Patent Application
20070274293
The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will become more readily appreciated as the same become better understood by reference to the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
While illustrative embodiments have been illustrated and described, it will be appreciated that various changes can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
Generally described, the present invention relates to a method and system that provides the ability to record and store a digital conversation exchanged among mutually agreed parties. More specifically, in some instances, digital conversations may be stored (e.g., for legal and/or medical purposes) along with the authenticity of those digital conversations. Embodiments of the present invention provide the ability for the parties involved in the digital conversation to authenticate and associate themselves with the conversation. The authentication may be integrated or bound with the digital conversation so that the digital conversation can be stored with a proof of authenticity in an archive database.
Authentication information may be exchanged as part of contextual information represented in accordance with “structured hierarchies.” “Structured hierarchies,” as used herein, are predefined organizational structures for arranging contextual information to be exchanged between two or more VoIP devices. For example, structured hierarchies may be XML namespaces. Further, a VoIP conversation includes one or more data streams of information related to a conversation, such as contextual information and voice/multimedia information, exchanged over a conversation channel. Although the present invention will be described with relation to illustrative structured hierarchies and an IP telephony environment with an emphasis on voice communication, one skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that the disclosed embodiments are illustrative in nature and should not be construed as limiting.
With reference to
Generally described, the IP telephony environment 100 may include an IP data network 108 such as the Internet, an intranet network, a wide area network (WAN), a local area network (LAN) and the like. The IP telephony environment 100 may further include VoIP service providers 126, 132 providing VoIP services to VoIP clients 124, 125, 134. A VoIP call conversation may be exchanged as a stream of data packets corresponding to voice information, media information, and/or contextual information. As will be discussed in greater detail below, the contextual information includes metadata (information of information) relating to the VoIP conversation, the devices being used in the conversation, the contact point of the connected VoIP clients, and/or individuals that are identified by the contact point (e.g., employees of a company).
The IP telephony environment 100 may also include third party VoIP service providers 140. The VoIP service providers 126, 132, 140 may provide various calling features, such as incoming call-filtering, text data, voice and media data integration, and the integrated data transmission as part of a VoIP call conversation. VoIP clients 104, 124, 125, 136 may create, maintain, and provide information relating to predetermined priorities for incoming calls. In addition, the VoIP service providers 126, 132, 140 may also generate, maintain, and provide a separated set of metadata information (e.g., provider priority list) for individuals communicating in a call conversation.
VoIP service providers 132 may be coupled to a private network such as a company LAN 136, providing IP telephone services (e.g., internal calls within the private network, external calls outside of the private network, and the like) and multimedia data services to several VoIP clients 134 communicatively connected to the company LAN 136. Similarly, VoIP service providers, such as VoIP service provider 126, may be coupled to Internet Service Provider (ISP) 122, providing IP telephone services and VoIP services for clients of the ISP 122.
In one embodiment, one or more ISPs 106, 122 may be configured to provide Internet access to VoIP clients 104, 124, 125 so that the VoIP clients 104, 124, 125 can maintain conversation channels established over the Internet. The VoIP clients 104, 124, 125 connected to the ISP 106, 122 may use wired and/or wireless communication lines. Further, each VoIP client 104, 124, 125, 134 can communicate with Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) 115 via PSTN 112, or Private Branch exchange (PBX) 113. A PSTN interface 114 such as a PSTN gateway may provide access between POTS/PSTN and the IP data network 108. The PSTN interface 114 may translate VoIP data packets into circuit switched voice traffic for PSTN and vice versa. The PSTN 112 may include a land line device 116, a mobile device 117, and the like.
Conventional voice devices such as land line 116 may request a connection with the VoIP client and an appropriate VoIP device associated with the VoIP client will be selected to establish a call connection with the conventional voice devices. In one example, an individual associated with the VoIP client may specify which devices are to be used in connecting a call based on a variety of conditions (e.g., connection based on the calling party, the time of day, etc.).
It is understood that the above mentioned configuration in the environment 100 is merely exemplary. It will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that any suitable configurations with various VoIP entities can be part of the environment 100. For example, VoIP clients 134 coupled to LAN 136 may be able to communicate with other VoIP clients 104, 124, 125, 134 with or without VoIP service providers 132 or ISP 106, 122. Further, an ISP 106, 122 can also provide VoIP services to its client.
Referring now to
The unique client identifier may be used similarly to a telephone number in PSTN. However, instead of dialing a typical telephone number to ring a specific PSTN device such as a home phone, the unique client identifier is used to reach a contact point such as an individual or company, which is associated with the VoIP client. Based on the arrangement of the client, the appropriate device(s) will be connected to reach the contact point. In one embodiment, each VoIP device included in the VoIP client may also have its own physical address in the network or a unique device number. For example, if an individual makes a phone call to a POTS client using a personal computer (VoIP device), the VoIP client identification number in conjunction with an IP address of the personal computer will eventually be converted into a telephone number recognizable in PSTN.
The device 300 may further include a software application component 310 for the operation of the device 300 and a VoIP Service application component 308 for supporting various VoIP services. The VoIP service application component 308 may include applications such as data packet assembler/disassembler applications, a structured hierarchy parsing application, audio Coder/Decoder (CODEC), video CODEC and other suitable applications for providing VoIP services. The CODEC may use voice profiles to filter and improve incoming audio.
With reference to
There are a variety of protocols that may be selected for use in exchanging information between VoIP clients, VoIP devices, and/or VoIP service providers. For example, when Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is selected for a signaling protocol, session control information and messages will be exchanged over a SIP signaling path/channel and media streams will be exchanged over a Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) path/channel. For the purpose of discussion, a communication channel, as used herein, generally refers to any type of data or signal exchange path/channel. Thus, it will be appreciated that depending on the protocol, a connection set-up phase and a connection termination phase may require additional steps in the conversation flow 400.
For ease of explanation, we will utilize the example in which both the first VoIP client 406 and the second VoIP client 408 each only includes one VoIP device. Accordingly, the discussion provided herein will refer to connection of the two VoIP devices. The individual using the device of the first VoIP client 406 may select or enter the unique client identifier of the client that is to be called. Provider 1402 receives the request from the device of the first VoIP client 408 and determines a terminating service provider (e.g., Provider 2404 of the second VoIP client 408) based on the unique client identifier included in the request. The request is then forwarded to Provider 2404. This call initiation will be forwarded to the device of the second VoIP client. A conversation channel between the device of the first VoIP client 406 and a device of the second VoIP client 408 can then be established.
In an illustrative embodiment, before the devices of the first VoIP client 406 and the second VoIP client 408 begin to exchange data packets, contextual information may be exchanged. As will be discussed in a greater detail below, the contextual information may be packetized in accordance with a predefined structure that is associated with the conversation. Any device associated with the first VoIP client 406, the service provider of the first VoIP client 406, or a different device/service provider may determine the structure based on the content of the contextual information. In one embodiment, the exchanged contextual information may include information relating to the calling VoIP client 406, the device, and the VoIP client 408 being called. For example, the contextual information sent from the called VoIP client 406 may include a priority list of incoming calls from various potential calling VoIP clients including VoIP client 406.
Available media types, rules of the calling client and the client being called, and the like, may also be part of the contextual information that is exchanged during the connection set-up phase. The contextual information may be processed and collected by one the devices of the first VoIP client 406, one of the devices of the second VoIP client 408, and/or by VoIP service providers (e.g., Provider 1402 and Provider 2404), depending on the nature of the contextual information. In one embodiment, the VoIP service providers 402, 404 may add/delete some information to/from the client's contextual information before forwarding the contextual information.
In response to a request to initiate a conversation channel, the second VoIP client 408 may accept the request for establishing a conversation channel or execute other appropriate actions such as rejecting the request via Provider 2404. The appropriate actions may be determined based on the obtained contextual information. When a conversation channel is established, a device of the first VoIP client 406 and a device of the second VoIP client 408 start communicating with each other by exchanging data packets. As will be described in greater detail, the data packets, including conversation data packets and contextual data packets, are communicated over the established conversation channel between the connected devices.
Conversation data packets carry data related to a conversation, for example, a voice data packet or multimedia data packet. Contextual data packets carry information relating to data other than the conversation data. Once the conversation channel is established, either the first VoIP client 406 or the second VoIP client 408 can request to terminate the conversation channel. Some contextual information may be exchanged between the first VoIP client 406 and the second VoIP client 408 after the termination.
Before the device of the first VoIP client 406 and the device of the second VoIP client 408 begin to exchange voice data packets, contextual information may be exchanged between the first VoIP client 406 and the second VoIP client 408. Contextual information may be exchanged using a structured organization defined by the first VoIP client 406. In one embodiment, Provider 1402 may identify particular contextual information which Provider 1402 desires to obtain from the first VoIP client 406. The first VoIP client 406 may specify the corresponding structure based on the content of the contextual information. The identification of the structure for exchanging information and additional contextual information may be transmitted to the second VoIP client 408 via Provider 2404 and Provider 1402.
The contextual information may be processed and collected at a device of the first VoIP client, a device of the second VoIP client, the VoIP service providers (e.g., Provider 1 and Provider 2), or a third-party service, depending on the nature of the contextual information. For example, authentication of the contact points using the client devices may be collected by the service providers 402, 404 and only temporarily provided to the devices. Authentication of a contact point may be obtained in a variety of ways. For example, a contact point may be authenticated using voice recognition, biometrics, passwords, smartcard, etc. Any type of authentication techniques may be used with embodiments of the present invention. Additionally, authentication may be obtained at initiation of the conversation or at a prior point-in-time (e.g., power-on of the device) and/or during the conversation. Further, third-party Service Provider(s) (third-party SP) 410, 412 can obtain and/or add contextual information exchanged among devices of the first VoIP client 406 and second VoIP client 408, Provider 1402, and Provider 2404.
In one embodiment, any of Provider 1402, Provider 2404, and third-party SP 410, 412 may add, modify, and/or delete contextual information before forwarding the contextual information to the next VoIP device(s), including other service providers.
In response to a request to initiate a conversation channel, the second VoIP client 408 may accept the request for establishing a conversation channel or reject the request via Provider 2404. For example, the client 406 may accept the request upon identification of the calling client based on the received authentication information. In addition, the second client 408 may provide authentication information to the first client 406. When a conversation channel has been established, the devices of the first VoIP client 406 and the second VoIP client 408 start communicating with each other by exchanging data packets as discussed above. In one embodiment, contextual and/or conversation data packets may be forwarded to third-party SPs 410, 412 from Provider 1402, Provider 2404, or from either VoIP client 406, 408. Further, the forwarded contextual and/or conversation data packets may be exchanged among various third-party SPs 410, 412.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a structured hierarchy may be predefined for communicating contextual information over a VoIP conversation channel. The contextual information may include any information relating to VoIP clients, VoIP devices, conversation channel connections (e.g., call basics), conversation context (e.g., call context), and the like. More specifically, the contextual information may include client preference, client rules, client authentication, client's location (e.g., user location, device location, etc.), biometrics information, the client's confidential information, VoIP device's functionality, VoIP service providers information, media type, media parameters, calling number priority, keywords, information relating to application files, and the like. The contextual information may be processed and collected at each VoIP client and/or the VoIP service providers depending on the nature of the contextual data. In one aspect, the VoIP service providers may add, modify, and/or delete VoIP client's contextual data before forwarding the contextual information. For example, if client authentication is being performed by a third-party service provider, it may receive authentication information, confirm the authenticity, replace the authentication information with an authentication confirmation, and forward the contextual information to a receiving client.
With reference to
In another embodiment, each VoIP client may have a set of predefined structured hierarchies stored in a local storage of any devices or a dedicated local storage which all devices can share. The predefined structured hierarchies may be declared and agreed upon between VoIP clients before contextual information is exchanged. In this manner, the need to provide the structure of the contextual data packets may be eliminated, thus the amount of transmitted data packets corresponding to the contextual data is reduced. Further, by employing the predefined structured hierarchies, data packets can be transmitted in a manner which is independent of hardware and/or software.
Upon retrieving the identified structured hierarchy, VoIP Client 608 is expecting to receive a data stream such that data packets corresponding to the data stream are defined according to the identified structured hierarchies. VoIP Client 606 can begin sending contextual information represented in accordance with the identified structured hierarchies. In one embodiment, VoIP Client 608 starts a data binding process with respect to the contextual information. For example, instances of the identified structured hierarchies may be constructed with the received contextual information.
With reference to
During the conversation, any one of the entities may be checking to determine if a conversation archiving is requested. In one embodiment, parties may request a conversation archiving during the conversation in order to record a portion of the conversation or the entire conversation. For example, two parties desire to record their conversation to make a binding oral agreement that can be validated through digital signatures. One of the parties requests a certain portion of a conversation communicated over a VoIP communication channel. The portion of conversation corresponding to the oral agreement may be recorded and necessary digital signatures and identities of the parties may be received and validated. Upon validation of the digital signatures and the identities of the parties, the recoded portion of conversation and the digital signature are bound and then stored in a database. In another embodiment, one of the entities may determine that a conversation archiving is required (or necessary) based on, for example, the conversation, the contextual information exchanged before the conversation, input from one of the contact points in response to an action from an automated system, etc. For example, if during a conversation with an automated system, one of the clients selects a recoding option from a menu provided by the automated system, a service provider may detect this activity and trigger a request for a conversation archiving. While the automated system is recording the conversation, the service provider may generate an authenticated conversation for the client that corresponds to the recorded conversation in the automated system. In this example, the client may have its own record of the conversation against the conversation recorded in the automated system.
For another example, a doctor may transmit an oral order for prescription drugs to a pharmacist. A service provider for the doctor may determine whether the activity of the doctor requires recording of the conversation. Upon determining the activity of the doctor requires recording of the conversation, the service provider starts a conversation archiving. In some instances, the doctor may have a set of rules to trigger a conversation archiving when he/she makes a call to a pharmacist. Subsequently, the doctor and the pharmacist are authenticated for the conversation (oral prescription). During a conversation, the service provider may determine whether additional authentication for the conversation archiving is needed.
In the example illustrated in
The VoIP Client 606 may have previously obtained authentication of the user(s) (e.g., credentials, certificates obtained from a third-party authentication server, etc.) and previously generated authentication information, and may provide such authentication information in response. Alternatively, or in addition thereto, the VoIP Client 606 may, in response to the authentication request, obtain authentication of the user(s) and generate authentication information. Upon generation of authentication information, the VoIP Client 606 provides that information to Provider 1602.
In addition to requesting authentication information from VoIP Client 606, Provider 1602 sends a request to VoIP Client 608, via Provider 2604. Provider 2604, upon receipt of the request may automatically forward the request to the VoIP Client 608 or may determine if it already maintains the necessary authentication information for Client 608. In addition, if Provider 2604 periodically issues authentication requests, receipt of an authentication request may restart the time period before Provider 2604 issues an authentication request.
Assuming Provider 2604 does not have the necessary authentication information for Client 608, or if the authentication information is not current, Provider 2604 forwards the request to Client 608. Client 608, similar to Client 606, determines if it already has authentication information for the user(s) and may provide that information in response. Alternatively, or in addition thereto, the VoIP Client 608 may, in response to the authentication request, obtain authentication of the user(s) and generate authentication information for the user(s). Upon generation of authentication information, the VoIP Client 608 provides that information to Provider 2604. Provider 2604 may store a copy of the received authentication information, along with a timestamp (date/time information) identifying when the information was obtained, and forward the authentication information to Provider 1602.
Referring now to
If it is determined that additional authentication is needed, Provider 1602 may contact the necessary source for obtaining the additional authentication. For example, the additional authentication may be obtained from one or more third-parties, such as a parent, a bank, or other service provider. Alternatively, the additional authentication may be obtained from one or more of the entities involved in the conversation (e.g., VoIP Client 606, Provider 2604, etc.). Moreover, as discussed below, one of the devices of the conversation may have already obtained the necessary authentication information (via delegation) that is necessary to confirm and complete the activity. For example, if the activity is the ordering of a prescription drug and the user of VoIP Client 606 is a nurse, or an automated system, the nurse/system may have already obtained, via delegation, the prescribing doctor's authentication information necessary for ordering the prescription drugs.
Returning to the example of
Upon receipt of all the necessary authentication information, if the conversation, or a portion thereof, is to be bound with the authentication information, Provider 1602 may further perform authentication processes based on the authentication information. Provider 1602 binds the authentication information with the conversation to associate the authentication information with the conversation. Binding may be accomplished by encoding the conversation with the authentication information or through other techniques for associating information. The conversation and bound authentication information is referred to herein as an “authenticated conversation.” The authenticated conversation may be used to verify an activity and/or to verify who participated in a conversation or conducted the activity. Returning to the example of purchasing a car, the conversation between the contact point (“Bob”) and the car dealership (“Car Dealer”) wherein: (1) Bob explains that he wants a Blue 2004 BMW 5451 that is in good shape; (2) the Car Dealer states that they have such a car, that it only has 3,000 miles, and that it is available for $50,000; and (3) Bob acknowledges that he will buy the car for $50,000, may be bound with the authentication information of Bob, the Car Dealer, and the loan company that provides the additional authentication that they will carry the loan on the car to create an authenticated conversation. This authenticated conversation may be stored and used at a later point in time to verify the transaction and, if necessary, prove what each party agreed to and/or stated. The authenticated conversation may be provided to each of the entities involved in the transaction for storage and/or may be stored by Provider 1602.
Referring now to
Referring to
In an illustrative embodiment, a retrieved record of a conversation can be modified by an entity with proper authentications and permissions from relevant parties of the authenticated conversation. For example, when the authenticated conversation was generated, the contact point (e.g., an individual user, etc.) of VoIP Client 606 can not provide certain authentication information due to unavailability of some necessary information. In this example, VoIP Client 608 and VoIP Client 606 can agree that the particular authentication information will be provided later when it is available. Some time after the conversation, VoIP Client 606 finally obtains the necessary information and contacts VoIP Client 608. After the particular authentication information is validated, the particular authentication information will be incorporated into the authenticated conversation. In one embodiment, the authenticated conversation may be updated with the new information as long as the activity (updating) is properly authenticated. Generally, a new record of the authenticated conversation will be created with the updated authenticated conversation and a timestamp. Other contact points may be notified of the update.
Further, in one embodiment, the designated database may be a local archive database for the VoIP Client 606. For example, the local archive database may store and manage the authenticated conversations associated with any contact point of VoIP Client 606. In another embodiment, the service provider of VoIP clients may also provide services to archive authenticated conversations. In this embodiment, the service provider may include a database or may be communicatively coupled to a remote database.
In exchanging the requests, the authentication information, and the authenticated conversation, the data packets carrying that information may be defined, as described above, according to structured hierarchies. Further, the information regarding the identified structured hierarchies may be transmitted. The information regarding the identified structured hierarchies may include the information about which structured hierarchies carry the authentication information (part of the contextual information), how to identify the structured hierarchies, and the like. Subsequently, the contextual information corresponding to authentication information may be represented in accordance with the identified structured hierarchies and transmitted.
In one embodiment, the structured hierarchies may be defined by Extensible Markup Language (XML). However, it is to be appreciated that the structured hierarchies can be defined by any language suitable for implementing and maintaining extensible structured hierarchies. Generally described, XML is well known as a cross-platform, software and hardware independent tool for transmitting information. Further, XML maintains its data as a hierarchically structured tree of nodes, each node comprising a tag that may contain descriptive attributes. XML is also well known for its ability to allow extendable (i.e., vendor customizable) patterns that may be dictated by the underlying data being described without losing interoperability. Typically, an XML namespace URI is provided to uniquely identify a namespace. In some instances, the namespace may be used as a pointer to a centralized location containing default information (e.g., XML Schema) about the document type the XML is describing.
In an illustrative embodiment, VoIP Client 606 may identify an XML namespace for contextual information. When multiple contexts are aggregated, appropriate XML namespaces can be declared as an attribute at the corresponding tags. It is to be understood that XML namespaces, attributes, and classes illustrated herein are provided merely as an example of structured hierarchies used in conjunction with various embodiments of the present invention. After VoIP Client 608 receives the XML namespace information, VoIP Client 606 transmits a set of contextual data packets defined in accordance with the identified XML namespace to VoIP Client 608. When a namespace is present at a tag, its child elements share the same namespace pursuant to the XML scope rule defined by XML 1.0 specification. As such, VoIP Client 608 and VoIP Client 606 can transmit contextual information without including prefixes in all the child elements, thereby reducing the amount of data packets transmitted for the contextual information.
With reference to
With reference to
With reference to
With reference to
With reference to
Alternatively, an archive request may be received from active input from one of the contact points involved in the digital voice conversation or from a third party monitoring or involved in the digital voice conversation. For example, the client may use a device that is equipped with a button for recording the digital voice conversation. Similarly, a graphic user interface (GUI) may be provided to the contact points with menu options, allowing the contact points to choose one option to start recording the digital voice conversation.
At block 906, upon receipt of the archive request, authentication information necessary to satisfy the archive request is identified. For example, if the authentication is simply identity verification of the contact points, voice recognition may be used for authenticating the contact points. However, if the digital voice conversation is to confirm a transaction, a contact point's age, or some other item of information in which the authentication must be established to a higher degree of certainty, more than one authentication technique may be used. For example, voice authentication in combination with a digital signature may be used to further confirm authentication for the contact points. Upon identification of the authentication information at block 906, at block 908, the identified authentication information may be received as part of contextual information. For example, each contact point has pre-approved that a part of a digital voice conversation can be recorded and stored in a particular database. The pre-approval information may be included in contextual information and transmitted to a service provider.
At block 910, each contact point engaging in a digital voice conversation may be authenticated for the request in order to archive the authenticated conversation. After each contact point has been authenticated, at block 912, a set of data packets is collected. The set of data packets may include voice data packets, media data packet, and/or contextual data packets that can be relevant to the authenticated conversation. At block 914, a set of data packets relating to the authenticated conversation may be identified. At decision block 916, it is determined as to whether the authenticated conversation is ended. For example, each contact point can indicate the ending of the authenticated conversation by various inputs (contextual information) from the devices, voice commands, or the like. Even after the end of the authenticated conversation, the contact points can continue exchanging the digital voice conversation. If it is determined at decision block 916 that the authenticated conversation is not ended, the routine 900 proceeds to block 912 where the data packets are collected. The routine 900 repeats the above mentioned steps until the authenticated conversation has ended.
If it is determined at decision block 916 that the authenticated conversation has ended, at block 918, at least one record of the authenticated conversation may be generated. As described above, a record of the authenticated conversation may bind the identified data packets (i.e., voice/media part of conversation, contextual information, etc.) with the authentication of each party. Returning to the example of purchasing a car described in
In one embodiment, the authenticated conversation may be provided to each of the entities involved in the transaction for storage and/or may be stored by the service providers of the clients. Alternatively, several records of the authenticated conversation may be generated with different authentication information associated with the digital voice conversation. For the purpose of discussion, assume that during the conversation several levels of authentications have been performed among Bob, his wife, the loan company's loan officer, and the Car Dealer. Bob may have communicated with his wife, the loan company's loan officer, and the car dealer with different authentications. In some instances, Bob may desire to keep separate records for a car purchase agreement, a loan agreement, his wife's approval to purchase a car, etc. In this example, Bob can have several different records that are specifically tied to a certain authentication although all the records are related to one authenticated conversation.
As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the authentication(s) can be obtained from a trusted third party online, or the authentication(s) can be obtained from each party (contact point of VoIP client) utilizing the VoIP client device that received the request at block 902. Further, as discussed above, the authentication of a contact point may be obtained using any typical authentication information including, but not limited to, biometrics, passwords, digital signatures, etc. As will be described in greater detail below, the record may include additional information such as information relating to who has authenticated (e.g., an online third-party authentication, an offline third-party authentication, an on-premises authentication, a peer-to-peer authentication, etc.), with what authentication information (e.g., biometrics, passwords, digital signatures), how (e.g., type of authentication protocol, etc.), or the like. Further, the record may include several digital timestamps, for example, a digital timestamp of the record, a digital timestamp of the authenticated conversation, etc.
Once at least one record of the authenticated conversation is generated at block 918, at block 920 the generated record of the authenticated conversation may be stored. The record of the authenticated conversation may be temporarily stored in local storage of the devices of each contact point. The record may be sent to the designated database for archiving at a predetermined time after the digital voice conversation. In this manner, the bandwidth of the devices of clients may be efficiently utilized for the rest of the conversation. In one embodiment, the record of the authenticated conversation may be forwarded directly to an archive database (e.g., on-premises archive database, a third-party archive database, etc.). The routine 900 completes at block 922.
At block 1002, the authentication application routine 1000 receives authentication information from one or more VoIP entities involved for providing additional authentication on a digital voice conversation. At block 1004, the received authentication information is confirmed for a proper authentication. For example, if the authentication is periodically performed to verify identity of the parties who are currently communicating over the communication channel, it may be confirmed that the received authentication information matches the previously confirmed authentication information. At decision block 1006, a determination is made as to whether all of the necessary authentication information for the digital voice conversation has been received and confirmed. If it is determined at decision block 1006 that all of the necessary authentication information for the digital voice conversation has not been received or confirmed, the routine 1000 returns to block 1002 and receives the remaining necessary authentication information that is needed to be confirmed. If it is determined at decision block 1006 that all of the necessary authentication information for the digital voice conversation has been received or confirmed, at block 1008 the authentication(s) (i.e., the confirmed/validated authentication information) is bound with the conversation data packets to generate an authenticated conversation.
As mentioned above, the authentication information may be confirmed via a third-party authentication server. For example, a service provider may request a third-party authentication server to authenticate the parties involved in a digital voice conversation. As will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, a certain authentication protocol will be utilized for authentication. For the purpose of discussion, assume that a challenge-response authentication protocol is utilized by the service provider and the parties. The service provider may obtain a challenge for each party from the third-party authentication server and forward the response received from each party to the third-party authentication server. Subsequently, the third-party authentication server may verify the response against the challenge and subsequently send the result of the verification. If it is determined that the response corresponds to the challenge, the third-party authentication server will send a confirmation of authentication. Otherwise, the third-party authentication server will send a notification of authentication failure. It is to be noted that the authentication can be done via an online third-party authentication server, via an exchange of credentials that were obtained from an offline third-party authentication server, or the like.
In an illustrative embodiment, the binding of authentication(s) with conversation data packets may include binding the authentication(s) with the data packets for the entire conversation or the data packets only for a portion of that conversation. It is contemplated that during a conversation, the first client or the second client may activate and/or indicate that a particular segment of the conversation between the first and the second clients is to be captured and authenticated. Such an event may indicate to one or more of the VoIP entities that archiving an authenticated conversation is needed, thereby initiating the archiving routine 900 and the authentication application routine 1000, resulting in the binding and creation of the authenticated conversation.
At block 1010, additional information may be collected in order to generate a record of the authenticated conversation, which has a suitable format to be stored in a database. It is to be understood that a particular database system generally specifies a proper format for its database and further requires some additional information to be included in the record for an efficient and secured database management. For example, timestamp information may be collected and added to the record of the conversation. In an embodiment, the record of the authenticated conversation may be encrypted in a way that has been previously agreed with the database. Further, when the database is maintained by a third party, additional user information may be collected for a security reason. At block 1011, designated storage and/or databases where the authenticated conversation will be archived may be identified. It is contemplated that an authenticated conversation may be archived in several different databases based on purposes of archiving. For example, a conversation between a customer and a call center agent may be recorded in a database which is configured to check the call center agent's error for quality control purposes while the same conversation may be recorded in another database in order to prevent unauthorized ordering of drugs, etc. As such, several records of the same authenticated conversation may be generated. At block 1012, at least one record of the authenticated conversation with the additional information may be generated. The authentication application routine 1000 completes, as illustrated by block 1014.
As with
While illustrative embodiments have been illustrated and described, it will be appreciated that various changes can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
