System and method for using VoIP session continuity information using logical scalable units

• US 10,630,779 B2
• Filed: 09/06/2018
• Issued: 04/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Openet Telecom Limited (Amdocs Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Openet Telecom Limited (Amdocs Ltd.)
• Inventors: Haraszti, Peter, Davoren, David, Forde, Brian J., Andreucetti, Ross, Doolin, Tony, O'Connell, Niall
• Primary Examiner(s): Chea, Philip J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ahmed, Mohammed
• Application Number:
  US16/124,021
• Publication Number:
  US 20190020722A1
• Time in Patent Office: 593 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0897 by horizontal or vertical scaling of resources, or by migrating entities, e.g. virtual resources or entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

Logical scalable units (LSU) can be used within a single network data center to provide stateful scalability. However, LSUs are not suitable for operating across multiple network data centers in order to provide geographical redundancy in active-active scenarios while providing high availability. This is because the latencies associated with replicating full session information are unacceptably slow. An additional component in the LSU (known as an LSU Frontend) can be used to replicate a small subset of session information between LSUs. This subset of session information may be enough to enable LSUs to process requests in an acceptable way rather than outright failing. This may be particularly advantageous in scenarios where the requests relate to Voice over LTE calls, because outright failure is very perceivable to subscribers, and it causes resource leakage within the telecommunications network.

Claims

1. A method of communicating messages in communication system, comprising:

receiving in a processor of a multiprocessor computing system a first communication message from a logical scalable unit (LSU) frontend component, wherein the first communication message was sent by the LSU frontend component in response to the LSU frontend component receiving a message from a first client component in response to the first client component determining that a user equipment set-up, modified, or terminated a VoiP call;

determining, via the processor, whether session information relating to the received first communication message may be obtained from a session store;

using session information included in the session store to make a policy decision in response to determining that session information relating to the received first communication message may be obtained from the session store;

using session continuity information included in the received first communication message to determine the session information, and using the determined session information to make the policy decision, in response to determining that session information relating to the received first communication message may not be obtained from the session store, wherein the session continuity information includes information for maintaining session continuity for select services in the event of a failure without replicating session stores, including at least one of a session continuation (SC) parameter or a Session-Continuity Attribute-Value-Pair (AVP);

generating and sending a second communication message to the LSU frontend component based on the policy decision; and

generating and sending a third communication message that includes updated session continuity information to the LSU frontend component.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein using the session continuity information included in the received first communication message to determine the session information comprises:

using session information identifying a policy session and an enforcement component associated with the policy session.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein using the session continuity information included in the received first communication message to determine the session information comprises:

using application function session information identifying an application function session, an enforcement component associated with the application function session, and one or more rules associated with the enforcement component.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating and sending the third communication message that includes updated session continuity information to the LSU frontend component comprises generating and sending a message that includes application function session information identifying an application function session, an enforcement component associated with the application function session, and one or more rules associated with the enforcement component.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein generating and sending the third communication message that includes updated session continuity information comprises sending a policy message generated in response to a VoIP call request.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the first communication message from the LSU frontend component comprises receiving an application function message generated in response to a VoIP call request.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

generating and sending the second communication message to the LSU frontend component based on the policy decision comprises generating and sending an application function message to the LSU frontend component based on the policy decision; and

generating and sending the third communication message that includes updated session continuity information to the LSU frontend component comprises generating and sending a policy message that includes updated session continuity information to the LSU frontend component.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving in the processor a fourth communication message from the LSU frontend component;

discarding any session information related to the received first communication message or the received fourth communication message.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving in the LSU frontend component the first communication message from a client component;

extracting first information from the received first communication message, using the extracted first information to obtain a common key, and using the common key to identify the processor; and

updating the first communication message to include session continuity information that was received from another LSU frontend component as part of a cache replication operation; and

sending the first communication message to the identified processor.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein updating the first communication message to include session continuity information comprises updating the first communication message to include information that was received from another LSU frontend component as part of a cache replication operation.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the stored processor-executable software instructions are configured to cause a processor to perform operations such that using the session continuity information included in the received first communication message to determine the session information comprises:

using session information identifying a policy session and an enforcement component associated with the policy session.

11. A server computing device, comprising:

a processor configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations comprising;

receiving a first communication message from a logical scalable unit (LSU) frontend component, wherein the first communication message was sent by a LSU frontend component in response to the LSU frontend component receiving a message from a first client component in response to the first client component determining that a user equipment set-up, modified, or terminated a VoIP call;

determining whether session information relating to the received first communication message may be obtained from a session store;

using session information included in the session store to make a policy decision in response to determining that session information relating to the received first communication message may be obtained from the session store;

using session continuity information included in the received first communication message to determine the session information, and using the determined session information to make the policy decision, in response to determining that session information relating to the received first communication message may not be obtained from the session store, wherein the session continuity information includes information for maintaining session continuity for select services in the event of a failure without replicating session stores, including at least one of a session continuation (SC) parameter or a Session-Continuity Attribute-Value-Pair (AVP);

generating and sending a second communication message to the LSU frontend component based on the policy decision; and

generating and sending a third communication message that includes updated session continuity information to the LSU frontend component.

12. The server computing device of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that using the session continuity information included in the received first communication message to determine the session information comprises:

using session information identifying a policy session and an enforcement component associated with the policy session.

13. The server computing device of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that using the session continuity information included in the received first communication message to determine the session information comprises:

using application function session information identifying an application function session, an enforcement component associated with the application function session, and one or more rules associated with the enforcement component.

14. The server computing device of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that generating and sending the third communication message that includes updated session continuity information to the LSU frontend component comprises:

generating and sending a message that includes application function session information identifying an application function session, an enforcement component associated with the application function session, and one or more rules associated with the enforcement component.

15. The server computing device of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that generating and sending the third communication message that includes updated session continuity information comprises sending a policy message generated in response to a VoIP call request.

16. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon processor-executable software instructions configured to cause a processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving a first communication message from a logical scalable unit (LSU) frontend component, wherein the first communication message was sent by a LSU frontend component in response to the LSU frontend component receiving a message from a first client component in response to the first client component determining that a user equipment set-up, modified, or terminated a VoIP call;

determining whether session information relating to the received first communication message may be obtained from a session store;

using session information included in the session store to make a policy decision in response to determining that session information relating to the received first communication message may be obtained from the session store;

using session continuity information included in the received first communication message to determine the session information, and using the determined session information to make the policy decision, in response to determining that session information relating to the received first communication message may not be obtained from the session store, wherein the session continuity information includes information for maintaining session continuity for select services in the event of a failure without replicating session stores, including at least one of a session continuation (SC) parameter or a Session-Continuity Attribute-Value-Pair (AVP);

generating and sending a second communication message to the LSU frontend component based on the policy decision; and

generating and sending a third communication message that includes updated session continuity information to the LSU frontend component.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the stored processor-executable software instructions are configured to cause a processor to perform operations such that using the session continuity information included in the received first communication message to determine the session information comprises:

using application function session information identifying an application function session, an enforcement component associated with the application function session, and one or more rules associated with the enforcement component.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the stored processor-executable software instructions are configured to cause a processor to perform operations such that generating and sending the third communication message that includes updated session continuity information to the LSU frontend component comprises:

generating and sending a message that includes application function session information identifying an application function session, an enforcement component associated with the application function session, and one or more rules associated with the enforcement component.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the stored processor-executable software instructions are configured to cause a processor to perform operations such that generating and sending the third communication message that includes updated session continuity information comprises sending a policy message generated in response to a VoIP call request.