Integrating multimedia capabilities with legacy networks

• US 20040062230A1
• Filed: 10/01/2002
• Published: 04/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Clearinghouse LLC (RPX Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nortel Networks Limited (Nortel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: Pyke, Craik R., Taylor, Richard C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,646,761 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1094 Inter-user-equipment sessions transfer or sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0027 Collaboration services where a computer is used for data transfer and the telephone is used for telephonic communication

Abstract

A communications system that supports multimedia components is easily adapted to existing network elements. Voice components arriving at or coming from a user having multimedia capabilities are referred from a telephony server serving the user to a multimedia server. A determination is made as to whether the other party supports multimedia capabilities. If that determination is negative, the component is passed back to the telephony server with an indication that the session is coming from the multimedia server to avoid an infinite loop. If the determination is positive, a parallel multimedia component is established between the parties while the multimedia server remains aware of the bearer path.

Claims

1. A multimedia server comprising:

a server associated with a telephony server and adapted to;

receive a request for a voice component for a target user from the telephony server;

create a multimedia component in parallel with a voice component for the target user; and

maintain association with signaling paths of both the voice component and the multimedia component such that multimedia services may be provided during the course of the voice component.

2. The multimedia server of claim 1 wherein said voice component is selected from the group consisting of:

incoming and outgoing.

3. The multimedia server of claim 1 wherein said server passes the voice component through the telephony server.

4. The multimedia server of claim 3 wherein said server passes the voice component back to the telephony server along with a loopback indication that causes the telephony server to not send the voice component back to the multimedia server.

5. The multimedia server of claim 1 wherein said server communicates with a computer type device of the target user.

6. The multimedia server of claim 1 wherein said server communicates with the telephony server via Session Initiation Protocol.

7. A telephony server comprising:

a server associated with a multimedia server and adapted to pass a voice component for a user to the multimedia server for management of parallel voice and multimedia components.

8. The telephony server of claim 7 wherein said server communicates with the multimedia server via Session Initiation Protocol.

9. The telephony server of claim 7 wherein said server is adapted to receive the voice component back from the multimedia server.

10. The telephony server of claim 9 wherein said server is adapted to evaluate whether a component arriving at said server is a new component, a component arriving from the multimedia server, or a component passed back from the multimedia server.

11. The telephony server of claim 7 wherein said voice component is selected from the group consisting of:

incoming and outgoing.

12. A method of communicating comprising:

receiving, at a multimedia server, a voice component for a target user from a telephony server;

creating a multimedia component in parallel with the voice component for the target user; and

maintaining association at the multimedia server with a signaling path associated with the voice component and the multimedia component such that multimedia services may be provided during the course of the voice component.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein receiving, at the multimedia server, a voice component comprises receiving a voice component selected from the group consisting of:

incoming and outgoing.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising passing the voice component back through the telephony server.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising indicating to the telephony server that said passing comes from the multimedia server to alert the telephony server not to send the voice component back to the multimedia server.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein said creating occurs in blender software associated with the multimedia server.

17. The method of claim 12 further comprising communicating from the multimedia server to a telephony server using Session Initiation Protocol.

18. A method of communicating comprising:

associating a telephony server with a multimedia server; and

passing a voice component for a user to the multimedia server.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising communicating between the telephony server and the multimedia server via Session Initiation Protocol.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising receiving the voice component back from the multimedia server with a loopback indication.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising evaluating whether a component arriving at said telephony server is a new component, a component from the multimedia server or a component passed back from the multimedia server based on the loopback indication.

22. The method of claim 18 wherein passing a voice component comprises passing a voice component selected from the group consisting of:

incoming and outgoing.

23. The method of claim 18 wherein said voice component is generated initially at said telephony server.

24. The method of claim 18 wherein said voice component is generated initially at a blender associated with the multimedia server.

25. A method of communicating comprising:

receiving, at a multimedia server, a multimedia component for a target user;

creating a voice component in parallel with the multimedia component for the target user; and

maintaining association at the multimedia server with a signaling path associated with the voice component and the multimedia component such that multimedia services may be provided during the course of the voice component.

26. The method of claim 25 further comprising passing the voice component to a telephony server with an indication of origin from the multimedia server.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein said telephony server directs the voice component to the target user based on the indication of origin.

28. The method of claim 25 further comprising using blender software associated with the multimedia server to create the voice component in parallel with the multimedia component.

29. The method of claim 25 wherein receiving, at a multimedia server, a multimedia component for a target user comprises receiving a multimedia component for a target user selected from the group consisting of:

incoming and outgoing.

30. A computer readable medium comprising blender software adapted to:

receive a session request for a target user;

separate the session request into a voice component and a multimedia component; and

contact the target user for establishment of the voice component and multimedia component.

31. The computer readable medium of claim 30 wherein said blender software is further adapted to function on a multimedia server.

32. The computer readable medium of claim 30 wherein said blender software is further adapted to receive the session request for a target user from a telephony server.

33. The computer readable medium of claim 30 wherein said blender software is further adapted to receive the session request for a target user from a multimedia server.

34. The computer readable medium of claim 30 wherein said blender software is further adapted to respond to SIP commands.

35. The computer readable medium of claim 30 wherein said blender software is further adapted to contact the target user for establishment of the voice component through a telephony server.