Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Wajih Yahyaoui

Warren Vincent Barkley

Pascal Francis Menezes

Kapil Sharma

Amer A Hassan

Christian F Huitema

Deyun Wu

Andrew Thomas Baron

Vishesh Parikh

Mahmood H Khadeer

Tony Bell

Joseph Arthur Williams

A primary call admission controller (CAC) system receives a request from a client to allocate a network resource such as a network bandwidth. The primary CAC system may determine subordinate CAC to delegate the allocation and transfer the request to the subordinate CAC. Subsequently, the subordinate CAC analyzes the communication session attributes to determine an available network resource for the communication session. Upon a positive determination, the subordinate CAC allocates the network resource and signals the allocation up the network chain to the primary CAC and the client.

Dynamically allocating network resources for communication session

QoS support is detected during discovery of potential media paths between a source and a destination by examining the markings of each available media path and selecting a more suitable media candidate based on a set of QoS prioritization rules. Optionally, each endpoint may update a UC&C monitoring service with the QoS results of the candidate list discovery process so that any automated diagnostic and auditing systems can be alerted to any misconfigured Network Elements.

Detecting quality of service for unified communication and collaboration (UC and C) on internetworks

Concepts and technologies are described herein for processing queries from a user's computing device initiating a query. In one embodiment, responding to the query involves searching for results based on the user's location and a list of federated enterprises. A clearinghouse server receives the query and determine a location of the user by accessing a location information database. The clearinghouse server then uses the location information in formulating a query to a search engine, by including location information with the user's query. The results are then processed in light of the list of federated enterprises. The processing may include ordering the search results, filtering the search results, or allowing enhanced forms of communications between the user and a selected party associated with the federated enterprise. The results are provided to the user. The enhanced forms of communication include instant messaging and video conferencing.

Location based clearinghouse search

Unified Communication and Collaboration (UC&C) systems are enabled to dynamically enlighten a set of network elements (NEs) and/or network infrastructure with application awareness so that an accurate set of rules or actions can be applied for a given session without needing to lookup the payload of every packet or applying a somewhat ineffective expensive heuristic mechanisms. Taking advantage of typically longer communication session durations and separate control and media planes, a UC&C control point programs a set of NEs for a given UC&C media flow within a scalable and timely manner. Quality of Service (QoS), security, monitoring, and similar functionality may also be programmed into the NEs through the UC&C control point.

Unified communication aware networks

Guest user are enabled to access network resources through an enterprise network using a guest user account. A guest user account may be created for a guest for a limited time. Guest account credentials of the guest account may be provided to the guest to use the guest account using any of a variety of techniques described herein, for example, by scanning a guest access card, credit card or mobile telephone of guest user, and providing the guest account credentials to the user based on the information obtained. A guest access management server may be configured to generate and maintain guest accounts, authenticate guest users, and track and log guest activity. A VLAN technology may be used to separate guest traffic from host enterprise traffic on the host enterprise network. After a guest user is authenticated, communications to and from the guest user may be routed to a guest VLAN.

Providing guest users network access based on information read from a credit card or other object

Techniques to manage a relay server and a network address translator are described. A system may include a relay server having a first private network interface operative to communicate with a private client, a second private network interface operative to communicate with a network address translator, and an enhanced relay manager module operative to receive a message from the private client over the first private network interface or a remote client over the second private network interface and through the network address translator, the enhanced relay manager module further operative to retrieve a public transport address and a mapped port for the network address translator from a mapped address attribute stored by the relay server, and send a response to the message with the public transport address and the mapped port to the private client or the remote client. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Growing community of inventors

Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Wajih Yahyaoui