Method and system for communicating state information between devices of a communications network

• US 7,391,784 B1
• Filed: 12/30/2002
• Issued: 06/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Valtrus Innovations Limited (f/k/a Dolya Holdco 9 Limited) (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: 3Com Corporation (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Renkel, James A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Chau
• Assistant Examiner(s): SMITH, MARCUS
• Application Number:
  US10/334,702
• Time in Patent Office: 2,003 Days
• Field of Search: 370/252, 370/352, 370401-404, 370/449, 375/222, 709227-229, 714748-749
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways

Abstract

A method and system of communicating state information between devices of a communications network is provided. A gateway of a packet network may change operating states during transmission of packets to another gateway. The gateway may indicate the state change to the receiving gateway by sending a burst of messages to the receiving gateway. If the gateway does not respond to any of these messages, the gateway may then send another message to the receiving gateway, which requires the receiving gateway to respond. Or, the gateway may send individual messages to the receiving gateway for a desired amount of time and, if the receiving gateway does not respond to any of these, then the gateway may again send the must respond message to the receiving gateway.

Claims

1. A method of communicating state information between a first entity and a second entity, the method comprising:

(a) sending a first message containing state information from the first entity to the second entity, wherein the first message comprises a state of the first entity, a value indicating the first entity'"'"'s current known state of the second entity, and a value indicating a current known state of the first entity that has been acknowledged as having been received by the second entity;

(b) if after a first time interval, no confirmation message has been received by the first entity from the second entity, resending the first message from the first entity to the second entity;

(c) repeating step (b) until the confirmation message has been received by the first entity from the second entity or until a second time interval expires, wherein the second time interval is at least equal to the first time interval;

(d) if after the second time interval expires and no confirmation message has been received by the first entity from the second entity, resending the first message from the first entity to the second entity requiring the second entity to send the confirmation message; and

(e) if during any of steps (a)-(d) a second message containing updated state information is available before the confirmation message has been received by the first entity, terminating the sending of the first message and sending the second message in accordance with steps (a)-(d).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) further comprises sending a group of copies of the first message in rapid succession from the first entity to the second entity.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein step (c) comprises repeating step (b) by sending subsequent groups of copies of the first message.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the second entity receiving the first message from the first entity and noting the state of the first entity.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the confirmation message is indicative of a current state of the second entity and a value indicating the second entity'"'"'s current known state of the first entity.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the state update message comprises sending a message indicative of a state selected from the group consisting of an audio mode, a voice band data (VBD) mode, a modem relay mode, a facsimile relay mode, and a text relay mode.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first entity and the second entity are selected from the group consisting of a gateway and a MoIP gateway.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises if after the first time interval, no confirmation message has been received by the first entity from the second entity, sending a group of copies of the first message from the first entity to the second entity in rapid succession.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the second time interval is at least equal to a round trip delay.

10. A system comprising:

a first communication device;

a second communication device in communication with the first communication device, wherein the first communication device sends a burst of messages to the second communication device and, after a timeout period, if the first communication device has not received a response from the second communication device, the first communication device sends a message to the second communication device, wherein the message requires that the second communication device respond, and wherein the first communication device sends all messages of the burst of messages to the second communication device in rapid succession, wherein the first communication device sends the burst of messages to the second communication device upon a state transition and to indicate the state transition, wherein each message of the burst of messages indicates a state transition of the first communication device; and

a network device in communication with the first communication device and wherein the first communication device sends the burst of messages to the second communication device in response to receiving data from the network device causing the state transition of the first communication device.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the first communication device and the second communication device are selected from the group consisting of a gateway and a MoIP gateway.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the second communication device is in communication with the first communication device through a packet network.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the first communication device sends messages of the burst of messages spaced by a time interval.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the timeout period is a length of time at least equal to the time interval.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the second communication device sends a confirmation message to the first communication device in response to one of the messages of the burst.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the second communication device sends a confirmation message to the first communication device in response to the message.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein if the first communication device transitions into a different state and the first communication device has not received the response from the second communication device, the first communication device terminates sending the burst of messages and the message to the second communication device and sends a second burst of messages indicating the different state.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the first communication device may transition to a state selected from the group consisting of an audio mode, a voice band data (VBD) mode, a modem relay mode, a facsimile relay mode, and a text relay mode.

19. The system of claim 10, wherein the first communication device synchronizes data transmission with the second communication device.

20. The system of claim 10, wherein the first communication device maintains values selected from the group consisting of a value of a state of the first communication device, a value of a state of the second communication device, and a value of a state of the first communication device as known by the second communication device.