Personal service environment management apparatus and methods

• US 20020013827A1
• Filed: 05/17/2001
• Published: 01/31/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Edstrom, Claes G.R., Brandstrom, Ulf C.G., Astrom, Bo A.V.
• Application Number:
  US09/860,185
• Publication Number:
  US 20020013827A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4541 Directories for service discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42161 via computer interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4931 Directory assistance systems

Abstract

A Service Network and Personal Service Environment Manager host and manage functionality shared among applications and user groups to provide common, application-independent directory services that serve as a logically central point of access to data. In particular, end-users can manage their service profiles in access- and location-independent scenarios. The PSEM includes functions for providing and managing service data, end-user profile data, and end-user service profile data. Among others, important aspects of the PSEM are its interfaces to other entities and functions, its distinguishing between user profile data and service-related data (i.e., service profile data and service data), and its further distinguishing between service profile data and service data.

Claims

1. A personal service environment manager (“

PSEM”

) for managing information relating to end-users of a communication network that includes at least one application server for providing at least one network service, the information including end-user profile data and service-related data, the PSEM comprising a PSEM core and a plurality of PSEM managers, wherein the PSEM core governs the managers for providing end-user authorization and authentication in the communication network, end-user interface proxies towards communication access devices, end-user service management, including service discovery, service provisioning, and service customization, and access and availability control of the at least one application server.

2. The PSEM of claim 1, wherein the managers include a Logon Manager that handles the logon procedures enabling an end-user to access information relating to the end-user;

an End-User Service Provisioning Manager that administers provision of services to end-users;

a User Profile Manager that inserts, deletes, modifies, and reads end-user profile data in a common directory;

a Presentation Proxies Manager that provides adjustable user interfaces to end-users;

an Application/Service Discovery Manager that handles discovery of applications and services by interfacing to the at least one application server; and

an End-User Service Data Manager that handles service-related data.

3. The PSEM of claim 2, wherein the Application/Service Discovery Manager receives registrations from applications and services sent to the PSEM and provides information about available services to the Presentation Proxies Manager and the End-User Service Provisioning Manager.

4. The PSEM of claim 3, wherein services and applications are available to an end-user based on information gathered from the Application/Service Discovery Manager.

5. The PSEM of claim 2, wherein the Presentation Proxies Manager provides WAP and World-wide Web user interfaces to end-users for PSEM services and communicates with the PSEM core and the other managers to implement the user interfaces.

6. The PSEM of claim 2, wherein the PSEM can work in either a broker mode or a proxy mode toward an application server for service-related data management.

7. The PSEM of claim 6, wherein in broker mode, the PSEM hands over control to the application server when an end-user changes service-related data, and in proxy mode, the PSEM controls the application server when the end-user changes service-related data.

8. The PSEM of claim 7, wherein in both broker and proxy modes, the end-user accesses the Presentation Proxies Manager, which requests the End-User Service Provisioning Manager to obtain information via the Application/Service Discovery Manager from the common directory that identifies services available to the end-user, and that information is presented by the Provisioning Manager to the end-user through the Presentation Proxies Manager.

9. The PSEM of claim 7, wherein in both broker and proxy modes, the end-user accesses the Presentation Proxies Manager, which communicates with the End-User Service Provisioning Manager that requests the User Profile Manager to fetch information identifying already-subscribed-to services from the common directory.

10. The PSEM of claim 8, wherein if the end-user wishes to subscribe to a new service, the User Profile Manager is requested through the Presentation Proxies Manager to add the new service to a list of subscribed-to services in the common directory, and an indication is passed to the end-user to use in accessing the application server hosting the new service.

11. The PSEM of claim 10, wherein the common directory includes an identifier in association with the end-user'"'"'s user profile data that enables an application to verify that the end-user has subscribed to a service provided by the application.

12. The PSEM of claim 2, wherein the common directory includes end-user profile data and is either distributed or centralized.

13. The PSEM of claim 12, wherein the service-related data includes service profile data and service data, service profile data includes information changeable by end-users, and service data includes information that is set by applications and defines configuration of services provided by the service network.

14. The PSEM of claim 13, wherein end-user profile data includes information relating to predetermined characteristics of an end-user.

15. The PSEM of claim 14, wherein end-user profile data includes personal data, at least one logical identifier of a respective end-user, authentication data, and service-independent preferences.

16. The PSEM of claim 15, wherein end-user profile data includes a searchable list of references to services subscribed to by respective end-users.

17. A service network, comprising:

at least one application server for providing a respective service to end-users,

a personal service environment manager (“

PSEM”

) that can exchange information with the at least one application server,

a common user profile directory that is accessible to the personal service environment manager, and

at least one service enabler in communication with the personal service environment manager;

wherein the PSEM mediates end-user authorization and authentication in the service network, end-user interface proxies towards service network access devices, end-user service management, including service discovery, service provisioning, and service customization, end-user access to the common user profile directory, and access and availability control of the at least one application server.

18. The service network of claim 17, wherein the PSEM manages information relating to end-users, the information including end-user profile data and service-related data.

19. The service network of claim 18, wherein the service-related data includes service profile data and service data, service profile data includes information changeable by end-users, and service data includes information that is set by applications and defines configuration of services provided by the service network.

20. The service network of claim 19, wherein end-user profile data is accessible through the common user profile directory and includes information relating to predetermined characteristics of an end-user.

21. The service network of claim 20, wherein end-user profile data includes personal data, at least one logical identifier of a respective end-user, authentication data, and service-independent preferences.

22. The service network of claim 21, wherein end-user profile data includes a searchable list of references to services subscribed to by respective end-users.

23. The service network of claim 19, wherein the PSEM is used by an application as a proxy for reading/writing end-user profile data in a database accessible to the application.