Systems and methods to avoid collisions in establishing real-time communication connections

Inventors

Dopiro, Olena • Stefan, Iulia • Skow, Geoffrey Wagner

Assignees

Ingenio LLC

Abstract

A computing apparatus configured in the communication system to store data about advisers, including availability status of the advisers for real time communications with customers, ratings of the advisers by prior customers, compensate rates of the advisers, probability of being connected within a period of time for real time communication with customers, etc. The computing apparatus customizes the selection of lists of advisers for presentation to customers and/or the sequences of the lists to reduce collisions in concurrent requests for connections to same advisers for real time communication connections. The customization may include randomizing top portions of the lists, selecting and/or ranking the advisers in real time based on probability of advisers being connected within a period of time for real time communication with customers, etc.

Core Innovation

The invention provides a communication system in which a computing apparatus stores data identifying a plurality of advisers and availability of the advisers for real time communications over the communication system. Users are given a user interface to request a list of advisers, and the computing apparatus identifies and ranks the list of advisers based at least in part on the availability of the advisers and the user input. The ranked list is presented with a top portion randomized to users, and the system receives a user selection of an adviser from the list.

After receiving the user selection, the computing apparatus provides a real time communication connection between a user and the adviser selected from the list. In related implementations, the computing apparatus identifies and sorts advisers based at least in part on the availability of the advisers, the user input, and probability of the advisers to become unavailable in a predetermined period of time. In these arrangements, the computing apparatus randomizes a top portion of the sorted list and presents the list with the top portion randomized in the user interface.

The invention further addresses collision of requests for real time communication connections to the same advisers by customizing orders of adviser lists. A subset of advisers is placed in top portions of the list, and customizing includes randomizing the top portions. Additional conflict-resolution is described through predicting multi-user progress and organizing a bidding session or racing display so that a winning bidder or user is selected before establishing the real time communication connection.

Claims Coverage

The provided material includes three independent claims, covering a method for ranking and randomizing adviser lists and connecting a selected adviser, a computing apparatus that additionally uses probability of becoming unavailable in a predetermined period and inventory-like constraints, and a non-transitory computer storage medium that customizes adviser list order to avoid collisions by placing a subset of advisers in randomized top portions and optionally using collision-resolution scheduling with a bidding session.

Across the independent claims, the core coverage is a communication-system workflow that stores adviser availability, receives user input to request or search advisers, identifies and orders advisers including randomized top portions, and then establishes a real time communication connection to a user-selected adviser. Collision avoidance is addressed by customizing list orders so that a subset of advisers appears in randomized top portions, with additional embodiments introducing probability of becoming unavailable within a predetermined period and inventory-like constraints tied to presentation and connection states.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications