Providing CALEA/LegaI Intercept information to law enforcement agencies for internet protocol multimedia subsystems (IMS)

• US 20060072550A1
• Filed: 10/06/2004
• Published: 04/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Davis, Thomas C., Lee, Pauline C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,764,768 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/30 for supporting lawful interception, monitoring or retaining of communications or communication related information circuit switched telephony call monitoring H04M3/2281
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1096 Supplementary features, e.g. call forwarding or call holding systems providing special services or facilities to telephony subscribers H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2281 Call monitoring, e.g. for law enforcement purposes; Call tracing; Detection or prevention of malicious calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/80 Arrangements enabling lawful interception [LI]

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing useful packet data to a CALEA/Legal Intercept collection function. At an access point to a network such as the Internet, sources and destinations of data connections are examined to determine whether any of the bearer messages should also be routed to a CALEA/Legal Intercept monitoring system. If this condition is recognized, the bearer messages and corresponding signaling control messages are correlated in a call packet delivery application server and then delivered to a CALEA/Legal Intercept monitoring system. Advantageously, the monitoring receives as a bundled message set the bearer message and the control messages used to route and otherwise process these bearer messages.

Claims

1. In an Internet Protocol Multimedia System (IMS), a method of providing bearer data to a CALEA/Legal Intercept System, comprising the steps of:

receiving said bearer data and related session initiation protocol (SIP) messages at an access system connectable to the Internet;

at said access system, recognizing that said SIP messages designate a source or destination being monitored by a CALEA/Legal Intercept System; and

responsive to said recognition, sending said bearer data and said related SIP messages from said access system to said CALEA/Legal Intercept System in temporal order of receipt by the access function.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of sending said bearer data and said related SIP messages to said CALEA/Legal Intercept System comprises the steps of:

sending said bearer data and said related SIP messages to a call packet delivery application server;

in said application server, associating SIP messages with corresponding bearer data; and

sending the associated SIP messages bundled with said corresponding bearer data to said CALEA/Legal collection function when a court order allows.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said bearer data is sent from a mobile station.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein said bearer data is sent from a land-line station.

5. A method of extracting data from two data streams, a first data stream comprising a first bearer data packet group and first signaling packets associated with said first bearer data packet group, and a second data stream comprising second signaling packets for a plurality of second bearer data packet groups and said plurality of second bearer data packet groups;

comprising the steps of;

extracting said first bearer data packet group;

ordering the first and second signaling packets in time order of their creation;

correlating each of said second bearer packet groups with corresponding signaling packets;

using data of said first signaling packets, examining the signaling packets for each of said second bearer packet groups in order to determine which, if any, of said second bearer packet group are associated with packets of said first bearer packet group; and

extracting in time sequence said second bearer packet groups determined to be associated with packets of said first bearer packet group.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said first bearer data packet group is sent from a mobile station.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein said first bearer data packet group is sent from a land-line station.

8. In an Internet Protocol Multimedia System (IMS), apparatus for providing bearer data to a CALEA/Legal Intercept System, comprising:

means for receiving said bearer data and related session initiation protocol (SIP) messages at an access system connectable to the Internet;

at said access system, means for recognizing that said SIP messages designate a source or destination being monitored by a CALEA/Legal Intercept System; and

means, responsive to said recognition, for sending said bearer data and said related SIP messages from said access system to said CALEA/Legal Intercept System in temporal order of receipt by the access function.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the means for sending said bearer data and said related SIP messages to said CALEA/Legal Intercept System comprise:

means for sending said bearer data and said related SIP messages to a call packet delivery application server;

in said application server, means for associating SIP messages with corresponding bearer data; and

means for sending the associated SIP messages bundled with said corresponding bearer data to said CALEA/Legal collection function when a court order allows.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said bearer data is sent from a mobile station.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said bearer data is sent from a land-line station.

12. Apparatus for extracting data from two data streams, a first data stream comprising a first bearer data packet group and first signaling packets associated with said first bearer data packet group, and a second data stream comprising second signaling packets for a plurality of second bearer data packet groups and said plurality of second bearer data packet groups;

comprising;

means for extracting said first bearer data packet group;

means for ordering the first and second signaling packets in time order of their creation;

means for correlating each of said second bearer packet groups with corresponding signaling packets;

means for using data of said first signaling packets, means for examining the signaling packets for each of said second bearer packet groups in order to determine which, if any, of said second bearer packet group are associated with packets of said first bearer packet group; and

means for extracting in time sequence said second bearer packet groups determined to be associated with packets of said first bearer packet group.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein said first bearer data packet group is sent from a mobile station.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein said first bearer data packet group is sent from a land-line station.