Method and Apparatus for Identifying a Subscriber Home Domain in a Communication Network

• US 20130044644A1
• Filed: 08/19/2011
• Published: 02/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ku, Bernard, Naidu, Lakshminarashimhan, Soo, Armstrong
• Granted Patent: US 9,060,035 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/259
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4535 using an address exchange platform which sets up a session between two nodes, e.g. rendezvous servers, session initiation protocols [SIP] registrars or H.323 gatekeepers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1073 Registration or de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

A method, apparatus and computer-readable medium for identifying a subscriber home domain in a communication network are described. A national subscriber profile is partitioned into regions and a NAPTR resource record is modified to identify in which region a particular subscriber is located. In response to a calling party requesting that a connection to a called party be established, a database is queried to provide a modified NAPTR record which identifies the region in which the called party is located. A connection can then be established without polling each region.

Claims

1. A method for determining a called party home domain comprising:

receiving a request, at a network component, from a calling party to establish communication with a called party; and

determining a name authority pointer associated with the called party based on the request, the name authority pointer comprising data identifying the called party home domain.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the request comprises an E.164 phone number associated with the called party.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining further comprises:

querying a database to determine the name authority pointer associated with the called party.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining a domain name of a device located in the called party home domain.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising determining an IP address of the device located in the called party home domain based on the domain name.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising transmitting a request to the called party home domain based on the name authority pointer associated with the called party.

7. An apparatus for determining a called party home domain comprising:

means for receiving a request from a calling party to establish communication with a called party; and

means for determining a name authority pointer associated with the called party based on the request, the name authority pointer comprising data identifying the called party home domain.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the request comprises an E.164 phone number associated with the called party.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the means for determining comprises:

means for querying a database to determine the name authority pointer associated with the called party.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 further comprising means for determining a domain name of a device located in the called party home domain.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising means for determining an IP address of the device located in the called party home domain based on the domain name.

12. The method of claim 7 further comprising means for transmitting a request to the called party home domain based on the name authority pointer associated with the called party.

13. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions for determining a called party home domain, the instructions in response to execution by a computing device cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving a request, at a network component, from a calling party to establish communication with a called party; and

determining a name authority pointer associated with the called party based on the request, the name authority pointer comprising data identifying the called party home domain.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the request comprises an E.164 phone number associated with the called party.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the determining comprises:

querying a database to determine the name authority pointer associated with the called party.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, the instructions further causing the computing device to perform operations comprising determining a domain name of a device located in the called party home domain.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, the instructions further causing the computing device to perform operations comprising determining an IP address of the device located in the called party home domain based on the domain name.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, the instructions further causing the computing device to perform operations comprising transmitting a request to the called party home domain based on the name authority pointer associated with the called party.