Abstract:
Methods, systems, and devices are provided that propose interlacing an RTP communication with a tag that is used to identify the RTP communication within a continuous group or stream of many other RTP communications and other call control communications. The tags can be used for post processing of the RTP communication, thereby obviating the need for real-time processing of the RTP communication. This helps reduce latency in systems that are trying to control the RTP stream for various reasons. Furthermore, temporal relationships between RTP communications and other associated data streams becomes much easier to manage.

Description:
FIELD 
       [0001]    The present invention is directed generally to communications and more particularly to call and communications recording mechanisms. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    Contact centers are employed by many enterprises to service customer contacts. A typical contact center includes a switch and/or server to receive and route incoming packet-switched and/or circuit-switched contacts and one or more resources, such as human agents and automated resources (e.g., Interactive Voice Response (IVR) units), to service the incoming contacts. Contact centers distribute contacts, whether inbound or outbound, for servicing to any suitable resource according to predefined criteria. In many existing systems, the criteria for servicing the contact from the moment that the contact center becomes aware of the contact until the contact is connected to an agent are customer-specifiable (i.e., programmable by the operator of the contact center), via a capability called vectoring. Normally in present-day Automated Contact Distributors (ACDs) when the ACD system&#39;s controller detects that an agent has become available to handle a contact, the controller identifies all predefined contact-handling queues for the agent (usually in some order of priority) and delivers to the available agent the highest-priority oldest contact that matches the agent&#39;s highest-priority queue. 
         [0003]    Many existing contact centers have a need to record agent activity, or at least the activity of a contact center agent&#39;s work station, to help monitor and analyze the efficiency of the agent. Unfortunately, in many communication protocols, call control of media streams requires multiple controllers. As an example, the simple act of recording a media stream in SIP requires many resources, each of which are required to communicate with one another to synchronize the call recording process. The synchronization utilizes important network bandwidth due to the exchange of messages and also introduces latency into the transmission of the media stream and/or introduces delays into the controls, both of which are not desirable. An additional complication is that each desired media stream is traditionally recorded as two or more separate files, thereby limiting the streaming rate to disk and further increasing latency and disk fragmentation. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0004]    It is thus one aspect of the present invention to provide a mechanism continuously recording data packets transmitted from a communication device, where the data packets are including in a communication stream and the communication stream includes a plurality of different communications. In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention, a mechanism is provided for tagging a communication, such as a Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) communication, with control commands. The RTP communication can be one of many communications included in the communication stream. More specifically, a communication stream transmitted by a single communication device may include an RTP communication, a set of packets containing call control information, a set of packets used to negotiate the parameters of the RTP communication, and/or a set of packets for discontinuing the RTP communication. 
         [0005]    The communication stream may also include packets that are being transmitted to other communication devices. As an example, a contact center agent may be conducting a real-time communication session with a customer which involves the use of an RTP communication and a set of control packets used in connection with that RTP communication. During that communication session the contact center agent may also send packets to another communication device (e.g., query a web server or database for additional information to help in servicing the customer). The contact center agent may also establish a conference call with an expert agent. These additional communications may be included in the communication stream transmitted from the communication device (or possibly received at the communication device), but may also be identified is separate and independent communications. 
         [0006]    Each of the different communications may be stored contiguously in a single communication stream, and each communication has tags assigned thereto that can be referenced during post-processing of the communication stream. This allows the entire communication stream to be written continuously to its target. The tags provided for a particular communication (e.g., an RTP communication) may identify the source and destination IP addresses for the RTP communication as well as the length of the RTP communication. When a new RTP communication is received (e.g., a new communication session is established with a new communication device), the new communication will have a different tag, thereby allowing the post processing mechanism to differentiate between RTP communications. 
         [0007]    In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention, the tag may be a hash of the source and destination IP address as well as the connection time identified in a time stamp. This results in a virtually unique hash that can be used to identify and quickly retrieve the RTP stream from its data store. The virtually unique has may be used as a unique identifier of the communication. 
         [0008]    In addition to containing identification information, the tag may also include post processing information. The tag will indicate what post processing steps are to be performed on the associated communication. In operation RTP communications are received from a User Agent (UA). There the RTP communications can be split such that a copy of each is sent to a stream record location as well as its intended target. The communication stream is stored as a continuous file with no seeks and is interlaced with tags as appropriate. When post processing on the RTP communication is desired, the RTP communication is retrieved from its storage location and the tag information is used to determine what sort of post processing steps are required. 
         [0009]    Prior art systems require processing of RTP communications on the front end, before storage. Embodiments of the present invention propose interlacing each RTP communication and other communications within a communication stream with a tag that is used to identify the RTP communication within a continuous group of many RTP communications and other communications and then apply the necessary post processing to the RTP communication. This helps reduce latency in systems that are trying to control the RTP communication for various reasons. This solution can record not only the RTP communication but the associated data stream (SIP messaging, Agent messaging, etc) as separate communications and maintain temporal relationships without complex clock synchronization functionality. 
         [0010]    Moreover, the stream can be split and control/routing and resource management decisions can be made at “wire-speed”, allowing a whole new host of services and functionality within the same infrastructure. 
         [0011]    In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention, a minimal amount of processing may be performed on a communication stream before it is stored in a continuous segment. More specifically, filtering rules may be applied to the communication stream that limits the amount of data sent to storage. As an example, filtering rules may be applied whereby communications of interest are recorded and stored in their entirety whereas non-interesting communications (e.g., Internet activity, SMS messages, Instant Messages (IMs), etc.) are not recorded in their entirety. Rather, only a portion of such a communication may be recorded and stored in an attempt to reduce the amount of memory consumption at the data store. As another example, the entirety of a non-interesting communication may be discarded without ever being recorded or stored. 
         [0012]    In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention a method is provided that generally comprises: 
         [0013]    receiving a first communication as a part of a media stream; 
         [0014]    analyzing the first communication to determine attributes of the first communication; 
         [0015]    assigning the first communication a first unique identifier; 
         [0016]    receiving a second communication as part of the media stream, wherein the second communication is received immediately after the first communication; 
         [0017]    analyzing the second communication to determine attributes of the second communication; 
         [0018]    assigning the second communication a second unique identifier different from the first unique identifier; 
         [0019]    storing the first and second unique identifiers such that the attributes of the first and second communications can be identified in the future; and 
         [0020]    causing the first and second communication to be recorded in a continuous segment of memory. 
         [0021]    Another embodiment of the present invention provides a method that generally comprises: 
         [0022]    receiving a first set of packets containing call control information; 
         [0023]    analyzing the first set of packets to determine attributes of the call control information; 
         [0024]    assigning the first set of packets a tag including a first unique identifier; 
         [0025]    receiving a second set of packets comprising voice or video data being transmitted from a first communication device to a second communication device during a real-time communication session; 
         [0026]    analyzing the second set of packets to determine a type of encoding scheme being used to encode the voice or video data; 
         [0027]    assigning the second set of packets a tag including a second unique identifier as well as the determined type of encoding scheme used to encode the voice or video data; 
         [0028]    storing the first and second tags; and 
         [0029]    causing the first and second sets of packets to be recorded in a continuous segment of memory. 
         [0030]    These and other advantages will be apparent from the disclosure of the invention(s) contained herein. The above-described embodiments and configurations are neither complete nor exhaustive. As will be appreciated, other embodiments of the invention are possible utilizing, alone or in combination, one or more of the features set forth above or described in detail below. 
         [0031]    As used herein, “at least one”, “one or more”, and “and/or” are open-ended expressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. For example, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C”, “at least one of A, B, or C”, “one or more of A, B, and C”, “one or more of A, B, or C” and “A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0032]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram depicting a communication system in accordance with embodiments of the present invention; 
           [0033]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram depicting further details of a communication system in accordance with embodiments of the present invention; 
           [0034]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram depicting components of a call recording agent in accordance with embodiments of the present invention; 
           [0035]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram depicting additional components of a call recording agent in accordance with embodiments of the present invention; 
           [0036]      FIG. 5  is a block diagram depicting a logical representation of a communication stream in accordance with embodiments of the present invention; 
           [0037]      FIG. 6  is a block diagram depicting a series of data structures employed in accordance with embodiments of the present invention; and 
           [0038]      FIG. 7  is a flow diagram depicting an exemplary call recording method in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0039]    The invention will be illustrated below in conjunction with an exemplary communication system. Although well suited for use with, e.g., a system using a server(s) and/or database(s), the invention is not limited to use with any particular type of communication system or configuration of system elements. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the disclosed techniques may be used in any computing application in which it is desirable to efficiently record large amounts of streaming data. 
         [0040]    The exemplary systems and methods of this invention will also be described in relation to analysis software, modules, and associated analysis hardware. However, to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present invention, the following description omits well-known structures, components and devices that may be shown in block diagram form, are well known, or are otherwise summarized. 
         [0041]    For purposes of explanation, numerous details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It should be appreciated, however, that the present invention may be practiced in a variety of ways beyond the specific details set forth herein. 
         [0042]      FIG. 1  shows an illustrative embodiment of a communication system  100  in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention. The communication system  100  generally comprises a communication network  104  connecting two or more User Agents (UAs)  108 . 
         [0043]    The communication network  104  may comprise any type of known communication medium or collection of communication mediums and may use any type of protocols to transport messages between UAs  108 . The communication network  104  may include wired and/or wireless communication technologies. The Internet is an example of the communication network  104  that constitutes and IP network consisting of many computers, computing networks, and other communication devices located all over the world, which are connected through many telephone systems and other means. Other examples of the communication network  104  include, without limitation, a standard Plain Old Telephone System (POTS), an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) network, a cellular network, and any other type of packet-switched or circuit-switched network known in the art. In addition, it can be appreciated that the communication network  104  need not be limited to any one network type, and instead may be comprised of a number of different networks and/or network types. Moreover, the communication network  104  may comprise a number of different communication mediums such as coaxial cable, copper cable/wire, fiber-optic cable, antennas for transmitting/receiving wireless messages, and combinations thereof. 
         [0044]    The UAs  108  may correspond to communication devices or endpoints used by human users or automated users. Examples of a suitable UA  108  include, but are not limited to, a personal computer, laptop, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), cellular phone, smart phone, telephone, mobile email retrieval device, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) units, servers, or combinations thereof. In general, a number of communication devices may be associated with a single user and provisioned rules may be employed to intelligently route communications to/from the multiple communication endpoints of the user. In other embodiments, the UAs  108  may comprise work stations employed by contact center personnel in a contact center. A single work station may be used by one or more contact center agents, although not necessarily at the same time. In other words, a work station may be shared among two or more contact center agents and those agents may access the resources of the work station by logging in to the work station with appropriate credentials. 
         [0045]    Referring now to  FIG. 2 , additional details of a communication system will be described in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention. The communication path between UAs  108  generally traverses one or more intra-network elements or devices  208  (i.e, non-endpoint devices). Examples of such devices include routers, proxies, firewalls, servers, etc. Due to the nature of SIP and other related communication protocols there is a relatively high likelihood that some communications originating from a first communication endpoint, such as a UA  108 , traverse a network device whereas other communications originating from the same communication endpoint do not traverse that network device. Consider, for example, a Back-to-Back UA (B2BUA)  204  that resides between two UAs  108 . Call control signals are generally transmitted from one UA  108  to the other UA  108  through the B2BUA  204 . Thus, the B2BUA  204  would be a possible location for implementing call control recording functionality. However, the B2BUA  204  is generally not in the RTP media path established between the UAs  108 . Accordingly, the B2BUA  204  will not be able to record the RTP communications between the UAs  108 . This is problematic if it is desired to correlate the recordings of the call control signals against the recordings of the RTP communications. 
         [0046]    In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention a network device  208  is provided between the UAs  108 . The network device  208  is positioned such that both the control signals and the RTP communications, as well as other communications originating from the first UA  108 , traverse the network device  208 . Some examples of a suitable network device  208  include, without limitation, a router, a firewall, a Session Border Controller (SBC), or the. Alternatively, the network device  208  may be incorporated into the UA  108  or may be a functioning part of the UA  108 . In some embodiments, a recording agent  212  may reside in the network device  208  enabling the network device  208  to monitor and record all communications (including media and non-media communications) originating from and terminating at a particular UA  108 . In other embodiments, the recording agent  212  may reside on a UA  108  such that all actions or network interactions of the UA  108  are capable of being recorded. 
         [0047]    Referring now to  FIG. 3 , additional details of a recording agent  212  will be described in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention. The recording agent  212  may comprise a flow through controller  304  and a streamer  308 . The flow through controller  212  is responsible for splitting the data stream (including SIP control communications, RTP communications, and any other packet-based communications) thereby allowing a copy of the stream to continue to the target device, such as a target UA  108 . The flow through controller  304  also creates a second copy of the data stream which is transmitted to a stream  308 . 
         [0048]    In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention, the flow through controller  304  is also responsible for analyzing the data stream at a relatively high level (e.g., the flow through controller  304  does not perform an in-depth analysis of the data stream to facilitate immediate call control). This initial analysis is primarily used to identify different communications within the data stream, retrieve characteristic data from each communication, and determine a unique identifier that can be used to identify and retrieve the communication at a later point in time. Characteristic data determined for each communication may include, without limitation, the type of communication including whether it is a voice communication, a video communication, a call control communication, an IP data communication, an IPSec communication, a UDP/TCP/TLS communication, an RTP communication, or the like. Characteristic data may also include the length of the communication either in terms of packet numbers or memory size, when the communication was transmitted or received, whether the communication was encoded, how the communication was encoded, how to decode the communication, the address of the originating UA  108 , the address of the target UA  108 , whether the communication was a conference between three or more participants, and any other descriptor information 
         [0049]    The flow through controller  304  is performing all of its basic analysis in real-time such that the communications between the UAs  108  are not impeded or significantly delayed. The flow through controller  304  does not generally provide the capability to control the data stream as it is being transmitted although such a capability may also be built in to the recording agent  212 . Rather, the flow through controller  304  provides a copy of the data stream to the stream  308  along with the characteristic information that was obtained during the analysis of communications within the data stream. The streamer  308  is adapted to apply a tag to the data stream such that the separate communications within the data stream can be retrieved and manipulated at a later point in time. 
         [0050]    In some embodiments the streamer  308  may also be adapted to apply recording filters or filter rule sets to the data stream. When the streamer  308  applies a filter to the data stream the streamer  308  may decide not to record certain portions of the data stream in an effort to manage memory consumption. In some embodiments, the streamer  308  may be configured only to record certain types of communications. In other embodiments, the streamer  308  may be configured only to record certain communications between certain parties or only communications between a call center agent and a customer (e.g., not record internal or intra-enterprise communications or IP communications to web servers). The streamer  308  applies the filters in an attempt to minimize the amount of data which is ultimately stored in the data store  312 . 
         [0051]    In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention, the data store  312  may be external to the network device  208  or the UA  108 . In other embodiments, the data store  312  may be internal to the network device  208  or the UA  108 . Regardless of location, the memory space in the data store  212  may be somewhat limited. This increases the usefulness of applying a recording filter at the streamer  308 . 
         [0052]    When the streamer  308  has applied the tag(s) to a communication within a data stream, that portion of the data stream (i.e., the packets belonging to the communication that has just been tagged) is sent to the data store for storage  312 . The streamer  308  also causes the tag information to be stored in the data store  312  at an inventory location, possibly separate from the location where the packets of the communication have been stored. This separate storage of the tags may facilitate an efficient retrieval of the communications from the data store  312  at a later point in time. In some embodiments it may be desirable to retrieve and manipulate communications from the data store  312  after the communication has been recorded and possibly after the communication session between the UAs  108  has ended. As one non-limiting example, it may be desirable in a contact center environment to record the activities of all contact center agents when they interact with customers. The recorded interactions can then be accessed at a later point in time to identify dialog transcription, detection of emotion, agent trends, generate agent efficiency reports, or perform some other post-hoc analysis of the agent&#39;s interaction with customers. 
         [0053]    The communications stored in the data store  312  may reside there for a predetermined amount of time after which they may be automatically deleted, thereby making room for the storage of new communications. The predetermined amount of time during which a communication is kept in the data store  312  may also be identified in the tags that are stored with the communication (e.g., as an expiration time or an expiration duration coupled with a storage timestamp). Before the communication is deleted, however, it is possible to retrieve and manipulate the communications on an as-needed basis since each communication is also stored along with information that can be used to determine how to decode a communication and manipulate said communication. 
         [0054]    In accordance with at least some embodiments, it may be desirable to maintain all communications indefinitely and simply replace storage media at the data store  312  when they have reached their storage capacity. The full storage media may then be stored at a location remote from the data store  312 . Advantageously, however, the storage media may still contain the packets of a communication along with its tag(s), which can be used to retrieve and decode the communication, if necessary. 
         [0055]    With reference now to  FIG. 4 , further details of a recording agent  212  will be described in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention. The recording agent  212  may include a dispatcher  404 , a stream manager  408 , a command and control module  412 , a streamer  416 , an RTP router  420 , a SIP manager  424 , an administrative manager  428 , an event manager  432 , and a TCP/IP stack module  436 . 
         [0056]    The dispatcher  404  may be a module contained within the flow through controller  304  which is responsible for identifying a communication type within a data stream and forwarding the communication, once its type has been determined, to the appropriate modules within the recording agent  212 . As one example, the dispatcher  404  may send RTP and any other real-time media packets to the stream manager  408  whereas the dispatcher  404  may send command and control packets to the command and control module  412 . Regular TCP/IP packets may also be sent to the stream manager  408 . 
         [0057]    The stream manager  408  may be adapted to split the media received at the recording agent  212  into two media streams. The first media stream may be provided to an RTP router  420  or similar routing mechanism which is capable of routing the packets toward their intended destination (e.g., the target UA  108 ). After the RTP router  420  has determined the appropriate routing information for the packets, the packets are provided to the TCP/IP stack  436  where they are formatted for transmission across the communication network  104  and then send across the communication network  104  on their way to their intended destination. 
         [0058]    The other fork of the media stream (e.g., a copy of the packets sent through the RTP router  420  may be provided to the streamer  416  and processed as discussed above. The streamer  416  may be similar or identical to the streamer  308  discussed above. 
         [0059]    The packets that have been identified as command and control communications are transmitted by the dispatcher  404  to the command and control module  412  where they are analyzed to determine, with further accuracy, the type of command and control packet that has been received. SIP command and control packets are sent to the SIP manager  424 . Administrative command and control packets (e.g., SNMP packets or the like) are sent to the administrative manager  428 . Any other event notification-type packet is sent to the event manager  432 . 
         [0060]    Each of these sub-modules further analyzes the packets to determine characteristics of the packets/communication for inclusion in the tags that will ultimately be stored in association with the communication. These modules may also implement any control logic based on the contents of the control signals or forward the control signals to another device which will be responsible for executing said control commands. After a suitable amount of analysis has been performed and the necessary actions have been taken in conformity with the contents of the command and control packets, the sub-modules  424 ,  428 ,  432  are adapted to forward the command and control packets/communications or copies thereof to the streamer  308  for tagging and storage in the data store  312 . Accordingly, although not depicted, the SIP manager  424 , administrative manager  428 , and event manager  432  may be integral to the flow through controller  304 . 
         [0061]    With reference now to  FIG. 5 , an exemplary data stream  500  including a plurality of different communications  504 ,  508 ,  512  will be described in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention. Although the data stream  500  is only depicted as having three different communications, one skilled in the art will appreciate that any data stream emanating from or terminating at a UA  108  may include a greater or lesser number of communications depending upon the capabilities of the UA  108  and the way in which the UA  108  is being employed. As an example, the first communication  504  may correspond to SIP call controls communications transmitted from a first UA  108 . The second communication  508  may correspond to the RTP media packets shared between UAs  108  during a communication session. The third communication  512  may correspond to traditional TCP/IP packets transmitted to and received from web servers while a contact center agent is viewing documents over the Internet. 
         [0062]    Each of the communications  504 ,  508 ,  512  may include one or more packets for facilitating the IP communications over the communication network  104 . Furthermore, each of the communications may be intermingled throughout the data stream as the user of the UA  108  may be simultaneously conducting a communication session while also viewing documents over the Internet. Therefore, it is necessary to identify communications within the data stream and after a new communication has been identified, continue to search the data stream for subsequent packets also belonging to the communication so that like communications can be marked with like identifiers or tags. This is also useful for post-recording processing since each of the packets belonging to a particular communication may be spread out across a data stream it will be necessary to rebuild the communication by retrieving all portions of the communication. This can be done by referencing the common unique identifier assigned to that communication and tagged to each packet or set of packets belonging to the communication. 
         [0063]    With reference now to  FIG. 6 , an exemplary set of data structures will be described in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention. As noted above, a single communication may be split up within a single data stream into multiple but separate packets sets. These packets sets or frames will each be tagged with a similar tag thereby indicating the relationship between packets. As one example, the first set of packets  604  received in a new communication may be assigned a tag  616 . The first set of packets  604  may also include encoding/decoding information  620  to help identify the type of communication and further help identify how to decode the packets during post-recording processing. The first set of packets  604  may further include an address field  624  for storing one or more addresses used to define the communication (e.g., sending and/or receiving party). The first set of packets  604  may also include a data field  628  where the actual payload of the first set of packets is stored. Any subsequently transmitted packets also belonging to the first communication may be identified by one or more of the sending/receiving party, the communication type, and any other communication characteristic that can uniquely identify the communication among a number of different communications. 
         [0064]    A second set of packets  608  may also be tagged when stored with a communication tag  616 . Again, the communication tag  616  of the second set of packets  608  may be the same as the tag stored in connection with the first set of packets  604  if both sets of packets belong to the same communication. The last set of packets  612  may correspond to the final packet or set of packets within a communication. This can usually be identified by detecting a control/command signal some time after the last communication, where the control/command signal indicates a destruction of the communication link established between a UA  108  and some other communication device. Again, the last set of packets  612  may be stored with a tag  616  in a similar fashion to preceding sets of packets belonging to the same communication. 
         [0065]    As can be seen in  FIG. 6 , each tag  616  stored with a set of packets belonging to a particular communication may have one or more fields used to retrieve the stored set of packets belonging to a common communication, assemble the packets together into a coherent communication (i.e., sequentially according to the order in which they were initially transmitted), as well as process the stored set of packets as a collective and single communication. The types of processes that may be performed on the communication after it has been stored include, but are not limited to, replaying the recorded version of the communication, analyzing the content of the communication, editing the communication, retrieving contact center agent performance metrics from the communication, transcribing the recording, and so on. The types of fields that may be included in the tags  616  to facilitate this post-recording processing include, but are not limited to, a unique identifier field  632  for storing a unique identifier  632  that has been assigned to the communication. 
         [0066]    The tag  616  may also include a communication type field  636  for storing information related to the type of communication. The type field  636  may also include information used for decoding the communication. More specifically, the type of communication may be an indicator used to determine how to decode the communication. 
         [0067]    The tag  616  may further include a frame length field  640  for storing the size of data  628  stored for a particular frame. The size may be identified as either a number of packets or number of bits/bytes. 
         [0068]    The tag  616  may also include a time stamp field  644  for storing one or more of a transmission time of the first packet in the set of packets, a receipt time, an elapsed time since the communication started, or some other indicator of when the set of packets in a communication was received. Advantageously, the time provided in the time stamp field  644  does not necessarily need to be universally accurate since all communications are stored contiguously as they were transmitted in the data stream. Accordingly, it is possible to rebuild a communication from sets of separated packets without accurately knowing when each set of packets was transmitted. Instead, the relative time of transmission can be used to rebuild a communication. 
         [0069]    With reference now to  FIG. 7 , an exemplary communication method will be described in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention. The method is initiated when a data stream is received from a communication device at a recording agent  212  (step  704 ). The received data stream is analyzed to determine an identity of the communication currently being transmitted within the data stream (step  708 ). This analysis step may include analyzing the sender and intended recipient of the currently transmitted packet of data or sets of packets of data. The analysis step may also include identifying the type of packets, and therefore the communication type, that is currently being transmitted in the data stream. All of this information can be used to determine if the currently transmitted communication is part of a previously analyzed and identified communication or determine if the currently transmitted communication is a new communication that has not yet been identified. 
         [0070]    Based on the determination of the communication&#39;s properties the communication is tagged with an appropriate tag  616  which identifies some or all of the characteristics revealed during the analysis of the communication (step  712 ). Thereafter, the communication which has just been analyzed and tagged is stored in the data store  312  as a continuous part of the data stream in contiguous memory (step  716 ). More specifically, the currently analyzed communication will be stored immediately before the currently analyzed communication and the next communication will be stored immediately after the currently analyzed communication. This allows the entire data stream to be stored in contiguous memory as it was transmitted without any breaks, unless some portions of the data stream were selectively not stored because they were filtered out. It should be noted that some or all of the data within the data store  312  may also be protected by an encryption key for protecting sensitive data stored thereon. The encryption scheme and any keys utilized to encrypt data stored in the data store  312  may be contained within one or more tags of an encrypted communication. 
         [0071]    The method continues by storing the tag  616  in the data store  312  (step  720 ). The tag  616  may be stored as a flag or indicator inserted in the data stream at the beginning of the communication and/or as a separate data entry in the in the data store  312 . The unique identifier in the tag may also be stored as the index to the communication (i.e., the unique identifier assigned to the communication may be stored with the communication thereby allowing a processor to find and access the communication after it has been stored as part of the data stream as well as being stored in the tag  616 ). Thereafter the method returns to step  704  where the process is repeated for the next communication received in the data stream. 
         [0072]    While the above-described flowchart has been discussed in relation to a particular sequence of events, it should be appreciated that changes to this sequence can occur without materially effecting the operation of the invention. Additionally, the exact sequence of events need not occur as set forth in the exemplary embodiments. The exemplary techniques illustrated herein are not limited to the specifically illustrated embodiments but can also be utilized with the other exemplary embodiments and each described feature is individually and separately claimable. 
         [0073]    The systems, methods and protocols of this invention can be implemented on a special purpose computer in addition to or in place of the described communication equipment, a programmed microprocessor or microcontroller and peripheral integrated circuit element(s), an ASIC or other integrated circuit, a digital signal processor, a hard-wired electronic or logic circuit such as discrete element circuit, a programmable logic device such as PLD, PLA, FPGA, PAL, a communications device, such as a server, personal computer, any comparable means, or the like. In general, any device capable of implementing a state machine that is in turn capable of implementing the methodology illustrated herein can be used to implement the various communication methods, protocols and techniques according to this invention. 
         [0074]    Furthermore, the disclosed methods may be readily implemented in software using object or object-oriented software development environments that provide portable source code that can be used on a variety of computer or workstation platforms. Alternatively, the disclosed system may be implemented partially or fully in hardware using standard logic circuits or VLSI design. Whether software or hardware is used to implement the systems in accordance with this invention is dependent on the speed and/or efficiency requirements of the system, the particular function, and the particular software or hardware systems or microprocessor or microcomputer systems being utilized. The analysis systems, methods and protocols illustrated herein can be readily implemented in hardware and/or software using any known or later developed systems or structures, devices and/or software by those of ordinary skill in the applicable art from the functional description provided herein and with a general basic knowledge of the communication arts. 
         [0075]    Moreover, the disclosed methods may be readily implemented in software that can be stored on a storage medium, executed on a programmed general-purpose computer with the cooperation of a controller and memory, a special purpose computer, a microprocessor, or the like. In these instances, the systems and methods of this invention can be implemented as program embedded on personal computer such as an applet, JAVA®, or a domain specific language, as a resource residing on a server or computer workstation, as a routine embedded in a dedicated communication system or system component, or the like. The system can also be implemented by physically incorporating the system and/or method into a software and/or hardware system, such as the hardware and software systems of a communications device or system. 
         [0076]    It is therefore apparent that there has been provided, in accordance with the present invention, systems, apparatuses and methods for recording call information. While this invention has been described in conjunction with a number of embodiments, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations would be or are apparent to those of ordinary skill in the applicable arts. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications, equivalents and variations that are within the spirit and scope of this invention.