POLICY-BASED EXPOSURE OF PRESENCE

• US 20110167153A1
• Filed: 01/07/2011
• Published: 07/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Maes, Stephane H.
• Granted Patent: US 9,509,791 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/80 of semi-structured data, e.g. markup language structured data such as SGML, XML or HTML content-based retrieval of web data G06F16/95
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• 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 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/10 adapted for application session management, e.g. SIP [Session Initiation Protocol] connection management H04W76/00; arrangements for session management H04L67/14

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide methods and systems for enforcing policy-based exposure of presence. The method includes receiving, from a service provider, a request for presence information about a subscriber, intercepting the request at a policy enforcer, and analyzing the request to determine attributes associated with the request. The method further includes, based in part on the determined attributes of the request, applying a policy to the request, and based on the applied policy, filtering the request for presence information about the subscriber. Further, the method includes forwarding the filtered request to a presence server, and publishing, to the service provider, the filtered presence information about the subscriber.

Claims

1. A method of enforcing policy-based exposure of presence, the method comprising:

receiving, from a service provider, a request for presence information about a subscriber;

intercepting the request at a policy enforcer;

analyzing the request to determine attributes associated with the request;

based in part on the determined attributes of the request, applying a policy to the request;

based on the applied policy, filtering the request for presence information about the subscriber;

forwarding the filtered request to a presence server; and

publishing, to the service provider, the filtered presence information about the subscriber.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the presence information includes one or more of the following:

the subscriber'"'"'s location, the subscriber'"'"'s connectivity status, the subscriber'"'"'s Internet protocol (IP) address, and the subscriber'"'"'s availability status.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the service provider comprises one or more of the following:

SIP UA provider, a customer presence agent, and a third party application provider.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the third party application provider provides one or more of the following applications:

a simple message service (SMS) text application, an instant messenger (IM) application, an email application, a web conferencing application, and a teleconferencing application.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the attributes associated with the request comprise the request'"'"'s source, type of information being requested, destination of the requested presence information, and intended use of the requested presence information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the policy is included in a policy database comprising a plurality of policies.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the plurality of policies each allow a threshold level of presence information about the subscriber to be exposed.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the plurality of policies provide to the policy enforcer conditions and/or actions to be taken in relation to the presence information request received from the service provider.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the policy comprises a policy script to be applied to the request and/or the published presence information.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the subscriber is one or more of the following:

an ISP subscriber, a cellular phone subscriber, and a VOIP service subscriber.

11. A method of enforcing policy-based exposure of presence, the method comprising:

receiving, at a policy enforcer, a publication request from a presence source, wherein the publication request includes content;

based on the content of the publication request, applying a policy to the publication request;

receiving, at a presence server, presence source documents related to the publication;

composing the presence source documents based on the applied policy, wherein the composed presence source documents generate raw presence documents; and

enforcing a content policy on the raw presence documents in order to apply a level of presence authorization to the publication.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising, based on the content policy, determining a candidate presence document.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising filtering the candidate presence document based on a watcher.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the watcher is a receiver of presence source information.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising generating a partial notification for the watcher which includes the filtered candidate presence document.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

transforming the filtered candidate presence document; and

notifying the watcher of the filtered candidate presence document.

17. A system for enforcing policy-based advertisements, the system comprising:

a policy enforcer configured to receive a request from a service provider for presence information about a client, based on the request, select a policy to apply to the request, and filter the presence information returned in response to the request based on the selected policy; and

a presence server coupled with the policy enforcer, the presence server configured to receive the filtered presence request, retrieve the requested presence information about the client, and transmit the retrieved presence information about the client to the policy enforcer,

wherein the policy enforcer is further configured to publish the received presence information about the client to the service provider which requested the presence information.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising a policy database coupled with the policy enforcer, the policy database configured to store the policy and transmit the policy to the policy enforcer upon request.

19. A machine-readable medium including sets of instructions stored thereon for enforcing policy-based exposure of presence which, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to:

receive, from a service provider, a request for presence information about a subscriber;

intercept the request at a policy enforcer;

analyze the request to determine attributes associated with the request;

based in part on the determined attributes of the request, apply a policy to the request;

based on the applied policy, filter the request for presence information about the subscriber;

forward the filtered request to a presence server; and

publish, to the service provider, the filtered presence information about the subscriber.