System and method for establishing a conference call

• US 7,151,753 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2002
• Issued: 12/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Tidwell, Paul, Chaney, Adam, Brady, Conor
• Primary Examiner(s): Kizou, Hassan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ahmed, Salman
• Application Number:
  US10/060,747
• Publication Number:
  US 20030108002A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,784 Days
• Field of Search: 370/261, 370/263, 370/271, 370/270
• US Class Current: 370/261
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1043 Gateway controllers, e.g. media gateway control protocol [MGCP] controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4038 with floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/5063 Centrally initiated conference, i.e. conference server dials participants
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• 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 3/42374 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• 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: H04Q 3/0054 Service creation techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0066 Bandwidth allocation or management

Abstract

A system and method for establishing a conference call in an Internet Protocol (IP) telecommunications network between a conference owner and a plurality of other conference participants. The IP network includes a conference server and at least one Call State Control Function (CSCF). The CSCF includes a Presence and Instant Messaging (PIM) server that notifies the conference server when participants are present and available. A first user is registered with the conference server as the conference owner, and the owner identifies the conference participants and provides criteria for initiating the conference. The conference server identifies each participant'"'"'s serving CSCF, and sends a request to A each CSCF to notify the conference server when served participants are present and available. When the predefined number of participants are present and available, the conference server initiates the conference call.

Claims

1. A method in an Internet Protocol (IP) telecommunications network of establishing a conference call between a first user as a conference owner and a plurality of other users as conference participants, said network including a conference server and at least one Serving Call State Control Function (S-CSCF) providing call control functions for the users, said method comprising:

registering with a first S-CSCF serving the first user, the first user as the conference owner;

identifying the conference participants to the first S-CSCF;

identifying by the first S-CSCF, each participant'"'"'s assigned S-CSCF;

sending a request from the first S-CSCF to each participant'"'"'s S-CSCF requesting each S-CSCF to notify the first S-CSCF when a predefined criterion for initiating the conference call has been met by the participant being served by the participant'"'"'s S-CSCF;

detecting by each participant'"'"'s S-CSCF, when each participant has met the predefined criterion;

sending a notification from each participant'"'"'s S-CSCF to the first S-CSCF when each participant being served by the participant'"'"'s S-CSCF has met the predefined criterion;

determining by the first S-CSCF whether the participants have met the predefined criterion for initiating the conference call;

instructing the conference server to initiate the conference call upon determining that the participants have met the predefined criterion;

receiving by the conference server, a message from one of the users;

determining by the conference server, whether the message is from the owner or one of the other participants;

forwarding the message from the conference server to all of the participants, upon determining that the message is from the owner; and

forwarding the message from the conference server to the owner only, upon determining that the message is from one of the other participants.

2. The method of establishing a conference call of claim 1 further comprising, after identifying the conference participants,

the step of providing by the conference owner, predefined criteria for initiating the conference call, said criteria including a predefined number of participants who are present and available.

3. The method of establishing a conference call of claim 2 wherein the step of providing predefined criteria includes providing a minimum number of participants who must be present and available, and a maximum number of participants who are allowed to participate in the conference call.

4. The method of establishing a conference call of claim 2 wherein the step of providing predefined criteria includes identifying whether each identified participant is a mandatory participant or an optional participant.

5. The method of establishing a conference call of claim 2 wherein the step of providing predefined criteria includes providing a starting time for the conference call.

6. The method of establishing a conference call of claim 1 wherein each participant'"'"'s S-CSCF includes a Presence and Instant Messaging (PIM) server, and the step of detecting when each participant has met the predefined criterion includes detecting by the PIM server in each participant'"'"'s S-CSCF when each participant is present and available.

7. The method of establishing a conference call of claim 6 wherein the telecommunications network utilizes Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for call-control signaling, and the step of detecting by the PIM server in each participant'"'"'s CSCF when each participant is present and available includes receiving by the PIM server a SIP REGISTER message from each participant when the participant is present and available.

8. The method of establishing a conference call of claim 7 wherein the step of receiving by the PIM server a SIP REGISTER message from each participant when the participant is present and available includes receiving a SIP REGISTER message from a Programmable Interactive Voice Response (P-IVR) unit for participants who are utilizing a non-SIP-enabled communications device.

9. The method of establishing a conference call of claim 1 further comprising, after the step of determining whether the participants have met the predefined criterion for initiating the conference call, the steps of:

sending a status message from the first S-CSCF to the owner, upon determining that the participants have not met the predefined criterion;

determining whether the owner overrides the predefined criterion; and

initiating the conference call, upon determining that the owner has overridden the predefined criterion.

10. A system in an Internet Protocol (IP) telecommunications network for establishing a conference call between a first user as a conference owner and a plurality of other users as conference participants, said network including a conference server and each of said users being served by a Serving Call State Control Function (S-CSCF) providing call control functions for the users, said system comprising:

a first S-CSCF serving the first user, comprising;

means for registering the first user as the conference owner and receiving from the owner, identifications of the conference participants;

means for identifying each participants assigned S-CSCF;

communication means for sending a request to each participant'"'"'s S-CSCF and receiving a notification from each participant'"'"'s S-CSCF, said request requesting the participant'"'"'s S-CSCF to notify the first S-CSCF when a predefined criterion for initiating the conference call has been met by the participant being served by the participant'"'"'s S-CSCF;

means for determining whether the participants have met the predefined criterion for initiating the conference call; and

means for instructing a conference server to initiate the conference call upon determining that the participants have met the predefined criterion;

conferencing means for initiating and conducting the conference call when instructed by the first S-CSCF; and

a Presence and Instant Messaging (PIM) server in each participant'"'"'s S-CSCF comprising;

means for determining whether each participant has met the predefined criterion; and

communication means for sending the notification to the first S-CSCF when each participant being served by the participant'"'"'s S-CSCF has met the predefined criterion,

means in said conference server for receiving a message from one of the users, wherein said conference server determines whether the message is from the owner or one of the other participants, the conference server forwarding the message to all of the participants if the message is from the owner and forwarding the message to the owner if the message is from one of the other participants.

11. In an Internet Protocol (IP) telecommunications network, an owner'"'"'s Serving Call State Control Function (S-CSCF) that serves a conference owner and instructs a conference server to initiate a conference call between the conference owner and a plurality of conference participants when predefined criteria have been met, said owner'"'"'s S-CSCF comprising:

means for registering the conference owner and receiving from the owner, identifications of the conference participants;

means for identifying each participant'"'"'s S-CSCF;

communication means for;

sending a request to each participant'"'"'s S-CSCF requesting the participant'"'"'s S-CSCF to notify the owner'"'"'s S-CSCF when a predefined criterion for initiating the conference call has been met by the participant being served by the participant'"'"'s S-CSCF; and

receiving a notification from each of the participant'"'"'s S-CSCFs when the participant being served by the participant'"'"'s S-CSCF has met the predefined criterion;

means in said conference server for receiving a message from one of the users, wherein said conference server determines whether the message is from the owner or one of the other participants, the conference server forwarding the message to all of the participants if the message is from the owner and forwarding the message to the owner if the message is from one of the other participants;

means for determining whether the participants have met the predefined criterion for initiating the conference call; and

means for instructing a conference server to initiate and conduct the conference call upon determining that the participants have met the predefined criterion.

12. A method in an Internet Protocol (IP) telecommunications network of establishing a conference call between a first user as a conference owner and a plurality of other users as conference participants, said network including a conference server and at least one Call State Control Function (CSCF) providing call control functions for the users, said method comprising:

registering with the conference server, the first user as the conference owner;

identifying by the conference owner, the conference participants;

identifying by the conference server, each participant'"'"'s CSCF;

sending a request from the conference server to each participant'"'"'s CSCF requesting the CSCF to notify the conference server when a predefined criterion for initiating the conference call has been met by the participant being served by the CSCF;

detecting by each participant'"'"'s CSCF, when each participant has met the predefined criterion;

sending a notification from each participant'"'"'s CSCF to the conference server when each participant being served by the CSCF has met the predefined criterion;

determining by the conference server whether the participants have met the predefined criterion for initiating the conference call; and

initiating the conference call upon determining that the participants have met the predefined criterion.

receiving by the conference server, a message from one of the users;

determining by the conference server, whether the message is from the owner or one of the other participants;

forwarding the message from the conference server to all of the participants, upon determining that the message is from the owner; and

forwarding the message from the conference server to the owner only, upon determining that the message is from one of the other participants.