USING REACHABILITY INFORMATION TO FACILITATE PEER-TO-PEER COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20100318668A1
• Filed: 08/02/2010
• Published: 12/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Nortel Networks Limited (Nortel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: Sylvain, Dany
• Granted Patent: US 8,462,750 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/228
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/65 Telephone numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4557 Directories for hybrid networks, e.g. including telephone numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1063 Discovery through centralising entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

The present invention allows originating endpoints to obtain reachability information from a directory service, which collects contact and related information from available users. When initiating a peer-to-peer communication session to an endpoint of a destination user, the originating endpoint will access the directory service to obtain reachability information for the destination user. The reachability information may contain one or more addresses, one of which will be a peer-to-peer communication session address. From the reachability information, the originating terminal will determine an appropriate address to initiate communications with the destination user. The reachability information may identify multiple addresses, where only certain of the addresses may be peer-to-peer communication addresses and other addresses may be used to establish other types of sessions through disparate types of networks.

Claims

1. A communication terminal comprising:

a communication interface; and

a control system associated with the communication interface and adapted to;

obtain reachability information for a destination user from a directory service, the reachability information comprising a plurality of addresses, including at least one peer-to-peer communication address, associated with the destination user;

initiate a peer-to-peer communication session using the at least one peer-to-peer communication address.

determine a primary and an alternate address from the plurality of addresses; and

initiate first and second communication sessions using the primary and alternate addresses.

2. The communication terminal of claim 1 wherein the reachability information comprises a plurality of addresses, including the at least one peer-to-peer communication address and a non-peer-to-peer communication address, associated with the destination user, and the control system is further adapted to initiate the first and second communication sessions using the at least one peer-to-peer communication address and the non-peer-to-peer communication address.

3. The communication terminal of claim 2 wherein the second communication session initiated using the non-peer-to-peer communication address is initiated via cellular communications.

4. The communication terminal of claim 3 wherein the first communication session initiated using the at least one peer-to-peer communication address is initiated using local wireless communications.

5. The communication terminal of claim 1 wherein the peer-to-peer communication session is initiated to a first device and the control system is further adapted to:

receive a response including the alternate address from the first device; and

initiate the second communication session using the alternate address.

6. The communication terminal of claim 1 wherein the control system is further adapted to:

substantially simultaneously initiate the first and second communication sessions using the primary and alternate addresses.

7. The communication terminal of claim 1 wherein the control system is further adapted to:

initiate the second communication session using the alternate address if the first communication session is not established using the primary address, wherein either the first or second communication session is the peer-to-peer communication session.

8. A communication terminal comprising:

a communication interface; and

a control system associated with the communication interface and adapted to;

obtain reachability information for a destination user from a directory service, the reachability information comprising a plurality of addresses, including at least one peer-to-peer communication address, associated with the destination user;

initiate a peer-to-peer communication session using the at least one peer-to-peer communication address;

determine a primary and an alternate address from the plurality of addresses; and

initiate first and second communication sessions using the primary and alternate addresses,

wherein the reachability information further comprises selection indicia; and

wherein the control system is further adapted to select at least one of the plurality of addresses to use for initiating a communication session with the destination user based on the selection indicia.

9. The communication terminal of claim 8 wherein the control system is further adapted to select a plurality of addresses to use for initiating communication sessions with the destination user based on the selection indicia.

10. The communication terminal of claim 8 wherein the control system is further adapted to select a plurality of addresses to use for initiating communication sessions with the destination user based on the selection indicia, and to determine an order in which the communication sessions are initiated, if multiple initiation attempts are necessary.

11. The communication terminal of claim 8 wherein the selection indicia comprises status information bearing on a state or location of the destination user or at least one endpoint associated with the destination user.

12. The communication terminal of claim 8 wherein the selection indicia comprises preference information providing address selection criteria defined by the destination user, such that selecting at least one of the plurality of addresses to use for initiating a communication session with the destination user is based on the address selection criteria.

13. The communication terminal of claim 8 wherein at least one of the plurality of addresses is a directory number associated with a cellular or public switched telephone device.

14. The communication terminal of claim 8 wherein at least one of the plurality of addresses is an address associated with a gateway, which facilitates circuit-switched communications with a device associated with the destination user.

15. A communication terminal comprising:

a communication interface; and

a control system associated with the communication interface and adapted to;

initiate a peer-to-peer communication session using a peer-to-peer communication address for a first device of a destination user;

receive a response including an alternate address from the first device; and

initiate a second communication session using the alternate address.

16. The communication terminal of claim 15 wherein the control system is further adapted to direct the second communication session to a second device associated with the destination user.

17. The communication terminal of claim 15 wherein the control system is further adapted to direct the second communication session to the first device via a data portion of a cellular network and to direct the peer-to-peer communication session to the first device via a voice portion of the cellular network.

18. A server comprising:

a communication interface; and

a control system associated with the communication interface and adapted to;

receive from an originating endpoint a session initiation message for initiating a peer-to-peer communication session using a peer-to-peer communication address associated with a destination user;

determine an alternate address for initiating an alternate communication session for communications with the destination user; and

send the alternate address to the originating endpoint, which will use the alternate address to initiate the alternate communication session.

19. The server of claim 18 wherein the control system is further adapted to establish the alternate communication session with the originating endpoint.

20. The server of claim 18 wherein the control system is further adapted to direct the alternate communication session to another device associated with the destination user.

21. The server of claim 20 wherein the control system is further adapted to initiate the alternate communication session via a data portion of a cellular network and to initiate a communication session bearer path via a voice portion of the cellular network.