Network support for caller ID verification

• US 8,040,875 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2005
• Issued: 10/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Ruggerio, Raymond Leroy, Benco, David S, McRoberts, Thomas Lee, Barclay, Deborah Lewandowski, Mahajan, Sanjeev
• Primary Examiner(s): Matar; Ahmad F
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rampersad; Vedesh
• Application Number:
  US11/192,676
• Publication Number:
  US 20070036136A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,271 Days
• Field of Search: 379/93.24, 379/114.14, 379/93.23, 379245-247, 37914201-14206, 709/200, 709/230, 370351-356
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0045 involving hybrid, i.e. a mixture of public and private, or multi-vendor systems

Abstract

Caller ID information provided coincident to a Voice over IP (VoIP) call is validated by one or more network devices. An originating router detects an offered IP address associated with a calling party node, for example, upon receiving a SIP Invite message initiated by the calling party node. The originating router determines the validity of the offered IP address and hence determines the validity of the Caller ID information based on the validity of the offered IP address. The originating router sends indicia of the validity to a terminating router, connected to a called party node, by inserting a verification bit in the SIP Invite message and sending the transformed SIP Invite message to the terminating router. Alternatively, the terminating router may query the originating router for indicia of validity. Upon receiving the indicia of validity, the terminating router may notify the called party node and so inform the called party whether it can rely on the Caller ID information.

Claims

1. In a communication system supporting a Voice over IP (VoIP) call, wherein a calling party node initiates the VoIP call by sending a Session Initiation Protocol SIP message to a network device the SIP message including an offered IP address associated with the calling party node, and wherein Caller ID information associated with the calling party node and based on the offered IP address is displayed to a called party node, a method of determining the validity of the Caller ID information, the method comprising the network device:

detecting the offered IP address;

comparing the offered IP address to an actual IP address associated with the calling party node to determine the validity of the offered IP address; and

determining the validity of the Caller ID information based on the validity of the offered IP address, the Caller ID information being valid if the offered IP address is the same as the actual IP address and the Caller ID information being invalid if the offered IP address differs from the actual IP address.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network device comprises a router logically connected to the calling party node, defining an originating router.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the SIP message initiated by the calling party node comprises a SIP Invite message, the step of detecting the offered IP address comprising detecting the offered IP address residing in a header of the SIP Invite message.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the originating router sending indicia of the validity of the Caller ID information to a terminating router, the terminating router defining a network device logically connected to the called party node.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of sending indicia of the validity of the Caller ID information comprises:

inserting a verification bit in the SIP Invite message, yielding a transformed SIP Invite message, the verification bit comprising indicia of the validity of the Caller ID information; and

sending the transformed SIP Invite message to the terminating router.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising the terminating router sending indicia of the validity of the Caller ID information to the called party node.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising the terminating router:

consulting a database to determine if a Caller ID verification feature is active for the called party node;

if the Caller ID verification feature is active, sending indicia of the validity of the Caller ID information to the called party node;

otherwise if the Caller ID verification feature is not active, declining sending indicia of the validity of the Caller ID information to the called party node.

8. In a communication system supporting a Voice over IP (VoIP) call, wherein a calling party node initiates the VoIP call by sending a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message to a network device, the SIP message including an offered IP address associated with the calling party node, and wherein Caller ID information associated with a the calling party node and based on the offered IP address is displayed to a called party node, a network device comprising:

means for receiving a the SIP message and detecting the offered IP address;

means for comparing the offered IP address to an actual IP address associated with the calling party node to determine the validity of the offered IP address; and

means for determining the validity of the Caller ID information based on the validity of the offered IP address, the Caller ID information being valid if the offered IP address is the same as the actual IP address and the Caller ID information being invalid if the offered IP address differs from the actual IP address.