VOICE OVER IP TELEPHONE RECORDING ARCHITECTURE
A method and system is disclosed for on-demand recording of a voice session by a telephone recording device in a telecommunication network. After establishing a voice session between the telephone recording device and at least one communication device, a user of the telephone recording device may instruct it to store voice data during the voice session so long as the voice session has not been terminated. During the voice session, the telephone recording device processes and transmits the voice data to and saved at a storage server without going through a centrally located exchange device, wherein the saved voice data is available for on-demand replay.
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The present invention relates to a distributed network architecture for recording a stream of analog or digital data.
In the current state of the industry, in order to record the contents of a telephone call, computer transmission, television program, or any form or type of analog or digital data transmission, there are two basic methods. The first method is “logging,” which consists of recording every transmission, from initiation until termination, regardless of the content or characteristics of the transmission, because logging is independent of the contents and characteristics of the transmission, if a specific transmission is to be reviewed, it becomes necessary to record every transmission. Recording every transmission, however, requires a significant amount of storage space. Further, because of the number of transmissions recorded, it is difficult and time-consuming to locate a specific transmission.
The second method of recording a transmission is “event driven” recording, which records a transmission upon the occurrence of a certain condition or event. In some instances, the recording condition may be the start of the transmission (which is, in effect, the logging method), while in other instances the event will occur during the transmission (such as when a user presses a “record” button during the transmission). Other events may be time-based, such as when recording begins and ends at a specific times. One difficulty of an event driven recording system is properly defining the event that initiates recording. An overly broad event may record too many transmissions, while too specific of an event may not record enough. Another disadvantage of event driven recording is that the event may occur, or may occur at the wrong time, resulting in not all of the content of the transmission being recorded. Yet another disadvantage is that if the event cannot or does not) occur until after the initiation of transmission, then the transmission that occurs prior to the event is not recorded. Further, for communications via computer instant messenging, a similar disadvantage occurs when the content of the conversation may “scroll off” the screen before the user can save the earlier portions of the conversation.
The above described recording methods all deal with a centralized network architecture. That is, the functional components that manage call control and voice transmission are all centrally located in a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) of a private network. More specifically, a recording initiation device such as a recording phone has to obtain all call control information and voice data for other phones in connection therewith from the PBX.
What is needed is distributed network architecture for recording voice data between telephones.
SUMMARY OF INVENTIONA method and system is disclosed for on-demand recording of a voice session by a telephone recording device in a telecommunication network. After establishing a voice session between the telephone recording device and at least one communication device, a user of the telephone recording device may instruct it to store voice data during the voice session so long as the voice session has not been terminated. During the voice session, the telephone recording device processes and transmits the voice data to and saved at a storage server without going through a centrally located exchange device, wherein the saved voice data is available for on-demand replay.
The following disclosure provides many different embodiments, or examples, for implementing different features of an on-demand recording system. Specific examples of components, processes, and implementations are described to help clarify the invention. These are, of course, merely examples and are not intended to limit the invention from that described in the claims.
Referring to
Connected to at least one of the communication devices 28 is a save initiator 30, which allows a user to initiate a save request. While depicted in
While two parties are engaging in a voice session, the corresponding voice data is duplicated and digitized by the processor 18 and may be pieced into packets. The packets are then provided over the network and received by the server 12. The server 20 extracts (e.g., de-packetizes) the digitized information from the packets and stores the extracted information in the memory buffer 20. If a save request signal is initiated, the save initiator 30 transmits a save request signal for receipt by the receiver 28. When the connection is terminated, the contents of the memory buffer 20 on the server 20 is copied onto the storage device 22. The saved information of the entire connection on storage device 22 is made available for playback via devices such as the communication device 28.
In an enterprise environment wherein a complex telephone system is deployed, any number of telephones 28 may be connected to any number of line cards of the centrally located exchange device 10. The line cards may contain functional modules that deliver that functions equivalent to the memory module 16, digitizing processor and packetizing processor system 18.
When a voice session is established between two telephones transmitting voice data, while at least one of which is a VoIP recording telephone 202 and the other is a regular phone such as telephone 204a, the voice data initiated by telephone 204a goes to a local switch device such as the hub 206a, further through another hub 206b, and reaches the recording phone 202. The recording phone 202 will dynamically process and duplicate the voice data received. If the voice data is not already in digital form, it is digitized and packetized by the recording phone 202, and sent to the IDVR server 208. The IDVR server 208 will extract (e.g., de-packetize) the digitized voice data from the packets and store the data in a memory buffering device such as a memory module in the IDVR server. If needed, the voice data is further stored in a persistent memory device for future replay.
The VoIP recording phone 202 shown in
The present invention as described above thus provides an improved method for allowing the entire telephone conversation, and other streams of analog or digital data to be recorded when the triggering event to record the data is initiated during the transmission. It is also contemplated by the present invention that various components of the invention could be combined to reduce the number of components.
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as set forth in the following claims.
Claims
1.-23. (canceled)
24. A method for storing a peer-to-peer telephone conversation session between a telephone recording device and at least one communication device which does not have a recording feature, the method comprising:
- establishing the peer-to-peer telephone conversation session between the telephone recording device and the communication device through a first local switch device coupled to the telephone recording device and a second local switch coupled to the communication device and to the first local switch;
- temporarily saving voice data representing the entire session in a memory buffer of the telephone recording device; and
- if a save initiation signal is received during the session and before the session ends, transmitting the voice data representing the entire session from the memory buffer to a storage server coupled to the telephone recording device to store the voice data for later replay.
25. The method of claim 24 further including:
- replaying at least part of the stored voice data.
26. The method of claim 24, wherein establishing the peer-to-peer telephone conversation session includes establishing the session over a voice over IP telephone network.
27. The method of claim 24, further including:
- generating the save initiation signal by pressing a button on the telephone recording device.
28. The method of claim 24, further including:
- if a save initialization signal is not received during the session and the session terminates without receiving the save initialization signal, the voice date representing the entire session is cleared from the memory buffer without transmitting the voice data to the storage server.
29. A method for on-demand recording of a voice session by a telephone recording device in a telecommunication network, the method comprising:
- establishing a voice session between the telephone recording device and at least one communication device;
- automatically temporarily storing voice data representing the voice session in a memory buffer device included in the telephone recording device, wherein the temporary storing is automatically initiated upon the establishment of the voice session;
- receiving a save initiation signal instructing the telephone recording device to store the voice data, wherein receiving the save initiation signal can occur at any time during the voice session so long as the voice session has not been terminate; and
- upon receiving the save initiation signal, transmitting all of the voice data currently stored in the memory buffer to a persistent memory device in a server, and then transmitting any forthcoming voice data included in the voice data session to the persistent memory device until the voice session is terminated.
30. The method of claim 29, further including:
- retrieving the stored voice data from the persistent memory device for replay some time after the voice session is terminated.
31. The method of claim 29, wherein establishing the voice session includes:
- establishing the voice session through only one single switch.
32. The method of claim 29, wherein establishing the voice session includes:
- establishing the voice session through a first hub device coupled to the telephone recording device and through a second hub device coupled to the at least one communication device.
33. The method of claim 29, wherein establishing the voice session includes:
- transmitting signals including analog signals from the communication device;
- receiving the analog signals at the telephone recording device; and
- digitizing the received analog signals at the telephone recording device.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 6, 2011
Publication Date: Sep 29, 2011
Applicant: TelStrat Int'l, Ltd (Plano, TX)
Inventors: Kirk Barker (Rockwall, TX), Darrell D. Roberts (Flower Mound, TX)
Application Number: 13/153,654
International Classification: H04M 1/00 (20060101);