SYSTEM FOR MONITORING OPERATIONS OF AN ENUM SYSTEM

• US 20080267075A1
• Filed: 04/24/2007
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: KU, BERNARD, QIU, CHAOXIN C., YASREBI, MEHRAD
• Granted Patent: US 8,223,630 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/242
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/65 Telephone numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/106 across networks, e.g. mapping telephone numbers to data network addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4557 Directories for hybrid networks, e.g. including telephone numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

A system for monitoring operations of a Telephone Number Mapping (ENUM) system is disclosed. A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, an ENUM system having a controller element to monitor queries received from one or more network elements, detect one or more faults in the queries submitted by at least one among the one or more network elements, and prevent the at least one of the one or more network elements from submitting subsequent queries to the ENUM system. Additional embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising computer instructions for:

monitoring queries submitted to a Telephone Number Mapping (ENUM) system by one or more IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network elements;

detecting one or more faults in the queries submitted by at least one among the one or more IMS network elements; and

preventing the at least one of the one or more IMS network elements from submitting subsequent queries to the ENUM system responsive to said faults exceeding a threshold.

2. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the one or more faults correspond to an incorrectly formatted telephone number or a non-existent telephone number.

3. The storage medium of claim 2, wherein a telephone number is at least one among an E.164 number, a Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) Uniform Resource Indicator (URI), and an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

4. The storage medium of claim 1, comprising computer instructions for placing the at least one IMS network element out of service responsive to said faults exceeding the threshold.

5. The storage medium of claim 1, comprising computer instructions for mitigating the one or more faults detected for the at least one IMS network element.

6. The storage medium of claim 5, comprising computer instructions for directing the at least one IMS network element to cease transmitting queries to the ENUM system.

7. The storage medium of claim 6, comprising computer instructions for directing another IMS network element to replace the at least one IMS network element generating the one or more faulted queries.

8. The storage medium of claim 1, comprising computer instructions for generating a fault notice that identifies the at least one IMS network element generating the one or more faulted queries.

9. The storage medium of claim 8, comprising computer instructions for transmitting the fault notice to a service agent of an IMS network.

10. The storage medium of claim 8, comprising computer instructions for updating a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) with an IMS network configuration change associated with the fault notice.

11. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein a network element is at least one among a Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF), an Interrogating CSCF (I-CSCF), a Serving CSCF (S-CSCF), an HSS, an Application Server (AS), an Access Network (AN), and a communication device operating in an IMS network.

12. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the one or more faults detected in the queries of the at least one IMS network element cause the ENUM system to generate an alarm corresponding to a Denial of Service (DoS) attack.

13. A Telephone Number Mapping (ENUM) system, comprising a controller element to:

monitor queries received from one or more network elements;

detect one or more faults in the queries submitted by at least one among the one or more network elements; and

submit an alarm to another system that can prevent the at least one of the one or more network elements from submitting subsequent queries to the ENUM system.

14. The ENUM system of claim 13, wherein the controller element submits a request to the other system disable the at least one network element from sending the one or more faulted queries.

15. The ENUM system of claim 13, wherein the other system disables the at least one network element from sending subsequent queries to the ENUM system upon detecting that said one or more faults exceed a threshold.

16. The ENUM system of claim 13, wherein the one or more faults correspond to an incorrectly formatted telephone number or a non-existent telephone number.

17. The ENUM system of claim 16, wherein a telephone number is at least one among an E.164 number, a Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) Uniform Resource Indicator (URI), and an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

18. A Serving Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF), comprising a controller element to discontinue submissions of interrogating queries to an ENUM system responsive to a request from a security system that detects one or more faults in said interrogating queries.

19. The S-CSCF of claim 18, wherein the one or more faults correspond to an incorrectly formatted telephone number or a non-existent telephone number.

20. The S-CSCF of claim 19, wherein a telephone number is at least one among an E.164 number, a Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) Uniform Resource Indicator (URI), and an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

21. A method, comprising preventing at least one IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network element from submitting faulted data to another IMS network element responsive to a frequency of occurrence of the faulted data exceeding a threshold.

22. The method of claim 21, comprising:

monitor data exchanged between a plurality of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network elements;

detecting faulted data submitted by the at least one IMS networking element; and

generating the frequency of occurrence from a collection of faulted data submitted by the at least one IMS network element to another IMS network element.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the IMS network element comprises one among an Telephone Number Mapping (ENUM) system, a Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF), an Interrogating CSCF (I-CSCF), a Serving CSCF (S-CSCF), a Home Subscriber Server (HSS), an Application Server (AS), an Access Network (AN), and a communication device operating in an IMS network.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the faulted data corresponds to a defective Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) message, defective content in the SIP message, a defective query message, or defective content in the query message.