An intelligent IP-based call center with fault tolerance design.

Leung Cheung-chi.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-78).Abstracts in English and Chinese.Chapter 1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1Chapter 1.1 --- Background --- p.1Chapter 1.2 --- Objective --- p.2Chapter 1.3 --- Overview of the Thesis --- p.3Chapter 2 --- APPLICATION OF VOIP IN CALL CENTER --- p.6Chapter 2.1 --- An Intelligent IP-based Call Center Model --- p.6Chapter 2.1.1 --- Major Components --- p.7Chapter a) --- VoIP Gateways --- p.7Chapter b) --- Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) --- p.8Chapter c) --- Operators --- p.8Chapter d) --- Monitoring Tool --- p.9Chapter 2.1.2 --- Major Functions --- p.9Chapter 2.2 --- Experimental Study of an IP-to-IP Call Center - VoIP Application in Education --- p.10Chapter 2.2.1 --- Architecture --- p.11Chapter 2.2.2 --- Voice Connection Server --- p.12Chapter 2.2.3 --- Call Establishment --- p.14Chapter 2.2.4 --- A Preliminary Implementation --- p.14Chapter 3 --- THE ACD AND ITS SOFTWARE STRUCTURE --- p.17Chapter 3.1 --- Three-Layer Software Structure --- p.17Chapter 3.1.1 --- Network Infrastructure Layer --- p.18Chapter 3.1.2 --- Call Management Layer --- p.18Chapter 3.1.3 --- Application Layer --- p.19Chapter 3.1.4 --- Interoperation Between Layers --- p.19Chapter 3.2 --- Advantages of Adopting this Software Structure --- p.20Chapter 3.3 --- Functional Overview of the ACD --- p.21Chapter 3.3.1 --- Call Establishment --- p.21Chapter 3.3.2 --- Call Waiting --- p.23Chapter 3.3.3 --- Call Forwarding --- p.25Chapter 3.3.4 --- Routing Mechanism in the ACD --- p.26Chapter a) --- "Queues, Operator Groups and Operators" --- p.26Chapter b) --- Priority Based Call Routing --- p.28Chapter c) --- Routing of New Incoming Calls --- p.29Chapter d) --- Assigning Calls in Waiting Queues to Operators --- p.32Chapter 4 --- IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ACD --- p.34Chapter 4.1 --- Requirements in implementing the ACD --- p.34Chapter 4.1.1 --- Asynchronous Method Call --- p.34Chapter 4.1.2 --- Transaction Planning --- p.36Chapter 4.1.3 --- Failure Handling --- p.37Chapter 4.2 --- Available Technologies --- p.38Chapter 4.2.1 --- Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) --- p.38Chapter a) --- Entity Bean --- p.40Chapter b) --- Session Bean --- p.40Chapter c) --- Usage of Session Beans and Entity Beans --- p.41Chapter 4.2.2 --- COM+ --- p.42Chapter 4.2.3 --- EJB vs COM+ --- p.43Chapter 4.3 --- Implementation --- p.47Chapter 4.3.1 --- Mapping the EJB model to the Implementation of the ACD --- p.47Chapter 4.3.2 --- Design of Entity Beans --- p.49Chapter 4.3.3 --- Design of Session Beans --- p.51Chapter 4.3.4 --- Asynchronous Method Call --- p.53Chapter 4.3.5 --- Transaction Planning --- p.55Chapter 4.3.6 --- Failure Handling --- p.57Chapter a) --- Failure Handling for VoIP gateways --- p.58Chapter b) --- Failure Handling in the ACD --- p.60Chapter 5 --- AN EXPERIMENT --- p.64Chapter 5.1 --- Experiment on the Call Center Prototype --- p.64Chapter 5.1.1 --- Setup of the Experiment --- p.64Chapter 5.1.2 --- Experimental Results --- p.66Chapter a) --- Startup Time for Different Components --- p.66Chapter b) --- Possessing Time for Different Requests --- p.67Chapter 5.2 --- Observations --- p.69Chapter 5.2.1 --- Observations on Experimental Results --- p.69Chapter 5.2.2 --- Advantages and Disadvantages of Using EJB --- p.70Chapter 6 --- CONCLUSIONS --- p.72BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.7