At&t Intellectual Property I, LP

At&t Labs, Inc.

Sbc Technology Resources, Inc.

Sbc Properties, L.p.

Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.p.

At&t Knowledge Ventures, LP

Jeffrey Lee Scruggs

Chaoxin Charles Qiu

Robert Dailey

Arshad Khan

Douglas F Reynolds

Mark A Ratcliffe

Stephen Mark Mueller

John Edward Lemay

Diana Maria Cantu

Jessie Tsae-Jiuan Lee

Satish Parolkar

Jeffrey L Brandt

Jeffrey Paul Johnson

Alexander Lisheng Huang

James Thomas Miller

Anil Kumar Bhandari

Xiaolian Bi

Thomas Daniel Koser

Gail D Mosley

Christine Mary Hartman

Debra K Lawson

When a virtualized service platform encounters a catastrophic fault, an orchestrator may instantiate new virtual machines instances to deploy additional capacity in other cloud locations to handle failover storms. After the network fault is fixed and service returns to normal condition, these additional VM instances may be removed from the platform and cloud resources may be released. The system may minimize the resource over-provisioning and may continue to support geographical redundancy or dynamic scaling in a large-scale service network.

Geographical redundancy and dynamic scaling for virtual network functions

A method for vNF chaining management includes receiving virtualized network function (vNF) information from a chaining client associated with a particular vNF. A service chaining catalog is updated based on the vNF information and chaining information is transmitted to peering vNFs of the particular vNF. The vNF information can indicate instantiation of a vNF and identify peering vNFs. Updates received from vNFs can be used to update the chaining catalog. Updated vNF information can then be sent to peering vNFs of the vNF which sent the update.

Method and apparatus for virtualized network function chaining management

Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for message flow management for virtual networks. A processor can identify a target virtual network function instance that is to be taken offline. The processor can change a status associated with the target virtual network function instance to indicate it being taken offline. The processor can start a graceful shutdown timer to trigger shutdown of the target virtual network function instance. The processor can identify external interfaces and a peer network function that identifies the target virtual network function instance as a next hop. The processor can obtain, for the target virtual network function instance and the peer network function instance, a snapshot that identifies configuration data for the target virtual network function instance and the peer network function instance and can generate a command to trigger a shutdown of the target virtual network function instance.

Message flow management for virtual networks

Methods and apparatus to provide messages to consumer electronics devices are disclosed. An example method includes determining an identifier associated with a consumer electronics device from which a request has been received. The method also includes querying a database to determine first and second account identifiers associated with the identifier of the consumer electronics device. When the request is for messaging information stored with a first message provider, a first command is sent to cause the first message provider to forward the messaging information. When the request is for messaging information stored with a second message provider, a second command is sent to cause the second message provider to forward the messaging information. The messaging information received from at least one of the first message provider and the second message provider is sent to the consumer electronics device.

Methods and apparatus to provide messages to television users

A method and apparatus for controlling a call volume for an office that serves as a protecting site for another office in a packet network are disclosed. For example, the method collects one or more customer registration counts from one or more session border controllers located in a first office, determines if the one or more customer registration counts have reached or exceeded a threshold. The method directs all of said one or more session border controllers located in said first office to enact one or more throttling rules if the one or more customer registration counts have reached or exceeded the threshold.

Method and apparatus for controlling call volume

Methods and apparatus to provide voice communication inoperative condition notifications are disclosed. An apparatus includes an error capture to: transmit a request to a voice over internet protocol processor that serves a first voice over internet protocol user and a second voice over internet protocol user, the request indicating that the error capture is to be subscribed to receive voice over internet protocol notifications from the voice over internet protocol processor; and a notifier to: determine a voice over internet protocol user identifier associated with a first notification; determine a video distribution system user identifier associated with the voice over internet protocol user identifier; and transmit a third notification to the video distribution system, the third notification instructing the video distribution system to cause an indication of the first notification to be presented on a video presentation device associated with the video distribution system user identifier.

Methods and apparatus to provide voice communication error notifications

Methods and apparatus to provide messages to consumer electronics devices are disclosed. In response to a request from a consumer electronics device for messaging information stored with at least one of a first message provider or a second message provider, determining, with a processor of a mediation system, an identifier associated with the consumer electronics device. Querying, with the processor, a database at the mediation system to determine first and second account identifiers associated with the identifier of the consumer electronics device. When the request is for the messaging information stored with the first message provider, sending, with the processor, a first command to cause the first message provider to forward the messaging information associated with the first message account identifier to the mediation system. When the request is for the messaging information stored with the second message provider, sending, with the processor, a second command to cause the second message provider to forward the messaging information associated with the second message account identifier to the mediation system. Sending, with the processor, the messaging information received from at least one of the first message provider or the second message provider to the consumer electronics device.

Methods and apparatus to provide voice communication inoperative condition notifications are disclosed. An example method includes detecting an inoperative condition associated with a called voice over internet protocol device, comparing the inoperative condition to a criterion, and forwarding an inoperative condition notification for display on a display device associated with the called voice over internet protocol device when the criterion is satisfied.

A method and apparatus for managing an overload condition in a network are disclosed. For example, the method monitors the network for a traffic overload condition, and determines whether a more severe traffic overload condition or a less severe traffic overload condition is detected by using a network monitor and controller. The method then selects using a network monitor and controller agent in response to a command from the network monitor and controller, a different bandwidth preservation scheme if the more severe traffic overload condition or the less severe traffic overload condition is detected, wherein the different bandwidth preservation scheme is based on a selection of a codec type and is applied to a portion of the traffic.

Method and apparatus for mitigating an overload in a network

Methods and apparatus to provide messages to television users are disclosed. An example method includes determining an identifier associated with a television device in response to detecting a request for a list of voicemail message information, querying a database to determine a voicemail mailbox associated with the identifier, initiating a terminal session in accordance with a remote desktop protocol for the television device, and sending the list of voicemail message information to the television device via the terminal session.

Growing community of inventors

Round Rock, TX, United States of America

Jeffrey Lee Scruggs