CACHING OF ANNOUNCEMENTS AT THE EDGE OF A PACKET SWITCHED TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORK

• US 20130315229A1
• Filed: 01/10/2011
• Published: 11/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Noldus, Rogier August Caspar Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 9,319,263 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communication real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM] H04L51/04; selective video distribution H04N21/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1063 Application servers providing network services systems providing special services to telephonic subscribers H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1096 Supplementary features, e.g. call forwarding or call holding systems providing special services or facilities to telephony subscribers H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

A method and an access server operating in a packet switched telecommunication network, such as a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network, for distributing an announcement to user equipment. The method comprises receiving an announcement from a media source, receiving a caching indication from the media source to allow caching of the announcement and sending the received announcement to the user equipment. The access server can cache the announcement in a caching unit associated with the access server on receipt of the caching indication and the announcement. Furthermore a method and a media source cooperating with the access server for generating an announcement and a caching indication to allow the access server to cache the announcement.

Claims

1. A method of sending an announcement to user equipment, by an access server, the access server in use operating in a packet switched telecommunication network, the method comprising:

receiving the announcement from a media source operating in said packet switched network;

receiving a caching indication associated with said announcement from said media source, indicating an instruction for the access server to initialize caching of said announcement;

caching the announcement in a caching unit associated with the access server in response to the received caching indication and the received announcement;

receiving an instruction from the media source to send said cached announcement towards the user equipment;

retrieving the cached announcement from the caching unit; and

sending the retrieved cached announcement towards the user equipment,

characterized in that

the announcement and the caching indication are embedded in an announcement media stream, the method further comprising;

extracting the announcement from the announcement media stream.

extracting the caching indication from the announcement media stream.

2. The method according to claim 1, the method further comprising:

extracting an announcement identifier associated with the received announcement from the caching indication and

wherein caching the announcement is performed using said announcement identifier to identify the announcement being cached.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request from an application server to reserve resources for media transfer to and from the user equipment; and

sending an indication of the announcement being available in the caching unit to said application server on receipt of said request.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

including said indication in a list of announcements being available in cache;

sending said list to said application server.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of retrieving comprises:

extracting an announcement identifier from the instruction to send an announcement; and

retrieving an announcement from the caching unit corresponding to the announcement identifier.

10. An access server in use operating in a packet switched telecommunication network, such as a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network, for distributing an announcement to user equipment the access server comprising:

processing unit;

a memory for cooperating with the processing unit;

a communication unit for communicatively connecting to user equipment, a media source and an application server, both in use operating in the packet switched network, and caching unit associated with the access server for caching announcements, the communication unit comprising a receiver arranged for receiving an announcement and for receiving a caching indication associated with the announcement, and a transmitter for sending the announcement to the user equipment;

a cache control function arranged for caching of said announcement on receipt of said announcement and said caching indication; and

the access server being arranged for performing the steps of the method of claim 1.

11. The access server according to claim 10, wherein the access server is an entity in an IMS network.

6. A method of generating an announcement by a media source, the media source operating in a packet switched telecommunication network such as a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network, the method comprising:

receiving a first instruction to generate an announcement;

sending the announcement to an access server operating in said packet switched network; and

generating a caching indication associated with said announcement;

sending the caching indication to the access server for allowing the access server to cache the announcement in a caching unit associated with the access server;

receiving a second instruction to generate said announcement; and

sending an instruction to the access server for sending the cached announcement to user equipment,

characterized in that

said announcement is send in an announcement media stream, and wherein the step of sending the caching indication comprises embedding the caching indication in the announcement media stream

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising:

receiving an indication of the announcement being available in the caching unit associated with said access server.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said indication is included in a list of announcements being available in cache, the method further comprising:

extracting said indication from the list.

9. The method according to claim 6, further comprising:

obtaining an identifier of the corresponding announcement from the indication of the announcement being available in the caching unit; and

including the identifier of the announcement into the instruction.

12. A media source for generating an announcement, the media source in use operating in a packet switched telecommunication network, such as a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network, the media source comprising:

processing unit;

a memory for cooperating with the processing unit;

a communication unit for communicatively connecting to a media source controller and an access server, both in use operating in the packet switched telecommunication network, the communication unit comprising a receiver for receiving an instruction to generate an announcement and a transmitter for sending the announcement to the access server;

a caching indication generator arranged for generating a caching indication associated with said announcement for allowing the access server to cache said announcement; and

wherein the transmitter is further arranged for sending the caching indication to the access server; and

the media source being arranged for performing the steps of the method according to claim 6.

13. The media source (106) according to claim 12, wherein the media source is an entity in an IMS network.