Providing an aggregate reachability status

摘要

A customizable mechanism is provided for determining and reporting the overall reachability of a user based on the current statuses of a variety of network elements associated with the user, such as devices or applications that a user may use to communicate with others. The system can evaluate customizable reachability rules to determine an overall reachability status for the user. The system provides for distribution of reachability status and presence statuses of network elements to authorized subscribers.

主权项

1. A method of providing reachability status to subscribers comprising:
displaying a plurality of reachability states, each reachability state representing an aggregate accessibility of a user derived from a plurality of statuses each corresponding to one of a plurality of network elements associated with the user; for each of the reachability states, displaying at least one reachability rule, each reachability rule corresponding to one of the network elements and indicating a status for satisfying the reachability rule; and transmitting a selection of one or more of the reachability rules to a presence aggregation system, the presence aggregation system operable to:
receive the selection of one or more of the reachability rules;access a central storage maintaining the statuses corresponding to the network elements;identify an ordering of the reachability rules;until a current reachability status is selected:
identify one of the reachability rules based on the identified ordering;determine whether the identified reachability rule is satisfied; andif the identified reachability rule is satisfied, select the reachability state associated with the identified reachability rule as the current reachability status;determine one or more subscribers for receiving the current reachability status; andcommunicate the current reachability status to subscribers.