Methods and apparatus to select a peered voice over internet protocol (VoIP) border element

• US 9,124,603 B2
• Filed: 08/27/2007
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jackson, James, Ku, Bernard, Yasrebi, Mehrad
• Primary Examiner(s): Jagannathan, Melanie
• Application Number:
  US11/845,387
• Publication Number:
  US 20090059894A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,927 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/5691 Access to open networks; Ingress point selection, e.g. ISP selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/65 Telephone numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/106 across networks, e.g. mapping telephone numbers to data network addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1094 Inter-user-equipment sessions transfer or sharing

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to select a peered voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) border element are disclosed. An example method comprises receiving a session initiation protocol (SIP) message that includes an identifier representative of a location of a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) access border element, querying a telephone number mapping (ENUM) database to identify two or more peered VoIP border elements, and selecting a one of the two or more peered VoIP border elements based on the identifier.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

inserting an additional header field into a session initiation protocol message received from a calling device;

populating the additional header field with data indicative of a location of a first access border element;

querying a telephone number mapping database to identify second and third peered border elements associated with the first access border element; and

selecting one of the second and third peered border elements based on (a) the data of the additional header field, (b) a quantity of hops between the first access border element and one of the second or third peered border elements, and (c) a latency criterion associated with at least one of the second and third peered border elements.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising sending the session initiation protocol message to the selected one of the second and third peered border elements.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the session initiation protocol message comprises a session initiation protocol INVITE message.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the session initiation protocol message includes an identifier that identifies a called party, and the telephone number mapping query is performed based on the identifier.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the telephone number mapping query returns two or more session initiation protocol uniform resource identifiers for respective ones of the second and third peered border elements.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising selecting the one of the second and third peered border element that is closest to the first access border element.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising querying a database to select the one of the second and third peered border elements.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising consulting a policy manager to select the one of the second and third peered border elements.

9. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the second and third peered border elements are voice over Internet protocol border elements.

10. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first access border element is a voice over Internet protocol access border element.

11. A policy server comprising:

an interface to insert an additional header field in a session initiation protocol message received from a calling device and to modify data in the additional header field to represent a location of an access border element of a voice over Internet protocol network; and

a peer selector to query an inter-region mapping database based on the data in the additional header field and to select a preferred peered border element for the access border element based on (a) the data in the additional header field, (b) a quantity of hops between the access border element and the preferred peered border element, and (c) a latency criterion between the preferred peered border element and the access border element.

12. A policy server as defined in claim 11, wherein the interface comprises a serving call session control function service interface.

13. A policy server as defined in claim 11, wherein the interface is to receive two or more peered border element identifiers representative of two or more respective peered border elements that may be used for a requested communication session, and wherein the peer selector is to select the preferred peered border element from the two or more peered border element identifiers.

14. A policy server as defined in claim 11, wherein the peer selector is to:

perform a first query to obtain a first distance between the access border element and a first one of a plurality of peered border element identifiers;

perform a second query to obtain a second distance between the access border element and a second one of a plurality of peered border element identifiers; and

select the first one of the plurality of peered border element identifiers as the preferred peered border element when the first distance is less than the second distance.

15. A policy server as defined in claim 11, wherein the inter-region mapping database comprises a plurality of records, a first of the plurality of records comprises a first identifier representative of the access border element, a second identifier representative of the preferred peered border element, and a distance between the access border element and the preferred peered border element.

16. A method comprising:

inserting an additional header field in a session initiation protocol message received at an access border element of a voice over Internet protocol network, and adding data representative of a location of the access border element to the additional header field, the session initiation protocol message sourced from a calling device; and

sending the modified session initiation protocol message to a call session control function server after selecting one of a second and third peered voice over Internet protocol border element based on (a) the data of the modified header field, (b) a quantity of hops between the access border element and one of the second or third peered voice over Internet protocol border elements, and (c) a latency associated with at least one of the second and third peered voice over Internet protocol border elements.

17. A method as defined in claim 16, wherein the modified session initiation protocol message comprises a session initiation protocol INVITE message.

18. A method as defined in claim 16, wherein the session initiation protocol message is received from a voice over Internet protocol user device before inserting the header field.

19. A method as defined in claim 16, wherein the call session control function server comprises a serving call session control function server.