NETWORKED COMPUTER TELEPHONY SYSTEM DRIVEN BY WEB-BASED APPLICATIONS

摘要

The present invention relates to telecommunication, and more particulary to a networked computer telephony system including the Internet and the Public Swi-tched Telephone System and driven by XML-based telephony applications distribu-ted on the Internet. Prior computer telephony systems have infrastructures that do not allow easy development and deployment of telephony applications. The sys-tem illustrated in Fig. 1A requires the telephony application to be hosted in a call center type of telephony server and requires specialized knowledge of the telephony hardware to develop telephony applications. The same is true for the system illustrated in Fig. 1B with the variation that the call center is effec-tively replicated at various local points of presence on the global telephone network. A networked telephony system and method allow users to deploy on the Internet computer telephony applications associated with designated telephone numbers. The telephony application is easily created by a user in XML (Extensible Markup Language) with predefined telephony XML tags and easily deployed on a website. The telephony XML tags include those for call control and media manipulation. A call to anyone of these designated telephone numbers may originate from anyone of the networked telephone system such as the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone System), a wireless network, or the Internet. The call is received by an application gateway center (AGC) installed on the Internet. Analogous to a web browser, the AGC provides facility for retrieving the associated XML application from its website and processing the call accordingly. The architecture and design of the system allow for reliability, high quality-of-service, easy scalability and the ability to incorporate additional telephony hardware and software and protocols.