METHOD FOR USING RECORDING RULES AND PREVIOUS VALUE SELECTION RULES FOR PRESENCE INFORMATION IN A COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

• US 20110074579A1
• Filed: 09/30/2009
• Published: 03/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: AGULNIK, ANATOLY, BEKIARES, TYRONE D., DROZT, PETER M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,193,934 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/541
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data

Abstract

In a communications system, a presence server maintains and distributes presence information in accordance with recording rules and previous value selection rules. The presence server: associates a recording rule with each presence information element in a subset of a plurality of presence information elements for a presentity; maintains a set of previous values according to the recording rule associated with the presence information element, for each presence information element in the subset; receives an initial subscribe request from a watcher for one or more presence information elements in the subset; and in response to the initial subscribe request, notifies the watcher of a number of the previous values maintained for each presence information elements in the subscribe request, wherein the number of the previous values that is sent is determined by a previous value selection rule associated with each presence information element.

Claims

1. A method for maintaining and distributing presence information, the method comprising:

at a presence server;

associating a recording rule with each presence information element in a subset of a plurality of presence information elements for a presentity;

maintaining a set of previous values according to the recording rule associated with the presence information element, for each presence information element in the subset;

receiving an initial subscribe request from a watcher for a first presence information element in the subset; and

in response to the initial subscribe request, notifying the watcher of a number of the previous values maintained for the first presence information element, wherein the number of the previous values is determined by a first previous value selection rule associated with the first presence information element.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein maintaining the set of previous values according to the recording rule for at least one presence information element comprises maintaining a fixed number of previous values.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein maintaining the set of previous values according to the recording rule for at least one presence information element comprises recording a periodic sampling of a total number of previous values reported to the presence server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein maintaining the set of previous values according to the recording rule for at least one presence information element comprises recording a plurality of previous values reported to the presence server during a sliding time window.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein maintaining the set of previous values according to the recording rule for at least one presence information element comprises initiating and ending recording of the previous values based on a list of conditions.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the recording rule associated with the first presence information element is different from the recording rule associated with a second presence information element in the subset.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one recording rule is identified by the presentity.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one recording rule is provisioned in the presence server.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein at least one recording rule is sent to the presence server from a third party other than the presentity.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first previous value selection rule is identified in the initial subscribe request.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first previous value selection rule is provisioned in the presence server.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first previous value selection rule is sent to the presence server from a third party other than the watcher.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first previous value selection rule is sent to the presence server from the presentity.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

at the presence server;

receiving a second initial subscribe request from a second watcher for the first presence information element; and

in response to the second initial subscribe request, notifying the second watcher of a number of the previous values maintained for the first presence information element, which is determined by a second previous value selection rule associated with the first presence information element that is different from the first previous value selection rule.

15. A method for subscribing to presence information, the method comprising:

at a client entity;

sending an initial subscribe request to a presence server for a first presence information element for a presentity, wherein the first presence information element is associated, at the presence server, with a first recording rule for maintaining a set of previous values for the first presence information element; and

in response to the initial subscribe request, receiving a number of the previous values maintained for the first presence information element, wherein the number of the previous values is determined by a first previous value selection rule associated with the first presence information element.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the initial subscribe request is further for a second presence information element in the subset, the method further comprising the client entity receiving, in response to the initial subscribe request, a number of the previous values maintained for the second presence information element, which is determined by a second previous value selection rule associated with the second presence information element

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the second previous value selection rule is different from the first previous value selection rule.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the first previous value selection rule is identified in the initial subscribe request, and the second previous value selection rule is provisioned in the server.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the first previous value selection rule is provisioned in the presence server, and the second previous value selection rule is identified in the initial subscriber request.