Intelligent telephone call routing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017366664-A1
Application number	US-201715696080-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 5, 2017
Priority date	Mar 10, 2015
Publication date	Dec 21, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods for intelligently routing an incoming telephone call to an internal extension based on the calling history are provided. According to one embodiment, a session log, containing information regarding sessions between internal extension numbers and external telephone numbers, is maintained by a call monitor of a telephone system. The internal extension numbers are associated with telephone extensions within the telephone system and the external telephone numbers are associated with telephones outside of the telephone system. An incoming telephone call is received by the call monitor from a telephone outside the telephone system that is associated with an external telephone number. It is determined by the call monitor whether the incoming call represents a call-back to an internal extension number based on the session log. When the incoming call is determined to represent a call-back, then causing a switch to route the incoming call to the internal extension number.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
maintaining, by a telephone system of a company, a telephone call routing rule set including a call-back routing rule, wherein the call-back routing rule is configurable by an administrator of the telephone system and specifies one or more conditions under which incoming telephone calls received via a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) will be recognized as a call back for which direct routing is to be performed and wherein the one or more conditions includes a timing constraint; maintaining, by a call monitor of the telephone system, a session log in which a plurality of call session records relating to telephone calls between internal extension numbers and external telephone numbers are stored, wherein each of the internal extension numbers are associated with a telephone extension within the telephone system and each of the external telephone numbers are accessible via the PSTN; receiving, by the call monitor, an incoming telephone call via the PSTN from an external telephone number; locating, by the call monitor, a matching call session record among the plurality of call session records, by searching the session log for a call session record containing the external telephone number; and when the incoming telephone call satisfies the one or more conditions of the call-back routing rule including a difference between a current time and a time stored in the matching call session record being within the timing constraint, then causing, by the call monitor, a switch of the telephone system to route the incoming telephone call to an internal extension number stored in the matching call session record.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more conditions specified by the call-back routing rule include the external telephone number matching a called party stored within the matching call session record.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more conditions specified by the call-back routing rule include the external telephone number matching a calling party stored within the matching call session record.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more conditions specified by the call-back routing rule include the external telephone number matching any of a called party stored within the matching call session record and a calling party stored within the matching call session record.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising when the incoming telephone call does not satisfy the timing constraint, then providing a caller associated with the incoming call with an opportunity to select another option by announcing the incoming telephone call will be routed to the internal extension number unless another internal telephone extension is entered by the caller.

6 . A method comprising:
maintaining, by a telephone system of a company, a telephone call routing rule set including a call-back routing rule, wherein the call-back routing rule is configurable by an administrator of the telephone system and specifies one or more conditions under which incoming telephone calls received via a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) will be recognized as a call back for which direct routing is to be performed; maintaining, by a call monitor of the telephone system, a session log in which a plurality of call session records relating to telephone calls between internal extension numbers and external telephone numbers are stored, wherein each of the internal extension numbers are associated with a telephone extension within the telephone system and each of the external telephone numbers are accessible via the PSTN; receiving, by the call monitor, an incoming telephone call via the PSTN from an external telephone number; determining, by the call monitor, existence of one or more matching call session records among the plurality of call session records, by searching the session log for call session records containing the external telephone number; when (i) said determining identifies existence of a plurality of matching call session records within the session log that do not satisfy all of the one or more conditions specified by the call-back routing rule and (ii) the plurality of matching call session records contain two or more different internal extension numbers, then causing, by the call monitor, a caller associated with the incoming call to be prompted to select among the two or more different internal extension numbers; and causing, by the call monitor, a switch of the telephone system to route the incoming telephone call to an internal extension number selected by the caller. The method of claim 6 , wherein the one or more conditions specified by the call-back routing rule include a start time or an end time stored within a matching call session record being within a certain time period relative to a time associated with the incoming telephone call.

8 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the one or more conditions specified by the call-back routing rule include the external telephone number matching a calling party stored within the matching call session record.

9 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the one or more conditions specified by the call-back routing rule include the external telephone number matching any of a called party stored within the matching call session record and a calling party stored within the matching call session record.

10 . A telephone system comprising:
a non-transitory storage device having embodied therein one or more routines; and one or more processors coupled to the non-transitory storage device and operable to execute the one or more routines to perform a method comprising: maintaining a telephone call routing rule set including a call-back routing rule, wherein the call-back routing rule is configurable by an administrator of the telephone system and specifies one or more conditions under which incoming telephone calls received via a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) will be recognized as a call back for which direct routing is to be performed and wherein the one or more conditions includes a timing constraint; maintaining a session log in which a plurality of call session records relating to telephone calls between internal extension numbers and external telephone numbers are stored, wherein each of the internal extension numbers are associated with a telephone extension within the telephone system and each of the external telephone numbers are accessible via the PSTN; receiving an incoming telephone call via the PSTN from an external telephone number; locating a matching call session record among the plurality of call session records, by searching the session log for a call session record containing the external telephone number; and when the incoming telephone call satisfies the one or more conditions of the call-back routing rule including a difference between a current time and a time stored in the matching call session record being within the timing constraint, then causing a switch of the telephone system to route the incoming telephone call to an internal extension number stored in the matching call session record.

11 . The telephone system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more conditions specified by the call-back routing rule include the external telephone number matching a called party stored within the matching call session record.

12 . The telephone system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more conditions specified by the call-back routing rule include the external telephone number matching a calling party stored within the matching call session record.

13 . The telephone system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more conditions specified by th

Assignees

• Fortinet Inc

Inventors

• Chandra Sekhar Sumanth Gorajala

Classifications

• H04M3/546

  in private branch exchanges · CPC title

• H04M2203/551

  Call history · CPC title

• H04M3/42195

  Arrangements for calling back a calling subscriber (when the wanted subscriber ceases to be busy H04M3/48) · CPC title

• H04M3/2218 Primary

  Call detail recording · CPC title