System and method for processing media requests during telephony sessions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9306982-B2
Application number	US-201314103632-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 11, 2013
Priority date	Apr 2, 2008
Publication date	Apr 5, 2016
Grant date	Apr 5, 2016

Abstract

In a preferred embodiment, the method of caching media used in a telephony application includes: receiving a media request; sending the media request to a media layer using HTTP; the a media layer performing the steps of checking in a cache for the media resource; processing the media request within a media processing server; and storing the processed media in the cache as a telephony compatible resource specified by a persistent address. The system of the preferred embodiment includes a call router and a media layer composed of a cache and media processing server.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of caching media for use in a telephony application comprising:
at a call router, generating a media request initiated by a telephony application session, the media request specifying a requested media resource through a persistent Universal Resource Identifier (URI);
sending the media request to a media layer;
where the media layer performs the following steps:
checking in a cache for a telephony compatible audio media resource specified by the media request and identified by the persistent URI;
if a telephony compatible audio media resource is identified in the cache by the persistent URI, forwarding the cached audio media resource to the call router,
if a telephony compatible audio media resource is not identified in the cache by the persistent URI, processing the media request at a media processing server according to the persistent URI of the media request to generate a first telephony compatible audio media resource, storing the first telephony compatible audio media resource in the cache as a resource specified by the persistent URI, and forwarding the first telephony compatible audio media resource to the call router,
wherein the persistent URI is used by the media layer to identify the telephony compatible audio media resource in the cache, and used by the media processing server to generate the first telephony compatible audio media resource,
wherein the first telephony compatible audio media resource is generated by converting a media resource retrieved at the persistent URI,

wherein the first telephony compatible audio media resource is stored in the cache in association with the persistent URI,
wherein the persistent URI specifies a location of the media resource at an external server, and
wherein the media layer uses the persistent URI of the media resource to check in the cache for the first telephony compatible audio media resource for the media resource of the media request.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the persistent URI has embedded media parameters that uniquely identify contents of the media resource.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the media request is sent through a media layer application programming interface (API) from the call router to the media layer.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating a second media request through a media layer application programming interface (API) prior to sending the media request generated by the call router; and sending the media request to a media layer; wherein, prior to the telephony session initiating the media resource and at the media layer, further comprising: checking in the cache for a telephony compatible audio media resource specified by the second media request and identified by a persistent Universal Resource Identifier (URI) of the second media request; if a telephony compatible audio media resource is not identified in the cache by the persistent URI of the second media request, processing the second media request within a media processing server to form a telephony compatible audio media resource; and storing in the cache the telephony compatible audio media resource specified by a persistent address.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the media request comprises retrieving media from an external server at the persistent URI and converting the retrieved media to a telephony compatible media format with a transcoding proxy server of the media processing server.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising writing the telephony compatible media resource to a disk at the call router, and in a second media request initiated at the call router and specifying the persistent URI, mapping the persistent URI specified by the persistent URI to a local telephony compatible media resource written to a disk of the call router; and returning the local telephony compatible media resource.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the persistent URI includes media parameters used by the media layer to identify the telephony compatible audio media resource in the cache, and used by the media processing server to generate the first telephony compatible audio media resource.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the persistent URI comprises information enabling the telephony compatible audio media resource to be persistent, queryable, and recoverable.

9. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the media request is a second media request sent to the media layer after a first media request, the first media request specifying the requested media resource through the persistent URI, and
wherein checking in the cache for the telephony compatible audio media resource specified by the second media request comprises: checking in the cache for a telephony compatible audio media resource of the media resource specified by the first media request and identified by the persistent URI; and if a telephony compatible audio media resource of the media resource specified by the first media request is not identified in the cache by the persistent URI, processing the second media request within a media processing server to form a telephony compatible audio media resource and storing the telephony compatible audio media resource in the cache in association with the persistent URI.

10. A method for communication media handling comprising:
at a call router, generating a media request initiated by a telephony application, the media request specifying a requested media resource through a persistent Universal Resource Identifier (URI);
sending the media request to a media layer;
at the media layer, processing the media request which comprises:
checking in a cache for a telephony compatible media resource specified by the persistent URI;
if a telephony compatible media resource is not identified in the cache, retrieving a first format of the media resource at the persistent URI, converting the first format of the media resource into a telephony compatible media resource of the persistent URI, and storing in the cache the telephony compatible audio media resource specified by the persistent URI; and
making the telephony compatible media resource available to the call router,
wherein the persistent URI is used by the media layer to identify the telephony compatible media resource in the cache, and used to convert the first format of the media resource into the telephony compatible media resource,
wherein the telephony compatible media resource generated from the media resource retrieved at the persistent URI is stored in the cache in association with the persistent URI,
wherein the persistent URI specifies a location of the media resource at an external server, and
wherein the media layer uses the persistent URI of the media resource to check in the cache for the telephony compatible media resource for the media resource of the media request.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first format of the media resource defines an original content type of the media, and the original content type is different from the telephony compatible media resource.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the telephony compatible media resource is an audio resource.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the original content type of the media resource is a first audio file media format and the telephony compatible media resource is an 8 KHz mono channel audio format.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the media request is media messaging request by the telephony application.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the media request is a multimedia messaging service application request.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the tel

Assignees

• Twilio Inc

Inventors

• Lawson Jeff
• Wolthuis John
• Cooke Evan

Classifications

• H04L65/1101

  Session protocols · CPC title

• H04M7/0075

  Details of addressing, directories or routing tables · CPC title

• H04M7/003

  Click to dial services · CPC title

• H04L65/1069

  Session establishment or de-establishment · CPC title

• H04L9/3247

  involving digital signatures · CPC title