Call distribution system with distributed control of calls and data distribution

A call distribution system comprising:

• a telephone switching system;
• a plurality of telephony interface devices, each having a telephony connection with said telephone switching system;
• a plurality of computers, each having a data connection to a telephony interface device;
• a data network connecting said computers;
• each of said computers running a call control process that controls said telephony interface device to perform telephony functions and sending messages to said remaining computers over said data network;
• wherein each call control process is capable of controlling said telephony interface device to transfer a telephone call to an available telephony interface device while said call control process transfers data associated with said telephone call to another call control process and wherein said data is sent in messages sent over said data network;
• wherein each call control process maintains a table indicating the state of all telephony interface devices, including which telephony interface devices are available to receive a transferred call and which are not, and wherein said call control process builds and maintains said table by receiving messages over said data network.

A call distribution system comprising:

• a telephone switching system;
• a plurality of telephony interface devices, each having a telephony connection with said telephone switching system;
• a plurality of call control processes that control said telephony interface devices to perform telephony functions and sending messages to each other over an interprocess message dispatch system;
• wherein each call control process is capable of controlling at least one of said telephony interface devices to transfer a telephone call to an available telephony interface device while said call control process transfers data associated with said telephone call to another call control process and wherein said data is sent in messages sent over said interprocess message dispatch system;
• and
• wherein each call control process maintains or has access to information indicating the state of all call control processes, and wherein said call control process maintains or has access to said information by sending and receiving messages over said interprocess message dispatch system.