Method and apparatus for providing session initiator privilege, priority and presence notification for push-to-talk chat group communications

• US 9,031,598 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2011
• Issued: 05/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Inventors: Pai, Madhusudan K., Freytsis, Ilya, Lazara, Dominic, Shankara P.S., Udaya, Shetti, Shrinivas, Wang, Luqing
• Primary Examiner(s): GESESSE, TILAHUN
• Application Number:
  US13/332,920
• Publication Number:
  US 20130165171A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,238 Days
• Field of Search: 455/517, 455/518, 455/519
• US Class Current: 455/519
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• 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: H04M 3/42374 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/45 for Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-to-Talk over cellular [PoC] services

Abstract

A method for providing presence notification for PTT chat group communications includes a server receiving, from a communication device of a member of a chat group, a session initiation message to start a session for the PTT chat group. The session initiation message includes a member-selected priority. The server generates an event notification message that includes an indication that the chat group is active and has been assigned a priority, and sends the event notification message to communication devices of at least some of the other chat group members. Additionally, where a group priority has been assigned to the chat group, the group priority is assigned to the session. Otherwise, the member-selected priority is assigned to the session.

Claims

1. A method for providing presence notification for push-to-talk (PTT) chat group communications, the method comprising a server performing:

receiving, from a communication device of a first member of a PTT chat group, a session initiation message to start a session for the PTT chat group, wherein the PTT chat group comprises a plurality of PTT chat group members including the first member;

responsive to receiving the session initiation message, generating a first event notification message that includes an indication that the PTT chat group is active;

sending the first event notification message to communication devices of at least some of the other PTT chat group members; and

wherein the session initiation message is received from the communication device of one of a subset of the plurality of PTT chat group members and wherein only members in the subset are authorized to start a session for the PTT chat group;

associating a priority level with the PTT chat group, wherein the priority level indicates a priority of the PTT chat group relative to other PTT chat groups; and

assigning the priority level to the session; and

conveying the priority level to the other members of the PTT chat group, wherein the conveyed priority level acts as a trigger for the communication devices of the other members of the PTT chat group to auto-join the session.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the session initiation message is a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) INVITE message, and the first event notification message is a SIP NOTIFY message.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the session initiation message includes an indication of a member-selected priority level for the session and wherein the member-selected priority level is selected by the first member from a plurality of priority levels.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising including the indication of the member-selected priority level in the first event notification message.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

associating a group priority with the PTT chat group; and

wherein assigning a priority level comprises assigning the group priority to the session instead of the member-selected priority level.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning the priority level to the session comprises including an indication of the priority level in the first event notification message.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the priority level acts as a trigger to auto join the communication devices of at the least some of the other PTT chat group members to the session.

8. The method of claim 1:

wherein the first event notification is sent to the communication device of a second member of the PTT chat group;

wherein the first event notification message further includes a status indication for at least one other PTT chat group for which the second member is a member and includes a priority level for each other active PTT chat group for which the second member is a member; and

wherein the first event notification message acts as a trigger to preemptively join the communication device of the second member to the active PTT chat group with a highest priority level, when an auto join feature is activated at the communication device of the second member.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the session initiation message is received from the communication device of one of a subset of the plurality of PTT chat group members, wherein only members in the subset are authorized to start a session for the PTT chat group.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising the server performing:

determining that the session has ended, and responsively generating a second event notification message that includes an indication that the PTT chat group is inactive; and

sending the second event notification message to at least some of the PTT chat group members.

11. A method for managing priority of a push-to-talk (PTT) chat group session, the method comprising a server performing:

associating, by the server, a group priority with a PTT chat group, wherein the group priority indicates a priority of the PTT chat group relative to other PTT chat groups;

receiving, by the server from a communication device of one of a plurality of members of the PTT chat group, a first message to initiate a session for the PTT chat group, wherein the first message indicates a priority level, for the PTT chat group session, that is relative to other PTT chat group sessions and that is different from the group priority; and

assigning, by the server, the group priority to the session instead of the priority level indicated in the initiation message.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first message is received from the communication device of an initiating member, wherein the initiating member comprises one of a subset of the plurality of members of the PTT chat group, wherein only the members in the subset are authorized to initiate a session for the PTT chat group, wherein the members of the subset are specified by an administrator.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein assigning the group priority to the session comprises:

generating a second message that indicates the group priority; and

sending the second message to communication devices of at least some of the other members of the PTT chat group.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the second message comprises an event notification message that includes a status indication that the PTT chat group is active.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the group priority acts as a trigger for the communication devices of the other members of the PTT chat group to auto join the session.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the first message is a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) INVITE message, and the second message is a SIP NOTIFY message.

17. A non-transient computer-readable storage element having computer-readable code stored thereon for programming a computer to perform a method for providing presence notification for push-to-talk (PTT) chat group communications, the method comprising:

receiving, from a communication device of a first member of a PTT chat group, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) INVITE message to start a session for the PTT chat group, wherein the SIP INVITE message includes an indication of a member-selected priority level for the session, wherein the PTT chat group comprises a plurality of PTT chat group members including the first member and wherein the member-selected priority level indicates a priority of the PTT chat group session relative to other PTT chat group sessions;

responsive to receiving the SIP INVITE message, generating a first SIP NOTIFY message that includes an indication that the PTT chat group is active and an indication of a priority level assigned to the session, wherein the priority level indicates a priority of the PTT chat group session relative to other PTT chat group;

assigning the priority level to the session;

sending the first SIP NOTIFY message to a communication device of at least one of the other PTT chat group members sessions, wherein the priority level assigned to the session acts as a trigger for the communication device of the at least one other member of the PTT chat group to auto-join the session;

determining that the session has ended, and responsively generating a second SIP NOTIFY message that includes an indication that the PTT chat group is inactive; and

sending the second SIP NOTIFY message to a communication device of at least one of the PTT chat group members.

18. The non-transient computer-readable storage element of claim 17, wherein the code stored thereon further programs the computer to perform:

registering a communication device;

determining that the registered communication device belongs to a second member of the PTT chat group; and

sending a third SIP NOTIFY message to the communication device of the second member, wherein the SIP NOTIFY message includes a current status indication for the PTT chat group.

19. The non-transient computer-readable storage element of claim 17, wherein the code stored thereon further programs the computer to perform:

determining whether a group priority is associated with the PTT chat group;

when a group priority is associated with PTT chat group, indicating the group priority as the priority level assigned to the session;

otherwise, indicating the member-selected priority level as the priority level assigned to the session.