Providing interaction Management for Communication networks

• US 20080137646A1
• Filed: 12/07/2007
• Published: 06/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: AGARWAL, Kaitki, GHAI, Rajat
• Granted Patent: US 8,300,629 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/38 Flow based routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/72 Routing based on the source address
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/7453 using hashing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2483 involving identification of individual flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/102 Gateways arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways, H04L12/66
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/103 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1045 Proxies, e.g. for session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1046 Call controllers; Call servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/912 Applications of a database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/913 Multimedia
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/918 Location

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing interaction management to network devices in a communication network are described. A gateway may be used to implement the interaction capabilities on packet flows for IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) and multimedia domain (MMD) architectures. Interaction managers and proxy agents can be provided by the gateway, such as a service control interaction manager (SCIM). The SCIM can be a layer and manage interactions between network devices such as mobile nodes and application servers and can provide abstraction of network devices. This can allow the gateway to provide interworking between network devices and handle mobile nodes with different capabilities.

Claims

1. A gateway in a communication network comprising:

a service control interaction manager (SCIM) residing in the gateway which provides management of services and management of interactions in the communication network;

a call session control function (CSCF) in communication with the SCIM and residing in the gateway, which handles session initiation protocol sessions and interworking; and

a computer readable medium storing filter criteria and triggers which are used to determine service changes.

2. The gateway of claim 1, wherein the interworking is between an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network and a non-compliant IMS mobile node.

3. The gateway of claim 1, wherein the interworking is between an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network and a non-compliant IMS application server.

4. An interaction management method comprising:

receiving a message at a gateway in a communication network;

analyzing the message at the gateway in a service control interaction manager (SCIM);

determining if the request matches filter criteria to change a service provided to a mobile node;

communicating instructions from the SCIM to a call session control function (CSCF);

determining processing to perform at the gateway including interworking at the CSCF on the message, wherein the interworking is between an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network and a non-compliant network device; and

receiving at the gateway a packet flow from a network device and processing the packet flow to manage service level interaction between the network device and the communication network.

5. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

selecting an application server using a method of load balancing at the gateway; and

managing interaction with the selected application servers.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising interacting with a PRESENCE server and a calendar server to manage presence at a particular time in the day.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining the capabilities of the network device, wherein the network device is a mobile node;

processing a packet flow destined for the mobile node to modify the packet flow to meet the capabilities of the mobile node.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining the capabilities of the network device, wherein the network device is a legacy application server;

processing a packet flow from the legacy application server to provide interworking between the legacy application server and a mobile node.