Abstract:
A call processing system is disclosed wherein plural platforms are populated with plural voice boards different resources thereon. Whenever a functional component on a server is requested to start operating for carrying out a particular function as requested by a call, polling software on said server runs to poll from the platforms the availability information of the corresponding resource required for said function requested by the call.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     This invention relates to a voice processing system, and more particularly, to an improved call processing architecture that permits a server or servers to allocate resources required to process a call based on updated availability information of resources polled from the platforms for that call. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Voice processing systems have become prevalent in modern day society. Such systems typically involve a telephone caller dialing into a computerized integrated voice response (IVR) system. The interaction between the remote user dialing in and the computerized system varies widely and is application specific. Typical examples of such systems include banking systems which allow a user to transfer funds between accounts and ascertain account balances, credit card corporation systems, etc. 
     Recently, it has also become popular to merge together these voice processing systems with facsimile, e-mail and other capabilities. One such example is what is termed fax-on-demand. In fax-on-demand systems, a remote user dials in to a computer and enters through his telephone keypad the digits corresponding to a particular item or product number. Additionally, a facsimile number may be entered via a touch tone keypad, and is interpreted by this system. The fax-on-demand system then transmits documentation regarding the particular item or product to a facsimile machine located at the specified remote telephone number. 
     In view of the evolving and complex nature of many of today&#39;s modern voice or call processing systems, it has become standard to construct such voice processing systems from a plurality of different client applications. The voice processing applications may include fax-on-demand, voice mail, etc., all interconnected via a local area network or other such means. 
     It has also become fairly standard to utilize voice processing resources flexibly between calls. For example, typical voice processing resources include such items as tone detectors for detecting the digits entered via a DTMF keypad, echo cancellors for filtering echo from the telephone network, voice recognition software for allowing a remote user to input commands via voice, etc. 
     One problem with such systems is that the voice processing applications, as well as the resources, tend to vary widely in their design and implementation. Multiple vendors each implements their systems differently and it is difficult for these items to work together. Additionally, the systems are not very flexible because there usually exists a set of circuit boards on a single platform for implementing all of the required call processing functions. Once the resources on the platform are used up, calls simply cannot be processed and are instead blocked. 
     The other problem comes from the use of redundant servers to achieve fault tolerance at the server level by shadowing between a primary functional component on a server and its standby functional component on another server. Both the servers keep the same record of availability information of the required resources on the platforms by synchronization process at an interval of time, so that the standby functional component can take over the tasks previously carried out by the primary component when the latter stops operating. However, the record for the standby component may be out-of-date if the call has changed its requested services after last synchronization since the synchronization is always implemented at an interval of time. 
     In view of the foregoing, there exists a need in the art for a more flexible and configurable voice processing system which can optimally utilize the resources of a variety of different vendors in a variety of different configurations. The system should also permit an application to operate irrespective of different types of locations of resources (tone detectors, signal generators, etc.) that are being used to implement the voice processing application. Furthermore, the system should also permit the resources be selected based on an up-to-date information on availability of the required resources whenever a functional component on a server is required to start operating. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The above and other problems of the prior art are overcome and a technical advance is achieved in accordance with the present invention which relates to a more flexible user configurable and higher capacity multiple platform voice processing system. In accordance with the invention, a plurality of call processing resources are arranged on various circuit cards (i.e., voice processing cards). A plurality of such cards are installed into a particular voice processing platform. 
     A plurality of voice processing applications, possibly running on different computers, communicates with one or more CT servers which query all of the different voice processing resources and configures the required resources for processing a particular call. The resources may be from different vendors, from the same or different voice processing boards, from the same or different voice processing platforms, and may change during the duration of any particular call. The entire configuration of the voice processing resources is isolated from, and invisible to, the voice processing application. As a result, the application can operate in an identical manner whether voice processing resources are allocated to process the particular call are allocated from the same or different locations. 
     Each of the servers includes polling software and allocation software. For each call, the polling software polls from the platforms information on availability of the resources required for processing the call and the allocation software allocate the resources based on the information polled by the polling software. Each of the CT servers also has a plurality of functional components for carrying out specific respective functions for calls. 
     The functional components comprise primary functional components and their counterpart standby functional components each of which is kept shadowed until its counterpart primary functional component stops operating. Such, fault tolerance at the server level is achieved by shadowing between the primary and standby functional components. Whenever a primary functional component stops operating, the polling software on the server accommodating its counterpart standby component runs to poll the platforms for the availability information on the required resources. The allocation software on this server runs for allocating the resources, based on the newly polled availability information, for the standby component. The standby component begins to work and takes over the task previously carried out by the stopped primary component. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 shows a conceptual block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; and 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     FIG. 1 shows an exemplary functional diagram for implementing teachings of the present invention. The arrangement in FIG. 1 includes a plurality of client personal computer based systems  220 - 224  all connected via a network  226  and in communication with CT servers  201 - 203 . The PC based systems run a variety of voice processing and call center applications which vary greatly from system to system. The particular techniques utilized by each of these systems is not critical to the present invention. 
     Additionally, voice processing platforms  208 - 212  communicate with CT servers  201  and  202  via a network and a standard S.300 or other type of protocol. The platforms  208 - 212  may also be interconnected with each other via an ATM switch  214  or other switch arrangement so as to improve voice processing quality. 
     Polling software and allocation software run on each of CT servers  201 - 203 . Each of CT servers also accommodates a plurality of processors having functional components for carrying out respective functions for telephone calls. Some of the functional components are called primary functional components, while the other are called standby functional components that corresponds to respective primary functional components. Every standby functional component is kept shadowed until its counterpart primary functional component stops operating or works properly. Such, fault tolerance at the server level is achieved by shadowing between a primary functional component and its standby functional component. 
     It is appreciated that the arrangement of the functional components on the processors or servers is not critical to the present invention. For example, in an arrangement, each processor may include only one functional component, either primary or standby. In another arrangement, some processor may include both of primary components and standby components. A server may only accommodate either primary components or standby components, or may accommodate both some primary components and some standby components. In any case, it is an obvious advantage that a primary component and its standby component are not accommodated on the same processor or the same server. 
     Even though three CT servers  201 - 203  are shown in FIG. 1, the number of CT servers are not critical to the present invention. Furthermore, it is not necessary each of the primary functional components has a counterpart standby functional component, but it is preferably that at least the primary components carrying out important functions shall have their standby counterparts. 
     In operation, a call arrives from the remote user over public switch telephone network (PSTN)  250  and is received through one of call processing platforms  208 - 212 . The CT servers  201 - 203  receive the call and connect appropriate application  220 - 224  to the call. The CT servers then analyze the call in response to messages received from the application in order to ascertain the particular group of resources which is required to process the particular call. Depending upon the call and/or the application, these resources may include items such as tone generators, speech recognition algorithms, echo cancellors, or any other of a variety of potential resources for processing various aspects of any particular call. The assembling, modification, and disassembling of the group of resources is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,608,791 issued to the assignee of the present invention. 
     Based upon the particular arriving call and the application, the CT servers  201 - 203  determine which particular resource types are necessary in order to process the call. In particular, the polling software runs on the servers  201 - 203  to poll from the platforms  208 - 212  availability of the required group of resources. With the availability information polled by the polling software, the allocation software on the servers  201 - 203  runs to pick the resources and configure them into a logical group so that the call may be processed by those resources. Each of those resources communicates with the CT servers  201 - 203  via the S.300 standard protocol, and thus, the resources may be from different vendors, yet still be utilized to process a single call. Moreover, the application is unaware of the particular resource utilized and whether those resources are located on the same board, platform, or remotely from one another. 
     The polling software may poll the platforms in an order that it polls a first platform to obtain a list of available required resources, and then check a second platform for the remaining required resources that are not available on the first platform, and then check the next platform, and so on, until all the required resources are found. 
     The polling software may also poll in any other predetermined optimal order. For example, the polling software may poll the availability of all the required resources on each of the platforms and stops whenever a platform including all the resources is found. 
     A priority scheme is utilized in order to attempt to allocate the resources. For example, the allocate may attempt to allocate as many of the resources as possible, if not all of them, on the same board. Since the polling software on CT servers  201 - 203  has obtained a list of all of the different resources and where they are located, this can be attempted first. If the resources are not available on the same board, the allocation software attempts to locate them on the same platform, and ultimately, on different platforms only if necessary. 
     Many factors may be taken into account in determining a priority scheme for allocating the resources. These factors may include location of the resources, the traffic patterns, the scarcity of certain resources, etc. 
     If a primary functional component (e.g., on server  201 ) stops operating and its shadowed standby functional component (e.g., on server  202 ) now begins to work, the polling software on server  202  runs to poll the availability information for the required resources from the platforms. Therefore, the availability information or resources provided to this standby component on server  202  is independent to that in server  201  and is therefore always updated when the standby component on server  202  begins to work No synchronization between the servers  201  and  202  on availability information of the resources is carried out or needed. 
     When the group of resources for the particular call is changed because a new service is requested during the call, the polling software on the server accommodating relevant primary functional component carrying out this new service or function runs again so as to poll from the platforms the availability information of the newly required resource. The polling software may only check the availability of the newly added resources or go through all the required resources again in the same way as when a new call is received. 
     The above describes the preferred embodiment of the invention. Various other modifications and additions are apparent to those of skill in the art, and such modifications are intended to be covered by the following claims.