METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRIORITY SERVICES MANAGEMENT

• US 20080253390A1
• Filed: 04/16/2007
• Published: 10/16/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Sathyanath, Ajay, Wang, Yung-Terng, Das, Kamala Prasad
• Granted Patent: US 7,809,002 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/465
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5629 Admission control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/745 Reaction in network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/805 QOS or priority aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

Apparatus and method for adapting a control plane of a communications network normally using a call session control function (CSCF) in communication with a resource access control function (RACF) by providing a priority service functional element (PS-FE) to handle call admission and priority services.

Claims

1. Apparatus adapted for use in a system comprising a plurality of networks, each of the networks including a resource access control function (RACF), a call session control function (CSCF) and a packet network supporting a streaming data protocol between the calling and called party networks, the apparatus comprising:

at least one priority service functional element (PS-FE) in communication with a corresponding RACF and a corresponding CSCF, for verifying a priority level of intended communications, propagating corresponding resource availability information from the RACF to the CSCF, and storing resource allocation information, wherein;

in the event of a verified low priority communication having associated with it a resource insufficiency, the PS-FE communicates a resource unavailable message to the CSCF.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the CSCF comprises a session initiation protocol (SIP) server.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the CSCF comprises a H323 gatekeeper.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the streaming data protocol comprises one or more of a realtime transport protocol (RTP), a transmission control protocol (TCP) and a user datagram protocol (UDP).

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

in the event of a verified high priority communication having associated with it a resource insufficiency, the PS-FE queues the high priority communication.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein:

in the event of the verified high priority communication having associated with it a resource insufficiency, the PS-FE propagates a corresponding 5xx message to the CSCF.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein:

the PS-FE periodically polls the RACF to determine if sufficient resources are available to support the verified high priority communication.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein:

the PS-FE reserves each of a plurality of resources supporting a queued high priority communication as each resource becomes available.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein:

in the event of a verified low priority communication having associated with it a resource availability that includes a resource supporting a queued high priority communication, the PS-FE communicates a resource unavailable message to the CSCF.

10. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein:

in the event of sufficient resources becoming available to support a queued high priority communication, the PS-FE communicates a resource available message to the CSCF.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of networks includes a respective PS-FE for preferentially allocating resources to priority communications, each respective PS-FE disposed between its respective CSCF and RACF.

12. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the PS-FE queues a communication by storing its call state information, the call state information including at least call source, call destination and required call resources.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein a queued priority communication is completed when resources become available or as part of a third party communication.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein PS-FE communicates with the RACF via Diameter

15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a network that does not include a RACF but does include a PS-FE supporting at least one of an open loop control and an accounting based control.

16. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the networks comprises an IP Multimedia System (IMS) network in which a CSCF passes session initiation protocol (SIP) messages to the PS-FE.

17. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the networks comprises a SIP network, a H323 network or an XoIP network.

18. A method for adapting a control plane of a communications network normally using a call session control function (CSCF) in communication with a resource access control function (RACF), comprising:

providing a priority service functional element (PS-FE) between each RACF and its corresponding CSCF to verify a priority level for each call, receive resource allocation information from the RACF, store a resource allocation for each call, and cause the CSCF to preferentially allocate resources to high priority calls.

19. A method for use in a communications network including a call session control function (CSCF) in communication with a resource access control function (RACF), comprising:

verifying a priority level of intended communications;

receiving resource availability information from the RACF;

propagating the resource availability information to the CSCF;

storing call admission information and resource allocation information; and

in the event of a verified low priority communication having associated with it a resource insufficiency, communicating a resource unavailable message to the CSCF.

20. A computer readable medium containing a program which, when executed, performs an operation of managing calls of different priority levels, the operation comprising:

verifying a priority level of intended communications;

receiving resource availability information from the RACF;

propagating resource availability information to the CSCF;

storing call admission information and resource allocation information; and

in the event of a verified low priority communication having associated with it a resource insufficiency, communicating a resource unavailable message to the CSCF.