Intermediary query manager for 2G and 3G services

• US 7,920,529 B1
• Filed: 07/13/2005
• Issued: 04/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Cingular Wireless LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Espejo, Judith C., Tran, Nhan, Gilbert, Lanny, Mahler, Roger, Bonner, Thomas W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kincaid; Lester
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lim; Steven
• Application Number:
  US11/180,135
• Time in Patent Office: 2,092 Days
• Field of Search: 370/338, 4554321-433
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/103 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/10 between location register and external networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements

Abstract

An intermediary system that seamlessly evolves the 2G/2.5G storage mediums to the 3G entities (e.g., a logical HSS) and provides subscriber data to 3G services such as IMS, from legacy data sources. An Intermediary Query Manager (IQM) is provided that functions as intermediary/broker system, and supports defined standard 3GPP interfaces specific to the IMS system (utilizing the existing storage medium servicing the PS domain) and also allows the continued support of the 2G/2.5G interfaces to 2G HLRs (servicing the CS domain). The IQM provides the capability to leverage usage of the current subscriber databases without requiring extraordinary efforts to migrate subscriber information to a new dedicated HSS element. The IQM provides data from multiple sources and processes requests necessary to fulfill these requests. The IQM can look like a MSC (Mobile Switching Center), VLR (Visitor Location Register), and/or SCP (Service Control Point) to the HLRs depending on the type of queries.

Claims

1. A mobile network data system that facilitates deployment of next generation services by leveraging legacy assets, comprising:

a subscriber-related information source utilized within a legacy network to store user-subscription information for at least one of a call or a session, the subscriber-related information source employed as part of a logical database for a next generation network during deployment of the next generation services; and

an intermediary query manager (IQM) component, implemented as part of the logical database in the next generation network, that interfaces to the subscriber-related information source by employing at least one of a C or D interface and facilitates interoperability between a legacy entity and a next generation entity by providing the subscription information to the next generation entity from the subscriber-related information source, wherein the next generation entity is at least one of a server, a gateway or a function within a next generation core network, and wherein the IQM component at least one of;

receives at least one of an update location message or a registration message from at least one of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC) or Visitor Location Register (VLR), over a Signaling System 7 (SS7) network and forwards the at least one of the update location message or the registration message to the subscriber-related information source over the SS7 network to facilitate update of a user equipment'"'"'s (UE'"'"'s) location in the subscriber-related information source, or

facilitates validation of the UE via communication with a next generation data repository and on validation, forwards a message received from a serving Mobile Switching Center (SMSC) to the subscriber-related information source to facilitate Short Message Service (SMS) communication between two or more UEs.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the subscriber-related information source services at least one of a circuit-switch (CS) domain or a packet-switched (PS) domain.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the subscriber-related information source further comprises a location register that interfaces to PS domain services.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the subscriber-related information source further comprises a location register that interfaces to CS domain services.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the subscriber-related information source further comprises a home location register (HLR) that facilitates access to PS domain and CS domain services.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the IQM component interfaces to the HLR via an SS7 (Signaling System 7) signal.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the IQM component interfaces to the HLR via a realtime communications architecture, which includes SIGTRAN (Signaling Transport) MAP (Mobile Application Part).

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the next generation entity is an Internet Protocol (IP) entity.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the next generation entity is an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS).

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the IQM component communicates with the next generation entity via a protocol that is at least one of SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), RPC (Remote Procedure Call), or CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture).

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the IQM component communicates with the next generation data repository, which includes a database that employs at least one of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) or Structured Query Language (SQL).

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising, a provisioning system that interfaces to the subscriber-related information source and the next generation data repository for at least one of exchange or updating of the subscription information.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the IQM component communicates with a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) application server.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the IQM component communicates with an IMS Service Switching Function component.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the IQM component communicates with a service switching component that provides one or more call state models which define a call processing architecture within an IMS.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the service switching component is an SSF (Service Switching Function) component and the one or more call state models are processed by a CAMEL (Customized Applications for Mobile network Enhanced Logic) Service Environment.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the IQM component communicates with a call session component that provides control and routing functions for IP sessions.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein call session component is a Call Session Control Function (CSCF) component.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the IQM component interfaces with an AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting) service to manage security.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the AAA services is a Diameter server.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for carrying out the system of claim 1.

22. A server that employs the system of claim 1.

23. A mobile network data system for transitioning to a next generation database, comprising:

a legacy home location register (HLR) as part of a logical next generation Home Subscriber Server (HSS) that processes location register data; and

an IQM component as part of the logical next generation HSS that interfaces to the legacy HLR by employing at least one of a C or D interface and facilitates interoperability between a legacy entity and a next generation entity by supporting next generation interfaces specific to an IMS (IP multimedia subsystem), wherein the IQM component provides a capability for the next generation entity to leverage usage of the legacy HLR without migrating subscriber information from the legacy HLR to a next generation database during provisioning of the next generation network, and wherein the IQM component at least one of;

receives at least one of an update location message or a registration message from at least one of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC) or Visitor Location Register (VLR), over a Signaling System 7 (SS7) network and forwards the at least one of the update location message or the registration message to the legacy HLR over the SS7 network to facilitate update of a user equipment'"'"'s (UE'"'"'s) location in the legacy HLR, or

communicates with a data repository within the logical next generation HSS to validate the UE and on successful validation, forwards a message received from a serving Mobile Switching Center (SMSC) to the legacy HLR to facilitate Short Message Service (SMS) communication between the UE and at least one disparate UE.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the logical next generation HSS interfaces to one or more legacy HLRs such that CS domain and PS domain services are processed.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the IQM component interfaces to the legacy HLR via at least one of an SS7 signal or a SIGTRAN MAP architecture.

26. The system of claim 23, wherein the next generation entity is an IMS entity.

27. The system of claim 23, wherein the IQM component communicates with the next generation entity via a protocol that is at least one of Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Remote Procedure Call (RPC), or Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA).

28. The system of claim 23, wherein the IQM component communicates with a data repository of the logical next generation HSS via a protocol that employs at least one of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) or an Structured Query Language (SQL).

29. The system of claim 23, wherein the IQM component communicates with a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) application server.

30. The system of claim 23, wherein the IQM component communicates with an IP Multimedia-Service Switching Function (IM-SSF) component that provides one or more call state models, which define a call processing architecture.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the one or more call state models are processed by a Customized Applications for Mobile network Enhanced Logic (CAMEL) Service Environment.

32. The system of claim 23, wherein the IQM component communicates with a Call Session Control Function (CSCF) component that provides at least one of a control or routing function for an IP session.

33. The system of claim 23, wherein the IQM component interfaces with an Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) service to manage security.

34. A computer-implemented method of evolving a legacy storage medium to a next generation storage medium comprising:

utilizing a next generation interface to communicate with an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS);

utilizing a legacy interface to communicate with the legacy storage medium, the legacy storage medium stores subscriber information associated with multiple Mobile Switching Centers (MSCs);

translating services between at least the IMS and the legacy storage medium by employing the next generation interface and the legacy interface;

providing a portion of the subscriber information to a next generation entity from the legacy storage medium without migrating the subscriber information to the next generation storage medium during transition from a legacy network to a next generation network;

receiving, in a next generation network, at least one of an update location message or a registration message from at least one of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC) or Visitor Location Register (VLR), over a Signaling System 7 (SS7) network;

forwarding the at least one of the update location message or the registration message to the legacy storage medium over the SS7 network to facilitate update of a user equipment'"'"'s (UE'"'"'s) location in the legacy storage medium;

validating the UE via communication with the next generation storage medium; and

forwarding a message received, in the next generation network, from a serving Mobile Switching Center (SMSC) to the legacy storage medium to facilitate Short Message Service (SMS) communication between the UE and a disparate UE, if the validating is successful.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising, routing communications between a CS Domain entity of legacy services and a next generation IP entity.

36. The method of claim 34, further comprising, routing communications between a PS Domain entity of legacy services and a next generation IP entity.

37. The method of claim 34, further comprising, wherein the receiving includes receiving a registration notification from a mobile station via the MSC and the forwarding the at least one of the update location message or the registration message includes forwarding the registration notification to an American National Standards Institute (ANSI)-41 HLR within the next generation storage medium.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the forwarding the registration notification includes forwarding the registration notification across an SS7 network.

39. The method of claim 34, further comprising, processing a location update request via an intermediary query manager (IQM) component.

40. The method of claim 34, wherein the forwarding the message includes forwarding at least one of a short message service request (SMSREQ) or a request for the routing information for the short message (SendRoutingInfoForShortMsg) to the legacy storage medium.

41. The method of claim 34, wherein the receiving includes receiving the update location request that utilizes GSM Mobile Application Part (MAP) technology.

42. The method of claim 34, further comprising, processing a short message service (SMS) delivery request received via the SMSC and retrieving a SMS address from the legacy storage medium.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the processing includes processing the short message service (SMS) delivery request which is between a first and a second mobile station.

44. The method of claim 42, wherein the processing comprises communicating subscriber validation information to the SMSC.

45. The method of claim 42, wherein the processing comprises communicating subscriber validation information to a subscriber data repository.

46. The method of claim 34, further comprising, communicating the short message service delivery request to the SMSC.

47. The method of claim 34, further comprising, communicating the short message service delivery request to the next generation storage medium.

48. The method of claim 34, further comprising, communicating routing information to at least one of the next generation storage medium, a gateway-SMSC or the SMSC.

49. The method of claim 34, further comprising, receiving at least one of an Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) query or an AAA response.

50. The method of claim 34, further comprising, sending at least one of an AAA query or an AAA response.

51. A system that facilitates interfacing entities between a legacy network and a next generation network, comprising:

means for storing subscriber-related information associated with multiple Mobile Switching Centers (MSCs) in a legacy network;

means for interfacing with an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS), wherein the means for interfacing communicates with the means for storing by employing a legacy interface; and

means for translating services between at least the IMS and the means for storing by employing the means for interfacing with the IMS and the means for interfacing with the legacy database

wherein the means for translating provides subscriber-related information to next generation services from the means for storing without migrating the subscriber-related information to a next generation storage medium when the next generation network is deployed,

wherein the means for translating resides within the next generation network and at least one of;

receives at least one of an update location message or a registration message from at least one of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC) or Visitor Location Register (VLR), over a Signaling System 7 (SS7) network and forwards the at least one of the update location message or the registration message to the means for storing over the SS7 network to facilitate update of a user equipment'"'"'s (UE'"'"'s) location in the legacy storage medium, or

validates the UE via communication with the next generation storage medium and forwards a message received from a serving Mobile Switching Center (SMSC) to the means for storing to facilitate Short Message Service (SMS) communication between the UE and a disparate UE, if the validating is successful.

52. The system of claim 51, further comprising means for Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA)-processing via Diameter.