Communication system

• US 7,328,046 B2
• Filed: 02/13/2002
• Issued: 02/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nokia Solutions and Networks US LLC (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Koskelainen, Petri, Kauppinen, Risto, Rajaniemi, Jaakko
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Congvan
• Application Number:
  US10/467,722
• Publication Number:
  US 20040110535A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,183 Days
• Field of Search: 455/561, 455/433, 455/424, 4554261- 2, 455/428, 455/435.1, 455/445, 455/434, 455/435
• US Class Current: 455/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0029 Provisions for intelligent networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

A communication system and a method and a server for a communication system is disclosed. The communication system comprises communication means for providing communication media for a plurality of user equipment, a storage entity (21) adapted to store information that associates with at least one of said user equipment, and at least one service provision entity (28) adapted to serve a client based on information stored in said storage entity. The storage entity (21) is arranged to receive information associated with the user equipment from other entities (22, 23) and to associate said received information with a respective user equipment.

Claims

1. A communication system, comprising:

communication network for providing communication media for a plurality of user equipment;

a storage entity configured to store information associated with a connection status of the plurality of user equipment, the storage entity being arranged to receive connection status information from other entities, associate said received connection status information with a respective user equipment, dynamically store an indication of whether each of said plural user equipment is busy and provide one of said indications for a user equipment to a client service or service provision entity when a request is received from the client service entity without forwarding the request to said user equipment; and

at least one service provision entity configured to serve a client based on said information stored in said storage entity.

2. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the connection status information comprises the connection status of the user equipment.

3. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the connection status information comprises information about a state of a communication session.

4. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the connection status information comprises an indication of whether the plurality of user equipment has an active connection at a given moment.

5. The communication system of claim 1, wherein said other entities are configured to provide at least one of a subscriber server function, a call state control function and a location service function.

6. The communication system of claim 1, wherein an update of the information stored in the storage entity is arranged to occur dynamically.

7. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the at least one service provision entity comprises an application server.

8. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the at least one service provision entity is configured to provide presence information.

9. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the at least one service provision entity is configured to provide an instant messaging service.

10. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the at least one service provision entity is configured to provide a rich call service.

11. The communication system of claim 1, wherein an interface between the storage entity and the at least one service provision entity is based on protocol that the at least one service provision entity uses for communication with at least one other entity.

12. The communication system of claim 1, wherein communication between the storage entity and the at least one service provision entity is protected by a security function.

13. The communication system of claim 1, wherein a user equipment may have more than one session occurring at an identical moment in time and wherein at least two of said sessions are controlled by different network entities.

14. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the storage entity is configured to receive connection status information associated with the connection status of a user equipment from at least two different sources.

15. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the client is one of the plurality of user equipment.

16. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the at least one service provision entity is located in a first network and the client is located in a second network.

17. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the storage entity and the at least one service provision entity belong to different networks.

18. The communication system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of user equipment comprises a mobile station.

19. The server means of claim 18, wherein the server means is configured to provide connection status information about user equipment based on connection status information received from a plurality of elements of the communication system.

20. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the information stored in the storage entity comprises information associated with a geographical location of the plurality of user equipment.

21. A server means for a communication system, said server means comprising:

interface means for receiving connection status information associated with a plurality of user equipment configured for communication via the communication system from at least one element of the communication system;

means for dynamically associating the received connection status information with corresponding user equipment;

means for dynamically storing an indication of whether each of said user equipment is busy such that the information can be retrieved based on an indication of a particular user equipment when a request is received without forwarding the request to a particular user equipment; and

interface means for connection between the server means and at least one service entity, whereby the at least one service entity serves clients based on connection status information from the server means.

22. A method in a communication system, said communication system providing communication media for a plurality of user equipment, the method comprising the steps of:

generating connection status information associated with one of the plurality of user equipment in an entity of the communication system;

communicating said connection status information to a storage entity that is configured to dynamically store an indication of whether said user equipment is busy;

receiving and associating, at the storage entity, said connection status information with the one of the plurality of user equipment; and

providing connection status information that is associated with the one of the plurality of user equipment to a service provision entity when a request is received, whereby the service provision entity is enabled to serve clients based on said connection status information from said storage entity without forwarding the request to one of said plural user equipment.