SURVIVABLE PHONE BEHAVIOR USING SIP SIGNALING IN A SIP NETWORK CONFIGURATION

• US 20090245492A1
• Filed: 03/26/2008
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arlington Technologies, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Balasaygun, Mehmet C., Brunson, Gordon, Boyle, Frank J., Petsche, Thomas A., Lauber, Pamela J., Baker, Al, Jenkins, Benjamin
• Granted Patent: US 8,018,848 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/112.10
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1045 Proxies, e.g. for session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1046 Call controllers; Call servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

Provided are methods, devices, and systems for maintaining a SIP survivable User Agent. The present invention is adapted to allow the User Agent to detect the status of the network, thus providing the User Agent to perform failover/failback operations. The User Agent may be adapted to determine the status of the network based on its own monitoring mechanisms and/or based on messages received from other network components.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

triggering a User Agent to monitor a status of at least one component in a communication system, wherein the at least one component comprises a first controller of the User Agent;

sending, by the User Agent, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message to the at least one component; and

determining a status of the at least one component based on a response received at the User Agent.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the response comprises at least one of (i) a SIP message transmitted by the at least one component and received at the User Agent and (ii) a lack of a response message being received at the User Agent within a predetermined amount of time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the User Agent is triggered to monitor the status of the at least one component by receiving a notification message.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

referencing a list of controllers upon receiving the notification message;

identifying, from the list of controllers, at least one controller for which a status check will be performed, wherein the at least one controller includes the first controller; and

sending a SIP message to a component associated with the at least one controller.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the notification message comprises a standard SIP NOTIFY message and wherein all controllers in the list of controllers are included in the identified at least one controller.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the notification message comprises an extended SIP NOTIFY message and wherein the identified at least one controller comprises fewer than all controllers in the list of controllers.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the extended SIP NOTIFY message comprises a set of instructions for execution by the User Agent and wherein the set of instructions identifies the at least one controller for which a status check is to be performed.

8. A computer readable medium comprising processor executable instructions operable to perform the method of claim 1.

9. A communication endpoint, comprising:

a discovery module operable, upon being triggered to monitor a status of at least one component in a communication system, to send a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message to the at least one component and then determine a status of the at least one component based on a received response, wherein the at least one component comprises a first controller of the endpoint.

10. The endpoint of claim 9, wherein the response comprises at least one of (i) a SIP message transmitted by the at least one component and received at the endpoint and (ii) a lack of a response message being received at the endpoint within a predetermined amount of time.

11. The endpoint of claim 9, wherein the endpoint is triggered to monitor the status of the at least one component by receiving a notification message.

12. The endpoint of claim 11, wherein the discovery module is further operable to reference a list of controllers upon receiving the notification message, identify, from the list of controllers, at least one controller for which a status check will be performed, and send a SIP message to a component associated with the at least one controller, wherein the at least one controller includes the first controller.

13. The endpoint of claim 12, wherein the notification message comprises a standard SIP NOTIFY message and wherein all controllers in the list of controllers are included in the identified at least one controller.

14. The endpoint of claim 12, wherein the notification message comprises an extended SIP NOTIFY message and wherein the identified at least one controller comprises fewer than all controllers in the list of controllers.

15. The endpoint of claim 14, wherein the extended SIP NOTIFY message comprises a set of instructions for execution by the endpoint and wherein the set of instructions identifies the at least one controller for which a status check is to be performed.

16. A communication system, comprising:

means for triggering a User Agent to monitor a status of at least one component by causing the User Agent to send a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message to the at least one component; and

means for determining a status of the at least one component based on a response received at the User Agent.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the response comprises at least one of (i) a SIP message transmitted by the at least one component and received at the User Agent and (ii) a lack of a response message being received at the User Agent within a predetermined amount of time.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the means for triggering is activated to monitor the status of the at least one component by receiving a notification message.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the means for determining is further operable to reference a list of controllers upon receiving the notification message, identify, from the list of controllers, at least one controller for which a status check will be performed, and send a SIP message to a component associated with the at least one controller, wherein the at least one controller includes the first controller.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the notification message comprises a standard SIP NOTIFY message and wherein all controllers in the list of controllers are included in the identified at least one controller.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the notification message comprises an extended SIP NOTIFY message, wherein the identified at least one controller comprises fewer than all controllers in the list of controllers, wherein the extended SIP NOTIFY message comprises a set of instructions for execution by the User Agent, and wherein the set of instructions identifies the at least one controller for which a status check is to be performed.