Patent Issued for Routing for remote electronic devices (USPTO 11128549): Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company

2021 OCT 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Calabrese, Joseph (Springfield, MA, US), Fortini, Joseph (Springfield, MA, US), Shubrick, Payton (Springfield, MA, US), filed on July 13, 2020, was published online on September 21, 2021, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11128549 is assigned to Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (Springfield, Massachusetts, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “As the processing power of computers allow for greater computer functionality and the Internet technology era allows for interconnectivity between computing systems, many employees are able to work remotely, such as from a home-office. Conventionally, institutions that allow remote work typically utilize a server to route data to and from computing devices utilized by remote employees. These servers have become conduits for transmission and distribution of the data between customers, the institution’s computing environments, and the remote employees.

“However, conventional systems of routing data to remote employees have faced technical challenges. For instance, different employees may utilize different electronic devices having different computing resources. Furthermore, employees may use a local network at their remote location to receive and send data to the server and/or directly to the customers. For instance, a remote employee may connect over Wi-Fi to his/her personal home Internet connection to connect to the server and send/receive data from the server (e.g., receive a call that is routed by the server and/or access an application to satisfy a request transmitted by the institution’s server). Poor connections can result in dropped calls, pauses during calls, delays, and other issues. Therefore, network connectivity issues that are typically not controlled by the institution’s server can vastly affect the employee’s efficiency and ability to work.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “For the aforementioned reasons, what is therefore desired is an intelligent routing system for forecasting network connectivity and computing resources needed and routing requests based on each remote employee’s unique network conditions. The intelligent routing system described herein is a forward-looking resource management system, which may dynamically revise workflow based on employee’s network capacity and expected changes of computing resources. The intelligent routing system described herein may proactively adjust allocation of workflow (e.g., call routing), such that resource-heavy requests are allocated to employees who enjoy better connections.

“The intelligent routing system may include a server that monitors network connectivity of each employee (and his or her connected electronic devices). The server may analyze client requests to identify resources needed to satisfy such requests. The server may also route the requests to the most appropriate employee by establishing a remote connection between the customer and the remote employee.

“In an embodiment, a method comprises generating, by a server for each remote electronic device within a set of remote electronic devices, a network traffic value corresponding to a volume and speed of data packets communicated between a network and each remote electronic device via at least one network routing device; upon establishing an electronic communication session with a customer device, receiving, by the server from the customer device, an electronic request to be routed to at least one electronic device within the set of electronic devices; identifying, by the server, at least one application to be executed to satisfy the electronic request; calculating, by the server, network traffic value threshold associated with the identified at least one application; identifying, by the server, a first remote electronic device having a network traffic value that satisfies the calculated network traffic threshold; routing, by the server, the electronic request to the first remote electronic device.

“In another embodiment, a system comprises a server comprising a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform operations comprises generate, for each remote electronic device within a set of remote electronic devices, a network traffic value corresponding to a volume and speed of data packets communicated between a network and each remote electronic device via at least one network routing device; upon establishing an electronic communication session with a customer device, receive, from the customer device, an electronic request to be routed to at least one electronic device within the set of electronic devices; identify at least one application to be executed to satisfy the electronic request; calculate network traffic value threshold associated with the identified at least one application; identify a first remote electronic device having a network traffic value that satisfies the calculated network traffic threshold; and route the electronic request to the first remote electronic device.

“It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the subject matter as claimed.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: generating, by a server for each remote electronic device within a set of remote electronic devices, a network traffic value corresponding to a volume and speed of data packets communicated between a network and each remote electronic device via at least one network routing device; upon establishing an electronic communication session with a customer device, receiving, by the server from the customer device, an electronic request to be routed to at least one electronic device within the set of electronic devices; identifying, by the server based on a customer account attribute associated with the customer device, at least one application to be executed to satisfy the electronic request; calculating, by the server, network traffic value threshold associated with the identified at least one application; identifying, by the server, a first remote electronic device having a network traffic value that satisfies the calculated network traffic threshold; and routing, by the server, the electronic request to the first remote electronic device.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein routing the electronic request to the first remote electronic device, comprises establishing, by the server, a second electronic communication session between the customer device and the first remote electronic device.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic communication session corresponds to a chat session.

“4. The method of claim 3, wherein the server identifies the at least one application by analyzing content of the chat session.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic communication session corresponds to a call.

“6. The method of claim 5, wherein the server identifies the at least one application by receiving an input from the customer device indicating an attribute of the electronic request.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the network traffic value corresponds to at least one of a download speed, upload speed, and a latency of each remote electronic device.

“8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying, by the server, a graphical user interface comprising: a first indicator corresponding to the customer device, and a second indicator corresponding to an agent operating the first remote electronic device.

“9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying, by the server, a graphical user interface comprising a historical trend of network traffic values of each remote electronic device within a predetermined time window.

“10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: upon receiving an instruction indicating a second remote electronic device, establishing, by the server, a second communication session between the customer device and the second remote electronic device.

“11. A system comprising: a server comprising a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform operations comprising: generate, for each remote electronic device within a set of remote electronic devices, a network traffic value corresponding to a volume and speed of data packets communicated between a network and each remote electronic device via at least one network routing device; upon establishing an electronic communication session with a customer device, receive, from the customer device, an electronic request to be routed to at least one electronic device within the set of electronic devices; identify at least one application to be executed to satisfy the electronic request based on a customer account attribute associated with the customer device; calculate network traffic value threshold associated with the identified at least one application; identify a first remote electronic device having a network traffic value that satisfies the calculated network traffic threshold; and route the electronic request to the first remote electronic device.

“12. The system of claim 11, wherein routing the electronic request to the first remote electronic device, comprises establishing, by the server, a second electronic communication session between the customer device and the first remote electronic device.

“13. The system of claim 11, wherein the electronic communication session corresponds to a chat session.

“14. The system of claim 13, wherein the server identifies the at least one application by analyzing content of the chat session.

“15. The system of claim 11, wherein the electronic communication session corresponds to a call.

“16. The system of claim 15, wherein the server identifies the at least one application by receiving an input from the customer device indicating an attribute of the electronic request.

“17. The system of claim 11, wherein the network traffic value corresponds to at least one of a download speed, upload speed, and a latency of each remote electronic device.

“18. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to: display a graphical user interface comprising: a first indicator corresponding to the customer device, and a second indicator corresponding to an agent operating the first remote electronic device.

“19. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to: display a graphical user interface comprising a historical trend of network traffic values of each remote electronic device within a predetermined time window.

“20. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to: upon receiving an instruction indicating a second remote electronic device, establish a second communication session between the customer device and the second remote electronic device.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Calabrese, Joseph. Routing for remote electronic devices. U.S. Patent Number 11128549, filed July 13, 2020, and published online on September 21, 2021. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11128549.PN.&OS=PN/11128549RS=PN/11128549

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