Notification of Communication Events

• US 20130336311A1
• Filed: 02/22/2013
• Published: 12/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Laasik, Marek, Velenko, Mihails, Zolotarjov, Sergei, Olivier, Carl Stefke
• Granted Patent: US 9,060,049 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4061 Push-to services, e.g. push-to-talk or push-to-video
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42365 Presence services providing information on the willingness to communicate or the ability to communicate in terms of media capability or network connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0063 where the network is a peer-to-peer network

Abstract

A network element of a communication provider arranged to receive a call invite from an originating end-user terminal inviting a destination end-user terminal to a proposed session for conducting a voice or video call over a packet-based network, in response to generate a push notification, and to send the push notification to the destination end-user terminal. The processing apparatus is configured to generate the push notification with a payload comprising call signalling information enabling a response regarding the proposed session to be formulated by the destination end-user terminal and returned to the originating end-user terminal, the call signalling information comprising at least (i) an indication that a session between end-user terminals is sought, and (ii) an identifier for responding to the originating end-user terminal.

Claims

1. A network element of a communication provider comprising:

transceiver apparatus arranged to receive a call invite from an originating end-user terminal inviting a destination end-user terminal to a proposed session for conducting a voice or video call over a packet-based network; and

processing apparatus configured to generate a push notification in response to the call invite from the originating end-user terminal;

wherein the transceiver apparatus is arranged to send the push notification to the destination end-user terminal; and

wherein the processing apparatus is configured to generate the push notification with a payload comprising session establishment information enabling a response regarding the proposed session to be formulated by the destination end-user terminal and returned to the originating end-user terminal, the session establishment information comprising at least an indication that a session between end-user terminals is sought, and an identifier for responding to the originating end-user terminal.

2. The network element of claim 1, wherein the session establishment information further comprises a first handshake message of a handshake protocol, such that the acceptance response from the destination end-user terminal will comprise an answering handshake message of the handshake protocol.

3. The network element of any claim 2, wherein the first handshake message is received in the call invite from the originating end-user terminal, and the processing apparatus of the network element is configured to forward the first handshake message to the destination end-user terminal in the payload of the push notification.

4. The network element of claim 1, wherein the identifier comprises one or both of a username of a user of the originating terminal, and an address of the originating end-user terminal.

5. The network element of claim 1, wherein the identifier further comprises user-accessible identification information enabling a user of the destination end-user terminal to make an informed decision as to whether to accept the proposed call, the user-accessible identification information comprising at least one of a display name of a user of the originating end-user terminal, and an avatar image of a user of the originating end-user terminal or a link to the avatar image.

6. The network element of claim 4, wherein one or both of the address and username are not included in the call invite from the originating end-user terminal, and the processing apparatus of said network element is configured to resolve the address and/or username in response to the call invite and add the address and/or username into the payload of the push notification.

7. The network element of claim 1, wherein the session establishment information further comprises one or more of:

an encryption key of the originating end-user terminal, a timestamp, an indication of a type of the originating end-user terminal, a session identifier for the proposed call, a conversation identifier for the proposed call, an indication of any relays to use for the call, and an indication of a language and/or a language template for indicating the push notification to a user of the destination end-user terminal.

8. The network element of claim 1, wherein the destination end-user terminal comprises a client application which at times is found in a background state whereby it is suspended or scheduled a supressed number of processing cycles by an operating system of the destination end-user terminal, wherein the push notification initiates wake up of the client from the background state, and the session establishment information in the payload of the push notification enables the response to be formulated by the client on the destination end-user terminal and returned to the originating end-user terminal upon wake up.

9. The network element of claim 1, wherein the push notification comprises an operating system based push notification.

10. The network element of any of claim 1, wherein the push notification comprises an application layer push notification.

11. The network element of claim 9, wherein the processing apparatus and transceiver apparatus of the network element are configured to send the operating system based push notification to the destination end-user terminal via a separate network element of an operating system based push notification service.

12. The network element of claim 9, wherein the operating system based push notification wakes up the client application via a user prompt of the operating system, on condition that a user of the destination terminal accepts the prompt.

13. The network element of claim 9, wherein at other times the client application on the destination end-user terminal runs in a foreground state, the processing apparatus and transceiver apparatus are configured to send both the operating system based push notification and an application layer push notification to the destination end-user terminal, and the processing apparatus is configured to select a different degree of session establishment information to include in the payload of the operating system based push notification than to include in a payload of the application layer push notification.

14. The network element of claim 1, wherein the processing apparatus is configured to make the sending of the push notification conditional on one or both of:

a permission check to check a user of the originating end-user terminal is not blocked from contacting the destination end-user terminal, and an endpoint check to check that the destination end-user terminal has registered for push notifications.

15. The network element of claim 1, wherein transceiver apparatus is arranged to receive an attendance report from one of the destination end-user terminal and the originating end-user terminal, and the processing apparatus is configured to log the proposed call in a missed call register if the attendance report indicates that the call is not accepted.

16. The network element of claim 1, wherein at least the destination user terminal comprises handheld mobile phone.

17. The network element of claim 1, wherein following the response one or more further stages of the call proceed directly between the originating end-user terminal and the destination end-user terminal, not via a network element of the communication provider, the one or more further stages comprising one or both of an exchange of authentication certificates and call traffic.

18. A communication system comprising the network element and destination end-user terminal of claim 1;

wherein the destination user terminal is configured to formulate the response comprising the answering handshake message based on the payload of the push notification, and to return the response based on the identifier received in the payload of the push notification, thereby establishing the session and conducting the call.

19. A computer program product comprising code embodied on a computer-readable storage memory and configured so as when executed on a destination end-user terminal to perform operations comprising:

receiving a push notification generated based on a call invite from an originating end-user terminal inviting the destination end-user terminal to a proposed session for conducting a voice or video call over a packet-based network;

extracting session establishment information from a payload of the push notification message, the session establishment information comprising at least an indication that a call between end-user terminals is sought, and an identifier for responding to the originating end-user terminal;

based on the payload of the push notification, formulating a response regarding the proposed session; and

returning the response to the originating end-user terminal based on the identifier received in the payload of the push notification.

20. A method of establishing a packet-based voice or video call between an originating end-user terminal and a destination end-user terminal over a packet-based communication network, at least the destination end-user terminal comprising a mobile device, the method comprising:

at a network element of a communication service provider, receiving a call invite message from the originating end-user terminal inviting the destination end-user terminal to a proposed session for conducting a voice or video call over the packet-based network; and

at the network element of the communication service provider, generating a push notification in response to the invitation message from the originating end-user terminal, wherein the processing apparatus configured to generate the push notification with a payload comprising session establishment information comprising at least (i) a first handshake message indicating that a session between end-user terminals is sought, and (ii) an identifier for responding to the originating end-user terminal;

sending the push notification from the network element of the communication provider to the destination end-user terminal;

at the destination end-user terminal, extracting the payload from the push notification to determine the session establishment information;

based on the payload of the push notification, formulating a call acceptance response for the proposed session, the call acceptance response comprising an answering handshake message; and

returning the call acceptance response to the originating end-user terminal based on the identifier received in the payload of the push notification;

wherein by using the session establishment information received in the payload of the push notification, one or both of;

the call acceptance response is formulated and sent without the destination end-user terminal performing further signalling over the network in order to first fetch additional information regarding the nature of the notification from a network element of the communication provider, and without further signalling over the network in order to determine the identity of the calling user from a network element of the communication provider; and

the call acceptance response is returned directly from the destination end-user terminal to the originating end-user terminal without being sent via a network element of the communication service provider.