Routing subscription information

• US 20050108347A1
• Filed: 03/25/2004
• Published: 05/19/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Lybeck, Mark, Westman, Ilkka, Kiss, Krisztian, Poikselka, Mikka
• Granted Patent: US 8,001,233 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/265 for initial activation of new user

Abstract

There is disclosed a method of providing subscription services, the method comprising: establishing a subscription dialog to activate a subscription; terminating said subscription dialog upon establishment of said subscription; and establishing a notification to a subscriber by the steps of: determining the location of the subscriber; establishing a notification dialog to notify the located subscriber; and terminating said notification dialog upon completion of the notification.

Claims

1. A method of providing subscription services, the method comprising:

establishing a subscription dialog to activate a subscription;

terminating said subscription dialog upon establishment of said subscription; and

establishing a notification to a subscriber by the steps of;

determining the location of the subscriber;

establishing a notification dialog to notify the located subscriber; and

terminating said notification dialog upon completion of the notification.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the subscription dialog and the notification dialog comprise SIP sessions.

3. A method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of storing a subscription identifier on establishment of said subscription.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein the step of establishing a notification to a subscriber is responsive to occurrence of a subscribed event.

5. A method according to claim 3 wherein the step of determining the location of a subscriber comprises sending the subscription identifier to a location services function.

6. A network element adapted for the provision of subscription services comprising:

receiving means for receiving a subscription request for a subscription service from a subscriber;

supporting means for supporting a dialog session between the subscriber and the subscription service; and

transmitting means for transmitting the subscription request to the subscription service;

wherein the receiving means is adapted to further receive a subscription acknowledgement from the subscription service and the transmitting means is further adapted to forward the subscription acknowledgement to the subscriber, and further wherein responsive to the acknowledgement the network element releases the dialog session.

7. A network element according to claim 6 in which the subscriber and the subscription service are connected in different networks, the network element being a network element of the subscription service network.

8. A network element according to claim 6 wherein the receiving means is further adapted to receive a notification from the subscription service for a subscriber, wherein responsive thereto a notification dialog session is established, the transmitting means being adapted to transmit a location request to determine the location of the subscriber, wherein responsive to location information for the subscriber the transmitting means is further adapted to transmit the notification to the subscriber.

9. A network element according to claim 8 wherein the receiving means is adapted to receive an acknowledgement of said notification from the subscriber, wherein responsive to said acknowledgement the transmitting means transmits an acknowledgement to the subscription service and releases the dialog session.

10. A network element according to claim 6 wherein the dialog comprises an SIP session.

11. A network element according to claim 6 further adapted to store a subscription identifier on establishment of said subscription.

12. A network element according to claim 6 wherein the step of establishing a notification to a subscriber is responsive to occurrence of a subscribed event.

13. A network element according to claim 8 wherein the step of determining the location of a subscriber comprises sending the subscriber identifier to a location services function.

14. A network element adapted for the provision of subscription services comprising:

receiving means for receiving a notification message for a subscriber from a subscription service;

supporting means for supporting the dialog session between the subscription service and the subscriber; and

transmitting means for transmitting the notification message to the subscriber, wherein the receiving means is adapted to further receive a notification acknowledgement from the subscriber, and the transmitting means is further adapted to forward the notification acknowledgement to the subscription service, and further wherein responsive to the acknowledgement to the network element releases the dialog session.

15. A network element according to claim 14 in which the subscriber and the subscription service are connected in different networks, the network element being a network element of the subscriber network.

16. A communication system for providing subscription services comprising:

a subscriber for initiating a subscription dialog, and arranged to send a subscription request;

a network element for receiving the subscription request and arranged to forward the subscription request to a subscription service; and

a subscription service element for receiving the subscription request from the network element, and having means for storing a subscriber identifier, wherein responsive to an acknowledgement from the subscription service element the network element releases the subscription dialog, and wherein responsive to a notification message of a notification dialog from the subscription element, the network element determines a location for the subscriber and forwards the notification message to the subscriber.

17. A communication system according to claim 16 wherein the network element is arranged to selectively release the notification dialog responsive to receipt of an acknowledgement of the notification message from a subscriber.

18. A communication system according to claim 16 further comprising a location server, wherein the network element is arranged to determine a location for the subscriber by sending a request to the location server.

19. A communication system for providing subscription services comprising:

a subscriber for initiating a subscription dialog, and arranged to send a subscription request;

a first network element for receiving the subscription request and arranged to forward the subscription request to a subscription server;

a subscription service element for receiving the subscription request from the first network element, and having means for storing a subscriber identifier, wherein responsive to an acknowledgement from the subscription service element to the first network element releases the subscription dialog, wherein the subscription service element is further adapted to transmit a notification message, the system further comprising a second network element for receiving the notification message and arranged to forward the notification message to the subscriber, wherein responsive to an acknowledgement from the subscriber the second network element releases the notification dialog.

20. A communication system according to claim 19 in which the first network element is a network element of a network in which the subscription service is connected, and the second network element is a network element of a network in which the subscriber is connected, the subscriber and the subscription service being connected in different networks.

21. A method of configuring a network element comprising:

receiving a record-route instruction;

receiving a subscription request; and

recording the route of the subscription request in dependence on the record-route instruction.

22. A method according to claim 21 wherein the record-route instruction is fetched.

23. A method according to claim 21 wherein the record route instruction is received as part of a filter criteria.

24. A method according to claim 23 wherein the record route instruction is received as part of a system filter criteria.

25. A method according to claim 24 wherein the system filter criteria is configured for all subscribers.

26. A method according to claim 24 wherein the system filter criteria is pre-configured in the network element.

27. A method according to claim 24 wherein the system filter criteria is loaded into the network element from a further network element.

28. A method according to claim 27 wherein the further network element includes one of a HSS, a S-CSCF, or a database.

29. A method according to claim 23 wherein the filter criteria further includes a subscriber specific filter criteria.

30. A method according to claim 29 wherein if the subscriber specific filter criteria matches the system specific filter criteria, a combination of both the system specific filter criteria and the subscriber specific filter criteria is applied.

31. A method according to claim 30 wherein the system specific filter criteria data overrides the subscriber specific filter criteria data.

32. A method according to claim 30 wherein the subscriber specific filter criteria data overrides the system specific filter criteria data.

33. A method according to claim 23 wherein any filter criteria is service specific.

34. A method according to claim 33 wherein the service is a presence service.

35. A method according to claim 24 wherein the record-route is received as a part of a service profile associated with the subscription.

36. A method according to claim 21 wherein the subscription request is a message of an SIP session.

37. A method according to claim 21 wherein the network element is a proxy server or a server providing a serving call state control function or serving call session control function.

38. A method of providing subscription services, comprising creating a record-route instruction for the service.

39. A header for a message in a subscription service, said header including a record-route instruction, said instruction for controlling the characteristics of a network element.

40. A method of providing subscription services comprising:

establishing a subscription dialog to activate a subscription;

providing a filter criteria in said subscription dialog; and

wherein said filter criteria is adapted to include an instruction for a network element to selectively record the subscription route at a network element.

41. A method according to claim 40 wherein the network element is a serving call state or session control function associated with a server providing the subscribed service.

42. A method according to claim 40, wherein said filter criteria is a subscriber filter criteria, the method further including providing a system filter criteria to the network element, wherein if the system filter criteria matches the subscriber filter criteria, a combination of both filter criteria is applied.

43. A method according to claim 42 wherein the system specific filter criteria data overrides the subscriber specific filter criteria data.

44. A method according to claim 42 wherein the subscriber specific filter criteria data overrides the system specific filter criteria data.

45. A network element for providing subscription services, said element being adapted to receive a record-route instruction, wherein responsive to said record-route instruction the network element selectively records the route of a communication session associated a subscription said message.

46. A network element according to claim 45 wherein said record-route instruction is provided in a filter criteria.

47. A network element according to claim 46 wherein said filter criteria is a system filter criteria.

48. A network element according to claim 47 wherein the system filter criteria is received from a network entity and/or a database.

49. A network element according to claim 47 wherein the system filter criteria is configured in the network element.

50. A network element according to claim 47 wherein said system filter criteria is applied to all subscriber messages.

51. A network element according to claim 45 wherein said network element additionally receives a subscriber filter criteria.

52. A network element according to claim 45 wherein if the subscriber filter criteria matches the system filter criteria, combination of both filter criteria is applied.

53. A network element according to claim 52 wherein the system specific filter criteria data overrides the subscriber specific filter criteria data.

54. A network element according to claim 52 wherein the subscriber specific filter criteria data overrides the system specific filter criteria data.

55. A network element according to claim 45 wherein the network element comprises a serving call state or session control function.

56. A network element according to claim 45 wherein the record-route instruction is received from a home subscriber server.