Presence communication system

• US 20080183866A1
• Filed: 03/26/2008
• Published: 07/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Takase, Masaaki, Maeda, Jun, Yamamura, Shinya
• Granted Patent: US 8,484,337 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

A presence communication system capable of efficiently reducing the number of messages exchanged between presentities and watchers, thereby preventing lowering in communication quality. A presence server sets a group identifier as an identifier which is used to collectively look up a group of multiple pieces of presence information provided by presence information providers who have agreed to a use policy, aggregates and stores the presence information under the group identifier, and delivers the presence information requested to the group identifier. Each presentity provides the presence server with its presence information targeted to the group identifier. Each watcher requests the group identifier for the presence information provided by the presentities, and receives the presence information delivered from the presence server.

Claims

1. A presence communication system for executing service after presence is carried out to check status of a target of communication before initiation of communication, comprising:

a presence server having a group identifier as an identifier which is used to collectively look up a group of multiple pieces of presence information provided by multiple presence information providers who have agreed to a use policy, the presence server aggregating and storing the presence information under the group identifier and delivering the presence information requested to the group identifier;

presentities, as presence information-providing clients, for providing the presence server with presence information targeted to the group identifier; and

watchers, as presence information-requesting clients, for requesting the group identifier for the presence information provided by the presentities, and receiving the presence information delivered from the presence server,

wherein the presence server sets a plurality of different group identifiers, the presentities provide the presence information to the respective different group identifiers, and

the presentities each have a function of selecting one of the group identifiers and determine, with respect to the presence server, provision/non-provision or notification interval of the presence information, based on content of the presence information and a provision policy according to which the presence information is provided to the group identifiers.

2. The presence communication system according to claim 1, wherein the presence server has first and second group identifiers, multiple pieces of presence information are aggregated under the first group identifier, and all or part of the aggregated presence information is communicated to the second group identifier, to allow the presence information to be registered simultaneously under the first and second group identifiers.

3. The presence communication system according to claim 1, wherein the presence server has a plurality of group identifiers arranged in a hierarchical structure, and the presence information stored under lowest-level group identifiers is aggregated successively to higher levels of the hierarchical structure such that all of the presence information is aggregated and stored under a highest-level group identifier.

4. The presence communication system according to claim 3, wherein the presence server successively curtails the presence information as the presence information is aggregated from lower to higher levels of the hierarchical structure such that higher-level group identifiers hold smaller amounts of information.

5. The presence communication system according to claim 1, further comprising a group identifier directory server including a group identifier directory permitting the presentities to search for information about the group identifiers, wherein the group identifier directory server discloses, to the presentities, guidance on use of services provided via the group identifiers.

6. The presence communication system according to claim 1, wherein the presence server includes a receiver for receiving the presence information sent from the multiple presentities to the group identifiers, a group identifier database for storing the received presence information in a form of list including pairs of information each comprising an identifier of the presentity and the presence information, and a deliverer for receiving a presence information delivery request sent from any one of the watchers to one of the group identifiers, and delivering the list of the presence information to the watcher from which the presence information delivery request has been received.

7. The presence communication system according to claim 1, wherein the presentities each select one of the group identifiers to which the presence information is to be provided, select and edit the presence information to be sent to the selected group identifier, and send the obtained presence information while specifying the selected group identifier as a destination.

8. A presence communication method for executing service after presence is carried out to check status of a target of communication before initiation of communication, comprising:

the step, executed by a presence server, of generating a group identifier for collecting presence information;

the step, executed by a directory server, of registering the group identifier together with service guidance information;

the step, executed by each of presentities, of searching the directory server for a group identifier providing a desired service, and providing presence information to the group identifier;

the step, executed by the presence server, of aggregating and storing the presence information provided by the presentities and targeted to the group identifier;

the step, executed by each of watchers, of requesting the group identifier for the presence information provided by the presentities;

the step, executed by the presence server, of delivering, to each of the watchers, the presence information requested to the group identifier; and

the step, executed by each of the watchers, of receiving the delivered presence information, recognizing status of the presentities, and executing service with respect to presentities to which the service can be provided,

wherein the presence server sets a plurality of different group identifiers, the presentities provide the presence information to the respective different group identifiers, and

the presentities each have a function of selecting one of the group identifiers and determine, with respect to the presence server, provision/non-provision or notification interval of the presence information, based on content of the presence information and a provision policy according to which the presence information is provided to the group identifiers.

9. A timetable delivery service method for providing a service for delivering timetables of transport facilities to a terminal device held by a user, comprising:

the step of creating a group identifier serving as a destination of presence information indicative of a current position of the user and used for sharing the presence information among a plurality of transport companies;

the step, executed by the terminal device, of storing a registration condition input by the user;

the step, executed by the terminal device, of providing a current position as the presence information to the group identifier if the current position fulfills the registration condition; and

the step of receiving the presence information, recognizing the current position of the terminal device, and delivering a timetable of a transport facility nearest to the current position, from a suitable one of the transport companies to the terminal device.