Method and apparatus for resolving protocol-agnostic schemes in an internet protocol multimedia subsystem

• US 20040205241A1
• Filed: 01/03/2003
• Published: 10/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Khartabil, Hisham, Costa-Requena, Jose, Westman, Ilkka, Aarnos, Jyrki
• Granted Patent: US 6,931,453 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/245
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/385 Uniform resource identifier for session initiation protocol [SIP URI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4535 using an address exchange platform which sets up a session between two nodes, e.g. rendezvous servers, session initiation protocols [SIP] registrars or H.323 gatekeepers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/10 adapted for application session management, e.g. SIP [Session Initiation Protocol] connection management H04W76/00; arrangements for session management H04L67/14

Abstract

A method for use by an I-CSCF (12b) in resolving an address of a message according to SIP but using a protocol-agnostic scheme, and corresponding equipment. The method includes: a step (32) of querying a data store (12c) of scheme mappings, in response to receiving such a request, the querying for determining possible mappings to trial schemes at least one of which resolves the address, i.e. which can be used by the I-CSCF (12b) to find the S-CSCF (12e) for the target user (11b) if the target user is an IMS client, or for forwarding to a gateway or next hop in the path to the target user (11b) if the target user (11b) is not an IMS client; and a step (33) of testing in turn (until success or until all possible trial schemes are tested) each possible trial scheme, the testing based on comparing an address using the trial scheme with an address in a data store (12d) of addresses.

Claims

1. A method for use by an entity (12b) of an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network in resolving an address of a request according to session initiation protocol (SIP) but having a request uniform resource identifier (URI) for indicating the address having a protocol-agnostic scheme, the method characterized by:

a) a step (32) of querying a scheme mappings data store (12c), performed in response to receiving the request, the querying for determining possible mappings to trial schemes for resolving the address; and

b) a step (33) of testing in turn, as necessary, each possible trial scheme, the testing based on comparing an address using the trial scheme with an address in an addresses data store (12d).

2. A method as in claim 1, wherein the scheme mappings data store (12c) relates at least one protocol-agnostic scheme to a mapping scheme indicating a particular protocol.

3. A method as in claim 1, wherein the querying of the scheme mappings data store (12c) results in an address of a gateway for a non-SIP scheme.

4. A method as in claim 1, wherein if the trial scheme is a non-SIP scheme, the step (33) of testing is omitted, and instead an address is determined using the non-SIP scheme and based on information available without referring to an external data store (12c 12d).

5. A method as in claim 1, wherein if the trial scheme is a non-SIP scheme, the step (33) of testing is omitted, and instead an address of a gateway is provided with the non-SIP scheme in the step (32) of querying the scheme mappings data store (12c).

6. An apparatus (12b), comprising means for performing the steps (3233) of claim 1.

7. A system, comprising a call state control function (CSCF) (12b) having means for performing the steps (3233) of claim 1, a data store (12c) of scheme mappings, a data store (12d) of addresses, and a plurality of other CSCF elements (12a 12e).

8. A system, comprising an entity (12b) of an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network and also comprising a data store (41) for storing one or more schemes and respective optional associated addresses of next hop network entities in a table in which the schemes are related to a protocol-agnostic scheme, and for providing the one or more schemes and the respective optional associated addresses of the next hop network entities in response to a query from the entity (12b) of the IMS network, the query including a protocol-agnostic scheme.