Method and Apparatus For Session Tracing and Session Logging In a Peer-to-Peer Communication Environment

• US 20080013546A1
• Filed: 07/13/2006
• Published: 01/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Madhani, Sunil H., Bhatt, Yogesh B.
• Granted Patent: US 7,680,482 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/395.52
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1457 using an account
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1068 Discovery involving direct consultation or announcement among potential requesting and potential source peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/41 Billing record details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure of call data record [CDR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/56 for VoIP communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0164 Billing record, e.g. Call Data Record [CDR], Toll Ticket[TT], Automatic Message Accounting [AMA], Call Line Identifier [CLI], details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/202 VoIP; Packet switched telephony
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/22 Bandwidth or usage-sensitve billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/24 Voice over IP billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/26 Data billing charged as a voice call, i.e. based on time or unit charging

Abstract

Peer-A (101) broadcasts a Peer Lookup Query (107) to a Peer Discovery Service (PDS) (105). Peer-A (101) may receive a Peer Lookup Response (109) from any peer having the reachability information including a Time Stamp, and an Initial Sequence Number. Peer-A (101) may subsequently use the Time Stamp and Sequence Number to send session management and session media packets to Peer-B (103). Peer-A (101) and Peer-B (103) reciprocally store message identification including sequence number and timestamp in a local session record contained in a secure memory. At completion of the IP session, both Peer-A (101) and Peer-B (103) will dump the session records from their respective secure memories to a remote Session Log Database (115), via message (117) and message (119), respectively. The remote session DB consolidates the records and uses the temporal and causal relationships between the messages to resolve any data conflicts and recreate the complete session record.

Claims

1. A method of creating a billing record for a first wireless mobile peer in a peer-to-peer wireless network, the method comprising:

sending, by said first wireless mobile peer, a peer lookup query over said peer-to-peer wireless network;

receiving in response to said peer lookup query, a data packet comprising an initial timestamp and an initial packet sequence number;

establishing an Internet Protocol session in response to receiving said data packet;

adding by said first wireless mobile peer, elapsed time to said initial timestamp and an incremented packet sequence number to transmitted data packets;

recording a time duration for said Internet Protocol communication session, based on said initial timestamp and said elapsed time for said transmitted data packets to a local session log;

completing said Internet Protocol session; and

transferring, over said peer-to-peer wireless network, said local session log to a remote session log database.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein recording a time duration for said Internet Protocol communication session to a local session log further comprises:

storing said local session log to a secure memory of said first wireless mobile peer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein adding by said first wireless mobile peer, elapsed time to said initial timestamp and an incremented packet sequence number to transmitted data packets, further comprises:

adding elapsed time to a call management message between said first wireless mobile peer and a second wireless mobile peer; and

measuring talk time duration based on voice packets transmitted from and received by said first wireless mobile peer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein sending, by said first wireless mobile peer, an Internet Protocol communication session request, to said second wireless mobile peer, over said peer-to-peer wireless network, further comprises;

sending a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) invite message.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein recording, by said first wireless mobile peer, in a secure memory of said first wireless mobile peer, each transmitted and received call management message including an associated time stamp to a first session log, further comprises:

recording information received from said second wireless mobile peer including caller identification information of said second wireless mobile peer;

and wherein recording, by said second wireless mobile peer, in a secure memory of said second wireless mobile peer, each transmitted and received call management message including an associated time stamp to a second session log;

further comprises;

recording information received from said first wireless mobile peer including caller identification information of said first wireless mobile peer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein sending, by said first wireless mobile peer, an Internet Protocol communication session request, to said second wireless mobile peer, over said peer-to-peer wireless network, further comprises:

accessing a Peer Discover Service;

performing a peer lookup query for said second wireless mobile peer; and

receiving a peer lookup response for said second wireless mobile peer.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein receiving in response to said session request, a data packet comprising an initial timestamp and an initial packet sequence number further comprises:

receiving said initial timestamp and said initial packet sequence number in said peer lookup response.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving in response to said session request, a data packet comprising an initial timestamp and an initial packet sequence number further comprises:

receiving said initial timestamp and said initial packet sequence number from said remote session log database.

4. A method of creating a billing record for a first wireless mobile peer, and a second wireless mobile peer, in a peer-to-peer wireless network, the method comprising:

sending, by said first wireless mobile peer, an Internet Protocol communication session request, to said second wireless mobile peer, over said peer-to-peer wireless network;

receiving in response to said session request, a data packet comprising an initial timestamp and an initial packet sequence number;

establishing an Internet Protocol session between said first wireless mobile peer and said second wireless mobile peer in response to receiving said data packet by said first wireless mobile peer;

adding by said first wireless mobile peer, elapsed time to said initial timestamp and an incremented packet sequence number to a call set-up message transmitted in a data packet to said second wireless mobile peer;

recording, by said first wireless mobile peer, in a secure memory of said first wireless mobile peer, each transmitted and received call management message including an associated time stamp to a first session log;

recording, by said second wireless mobile peer, in a secure memory of said second wireless mobile peer, each transmitted and received call management message including an associated time stamp to a second session log;

completing said Internet Protocol session; and

transferring, over said peer-to-peer wireless network, said first session log and said second session log to a remote session log database.

10. A wireless communication station comprising:

a transceiver configured to send and receive data over a peer-to-peer wireless network;

a processor coupled to said transceiver;

said processor configured to;

send, via said transceiver, an Internet Protocol communication session request over said peer-to-peer wireless network;

receive, via said transceiver, in response to said session request, a data packet comprising an initial timestamp and an initial packet sequence number;

establish an Internet Protocol session in response to receiving said data packet;

add elapsed time to said initial timestamp and an incremented packet sequence number to transmitted data packets;

record a time duration for said Internet Protocol communication session, based on said initial timestamp and said elapsed time for said transmitted data packets to a local session log;

complete said Internet Protocol session; and

transfer, via said transceiver, over said peer-to-peer wireless network, said local session log to a remote session log database.

11. The wireless communication station of claim 10, further comprising:

a secured memory component coupled to said processor and configured to store said local session log.

12. The wireless communication station of claim 10, wherein said processor further comprises a call management component and wherein said processor is further configured to:

add elapsed time to a call management message;

send, via said transceiver, said call management message; and

measure talk time duration based on voice packets transmitted from and received by said transceiver.

13. The wireless communication station of claim 10, wherein said processor is further configured to:

access a Peer Discover Service;

perform a peer lookup query for a wireless mobile peer; and

receive a peer lookup response for said wireless mobile peer.

14. The wireless communication station of claim 10, wherein said processor is further configured to:

receive, via said transceiver, said initial timestamp and said initial packet sequence number from said peer lookup response.

15. The wireless communication station of claim 10, wherein said transceiver is configured to communicate using one of Bluetooth, 802.11, 802.16, GSM GPRS, EDGE, CDMA, or UMTS.