Telecommunications gateway

• US 20020015403A1
• Filed: 08/02/2001
• Published: 02/07/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Unwired Planet LLC (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Original Assignee: Apion Telecoms Limited
• Inventors: McConnell, Richard, Murphy, Denis
• Granted Patent: US 6,822,954 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1403 Architecture for metering, charging or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A gateway (1) has a stack (20) with a bearer adaptation layer (21) and an HTTP client (29). The gateway may be connected by an HTTP link to an origin server (10) and by a bearer interface to a mobile network (3). It may also be connected by an HTTP link to a WTA server (5). A context manager (25) is a user on the stack (20) and supports interfaces (26 to 30) to allow access to external entities in a versatile manner. An event manager (35) captures events including billing events and writes to an event log (36) and to a billing log (37). A management entity (40) provides overall control and sets configurations for the event manager (35).

Claims

1. A telecommunications gateway comprising a stack (20) comprising a bearer adaptation layer for interfacing with a bearer, and a client for interfacing with an origin server, characterised in that, the gateway further comprises a context manager (25) acting as a user on the stack (20) and supporting an interface means (26, 27, 28, 30) to an external entity to provide an auxiliary service.

2. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 1, wherein the interface means comprises an accounting server comprising means for accepting, storing and making available a mapping between a client telephone number and the IP address allocated by the network.

3. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 2, wherein the accounting server comprises means for interfacing with an external accounting client for receiving the mapping information.

4. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 2, wherein the gateway further comprises a database, and the accounting server comprises means for storing the mapping data in the database.

5. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 2, wherein the accounting server comprises means for interfacing according to the RADIUS accounting protocol.

6. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 1, wherein the interface means comprises a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) client comprising means for accessing an external system to retrieve subscriber data.

7. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 1, wherein the interface means comprises a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) client comprising means for accessing an external system to retrieve subscriber data, and wherein the LDAP client comprises means for using mapping associations managed by the accounting server to identify subscribers.

8. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 1, wherein the context manager comprises means for controlling access to content.

9. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 1, wherein the context manager comprises means for determining access criteria from an external system via the LDAP client.

10. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 1, wherein the context manager comprises means for controlling access to content, and wherein said access means comprises means for accessing a stored URL whitelist, a URL blacklist, and a URL greylist of URLs which are accessed only under set conditions.

11. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 10, wherein the context manager comprises means for retrieving the condition via the LDAP client.

12. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 10, wherein the whitelist, the blacklist, and the greylist are stored in an internal database.

13. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 1, wherein the context manager comprises means for controlling access to content, and wherein the context manager comprises means for determining class of service values for subscribers.

14. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 13, wherein the context manager comprises means for determining URL class of service values and for comparing subscriber and URL class of service values to control access.

15. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 10, wherein the context manager comprises means for using a hashing algorithm process for searching said lists.

16. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 10, wherein the context manager comprises means for inferring from the lists an indication of whether the telephone number should be transferred to the origin server, and for implementing the transfer via the origin server client.

17. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 1, wherein the interface means comprises a push API (27) comprising means for allowing an external entity to pass push requests to the context manager.

18. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 17, wherein the context manager (25) comprises means for receiving a URL in a push request and for subsequently retrieving the content identified by the URL, and for pushing the content to the client via the stack (20).

19. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 17, wherein the context manager (25) comprises means for receiving a push request with content and for pushing the content to a client via the stack (20).

20. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 1, wherein the interface means comprises an encoder for converting text WML to byte code format and a compiler (28) for converting WMLscript to byte code format.

21. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gateway further comprises an event manager (35) linked to the stack and to the context manager (25), and the stack (20) comprises means for sending events to the event manager.

22. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gateway further comprises an event manager (35) linked to the stack and to the context manager (25), the stack (20) comprises means for sending events to the event manager, and the stack (20) and the context manager (25) comprise means for identifying events in messages in either direction.

23. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 22, wherein events are identified by processing code.

24. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gateway further comprises an event manager (35) linked to the stack and to the context manager (25), and the stack (20) comprises means for sending events to the event manager, and wherein the event manager (35) comprises means for accepting events and logging them.

25. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 24, wherein the event manager (35) comprises means for accepting events and logging them, and wherein the event manager (35) comprises means for providing TCP/IP connections with the context manager (25) and the stack (20) for receiving events.

26. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gateway further comprises an event manager (35) linked to the stack and to the context manager (25), and the stack (20) comprises means for sending events to the event manager, and wherein the event manager (35) comprises means for receiving the events in a Tag Length Value (TLV) format.

27. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gateway further comprises an event manager (35) linked to the stack and to the context manager (25), and the stack (20) comprises means for sending events to the event manager, and wherein the event manager (35) comprises means for maintaining an event log (36) and a billing log (37), and means for logging billing events to the billing log.

28. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gateway further comprises an event manager (35) linked to the stack and to the context manager (25), and the stack (20) comprises means for sending events to the event manager, and wherein the event manager (35) comprises means for maintaining an event log (36) and a billing log (37), and means for logging billing events to the billing log, and wherein the event manager (35) comprises means for accessing event classification data from an internal database (32).

29. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 28, wherein the event manager comprises means for making the classification data available to the stack and to the context manager.

30. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 28, wherein the event manager comprises means for making the classification data available to the stack and to the context manager, and wherein the event manager comprises means for making the classification data available to the stack and to the context manager, and wherein the event manager comprises means for controlling threads of queues for communication of classification data.

31. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gateway further comprises a management entity (40) linked to the context manager (25), to the stack (20), and to the event manager (35) for gateway management purposes.

32. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 31, wherein the management entity (40) comprises means for providing a management GUI interface (47).

33. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 31, wherein the management entity (40) comprises means for setting event classifications for the event manager (35).

34. A telecommunications gateway as claimed claim 31, wherein the management entity (40) comprises means for setting control data in an internal database (32) for the context manager (35), the stack (21), and the event manager (35).

35. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 31, wherein the management entity (40) comprises means for controlling start up, shut down, and re-start via message queues.

36. A telecommunications gateway as claimed in claim 31, wherein the management entity (40) comprises means for setting event conditions as alarms, and the event manager comprises means for automatically notifying the management entity (40) of alarms.

38. A method as claimed in claim 37, wherein the context manager supports a plurality of interfaces.

39. A method as claimed in claim 38, wherein an interface is an accounting server which accepts, stores, and makes available a mapping between a client telephone number and the IP address allocated by the network.

40. A method as claimed in claim 37, wherein an interface is a lightweight directory access protocol client which accesses an external system to retrieve subscriber data.

41. A method as claimed in claim 37, comprising the further step of the context manager controlling access to content according to URL and subscriber class of service values.

42. A method as claimed in claim 37, comprising the further step of the context manager inferring from a whitelist, a blacklist, and a greylist an indication of whether a telephone number should be transferred to an origin server, and implementing the transfer via an origin server client.

43. A method as claimed in claim 37, comprising the further step of the stack automatically sending events to an event manager, and the event manager maintaining an event log and a billing log.

44. A method as claimed in claim 43, wherein the event manager sets event conditions in a configurable basis.

46. A computer readable medium as claimed in claim 45, wherein the medium includes computer program code for acting as an interface to an external entity.

37. A method for providing access to an external entity by a telecommunications network, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a gateway having a stack comprising a bearer adaptation layer,

providing a context manager acting as a user on a stack, and

the context manager supporting an interface which accesses the external entity.

45. A computer readable medium including computer program code, said computer readable medium comprising:

computer program code for acting as a user on a stack of a telecommunications gateway and for supporting an interface to an external entity to provide an auxiliary service.