NETWORK SIGNAL TRACING USING CHARGING IDENTIFIERS AS TRACE RECORDING SESSION REFERENCES

• US 20130170386A1
• Filed: 09/21/2010
• Published: 07/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Gonzalez De Langarica, Ester, Gannon, Sarah
• Granted Patent: US 9,369,887 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
• 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: H04M 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/62 based on trigger specification
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/63 based on the content carried by the session initiation protocol [SIP] messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/82 Criteria or parameters used for performing billing operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8228 Session based
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/208 IMS, i.e. Integrated Multimedia messaging Subsystem
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

Signaling through a plurality of network elements is traced during a trace session. The network elements generate trace records that record information associated with a communication session and that include a charging identifier that is used as a trace recording session reference for the trace session. The charging identifier is a unique network-wide identifier for a subscriber, UE or service and can be used by an operations support system to correlate which trace records are associated with a same subscriber, UE or service that is being traced and, thereby, may enable end-to-end tracing through a network.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for tracing signaling through a plurality of network elements (NEs) during a trace session, the method comprising:

electronically generating at a first one of the network elements (NEs) a trace record that records information associated with a communication session and that includes a charging identifier that is used as a trace recording session reference for the trace session.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

electronically receiving at the first one of the network elements an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Charging IDentifier (ICID) in a P-Charging-Vector header of a SIP message; and

electronically writing the ICID as the trace recording session reference in the trace record at the first one of the network elements.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

electronically receiving at the first one of the network elements an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Charging Identifier (ICID) in an Attribute-Value-Pair (AVP) of a Diameter protocol message; and

electronically writing the ICID as the trace recording session reference in the trace record at the first one of the network elements.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising:

generating at one or snore of a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) and at an Application Server (AS) the Diameter protocol message with the ICID in the AVP.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein:

electronically receiving at the first one of the network elements the ICID in the AVP of the Diameter protocol message comprises receiving the ICID in a Session-ID AVP of the Diameter protocol message.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein:

electronically receiving the ICID in a Session-ID AVP of the Diameter protocol message comprises receiving the ICID as a value that follows another value that identifies a message sender.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein:

electronically writing the ICID as the trace recording session reference in the trace record at the first one of the network elements is carried out responsive to receipt of a subsequent Diameter protocol message that has a public identity AVP that matches a user identifier that is associated with the trace session.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the first one of the network elements comprises a Serving Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF), and further comprising communicating the received ICID from the S-CSCF to an Interrogating Call Session Control Function (I-CSCF) within a P-Charging-Vector header of a SIP message.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first one of the network elements comprises a Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) network element, and further comprising:

receiving at the P-CSCF network element a registration request message from a communication terminal and, responsive to the registration request message, generating a first SIP message with an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Charging IDentifier (ICID) in a P-Charging-Vector header and communicating the first SIP message from the P-CSCF network element to an Interrogating Call Session Control Function (I-CSCF) network element.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising:

responsive to receipt of the first SIP message at the I-CSCF network element, storing the ICID at the I-CSCF network element and generating a second SIP message with the ICID in the P-Charging-Vector header and communicating the second SIP message from the I-CSCF network element to a Serving Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF) network element.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising:

responsive to receipt of the first SIP message at the I-CSCF network element, storing the ICID at the I-CSCF network element and generating a Diameter protocol message with an Attribute-Value-Pair (AVP) containing the ICID and communicating the Diameter protocol message to a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) network element.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, further comprising:

operating the P-CSCF network element to write the ICID as a trace recording session reference in a trace record at the P-CSCF network element in response to receipt of a third SIP message at the P-CSCF network element that has a “

To”

header that matches a user identifier that is associated with the trace session; and

operating the I-CSCF network element to write the ICID as a trace recording session reference in a trace record at the I-CSCF network element in response to receipt of a fourth SIP message at the I-CSCF network element that has a “

To”

header matching the user identifier that is associated with the trace session.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, further comprising:

operating the HSS network element to write the ICID as a trace recording session reference in a trace record at the HSS network element in response to receipt of a Diameter protocol message with a Public-Identity AVP that matches a user identifier that is associated with the trace session.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first one of the network elements comprises a Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) network element, and further comprising:

receiving at the P-CSCF network element a call invite message from a communication terminal and, responsive to the call invite message, generating a first SIP message with an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Charging IDentifier (ICID) in a P-Charging-Vector header and communicating the first SIP message from the P-CSCF network element to one of a Serving Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF) network element and a Breakout Gateway Control Function (BGCF) network element.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, further comprising:

operating the P-CSCF network element to write the ICID as a trace recording session reference in a trace record at the P-CSCF network element in response to receipt of a second SIP message at the P-CSCF network element that has a P-Asserted Identity (PAI) header that matches a user identifier that is associated with the trace session and/or that has a Request-URI header that matches the user identifier that is associated with the trace session.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first one of the network elements comprises an Interrogating Call Session Control Function (I-CSCF) network element, and further comprising:

receiving at the I-CSCF network element a call invite message from a communication terminal (UE) via a Media Gateway Control Function (MGCF) and, responsive to the call invite message, generating a first SIP message with an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Charging IDentifier (ICID) in a P-Charging-Vector header and communicating the first SIP message from the I-CSCF network element to a Serving Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF) network element; and

further responsive receiving to the call invite message at the I-CSCF network element, generating a first Diameter protocol message with an Attribute-Value-Pair (AVP) containing the ICID and communicating the first Diameter protocol message from the I-CSCF network element to a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) network element.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, further comprising:

operating the I-CSCF network element to write the ICID as a trace recording session reference in a trace record at the I-CSCF network element in response to receipt of a second SIP message at the I-CSCF network element that has a P-Asserted Identity (PAI) header that matches a user identifier that is associated with the trace session and/or has a Request-URI header that matches the user identifier that is associated with the trace session.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, further comprising:

operating the HSS network element to write the ICID as a trace recording session reference in a trace record at the HSS network element in response to receipt of a second Diameter protocol message that has a public identity AVP that matches a user identifier that is associated with the trace session.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, further comprising:

responsive to receiving the first SIP message at the S-CSCF network element, generating a third SIP message with the ICID in a P-Charging-Vector header and communicating the third SIP message from the S-CSCF network element to a Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) network element; and

further responsive to receiving the first SIP message at the S-CSCF network element, generating a fourth SIP message with the ICID in a P-Charging-Vector header and communicating the fourth SIP message from the S-CSCF network element to an Application Server (AS).

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, further comprising:

operating the P-CSCF network element to write the ICID as a trace recording session reference in a trace record at the P-CSCF network element in response to receipt of a fifth SIP message at the P-CSCF network element that has a P-called-party-ID header that matches a user identifier that is associated with the trace session.

2. A computer-implemented method for tracing signaling through a plurality of network elements (NEs) during a trace session comprising:

electronically receiving at an operation support system a plurality of trace records from the plurality of network elements (NEs) that record information attributes with a communication session and that include a charging identifier that is used as a trace recording session reference for the trace session; and

identifying at the operation support system which of the received trace records are associated with the trace session in response to the charging identifier of the received trace records.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein:

particular ones of the trace records are identified by the operation support system as being associated with the trace session in response to each of the particular trace records containing a same value of the charging identifier.

23. A network comprising:

a network element (NE) that is configured to generate a trace record that records information associated with a communication session and that includes in the trace record a charging identifier that is used as a trace recording session reference for the trace session.

24. The network of claim 23, further comprising:

a plurality of the network elements (NEs); and

an operation support system that is configured to receive a plurality of the trace records from the plurality of network elements (NEs), and to trace signaling through at least some of the network elements during a trace session in response to identifying a same value contained in the charging identifier of the trace records received from the at least some of the network elements.

25. The network of claim 23, wherein:

the network element is further configured to receive an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Charging IDentifier (ICID) in a P-Charging-Vector header of a SIP message, to write the ICID as the trace recording session reference in the trace record, to generate a Diameter protocol message having the ICID in an Attribute-Value-Pair (AVP), and to communicate the Diameter protocol message to another network element for use in the other network element as a trace recording session reference.