ROUTING REQUESTS FOR LOCATION-TO-SERVICE TRANSLATION (LOST) SERVICES USING PROXY SERVER

• US 20120066365A1
• Filed: 09/14/2011
• Published: 03/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bison Patent Licensing, LLC
• Original Assignee: Andrew LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: WINTERBOTTOM, Anthony James, THOMSON, Martin Wyville, MUHLBAUER, Adam
• Granted Patent: US 8,812,728 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams

Abstract

A method implemented by a proxy server is provided for routing requests for a Location-to-Service Translation (LoST) service without traversing a forest node structure. The method includes receiving a request for the LoST service initiated by a client, the request including a location of a user device and a requested service; identifying an authoritative LoST server configured to service the requested service and bounded by a service boundary that includes the location included in the request; and directly forwarding the request to the identified authoritative LoST server, without routing through any other LoST server.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a proxy server for routing requests for a Location-to-Service Translation (LoST) service without traversing a forest node structure, the method comprising:

receiving a request for the LoST service initiated by a client, the request including a location of a user device and a requested service;

identifying an authoritative LoST server configured to service the requested service and bounded by a service boundary that includes the location included in the request; and

directly forwarding the request to the identified authoritative LoST server, without routing through any other LoST server.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

initially learning service boundaries of a plurality of authoritative LoST servers, including the service boundary of the identified authoritative LoST server, the service boundary indicating a region for which the corresponding authoritative LoST server is responsible.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

modifying the request from the client to replace a client identifier associated with the client with a proxy identifier associated with the proxy server.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the modified request indicates to the authoritative LoST server that the proxy server is the client that initiated the request.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a response from the identified authoritative LoST server containing at least one identifier corresponding to the requested LoST service;

directly forwarding the response to the client, without routing through any other LoST server; and

establishing a connection between the user device and the authoritative LoST server using the response.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the modified response indicates to the client that the proxy server is the identified authoritative LoST server that initiated the response.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the at least one identifier comprises at least one of a service contact uniform resource identifier (URI) and a domain name.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the client initiating the request comprises a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) server having established a communication session with the user device.

9. A method implemented by a proxy server for directly routing requests for a Location-to-Service Translation (LoST) service, the method comprising:

receiving a LoST query message initiated by a client, the LoST query message including an identifier of a requested LoST service, a location of a user device requesting the requested LoST service, and a client identifier corresponding to the client;

identifying an authoritative LoST server configured to service the requested LoST service for the location of the user device;

modifying the LoST query message to replace the client identifier with a proxy identifier corresponding to the proxy server; and

directly forwarding the modified LoST query message to the identified authoritative LoST server.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a LoST response message initiated by the identified authoritative LoST server, the LoST response message including a service contract identifier of the requested LoST service, and an authoritative LoST server identifier corresponding to the authoritative LoST server;

modifying the LoST response message to replace the proxy identifier with the client identifier, and to replace the authoritative LoST server identifier with the proxy identifier; and

directly forwarding the modified LoST response message to the client.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

identifying an alternative authoritative LoST server when the identified authoritative LoST server is unable to resolve the query message.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein identifying the alternative authoritative LoST server comprises:

sending the query message to a plurality of alternative authoritative LoST servers;

receiving a successful response from the alternative authoritative LoST server;

modifying the LoST query message to replace the client identifier with the proxy identifier; and

directly forwarding the modified LoST query message to the alternative authoritative LoST server.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

updating route mapping of the proxy server to indicate that the alternative authoritative LoST server has a corresponding service boundary that includes the location included in the query message.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the LoST query message further includes an attribute requesting civic location validation, and the LoST response message further includes an indication of which civic fields are valid.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

updating route mapping of the proxy server to include values of the valid civic fields.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the client identifier is included in a forward path element of the LoST query message, and wherein modifying the LoST query message comprises replacing the client identifier in the forward path element with the proxy identifier.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the proxy identifier and the authoritative LoST server identifier are included in a return path element of the LoST response message, and wherein modifying the LoST response message comprises replacing the proxy identifier with the client identifier and replacing the authoritative LoST server identifier with the proxy identifier in the return path element.

18. A computer readable medium storing code, executable by a computer processor in a proxy server, for routing requests for a Location-to-Service Translation (LoST) service without traversing a forest node structure, the computer readable medium comprising:

request code for receiving a request for the LoST service initiated by a client, the request including a location of a user device and a requested service;

identifying code for identifying an authoritative LoST server configured to service the requested service and bounded by a service boundary that includes the location included in the request; and

routing code for directly forwarding the request to the identified authoritative LoST server, without routing through any other LoST server.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, further comprising:

learning code for initially learning service boundaries of a plurality of authoritative LoST servers, including the service boundary of the identified authoritative LoST server, the service boundary indicating a region for which the corresponding authoritative LoST server is responsible.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 18, further comprising:

response code for receiving a response from the identified authoritative LoST server containing at least one identifier corresponding to the requested LoST service; and

routing code for directly forwarding the response to the client, without routing through any other LoST server.