SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INTEGRATING CALL CONTROL AND DATA NETWORK ACCESS COMPONENTS

• US 20080107094A1
• Filed: 12/17/2007
• Published: 05/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2003
• 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: Akgun, Ali, Borella, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,969,956 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/342
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1066 Session management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1094 Inter-user-equipment sessions transfer or sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1095 Inter-network session transfer or sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 Setup of transport tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/182 Network node acting on behalf of an other network entity, e.g. proxy
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements

Abstract

A system and method for integrating the call control signaling pathway with data network access components. A call control server agent is resident on a network device that provides a first interface from an access network to a packet-switched data network. The call control server agent receives data session initiation requests and passes the requests to the call control server agent. The call control server agent also performs proxy server functions and provides a source of information relating to data sessions directly to the access network.

Claims

1. A data network interface device connected to an access network to provide users of the access network with connections to a packet data network, the data network interface device comprising:

a call control server agent comprising a subset of functions performed by a call control server in accordance with a call control protocol, the call control server agent being operable to receive a data session request from a call control client on a user communication device, the call control server agent being operable to initiate a data session with a resource performed by at least one data network application over the packet data network.

2. The data network interface device of claim 1 wherein the call control server agent is operable to signal a data session status, the data network interface device further comprising a quality of service process operable to receive the session status and to implement a selected set of Quality of Service (QoS) parameters on the data session.

3. The data network interface device of claim 2 wherein the selected set of QoS parameters are received from an authentication server during a call setup.

4. The data network interface device of claim 2 wherein the call control protocol is the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), the call control client is a SIP-compliant client, the call control server is a SIP server, and the call control server agent is operable to perform SIP proxy server functions.

5. The data network interface device of claim 4 wherein the call control server agent sends a SIP INVITE message having a destination identifier of the resource performed by the at least one data network application, and wherein the call control server agent receives a SIP OK message in response to the SIP INVITE message, the SIP OK message containing the selected set of QoS Parameters.

6. The data network interface device of claim 5 wherein the quality of service process receives the selected set of QoS parameters in a Session Description Protocol block in the SIP OK message.

7. The data network interface device of claim 1 further comprising a data service billing agent wherein the call control server agent signals a session status to the data service billing agent, the data service billing agent being operable to collect call control information.

8. The data network interface device of claim 7 wherein the data service billing agent communicates the call control information to an accounting server.

9. The data network interface device of claim 1 further comprising a wireless network interface to a public wireless network such that the data network interface device is a packet data serving node (PDSN).

10. The data network interface device of claim 1 further comprising a wireless network interface to a public wireless network such that the data network interface device is a GPRS Gateway Serving Node (GGSN).

11. The data network interface device of claim 1 further comprising a wireless network interface to a public wireless network such that the data network interface device is a Home Agent (HA).

12. The data network interface device of claim 1 further comprising a wireless network interface to a wireless local area network.

13. The data network interface device of claim 12 wherein the data network interface device is a 802.11 roaming gateway.

14. A packet data serving node connected to a wireless access network to provide users of the wireless access network with connections to a packet data network, the packet data serving node comprising:

a call control server agent comprising a subset of functions performed by a call control server in accordance with a call control protocol, the call control server agent being operable to receive a data session request from a call control client on a mobile station, the call control server agent being operable to initiate a data session with a resource performed by at least one data network application over the packet data network.

15. The packet data serving node of claim 14 wherein the call control server agent is operable to signal a data session status, the packet data serving node further comprising a quality of service process operable to receive the session status and to implement a selected set of Quality of Service (QoS) parameters on the data session.

16. The packet data serving node of claim 15 wherein the selected set of QoS parameters are received from an authentication server during a call setup.

17. The packet data serving node of claim 15 wherein the call control protocol is the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), the call control client is a SIP-compliant client, the call control server is a SIP server, and the call control server agent is operable to perform SIP proxy server functions.

18. The packet data serving node of claim 17 wherein the call control server agent sends a SIP INVITE message having a destination identifier of the resource performed by the at least one data network application, and wherein the call control server agent receives a SIP OK message in response to the SIP INVITE message, the SIP OK message containing the selected set of QoS parameters.

19. The packet data serving node of claim 18 wherein the quality of service process receives the selected set of QoS parameters in a Session Description Protocol block in the SIP OK message.

20. The packet data serving node of claim 14 further comprising a data service billing agent wherein the call control server agent signals a session status to the data service billing agent, the data service billing agent being operable to collect call control information.

21. The packet data serving node of claim 20 wherein the data service billing agent communicates the call control information to an accounting server.

22. The packet data serving node of claim 14 being further operable to receive a data session request from a terminal over a foreign network.

23. The packet data serving node of claim 22 being operable to receive the data session request over a foreign network connection conforming to a tunneling protocol.

24. The packet data serving node of claim 23 wherein the tunneling protocol is a protocol selected from the group of protocols consisting of the layer 2 tunneling protocol (L2TP), IP security (IPsec), Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP), and SOCKSv5.

25. A method for initiating a call that uses a data session comprising the steps of:

receiving a request to access a data network application, the request comprising a destination identifier of a resource that performs the data network application and a caller identifier of a subscriber to a telecommunications service that provides access to a data packet network;

requesting a quality of service (QoS) policy from an authentication server for the subscriber identified by the caller identifier;

broadcasting a data session initiation request containing the destination identifier;

sending the data session initiation request to a call control server;

receiving a data session status in response to the data session initiation request;

initiating a data stream to communicate with the resource in response to the data session status; and

implementing the QoS policy on the data stream.

26. A method for initiating a call that uses a data session comprising the steps of:

receiving a request to access a data network application, the request comprising a destination identifier of a resource that performs the data network application and a caller identifier of a subscriber to a telecommunications service that provides access to a data packet network;

broadcasting a data session initiation request containing the destination identifier;

receiving a data session status in response to the data session initiation request, the data session status comprising a session description protocol (SDP) block containing a QoS policy;

initiating a data stream to communicate with the resource in response to the data session status; and

implementing the QoS policy on the data stream.

27. A method for providing billing information for data network services to a telecommunications service provider comprising the steps of:

receiving a request to access a data network application, the request comprising a destination identifier of a resource that performs the data network application and a caller identifier of a subscriber to a telecommunications service that provides access to a data packet network;

broadcasting a data session initiation request containing the destination identifier;

receiving a data session status in response to the data session initiation request;

if the data session status indicates a successful data session initiation, sending a billing information message to an accounting server; and

initiating a data stream to communicate with the resource in response to the data session status and communicating a plurality of media frames on the data stream.

28. The method of claim 27 further comprising the steps of:

maintaining a media frame count of the media frames communicated on the data stream; and

communicating the media frame count to the accounting server.