representation that accurately indicates user availability for communication, thereby maintaining measurement precision while supporting communication flexibility across diverse devices.
3Ease of operation
If presence information is provided for each endpoint separately, then the system is simple to implement, but subscribers cannot make informed communication decisions about the best method to reach the user
Solution Approach 1:
The aggregation service acts as an intermediary that receives separate presence information from each endpoint and synthesizes it into a comprehensive aggregated presence state. This intermediary process maintains implementation simplicity by building upon existing endpoint-level presence services while adding the aggregation layer that provides subscribers with complete context about user availability, enabling informed communication decisions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary aggregation of presence information from multiple endpoints before presenting it to subscribers. By pre-computing and maintaining the aggregated presence state that combines availability, activity, and status information from all endpoints, the system eliminates the need for subscribers to manually synthesize information from multiple sources, thus preserving ease of operation while preventing information loss.
Data Source
AI summary
A presence aggregation system provides a presence aggregation server that allows for the publication of presence state of a publisher from the publisher's multiple endpoints. A presence state includes an availability value and an activity. An activity may include an activity token and/or a custom string. When any one of the publisher's endpoints makes a presence state publication on the presence aggregation server, the presence aggregation server generates an aggregated state of the publisher (i.e., the availability of the publisher aggregated across all of the publisher's endpoints) and publishes the generated aggregated state to each of the publisher's endpoints. The presence aggregation server may also provide the publisher's aggregated state to the subscribers of the publisher's aggregated state information.