Technique for providing interoperability between different protocol domains

• US 20090093237A1
• Filed: 12/19/2005
• Published: 04/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Fikouras, Ioannis, Levenshteyn, Roman
• Granted Patent: US 9,531,817 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/412.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/104 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a technique for providing interoperability between an Internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) domain and a non-IMS domain. A method implementation of this technique comprises the steps of receiving on a service layer a service invocation message from a non-IMS domain, analyzing the message to identify the message as a request to invoke a service within the IMS domain, converting non-IMS session control protocol elements contained in the message into IMS session control related protocol elements, and generating an outgoing IMS message to establish an IMS control session.

Claims

1-21. -21. (canceled)

22. A method of providing interoperability between an Internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) domain and a non-IMS domain, comprising the steps of:

receiving on a service layer a service invocation message from the non-IMS domain;

analyzing the message to identify the message as a request to invoke a service within the IMS domain;

converting, on a session control layer, non-IMS session control protocol elements related to the message into IMS session control related protocol elements;

sending one or more messages towards the IMS domain to provide an IMS control session in the IMS domain based on the IMS session control related protocol elements; and

forwarding on the service layer the service invocation message using the IMS control session.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a further message from the non-IMS domain related to the service invoked within the IMS domain; and

forwarding on the service layer the service message using the IMS control session.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a message from the IMS domain during the session;

converting IMS session control protocol elements related to the message from the IMS domain into non-IMS session control protocol elements;

generating a non-IMS message based on the non-IMS session control protocol elements; and

sending the non-IMS message to the non-IMS domain.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the non-IMS message is sent to the non-IMS domain during the session.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the service in the IMS domain is an IMS support function including authentication, authorization, accounting, charging, access control, or HSS.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein the service in the IMS domain is a non-IMS protocol based application.

28. The method of claim 22, wherein the IMS session control protocol elements comprise session initiation protocol (SIP) headers and the non-IMS session control protocol elements comprise non-SIP headers.

29. The method of claim 22, wherein the non-IMS domain employs a protocol for exchanging Markup Language (ML) based messages.

30. The method of claim 22, comprising the steps of:

analyzing the message received from the non-IMS domain or from the IMS domain;

determining a state of the session with the service in the IMS domain based on the analyzed message; and

storing the state of the session.

31. The method of claim 22, comprising the steps of:

checking whether a session with the service in the IMS domain is ongoing; and

if there is no ongoing session, initializing a new session under the IMS session control protocol.

32. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of associating a service requestor with one or more requested or ongoing sessions inside the IMS domain.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the service requestor is an application or a network component outside the IMS domain.

34. The method of claim 22, comprising the step o:

authenticating the non-IMS message prior to establishing the control session in the IMS domain.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the step of authenticating the non-IMS message comprises analyzing an address specified in the message.

36. The method of claim 22, comprising the step of

employing a uniform addressing scheme using SIP addressing for the invocation of fixed and/or mobile services.

37. The method of claim 22, wherein the service to be invoked resides on a mobile platform inside the IMS domain, the method comprising the step of

defining a SIP unique resource identifier (URI) for dynamic invocation of the service in the IMS domain, regardless of a current unique resource locator (URL) for the mobile platform.

38. The method of claim 22, comprising the step of

defining a SIP unique resource locator (URL) for fixed addressing of the service in the IMS domain.

39. A mapping device for providing interoperability between a session initiation protocol (IMS) domain and a non-IMS domain, comprising:

an analyzing unit to analyze incoming service invocation messages received on a service layer from the non-IMS domain, to identify whether one of the service invocation messages is an invocation of a service within the IMS domain;

a conversion unit to convert on a session control layer non-IMS session control protocol elements related to one of the messages into IMS session control related protocol elements; and

a messaging unit to generate one or more messages to provide an IMS control session in the IMS domain based on the IMS session control related protocol elements;

wherein the device is adapted to forward on the service layer the service invocation message using the IMS control session.

40. The mapping device of claim 39, wherein the device is implemented as a gateway between the IMS domain and the non-IMS domain.

41. The mapping device of claim 40, wherein the device is integrated in a protocol stack of a network component in the non-IMS domain.

42. A user terminal comprising a mapping device for providing interoperability between a session initiation protocol (IMS) domain and a non-IMS domain, the mapping device comprising:

an analyzing unit to analyze incoming service invocation messages received on a service layer from the non-IMS domain, to identify whether one of the service invocation messages is an invocation of a service within the IMS domain;

a conversion unit to convert on a session control layer non-IMS session control protocol elements related to one of the messages into IMS session control related protocol elements, and

a messaging unit to generate one or more messages to provide an IMS control session in the IMS domain based on the IMS session control related protocol elements;

wherein the device is adapted to forward on the service layer the service invocation message using the IMS control session.

43. The user terminal of claim 42, wherein the mapping device is implemented as a gateway between the IMS domain and the non-IMS domain.

44. The user terminal of claim 42, wherein the mapping device is integrated in a protocol stack of a network component in the non-IMS domain.