Communications

• US 20050094625A1
• Filed: 07/29/2004
• Published: 05/05/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Bouat, Sebastien
• Granted Patent: US 7,830,894 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/08 Trunked mobile radio systems

Abstract

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a system for establishing a connection between a first and a second communication device. The first communication device supports separate voice and data channels and is arranged for sending a pair of a first and second establishment requests, the first request being sent via the data channel and the second request being sent via the voice channel. The system comprises a proxy for receiving the first request via the data channel, and a gateway for receiving the second request via the voice channel. The gateway is arranged to forward the received request to the proxy and the proxy is arranged to forward the earliest received request of the pair of requests to one of a plurality of call control servers for processing.

Claims

1. A system for establishing a connection between a first and a second communication device, the first communication device supporting separate voice and data channels and arranged for sending a pair of a first and second establishment requests, the first request being sent via the data channel and the second request being sent via a signalling channel associated with the voice channel, comprising:

a proxy for receiving the first request; and

a gateway for receiving the second request, the gateway being arranged to forward the received request to the proxy, wherein the proxy is arranged to forward the earliest received request of the pair of requests to a selected one of a plurality of call control servers.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the connection is an Internet protocol (IP) connection.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the data channel is a packet data channel.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first request is sent in a first format, and the second request is sent in a second format.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the gateway is arranged to convert the received request into the first format prior to forwarding the converted request to the proxy.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising an authorization module for giving authorization to the proxy to forward the establishment request to the selected call control server.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the selected call control server establishes the IP connection with the second communication device.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the first request is a session initiation protocol (SIP) message.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the second request is a session initiation protocol (SIP) message encapsulated in a short message system (SMS) format.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the gateway is adapted for ignoring any establishment requests received a predetermined length of time after the transmission of the received message.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the predetermined length of time is less than or equal to 32 seconds.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the data channel is a code division multiple access (CDMA) packet data channel.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice channel is a code division multiple access (CDMA) voice channel.

14. A push-to-talk service using a system in accordance with claim 1.

15. A method of establishing a connection between a first and a second communication device, the first communication device supporting separate voice and data channels, comprising:

sending, from the first communication device, a first connection establishment request via the data channel and a second connection establishment request via a signalling channel associated with the voice channel;

receiving the first request at a proxy;

receiving the second request at a gateway;

forwarding the second request from the gateway to the proxy; and

forwarding the earliest request of the pair of requests received at the proxy to a selected one of a plurality of call control servers.

16. The method of claim 15, adapted for establishing an Internet protocol (IP) connection.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of sending comprises sending the first request in a first format, and sending the second request in a second format.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising converting, at the gateway, the received request into the first format prior to forwarding the converted request to the proxy.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising obtaining authorization to forward the establishment request to a call control server.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising establishing, through the selected call control server, the IP connection with the second communication device.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein step of sending the first request is adapted for sending the request as a session initiation protocol (SIP) message.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein step of sending the second request is adapted for sending the session initiation protocol (SIP) message encapsulated in a short message system (SMS) format.

23. The method of claim 15, further comprising ignoring, at the gateway, any establishment requests received a predetermined length of time after the transmission of the received message.

24. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of sending the first request is adapted for sending the request over a code division multiple access (CDMA) packet data channel.

25. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of sending the second request is adapted for sending the request over a code division multiple access (CDMA) voice channel.

26. A push-to-talk service operating in accordance with claim 15.