Location-based IMS server selection

• US 9,036,541 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2009
• Issued: 05/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Narkar, Vishal Ashok, Shah, Mehul Jayant
• Primary Examiner(s): HUYNH, KHOA B
• Application Number:
  US12/372,671
• Publication Number:
  US 20100208648A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,282 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/487 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/69 using geographic information, e.g. room number
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1073 Registration or de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1021 based on client or server locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• 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

Abstract

A user location is estimated based on an IP address assigned to the user'"'"'s device/equipment during registration for multimedia application services that are provided over the IP multimedia subsystems (IMS) network. The latitude and longitude information of the user location is obtained based on the IP address assigned to the user device/equipment. Such information is used to determine an appropriate server(s) for establishing an IP multimedia service session. In some embodiments, a closely located IMS server(s) is selected for proxying, interrogating, providing or delivering IP multimedia services. In this manner, each user device/equipment communicates with IMS servers that are located close to the user and thus, the geographically distributed load among the IMS gateway servers can be achieved.

Claims

1. A system for providing Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia services, the system comprising:

a location server including memory that stores data for providing geographic information associated with an IP address; and

one or more IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) servers including memory that stores data, wherein the one or more IMS servers form an IMS subsystem for providing IP multimedia services, the IMS subsystem configured to;

transmit a query to the location server in order to obtain geographic information about a user device, the query including an IP address of the user device, the user device initiating a request for an IP multimedia service;

receive a response to the query, the response including the geographic information about the user device;

identify a region that corresponds to the geographic information about the user device; and

for the identified region,

select, from the IMS subsystem, an interrogation server including memory that stores data that resides within the identified region and corresponds to the geographic information by comparing the identified region for the interrogation server with the geographic information about the user device based, at least in part, on boundary information defining the identified region; and

select, by the selected interrogation server, a destination server including memory that stores data, from the IMS subsystem, wherein the destination server is operable to provide information related to the request for the IP multimedia service and wherein the destination server is selected, in part, according to the geographic information about the user device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein if there are a plurality of destination servers that correspond to the geographic information about the user device, the selected interrogation server selects, among the plurality of destination servers, one destination server that is located close to the user device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the user device discovers a proxy server from the IMS subsystem through an access gateway server.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the access gateway server is configured to:

receive the geographic information associated with the IP address of the user device;

identify a matching region based on the geographic information about the user device; and

select a proxy server that is located close to the user device within the matching region.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the destination server is a serving IMS server having a capability of providing the requested IP multimedia service.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the IMS server is a home subscriber server (HSS) and the destination server is a serving IMS server having a capability to provide the requested IP multimedia service.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein a location server provides longitude and latitude values associated with the IP address of the user device.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the region represents a geographical area defined by the boundary information.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the boundary information includes maximum and minimum values of latitude and longitude.

10. A computer-implemented method for selecting two or more servers associated with establishing an Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia service session for a user device, wherein the two or more servers each include memory that stores data, the computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining registration information initiating an IP multimedia service;

obtaining geographic information about the user device;

determining a matching region based on the geographic information about the user device;

selecting an interrogation server from the two or more servers that is located close to the user device in the matching region by comparing the matching region for the interrogation server with the geographic information about the user device based, at least in part, on boundary information defining the matching region;

forwarding the registration information to the interrogation server; and

selecting, by the selected interrogation server, a destination server from the two or more servers based, at least in part, on the ability to provide information related to a request for service and according to the geographic information about the user device.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the geographic information includes longitude and latitude values associated with an IP address of the user device, the longitude and latitude values provided from a location server including memory that stores data.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the matching region represents a geographical area defined by the boundary information.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the boundary information includes maximum and minimum values of latitude and longitude.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein determining the matching region includes identifying a region that includes a location represented by the longitude and latitude values associated with the IP address of the user device.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising selecting a proxy IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) server from the two or more servers, wherein the proxy IMS server is configured to select the interrogation server for the user device.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein selecting, by the selected interrogation server, a destination server from the two or more servers includes:

determining a second matching region based on the geographic information about the user device;

selecting a serving IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) server having a capability with respect to the initiated IP multimedia service, the serving IMS server based on the second matching region; and

returning the selected serving IMS server information to the interrogation server.

17. The computer implemented method of claim 16, wherein the selected serving IMS server communicates with IP multimedia application servers to deliver the IP multimedia services to the user device and wherein the IP multimedia application servers each include memory that stores data.

18. A subsystem, the subsystem comprises one or more communicatively connected Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia subsystem (IMS) servers for providing IP multimedia services, wherein the one or more IMS servers each include memory that stores data and wherein the subsystem is configured to execute computer-executable instructions that cause the subsystem to:

obtain an IP address of a user device that initiates a request for an IP multimedia service;

determine geographic information associated with the IP address;

identify a matching region based on the determined geographic information about the user device;

select an interrogation server from the subsystem that is located close to the user device within the matching region by comparing the matching region for the interrogation server with the geographic information about the user device based, at least in part, on boundary information defining the matching region;

forward information related to the request to the selected interrogation server;

select, by the selected interrogation server, a destination server from the subsystem based, at least in part, on operability to provide information related to the request for the IP multimedia service and the geographic information about the user device.

19. The subsystem of claim 18, further configured to:

transmit a query to a location server in order to obtain the geographic information about the user device, the query including an IP address of the user device, wherein the location server includes memory that stores data; and

receive a response to the query, the response including the geographic information about the user device.

20. The subsystem of claim 18, wherein the subsystem includes one or more proxy IMS servers and a table representing a relationship between a region and the one or more proxy IMS servers.

21. The subsystem of claim 18, wherein the subsystem includes a table representing a relationship between a region and one or more interrogation servers.

22. The subsystem of claim 18, wherein the subsystem includes a table representing a relationship between a region and a serving IMS server along with a capability of the serving IMS server.

23. The subsystem of claim 22, wherein a region is associated with one serving IMS server that has a physical presence within the region.

24. The subsystem of claim 18, wherein a region represents a geographical area that is a portion of a service area, the geographical area being defined by the boundary information that includes maximum and minimum values of latitude and longitude of the geographical area.

25. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions encoded thereon to select a server of Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia services based on a geographic location of a user device, wherein the instructions, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to:

obtain an IP address of a user device;

transmit a query to a location server, requesting geographic location information about the user device, the query including the IP address of the user device;

receive, from the location server, a response to the query, the response including the geographic location information that corresponds to the IP address of the user device;

determine an interrogation server and an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) server that is located close to the user'"'"'s current location by comparing a location corresponding to the interrogation server and the IMS server to the user'"'"'s current location based, at least in part, on boundary information associated with the location, the user'"'"'s current location estimated by the geographic location information; and

forward registration information to allow the user device to establish an IP multimedia service session with the IMS server.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein the registration information is received from the user device initiating a request for an IP multimedia service.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein the geographic location information about the user device includes longitude and latitude values associated with the IP address of the user device.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 27, wherein a service area for the IP multimedia service is divided into a plurality of regions, each region including at least one IMS server.

29. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the instructions cause the computing device to identify a region which encompasses the user'"'"'s current location.

30. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 29, wherein the instructions cause the computing device to:

obtain boundary information of each region;

compare the longitude and latitude values with the boundary information of each region; and

wherein the identified region has boundary information that encompasses the longitude and latitude values.