Method and system for dynamic gateway selection in an IP telephony network

• US 7,860,114 B1
• Filed: 11/08/1999
• Issued: 12/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Business Global LLC (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Donovan, Steven R., Gallant, John K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sefcheck; Gregory B
• Application Number:
  US09/436,796
• Time in Patent Office: 4,068 Days
• Field of Search: 370/248, 370/352, 370/449, 370/450, 370/912, 370/356, 379/205, 379/209, 379/221, 709/224, 709/225, 709/227, 709/239, 709/242, 709/244
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/103 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/104 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1043 Gateway controllers, e.g. media gateway control protocol [MGCP] controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1285 Details of finding and selecting a gateway for a particular call

Abstract

A method and system for dynamically selecting a destination gateway to complete a call over a path supported at least in part by an IP telephony network and a public switched telephone network. The method and system further provide for dynamically detecting available gateways, dynamically removing failed and/or unavailable gateways, and automatically recovering failed and/or unavailable gateways after a predetermined period of time. A method is also provided for detecting available destination gateways using a ping method, where a message is transmitted to a plurality of destination gateways on a one-by-one basis to ascertain the availability status of each destination gateway.

Claims

1. A method for routing calls to a destination gateway to establish a communication session call in a telecommunications network between a source user agent and a destination user agent over a path supported at least in part by a telephone network and an IP network, the IP network including a plurality of ingress and destination gateways, at least one proxy server, and at least one redirect server (RS), the method comprising:

receiving a call setup request at the at least one proxy server from the source user agent, where the source user agent is included in a public switched telephone network and the call set up request identifies the destination user agent;

forwarding the received call setup request to the redirect server;

determining, by the redirect server, a status of a group of destination gateways in response to receiving the forwarded call setup request, where the status of a particular destination gateway is determined as one of in-service or out-of-service;

adding the particular destination gateway to a routine list and recording the particular destination gateway as in-service, if the status of the particular destination gateway is determined to be out-of-service and if a time value associated with the determined status is less than or equal to a current time value associated with the redirect server;

not adding the particular destination gateway to the routing list, if the status of the particular destination gateway is determined to be out-of-service and if the time value associated with the determined status is greater than the current time value associated with the redirect server;

receiving the routing list or a request failure response from the redirect server;

proxying the call setup request by the at least one proxy server to a destination gateway selected from the routing list upon receiving the routing list from the redirect server, where the selected destination gateway is to communicate with a public switched telephone network that includes the destination user agent;

upon proxying the call setup request to the selected destination gateway, waiting for a response from the selected destination gateway;

upon receiving the response from the selected destination gateway within a predetermined time, establishing a communication, session using the selected destination gateway; and

if the response is not received within the predetermined time, sending the call setup request to a succeeding destination gateway selected from the routing list and reporting failure of the selected destination gateway to the redirect server, where the succeeding destination gateway is to communicate with a public switched telephone network that includes the destination user agent.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising repeating the proxying the call set up request, the waiting for a response from to selected gateway, the establishing a communication session upon receiving the response, and the sending the call setup request to a succeeding destination gateway if the response is not received within the predetermined time, until a destination gateway is determined to be available for establishing the communication session or until all destination gateways from the routing information have been determined to be unavailable.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising recording a destination gateway status as out-of-service if the response from the destination gateway is not received within the predetermined time.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, where the recording further comprises recording the destination gateway status as out-of-service in a gateway information table stored within the redirect server.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, where the receiving a call setup request at the at least one proxy server from the source user agent includes addressing the call setup request to a proxy address of the at least one proxy server.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, where the receiving a call setup request at the at least one proxy server from the source user agent includes counting a number of received requests subsequent to the call setup request at the at least one proxy server.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, where the at least one proxy server comprises a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) proxy server.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, where the at least one proxy server comprises an H.323 gatekeeper.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

sending a message from the at least one proxy server to a network manager to record the status of a destination gateway.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

forwarding a request failure response to the source user agent upon receiving the request failure response from the at least one proxy server; and

terminating the communication session.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

resending the call setup request to the selected destination gateway a predetermined number of times when the response is not received within the predetermined time.

12. The method according to claim 1, where the routing list includes at least one destination gateway that can handle the call according to status information tracked by the redirect server.

13. The method according to claim 1, where the call setup request identifies the destination user agent by specifying the address of the destination user agent.

14. The method according to claim 13, where the address of the destination user agent includes a real IP address of the destination user agent.

15. The method according to claim 1, where the redirect server tracks status of at least one destination gateway.

16. A system for establishing a call between a calling party and a called party, the system comprising:

a first telephony system including at least one source user agent (SUA);

a second telephony system including at least one destination user agent (DUA);

an internet protocol (IP) network connected between the first and second telephony systems;

a plurality of ingress gateways to interface the IP network to the first telephony system;

a plurality of egress gateways to interface the IP network to the second telephony system;

an IP telephony proxy server; and

an IP redirect server;

where the IP telephony proxy server is to;

receive call setup request from the source user agent, where the call setup request identifies the destination user agent;

forward the call setup request to the IP redirect server;

receive routing information from the IP redirect server; and

select one of the plurality of egress gateways to complete the call based on the received routing information; and

where the IP redirect server is to;

determine a status of a group of egress gateways in response to receiving the forwarded call setup request, the status of a particular egress gateway is determined as one of in-service or out-of-service,

add the particular egress gateway to routing information and record the particular egress gateway as in-service, if the status of the particular egress gateway is determined to be out-of-service and if a time value associated with the determined status is less than or equal to a current time value associated with the redirect server,

not add the particular egress gateway to the routing information, if the status of the particular egress gateway is determined to be out-of-service and if the time value associated with the determined status is greater than the current time value associated with the redirect server, and

provide the routing information to the IP telephony proxy server; and

a network management system to receive and store status changes of egress gateways, the network management system being in communication with the IP telephony proxy server.

17. The system as claimed in claim 16, where the IP telephony proxy server includes a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) proxy server.

18. The system as claimed in claim 16, where the IP telephony proxy server includes an H.323 gatekeeper.

19. The method according to claim 16, where the call setup request identifies the destination user agent by specifying the address of the destination user agent.

20. The method according to claim 19, where the address of the destination user agent includes a real IP address of the destination user agent.