Bandwidth.com, Inc.

Republic Wireless, Inc.

James Mulcahy

Sai Gopala Rathnam

Jared Kashimba

Justin Milam

Jesse Stimpson

Matthew Newton

Anders Brownworth

Jon Schniepp

Sam Quaile

Dean E Thorson

Ryan Patrick McShane

Steve Ims

Ibraheem Khalifa

L Anders Brownworth

Stan Surmay

Gregory Stephens

Techniques are disclosed for managing a spontaneously created geofenced area among a plurality of communication devices communicable with a communication server. The communication server receives, from a location enabled first communication device, an instruction to create a geofence around itself. Upon receiving location data from the first and a location enabled second communication devices, the communication server compares the location data of the first and second communication devices to determine how close they are to one another. When the first and second communication devices are within a predetermined distance of one another, the communication server creates a geofence around the first communication device. The communication server will then periodically poll and receiving updated location data for the first and second communication devices. The communication server then recalculates the geofence boundary based on the location of the first communication device. The communication server also notifies the first communication device any time the second communication device ventures beyond the boundary of the geofence.

Dynamic geofencing techniques for GPS enabled communication devices

Techniques are disclosed for managing a spontaneously created geofenced area among a plurality of communication devices communicable with a communication server. The communication server receives, from a location enabled first communication device, an instruction to create a geofence around a location enabled second communication device. Upon receiving location data from the first and second communication devices, the communication server compares the location data of the first and second communication devices to determine how close they are to one another. When the first and second communication devices are within a predetermined distance of one another, the communication server creates a geofence around the second communication device. The communication server will then notify the first communication device when the second communication device ventures beyond the boundary of the geofence.

Techniques are disclosed for responding to a pre-recorded inbound voice message in a communication system that includes communication devices and a communication server. In a first communication device, a pre-recorded inbound voice message is received from a sender communication device via a communication server. A reply mode is set for a response voice message from a plurality of reply modes. The response voice message is recorded and a reply mode flag is inserted into a message header. The response voice message is then sent to the communication server where it determines the reply mode. When the reply mode is reply to all, the response voice message is sent to the sender communication device and other recipient communication devices. When the reply mode is reply to sender, a direct channel communication link is established between the first communication device and the sender communication device and the response voice message is sent directly to the sender communication device.

Techniques for responding to inbound voice messages in a communication system

Techniques are disclosed for managing inbound voice messages in a communication system that includes communication devices and a communication server. A communication device receives an inbound voice message that is associated with a voice message temporal mode that includes a message mode and a live mode. The communication device may then determine the voice message temporal mode for the inbound voice message as well as a device temporal mode associated with the receiving communication device. The device temporal mode also includes a message mode and a live mode. When the voice message temporal mode is determined to be message mode, the communication device may provide a message received notification on the receiving communication device. When the device temporal mode is determined to be message mode, the communication device may provide a message received notification on the receiving communication device regardless of the voice message temporal mode. When the voice message temporal mode and device temporal mode are both determined to be live mode, the communication device may play the received inbound voice message back on the receiving communication device.

Techniques for managing inbound voice messages in a communication system

Techniques are disclosed for managing outbound voice messages in a communication system that includes communication devices and a communication server. A temporal mode of either live mode or message mode and a recipient mode of either group mode or direct mode are selected and set for an outbound voice message. Based on the selected settings for temporal mode and recipient mode the originating communication device records a voice message that is relayed to the communication server where it is distributed to other communication devices according to the rules or parameters associated with the temporal and recipient mode selected.

Techniques for managing outbound voice messages in a communication system

Techniques are disclosed for managing a panic mode for a communication device. The communication device may trigger a panic mode causing the communication device to emit an audible alert while simultaneously causing the communication device to capture any detected sound at a frequency below the audible alert. The communication device may also collect metadata including a date stamp, a time stamp, and a location that may be associated with any captured audio and stored locally or streamed to a communications server for storage. The communication device may also send a message to one or more other endpoints indicative of the communication device having engaged panic mode.

Panic mode management in a communication device

Examples are disclosed for placing an outbound telephony call using a smart speaker as a proxy device for a telephone account. A smart speaker may receive a verbal command to initiate the telephone call that includes identifying information for the called party. The verbal command may be forwarded to a smart speaker server where it may be converted to a computer instruction to initiate the telephone call. The computer instruction may then be forwarded to a communications server. The communications server may determine the telephone number to call based on the identifying information for the called party. The communications server may then establish a first communication link between itself and a telephony endpoint of the called party and a second communication link between itself and the smart speaker device. The communication links may then be bridged into a communications session between the smart speaker device and the telephony endpoint of the called party.

Virtual telephony assistant

Examples are disclosed for screening an inbound telephony call to a called party. At a communications server, an inbound telephony call intended for a called party's telephone number is received and checked against a whitelist database and a blacklist database. When the caller ID of the inbound call matches a telephone number contained in the blacklist database, the communications server automatically routes the call to a voicemail system or spam folder associated with the called party's telephone number. When the caller ID of the inbound call matches a telephone number contained in the whitelist database, the communications server determines whether the called party is available to receive the call. Otherwise, when the caller ID of the inbound call does not match a telephone number contained in either the whitelist database or the blacklist database, the communications server prompts the caller for additional information.

Examples are disclosed for placing an outbound telephony call using a mobile telephony device as a proxy to make the call on behalf of a smart speaker device. At a communications server, it is determined whether a mobile telephony device is in proximity of a smart speaker device. When the mobile telephony device is in proximity of a smart speaker device and attempts to place a telephony call, the communications server establishes a communications link between the communications server and the smart speaker device. The communications server may then dial the telephone number sent by the mobile telephony device and establish a communications link between the communications server and a device associated with the dialed telephone number. The communications server may then join the communications link between the communications server and the smart speaker device with the communications link between the communications server and a device associated with the dialed telephone number to create a communications session.

Examples are disclosed for conducting an Internet Protocol (IP) communication session between a computer device and a communications server with the assistance of an intermediate communication device. A first communication channel between the computer device and the communications server is established for sending and receiving an IP packet data media stream representative of the IP communication session. The quality of service (QoS) for the IP packet data media stream is monitored to determine whether the they are sufficient to sustain a minimum QoS. A second communication channel that includes the intermediate communication device is established. While continuing to send and receive on the first communication channel, the computer device simultaneously sends and receives a percentage of the IP packet data media stream on the second communication channel wherein an increasing percentage of the IP packet data media stream is sent on the second communication channel as the QoS for the first communication channel degrades and a decreasing percentage of the IP packet data media stream is sent over the second communication channel as the QoS for the first communication channel improves.

Bonding of multiple concurrent data streams among multiple devices

Examples are disclosed for hosting a communication session between a computer device and a destination communication device in an Internet Protocol (IP) based packet data network. A computer device receives multiple concurrent IP packet data streams each representative of the same content but received over corresponding multiple communication links. The original IP packet data stream comes from the communications server. At least one IP packet data stream representative of the original IP packet data stream traverses a communication link through a second communication device working in tandem with the communications server before arriving at the computer device. The computer device determines a highest quality packet for each corresponding packet in the multiple concurrent IP packet data streams. The computer device then creates a bonded IP packet data stream by selecting the highest quality packet for each time slot from among corresponding time slots of the multiple concurrent IP packet data streams.

Examples are disclosed for hosting a communication session between a computer device and a destination communication device in an Internet Protocol (IP) based packet data network. The computer device is communicable with a communications server and a communication device, wherein the communications server situated in an Internet Protocol (IP) based packet data network. The computer device creates an IP packet data stream and establishes a first communication link with the communications server. The computer device also establishes a second communication link with the communication device. The computer device then sends the IP packet data stream to the communications server over the first communication link and sends the IP packet data stream to the communication device over the second communication link. The communication device then relays the IP packet data stream to the communications server over one or more additional communication links between the communication device and the communications server.

Disclosed is a technique for predictively caching IP content data for a mobile device. In the mobile device, a content request is sent to an intelligent cache server over an IP network, the content request indicative of recurring IP content data of interest to the mobile device. The intelligent cache server retrieves the requested IP content data from content servers and queues the requested IP content data in a buffer associated with the mobile device. A notification message is sent to the mobile device indicating that the requested IP content is queued. The mobile device determines whether it is connected to a non-cellular IP network access point and automatically downloads the queued IP content data from the intelligent cache server when connected to a non-cellular IP network. The IP content data is stored in a cache memory in the mobile device. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Predictive caching of IP data

The location of a mobile terminal associated with a user is determined using GPS or by monitoring signals generated and received by the mobile terminal, etc. Coordinates for at least one hot spot defined by the user are accessed to determine whether the location of the mobile terminal is within the hot spot. When an incoming contact is received for the user, a determination is made as to whether there are any contact routing rules associates with the user. If so, the record of contact routing rules associated with the user is accessed. If the record of contact routing rules includes at least one contact routing rule assigned to a hot spot, the contact is routed according to the at least one contact routing rule, based on whether or not the mobile terminal is determined to be within the hot spot.

Growing community of inventors

Raleigh, NC, United States of America

James Mulcahy