Method, Apparatus and Program Product for Merging Communication Sessions in an IMS

• US 20100257273A1
• Filed: 10/30/2008
• Published: 10/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation), Osaka University
• Original Assignee: Cellular Communications Equipment LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Inventors: Poikselka, Miikka Juhana, Mutikainen, Jari
• Granted Patent: US 9,026,663 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/30 Types of network names
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/39 Globally routable user-agent uniform resource identifier [GRUU] for the session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1086 session scope modification
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1095 Inter-network session transfer or sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/148 Migration or transfer of sessions

Abstract

The present invention relates to a session merging entity in a communication system IMS. The merging entity is handling communication of the first user; the communication includes a first session and a second session. The first session and the second session are merged into a single session towards the second user, if the same IMS communication service identifier has been indicated for the first session and the second session. The merging entity may also be located at the terminal device of the second user.

Claims

1. A session handling entity in a communication system, comprising:

first session means for handling communication of a first user (UE 1), the communication comprising a first session and a second session;

second session means for handling the communication of the first session and the second session of the first user (UE 1) towards a second user (UE 2) and arranged to merge the first session and the second session into a single session towards the second user (UE 2), if the same communication service identifier has been indicated for the first session and the second session.

2. The session handling entity of claim 1, wherein the first session means is configured to handle the communication of the first user using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

3. The session handling entity of claim 1, wherein the second session means is configured to handle the communication towards the second user using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

4. The session handling entity of claim 1, wherein the single session comprises an ongoing session towards the second user (UE 2) and the merging the first session and the second session comprises re-negotiating the ongoing session.

5. The session handling entity of claim 4, further comprising means for determining, during establishment of the second session, that the session handling entity already maintains the ongoing session for the first user (UE 1) towards the second user (UE 2), and wherein the merging comprises merging the second session into the ongoing session in response to the establishment of the second session.

6. The session handling entity of claim 4, wherein the ongoing session towards the second user comprises media of the first session and the merging adds media of second session into the ongoing session.

7. The session handling entity of claim 4, wherein the re-negotiation of the ongoing session comprises transmitting a re-INVITE or an UPDATE request of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

8. The session handling entity of claim 1, wherein the communication service identifier comprises one of an IMS Communication Service Identifier (ICSI) and an IMS Application Reference Identifier (IARI).

9. The session handling entity of claim 8, wherein the IMS Communication Service Identifier is indicating IMS Multimedia Telephony service (MMtel).

10. The session handling entity of any of preceding claim 1, wherein the session handling entity comprises one of a multimedia session continuity application server (MMSC AS), a session split and merge function (SSMF) an IMS centralized services application server (ICS AS) or a session initiation protocol application server.

11. The session handling entity of any of preceding claim 1, wherein the first session and the second session are carrying different media types.

12. The session handling entity of claim 11, wherein the said media types are selected from speech, video, instant messaging, push-to-talk, file transfer and image sharing.

26. The session handling entity of claim 1, wherein the session handling entity comprises a terminal device of the second user (UE 2) and wherein the merging the first session and the second session into the single session towards the second user by the second session means comprises representing the merged sessions as a single application to the second user.

13. A method of merging multimedia sessions in a communication system, comprising:

controlling communication of a first user, the communication comprising a first session and a second session;

determining if communication service identifiers are indicated for the first session and for the second session

wherein, if the communication service identifiers for the first session and the second session are the same, merging the first session and the second session into a single session towards a second user.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein controlling the communication of the first user comprises using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the single session towards the second user is controlled using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the single session comprises an ongoing session towards the second user and the merging the first session and the second session comprises re-negotiating the ongoing session.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining, during establishment of the second session, existence of the ongoing session of the first user towards the second user, and wherein the merging comprises merging the second session into the ongoing session in response to the establishment of the second session.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the ongoing session towards the second user (UE 2) comprises media of the first session and the merging adds media of second session into the ongoing session.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the re-negotiation of the ongoing session comprises transmitting a re-INVITE or an UPDATE request of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the communication service identifier comprises one of an IMS Communication Service Identifier (ICSI) and an IMS Application Reference Identifier (IARI).

21. The method of claim 13, wherein the communication service identifier comprises an Open Mobile Alliance feature tag.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising determining that the IMS Communication Service Identifier is indicating IMS Multimedia Telephony service (MMtel).

23. The method of claim 13, wherein the first session and the second session are carrying different media types.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the said media types are selected from speech, video, instant messaging, push-to-talk, file transfer and image sharing.

25. A computer program product comprising code means adapted to produce the steps of claim 13 when loaded into the memory of a computer.