Method and system for processing a control message in an Internet protocol-based mobile communication system supporting a multimedia service

• US 20090125626A1
• Filed: 03/21/2007
• Published: 05/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Song, O-Sok, Lim, Han-Na, Jung, Joon-Ho, Yeoum, Tae-Sun
• Granted Patent: US 8,244,877 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1014 based on the content of a request
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2895 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data provider application, e.g. reverse proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

A method and system for processing a message in an Internet protocol-based mobile communication system supporting a multimedia service. In the system, application servers include a representative application server and multiple backend application servers. A method for defining a control message between application servers to set up a session using the standard Internet protocol is provided. When an application server performs a call processing operation, control message processing load and control message transmission delay is reduced.

Claims

1. A method for processing a request message from a user equipment in an Internet protocol-based mobile communication system supporting a multimedia service, comprising:

allocating, by a representative application server, a specific lower-layer application server for processing a message among multiple lower-layer application servers, the representative application server being selected by criteria of the message; and

sending the message to the allocated lower-layer application server without setting the representative application server in a record-route header of the message.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

processing, by the specific lower-layer application server, the message and sending the message to a switch after setting the specific lower-layer application server in the record-route header of the message.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

directly sending, by the switch, a subsequent message to the specific lower-layer application server on a basis of a route header derived from the record-route header when the subsequent message is received from the user equipment.

4. An Internet protocol network system for use in an Internet protocol-based mobile communication system supporting a multimedia service, the system processing a request message from a user equipment, comprising:

a switch for selecting a specific representative application server for processing a message mapped to a specific service requested by the user equipment from among multiple representative application servers and sending the message to the specific representative application server;

the specific representative application server for allocating a specific lower-layer application server for processing the message among multiple lower-layer application servers and bypassing the message; and

the specific lower-layer application server for processing the message and sending the message to the switch by setting its own path information in a record-route header of the message.

5. The Internet protocol network system of claim 4, wherein the switch is a Serving-Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF) server.

6. The Internet protocol network system of claim 4, wherein the switch directly sends a subsequent message to the specific lower-layer application server on a basis of a route header derived from the record-route header when the subsequent message is received from the user equipment.

7. A method for processing a control message supporting a multimedia service in an Internet protocol-based mobile communication system, comprising:

sending a request message for a session from a user equipment to an Internet protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) through a session initiation protocol, the IMS being an Internet network supporting the multimedia service;

sending the request message from a representative application server of the IMS to a lower application server selected from among multiple lower application servers; and

processing, by the selected lower application server, the request message and sending a response message to the user equipment.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein sending the request message from the representative application server of the IMS to the lower application server selected from among the multiple lower application servers further comprises:

sending the request message including an address of the selected lower application server as path information of a route header from the representative application server to the selected lower application server.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein processing, by the selected lower application server, the request message and sending the response message to the user equipment further comprises:

sending the response message including an address of the selected lower application server as path record information of a record-route header from the selected lower application server to the user equipment.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

setting, by the user equipment, the path record information of the record-route header of the response message to path information for a next session and sending a subsequent request message to the selected lower application server.

11. A method for reducing load to process a control message of an application layer in an Internet-based mobile communication system supporting a multimedia service, comprising:

sending a session request message including call identifier information from a user equipment to a serving server through a session initiation protocol;

sending the session request message including an address of the serving server in a record-route header from the serving server to a representative application server of an application layer;

allocating, by the representative application server, a backend application server for processing the session request message and sending the session request message to the allocated backend application server;

processing, by the backend application server, the session request message and sending a response message including path record information of the backend application server in the record-route header to the user equipment; and

setting, by the user equipment, the path record information of the record-route header of the response message to path information for sending a next session request message and sending the next session request message including call identifier information identical to the call identifier information in the session request message, to the allocated backend application server through the session initiation protocol.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the representative application server allocates the backend application server for processing the session request message and sends the session request message to the allocated backend application server without including an address of the representative application server in the record-route header corresponding to the path record information.

13. A method for reducing load to process a control message of an application layer in an Internet-based mobile communication system supporting a multimedia service, comprising:

sending a session request message including call identifier information from a user equipment to a serving server through a session initiation protocol;

sending the session request message including an address of the serving server in a record-route header from the serving server to a representative application server of an application layer;

allocating, by the representative application server, a backend application server for processing the session request message and sending the session request message to the allocated backend application server;

processing, by the backend application server, the session request message and sending a response message including path record information of the backend application server in the record-route header to the user equipment;

receiving, by the user equipment, the response message and sending a next session request message including the call identifier information to the serving server through the session initiation protocol; and

checking, by the serving server, path record information of the record-route header of the next session request message and sending the next session request message to the allocated backend application server.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the user equipment sends an INVITE request message for setting up a session to the serving server through the session initiation protocol.

15. A method for sending a call control message in an Internet protocol-based mobile communication system supporting a multimedia service, comprising:

receiving, by a higher application server, a call request message from a user equipment through a session initiation protocol;

retrieving allocation information of a lower application server mapped to the user equipment from a database server storing allocation information for multiple user equipments; and

sending the call request message to an allocated lower application server through the session initiation protocol.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

allocating, by the higher server, a specific lower application server among multiple lower application servers while considering a load state when the allocation information mapped to the user equipment is not received from the database server and updating the allocation information of the lower application server for the user equipment in the database server through the session initiation protocol.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

sending, by the higher application server, the call request message to the allocated lower application server through the session initiation protocol without recording information regarding the higher application server in path record information of the call request message after allocating the specific lower application server.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving a request message subsequent to the call request message from the user equipment through the session initiation protocol; and

directly sending the subsequent request message to the lower application server through the session initiation protocol on a basis of path information from which the higher application server is excluded.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the higher application server stores service-by-service transparent data including the allocation information of the specific lower application server in a home subscriber server, and sends transparent data to the specific lower application server by excluding the allocation information of the specific lower application server from the stored transparent data when a transparent data request from the specific lower application server is detected.

20. A system for an application server group in a mobile communication system supporting an Internet protocol multimedia subsystem, comprising:

a higher application server including a memory for storing at least one of transmission path information of a call request message sent from a user equipment and transmission record information of a previous call request message;

an allocator having an algorithm for selecting a specific lower application server using data stored in the memory; and

a controller for selecting the specific lower application server for processing the call request message from among multiple lower application servers through the memory and the allocator; and

the lower application server for receiving allocation information from the higher application server and receiving the call request message through a session initiation protocol.