Unified directory and presence system for universal access to telecommunications services

• US 7,702,753 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2005
• Issued: 04/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services GmbH (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Nocerino, Aurelio, Simongini, Alberto, Perta, Francesco, Orsano, Alessandro
• Primary Examiner(s): Avellino; Joseph E
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rashid; Harunur
• Application Number:
  US11/313,463
• Publication Number:
  US 20070123253A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,589 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/207
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• 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: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

A subscriber profile access management system for a telecommunications service provider or telecommunications operator provides technical solutions to providing a single point of access to telecommunications subscriber profile information. As the products and services offered by the service provider grow, and given the many different access mechanisms through which a subscriber connects to services, the single point of access eliminates the inefficient proliferation of custom interfaces between the many support systems and applications which need access to subscriber profile information. The single point of access provides a universal and personalized access to telecommunications services. Access may be made to the subscriber profile regardless of the particular type of access mechanism (e.g., WiFi, or DSL access), while the personalized access allows services to be customized based upon static and dynamically maintained information in the subscriber profile.

Claims

1. A subscriber profile access management system for a telecommunications service provider, the subscriber profile access management system comprising:

a presence system comprising;

a network data gatherer configured to receive a subscriber connection message;

a message publisher coupled to the data gatherer configured to generate a published connection message from the subscriber connection message;

a message queue manager configured to queue the published connection message, the published connection message comprising a message type field, a technical key comprising subscriber connection identifying information, and a subscriber identifier;

a rules manager configured to receive the published connection message from the message queue manager, the rules manager comprising a routing rule which determines whether to forward the published connection message to a technical key management queue or a presence management queue, where the technical key management queue is configured to receive the published connection message in order to authenticate the subscriber identifier, and where the presence management queue is configured to receive the published connection message in order to update subscriber presence information; and

a unified directory system comprising;

a data access layer comprising;

a persistent subscriber profile data store in a first memory;

a cached representation of the persistent subscriber profile data store in a second memory which is faster than the first memory, the persistent subscriber profile data store comprising a network service presence table;

multiple parallel persistent hardware nodes which store the persistent subscriber profile data store and at least one copy of the persistent subscriber profile data store; and

multiple parallel real-time hardware nodes which store the cached representation of the persistent subscriber profile data store and at least one copy of the cached representation of the persistent subscriber profile data store;

a communication interface to the presence system configured to receive a subscriber insertion submission from the presence system in response to the published connection message; and

service logic operable to insert a subscriber identifier into the network service presence table in the data access layer in response to the subscriber insertion submission.

2. The subscriber profile access management system of claim 1, where the message publisher is configured to generate the published connection message according to a common message format for published connection messages.

3. The subscriber profile access management system of claim 1, where the subscriber identifier comprises a username.

4. The subscriber profile access management system of claim 1, where unified directory system further comprises a hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) interface configured to receive a subscriber profile query from an external system.

5. The subscriber profile access management system of claim 4, where the subscriber profile query comprises a user status query, a network service data query, or an application service data query.

6. The subscriber profile access management system of claim 1, where the technical key comprises an access server internet protocol address field, access server identifier field, slot identifier field, port identifier field, interface identifier field, virtual path identifier field, and a virtual connection identifier field.

7. The subscriber profile access management system of claim 1, where the subscriber connection message comprises a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) message.

8. The subscriber profile access management system of claim 1, where the subscriber connection message comprises a remote authentication dial-in user service (RADIUS) message.

9. The subscriber profile access management system of claim 1, where the service logic is further operable to insert a network service identifier into the network service presence table in the data access layer in response to the subscriber insertion submission.

10. The subscriber profile access management system of claim 1, where the communication interface is further operable to receive a subscriber presence update submission from the presence system, and where the service logic is further configured to update a network presence field in the network service presence table.

11. The subscriber profile access management system of claim 10, where the network presence field comprises a subscriber internet protocol address field.

12. A method for managing access to a subscriber profile in a telecommunications service provider architecture, the method comprising:

receiving a subscriber connection message at a network data gatherer;

generating a published connection message from the subscriber connection message, the published connection message comprising a message type field, a technical key comprising subscriber connection identifying information and a subscriber identifier;

queuing the published connection message in a message queue manager;

receiving the published connection message at a rules manager;

applying a routing rule to the published connection message which determines whether to forward the published connection message to a technical key management queue or a presence management queue, where the technical key management queue is configured to receive the published connection message in order to authenticate the subscriber identifier, and where the presence management queue is configured to receive the published connection message in order to update subscriber presence information;

establishing a data access layer comprising;

a persistent subscriber profile data store in a first memory;

a cached representation of the persistent subscriber profile data store in a second memory which is faster than the first memory;

multiple parallel persistent hardware nodes which store the persistent subscriber profile data store and at least one copy of the persistent subscriber profile data store; and

multiple parallel real-time hardware nodes which store the cached representation of the persistent subscriber profile data store and at least one copy of the cached representation of the persistent subscriber profile data store;

establishing a network service presence table in the persistent subscriber profile data store;

receiving a subscriber insertion submission through a communication interface to a presence system in response to receipt of the published connection message; and

inserting a subscriber identifier into the network service presence table in the data access layer in response to the subscriber insertion submission.

13. The method of claim 12, where generating comprises:

generating the published connection message according to a common message format for published connection messages.

14. The method of claim 12, where the subscriber identifier comprises a username.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a subscriber profile query comprising a user status query, a network service data query, or an application service data query from an external system;

querying the data access layer in response to the subscriber profile query to obtain a query result; and

returning the query result to the external system.

16. The method of claim 14, where the technical key comprises an access server internet protocol address field, access server identifier field, slot identifier field, port identifier field, interface identifier field, virtual path identifier field, and a virtual connection identifier field.

17. The method of claim 12, where the subscriber connection message comprises a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) message.

18. The method of claim 12, where the subscriber connection message comprises a remote authentication dial-in user service (RADIUS) message.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising inserting a network service identifier into the network service presence table in the data access layer in response to the subscriber insertion submission.

20. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a subscriber presence update submission from the presence system;

and updating a network presence field in the network service presence table.

21. The method of claim 20, where the network presence field is a subscriber internet protocol address field.

22. A presence system for a subscriber profile access management system, the presence system comprising:

a memory coupled to a processor;

a network data gatherer configured to receive a subscriber connection message;

a message publisher coupled to the data gatherer configured to generate a published connection message from the subscriber connection message, where the published connection message comprises a technical key which identifies a subscriber connection and a message type field and adheres to a single format defined for published connection messages in the presence system, and where the subscriber connection message comprises a RADIUS connection message or a DHCP connection message;

a message queue manager configured to queue the published connection message;

a rules manager configured to receive the published connection message from the message queue manager, the rules manager comprising a routing rule which determines whether to forward the published connection message to a technical key management queue or a presence management queue;

technical key queue logic, executed by the processor, configured to process the technical key management queue and responsively authenticates a subscriber; and

presence queue logic, executed by the processor, configured to process the presence management queue and responsively issues a subscriber presence update comprising an alias identifier update.

23. The presence system of claim 22, where the message type field comprises a command code which encodes a message type of the subscriber connection message.

24. The presence system of claim 23, where the message type field specifies that the published connection message comprises an access-request or accounting-request message.

25. The presence system of claim 23, where the message type field specifies that the published connection message comprises a DHCPDISCOVER, DHCPNAK, or DHCPACK message.

26. The presence system of claim 23, where at least one of the technical key queue logic and presence queue logic comprises service logic, executed by the processor, which implements a communication interface to a unified directory system.

27. The presence system of claim 22, where the technical key comprises an access server IP address, a slot identifier and a port identifier.

28. The presence system of claim 22, where the subscriber presence update comprises a subscriber network address update.