METHODS, SYSTEMS AND DEVICES FOR MULTIPHASE DECODING

• US 20120155470A1
• Filed: 12/01/2011
• Published: 06/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Openet Telecom Limited (Amdocs Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Openet Telecom Limited (Amdocs Ltd.)
• Inventors: McNamee, Alan, Dunne, Cameron Ross, McCann, Fergus, O'Sullivan, Michael, Byrne, Niall, Hogan, Joe
• Granted Patent: US 8,675,659 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/586 of virtual routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/742 Route cache; Operation thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• 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: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers

Abstract

The various embodiments include methods, servers and systems for communicating signaling information in a telecommunications signaling network that involves decoding a first portion of the received first message, determining if the decoded first portion identifies a destination component, determining if the destination component can be derived from the decoded first portion when the decoded first portion does not identify a destination component, recursively decoding subsequent portions of the received first message when previously decoded portions do not identify the destination component and that the destination component cannot be derived using the previously decoded portions, performing context-based routing operations using information extracted from the previously decoded portions to identify the destination component, packaging the previously decoded portions along with a remainder of the first message into a second message encoding signaling information, and sending the second message encoding signaling information to the identified destination component over a second communications link.

Claims

1. A method of communicating signaling information in a telecommunications signaling network, comprising:

receiving, in a first processor, a first message encoding signaling information from a source component;

decoding a first portion of the received first message;

determining if the decoded first portion identifies a destination component;

determining if the destination component can be derived from the decoded first portion if it is determined that the decoded first portion does not identify a destination component;

recursively decoding subsequent portions of the received first message in response to determining that previously decoded portions do not identify the destination component and that the destination component cannot be derived using the previously decoded portions;

performing application level routing operations using contextual information derived from the previously decoded portions to identify the destination component;

encoding the signaling information contained in the previously decoded portions along with a remainder of the first message into a second message; and

sending the second message encoding the signaling information to the identified destination component.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a first message encoding signaling information from a source component comprises receiving a Diameter message from the source component.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the second message encoding the signaling information to the identified destination component comprises sending a Diameter message to the identified destination component.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

receiving a first message encoding signaling information from a source component comprises receiving the first message using a first protocol;

encoding the signaling information in the previously decoded portions along with a remainder of the first message into a second message comprises generating the second message in a second format, the first format having a different format that the second format; and

sending the second message encoding the signaling information to the identified destination component comprises sending the second message using a second protocol, the first protocol being different to the second protocol.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein performing application level routing operations using contextual information derived from the previously decoded portions to identify the destination component comprises:

generating one or more keys based on at least one of the previously decoded portions;

transmitting the generated keys to an external resource;

receiving supplementary information in response to the generated keys; and

using the supplementary information to identify the destination component.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein transmitting the generated keys to an external resource comprises transmitting the generated keys to a subscriber profile repository that stores customer and subscription information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein performing application level routing operations using contextual information derived from the previously decoded portions to identify the destination component comprises:

retrieving from an internal memory coupled to the first processor information correlated to at least one of the decoded portions of the first message; and

using the retrieved information to identify the destination component.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein retrieving from an internal memory coupled to the first processor information correlated to at least one of the decoded portions of the first message comprises retrieving information from an internal cache memory populated by the first processor.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein retrieving from an internal memory coupled to the first processor information correlated to at least one of the decoded portions of the first message comprises accessing a reference data store populated with reference data generated by a second processor and transferred to the first processor.

10. A server configured for use in a telecommunications signaling network, comprising:

a processor configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations comprising;

receiving a first message encoding signaling information from a source component;

decoding a first portion of the received first message;

determining if the decoded first portion identifies a destination component;

determining if the destination component can be derived from the decoded first portion if it is determined that the decoded first portion does not identify a destination component;

recursively decoding subsequent portions of the received first message in response to determining that previously decoded portions do not identify the destination component and that the destination component cannot be derived using the previously decoded portions;

performing application level routing operations using contextual information derived from the previously decoded portions to identify the destination component;

encoding the signaling information contained in the previously decoded portions along with a remainder of the first message into a second message; and

sending the second message encoding the signaling information to the identified destination component.

11. The server of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that receiving a first message encoding signaling information from a source component comprises receiving a Diameter message from the source component.

12. The server of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that sending the second message encoding the signaling information to the identified destination component comprises sending a Diameter message to the identified destination component.

13. The server of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that:

receiving a first message encoding signaling information from a source component comprises receiving the first message using a first protocol;

encoding the signaling information in the previously decoded portions along with a remainder of the first message into a second message comprises generating the second message in a second format, the first format being different from the second format; and

sending the second message encoding the signaling information to the identified destination component comprises sending the second message using a second protocol, the first protocol being different to the second protocol.

14. The server of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that performing application level routing operations using contextual information derived from the previously decoded portions to identify the destination component comprises:

generating one or more keys based on at least one of the previously decoded portions;

transmitting the generated keys to an external resource;

receiving supplementary information in response to the generated keys; and

using the supplementary information to identify the destination component.

15. The server of claim 14, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that transmitting the generated keys to an external resource comprises transmitting the generated keys to a subscriber profile repository that stores customer and subscription information.

16. The server of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that performing application level routing operations using contextual information derived from the previously decoded portions to identify the destination component comprises:

retrieving from an internal memory coupled to the first processor information correlated to at least one of the decoded portions of the first message; and

using the retrieved information to identify the destination component.

17. The server of claim 16, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that retrieving from an internal memory coupled to the first processor information correlated to at least one of the decoded portions of the first message comprises retrieving information from an internal cache memory populated by the first processor.

18. The server of claim 16, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that retrieving from an internal memory coupled to the first processor information correlated to at least one of the decoded portions of the first message comprises accessing a reference data store populated with reference data generated by a second processor and transferred to the first processor.

19. A non-transitory server-readable storage medium having stored thereon server-executable instructions configured to cause a server to perform operations comprising:

receiving a first message encoding signaling information from a source component;

decoding a first portion of the received first message;

determining if the decoded first portion identifies a destination component;

determining if the destination component can be derived from the decoded first portion if it is determined that the decoded first portion does not identify a destination component;

recursively decoding subsequent portions of the received first message in response to determining that previously decoded portions do not identify the destination component and that the destination component cannot be derived using the previously decoded portions;

performing application level routing operations using contextual information derived from the previously decoded portions to identify the destination component;

encoding the signaling information contained in the previously decoded portions along with a remainder of the first message into a second message; and

sending the second message encoding the signaling information to the identified destination component.

20. The non-transitory server-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the stored server-executable instructions are configured to cause a server to perform operations such that receiving a first message encoding signaling information from a source component comprises receiving a Diameter message from the source component.

21. The non-transitory server-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the stored server-executable instructions are configured to cause a server to perform operations such that sending the second message encoding the signaling information to the identified destination component comprises sending a Diameter message to the identified destination component.

22. The non-transitory server-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the stored server-executable instructions are configured to cause a server to perform operations such that:

receiving a first message encoding signaling information from a source component comprises receiving the first message using a first protocol;

encoding the signaling information in the previously decoded portions along with a remainder of the first message into a second message comprises generating the second message in a second format, the first format being different from the second format; and

sending the second message encoding the signaling information to the identified destination component comprises sending the second message using a second protocol, the first protocol being different to the second protocol.

23. The non-transitory server-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the stored server-executable instructions are configured to cause a server to perform operations such that performing application level routing operations using contextual information derived from the previously decoded portions to identify the destination component comprises:

generating one or more keys based on at least one of the previously decoded portions;

transmitting the generated keys to an external resource;

receiving supplementary information in response to the generated keys; and

using the supplementary information to identify the destination component.

24. The non-transitory server-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein transmitting the generated keys to an external resource comprises transmitting the generated keys to a subscriber profile repository that stores customer and subscription information.

25. The non-transitory server-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the stored server-executable instructions are configured to cause a server to perform operations such that performing application level routing operations using contextual information derived from the previously decoded portions to identify the destination component comprises:

retrieving from an internal memory coupled to the first processor information correlated to at least one of the decoded portions of the first message; and

using the retrieved information to identify the destination component.

26. The non-transitory server-readable storage medium of claim 25, wherein the stored server-executable instructions are configured to cause a server to perform operations such that retrieving from an internal memory coupled to the first processor information correlated to at least one of the decoded portions of the first message comprises retrieving information from an internal cache memory populated by the first processor.

27. The non-transitory server-readable storage medium of claim 25, wherein the stored server-executable instructions are configured to cause a server to perform operations such that retrieving from an internal memory coupled to the first processor information correlated to at least one of the decoded portions of the first message comprises accessing a reference data store populated with reference data generated by a second processor and transferred to the first processor.