Communication system

• US 20060031294A1
• Filed: 11/05/2004
• Published: 02/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Poikselka, Miikka
• Granted Patent: US 7,650,159 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/45 for Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-to-Talk over cellular [PoC] services

Abstract

A communication system comprising: a first and second user equipment for communication over a shared floor; a controlling server for managing the shared floor; and at least one participating server for serving said first user equipment; the participating server being arranged to detect a connection request from said first user, and to insert into the connection request from the first user equipment a token; and wherein the controlling server is arranged to detect said inserted token and to route user plane messages via the participating server responsive to said received token.

Claims

1. A communication system comprising:

a first user equipment and a second user equipment for communication over a shared floor;

a controlling server for managing the shared floor; and

at least one participating server for serving said first user equipment;

the at least one participating server being configured to detect a connection request from said first user equipment, and to insert into the connection request from the first user equipment a token; and

wherein the controlling server is configured to detect said inserted token and to route user plane messages via the at least one participating server responsive to said inserted token.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said token is in a header of the connection request.

3. A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said token is a character string within the header.

4. A system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said character string is string ‘

media’

within a server header.

5. A system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said character string is string ‘

media’

within a contact header.

6. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first user equipment is configured to initiate the connection request with the second user equipment via said at least one participating server using a first protocol.

7. A communications system as claimed in claim 6, wherein said first protocol is a session initiation protocol (SIP).

8. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first user equipment is configured to communicate over an existing connection with said second user equipment via said at least one participating server using a second protocol.

9. A system as claimed in claim 8, wherein said second protocol is a real time control protocol (RTP/RTCP).

10. A system as claimed in claim 9, wherein said user plane messages are transmitted using said second protocol.

11. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said communications system comprises a push-to-talk over cellular communications system.

12. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controlling server comprises means for storing said inserted token.

13. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

at least one further participating server for serving said second user equipment;

wherein the controlling server is further configured to detect an anonymity request from the first user equipment, and a second token from the at least one further participating server, and wherein in a first mode of operation responsive to detecting said second token the controlling server is configured to insert into user plane messages from the first user equipment a privacy indication, and the at least one further participating server is responsive to said privacy indication to remove information about the first user equipment from the user plane messages.

14. A system as claimed in claim 13, wherein in a second mode of operation responsive to not detecting said second token the controlling server is configured to remove information about the first user equipment from the user plane messages.

15. A first server configured to operate in a communications system, said communications system further comprising a first user equipment and a second user equipment in communication over a shared floor, and a second server arranged to control the shared floor, wherein

said first server is configured to detect a connection request from said first user equipment, and to insert into the connection request from the first user equipment a token;

and

wherein the second server is configured to detect said inserted token, the second server being configured to route user plane messages via a participating server responsive to the token.

16. A method of communication, within a communications system comprising, a first user equipment and a second user equipment in communication over a shared floor, a first server and a second server configured to manage the shared floor, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving at said first server a connection request,

inserting a token into the connection request;

transmitting the connection request containing the inserted token to the second server,

configuring a routing of user plane messages to pass through the first server responsive to receiving the inserted token.

17. A method as claimed in claim 16, further comprising the step of:

receiving at said second server an anonymity request from said second user equipment.

18. A method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the second server managing the shared floor maintains information about the second user equipment in the user plane messages prior to transmitting to the first user equipment when the inserted token is present at the second server.

19. A method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the second server managing the shared floor removes information about the second user equipment from the user plane message prior to transmitting to the first user equipment when the inserted token is not present at the second server.