Method and Apparatus for Identifying an IMS Service

• US 20090144429A1
• Filed: 05/25/2005
• Published: 06/04/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Optis Wireless Technology, LLC (Brevet Capital)
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Astrom, Bo
• Granted Patent: US 8,285,852 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 65/1073 Registration or de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/40 Support for services or applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70

Abstract

An apparatus and method for indicating the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) services to which a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message relates. One or more communication service identifiers are added to the SIP message as a Feature Tag.

Claims

1-10. -10. (canceled)

11. A method of indicating an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) communication service to which a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message relates, said method comprising the steps of:

determining a communication service identifier for the IMS communication service, said communication service identifier identifying one of a plurality of IMS communication services; and

including the determined communication service identifier in the SIP message as a Feature Tag of the message.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the Feature Tag is included in one of a Contact, Accept-Contact, or Reject-Contact header of the SIP message.

13. A method of identifying an application residing at a user terminal, wherein a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message relates to the application, said method comprising the steps of:

determining an application reference for the application; and

including the application reference in the SIP message.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the application reference is included in a header of the SIP message as a Feature Tag.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the Feature Tag is included in one of a Contact, Accept-Contact or Reject-Contact header of the SIP message.

16. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the application reference is included as an “

a-line”

augmenting an “

m-line”

in a Session Description Protocol (SDP) part of the SIP message.

17. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein a first application reference is included in the SIP message as a Feature Tag, and a second application reference is included in the SIP message as a-line.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein the first application reference identifies a master application, and the second application reference identifies an ancillary application.

19. A method of operating a user terminal or IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network node, said method comprising the steps of:

identifying at the IMS protocol stack, a communication service corresponding to a communication service identifier contained in a received Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message;

forwarding the SIP message to the identified communication service;

receiving the SIP message at the identified communication service;

identifying an application corresponding to an application reference contained in the SIP message; and

forwarding the SIP message to the identified application.

20. A method of associating a plurality of communication services within an IP Multimedia Subsystem or at a User Equipment, said method comprising the steps of:

identifying each associated communication service with a Multiple Communication Service (MCS) qualifier in Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) messages sent to an application; and

associating the communication services by the application based on the MCS qualifier received in the SIP messages.

21. An apparatus in a User Equipment (UE) for indicating to a service node, an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) communication service being utilized by an application in the UE, said apparatus comprising:

means for determining a communication service identifier for the IMS communication service, said communication service identifier identifying one of a plurality of IMS communication services; and

means for including the determined communication service identifier as a Feature Tag in a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message sent from the UE to the service node.

22. The apparatus as recited in claim 21, wherein the Feature Tag is included in one of a Contact. Accept-Contact, or Reject-Contact header of the SIP message.