Passing information to and from an application server in a communication system

• US 8,516,115 B2
• Filed: 04/02/2002
• Issued: 08/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Westman, Ilkka
• Primary Examiner(s): Ferris, Derrick
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sciacca, Scott M
• Application Number:
  US10/473,300
• Publication Number:
  US 20040088419A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,158 Days
• Field of Search: 709/220, 709/222, 709/223, 709/225, 709227-229, 709/230, 709/232, 709/237
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• 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: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/10 between location register and external networks
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/10 adapted for application session management, e.g. SIP [Session Initiation Protocol] connection management H04W76/00; arrangements for session management H04L67/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/24 between backbone network devices

Abstract

A method for transferring information in a communication system whereby one or more subscriber units may communicate, the system comprising a network having a connection controller, one or more subscriber information stores and at least one application provider, the method comprising registering a subscriber unit with the network, including transmitting from the subscriber information store associated with that subscriber unit to the connection controller information indicative of the access of that subscriber unit to application services: and in order to enable access to services of the application provider, transmitting from the connection controller to the application provider at least one of: a. an indication of the address of at least one unit from which the application provider may retrieve subscriber specific information related to the services of the application provider; and b. subscriber specific information related to the services of the application provider.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

participating in a registration of at least one subscriber entity with a network, wherein the registration includes receiving, from a subscriber information store associated with the at least one subscriber entity to a connection controller, information indicative of a service profile; and

enabling an access to an application service of an application provider,

wherein the enabling comprises determining whether the application provider is in a trusted network, and in response to determining that the application provider is in the trusted network, transmitting, from the connection controller to the application provider located remotely from the subscriber information store, at least part of the information indicative of the service profile, and in response to determining that the application provider is not in the trusted network, transmitting from the connection controller to the application provider at least one of subscriber-specific information, wherein the at least one subscriber-specific information includes registration information other than the service profile,

wherein at least some of the information, regarding whether subscriber-specific information is allowed to be fetched from the subscriber information store, is transmitted from the connection controller to the application provider via at least one session initiation protocol message, and wherein the subscriber information store comprises a home subscriber server.

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

determining whether the application provider is in the same network as the connection controller by at least one of a name of the application provider and a network address of the application provider.

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

determining application providers to which the at least one subscriber entity has access; and

performing the registering of the application provider with the network to provide services to the at least one subscriber entity for at least one of the application providers.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the subscriber specific information related to the service of the application provider is at least partially derived from at least one of a subscriber service profile and a user profile associated with the subscriber entity.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the subscriber specific information related to the service of the application provider is at least partially derived from a service profile that is not specific to an individual subscriber.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the network is under the control of a single operator.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the network is under the control of a plurality of operators operating in a trusting relationship.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the session initiation protocol message comprises a register or a subscribe/notify message.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the network comprises a third generation telecommunication system.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the subscriber entity comprises user equipment.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the application provider comprises an application server.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the application provider is capable of providing an application service to the subscriber entity.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the application service comprises at least one of a multimedia service or call, a session or call forwarding service, a session control service, a messaging service, a presence service, or a group service.

14. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the connection controller comprises a serving call state control function.

15. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following;

participate in a registration of at least one subscriber entity with a network, wherein the registration includes receiving, from a subscriber information store associated with the at least one subscriber entity, information indicative of a service profile; and

enable an access to an application service of an application provider,

wherein the enabling comprises determining whether the application provider is in a trusted network, and in response to determining that the application provider is in the trusted network, transmitting, from the apparatus to the application provider located remotely from the subscriber information store, at least part of the information indicative of the service profile, and in response to determining that the application provider is not in the trusted network, transmitting from the apparatus to the application provider at least one of subscriber-specific information, wherein the at least one subscriber-specific information includes registration information other than the service profile,

wherein at least some of the information, regarding whether subscriber-specific information is allowed to be fetched from the subscriber information store, is transmitted from the apparatus to the application provider via at least one session initiation protocol message, and

wherein the subscriber information store comprises a home subscriber server.

16. The apparatus as claimed in claim 15, wherein the apparatus is configured to determine whether the application provider is in the same network as the apparatus.

17. The apparatus as claimed in claim 16, wherein the determination is performed by at least one of a name of the application provider and a network address of the application provider.

18. The apparatus as claimed in claim 15, wherein the message comprises a register or a subscribe/notify message.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, perform at least the following:

participate in a registration of at least one subscriber entity with a network, wherein the registration includes receiving, from a subscriber information store associated with the at least one subscriber entity to a connection controller, information indicative of a service profile; and

enable an access to an application service of an application provider,

wherein the enabling comprises determining whether the application provider is in a trusted network, and in response to determining that the application provider is in the trusted network, transmitting, from the connection controller to the application provider located remotely from the subscriber information store, at least part of the information indicative of the service profile, and in response to determining that the application provider is not in the trusted network, transmitting from the connection controller to the application provider at least one of subscriber-specific information, wherein the at least one subscriber-specific information includes registration information other than the service profile,

wherein at least some of the information, regarding whether subscriber-specific information is allowed to be fetched from the subscriber information store, is transmitted from the connection controller to the application provider via at least one session initiation protocol message, and

wherein the subscriber information store comprises a home subscriber server.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as claimed in claim 19, the process further comprising:

determine whether the application provider is in the same network as the connection controller by at least one of a name of the application provider and a network address of the application provider.