Method for implementing terminal roaming and managing in the soft switch-based next generation network

• US 8,195,154 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2004
• Issued: 06/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Original Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Inventors: Mu, Lingjiang, Ge, Jun, Tu, Jiashun
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang, Kent
• Assistant Examiner(s): Eisner, Ronald
• Application Number:
  US11/791,632
• Publication Number:
  US 20080045208A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,744 Days
• Field of Search: 455406-408, 4554321-433, 455436-444, 370331-334, 370/338
• US Class Current: 455/433
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/065 involving selection of the user mobility 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/04 Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]

Abstract

It is a method for implementing terminal roam and management in the soft switch-based Next Generation Network, comprises: a user terminal moving on the IP network, when the IP address changing, the user terminal registering at a soft switch controlling device again, the user terminal attaining the allocated IP address of the said soft switch controlling device and registering at the exchange controlling device, after the soft switch controlling device receiving the register request of the user terminal, it attaining the user data of the said terminal from a database. The soft switch controlling device judges whether the user terminal roaming, if it roaming, the soft switch controlling device further judges whether allowing the user terminal to access, if the user terminal roaming and being allowed to access, then the soft switch controlling device transmits the transmission success response to the user terminal, the user terminal accesses to the soft switch controlling device. This method can provide the function of terminal roaming in the NGN, implementing the roaming management for the terminal, including the roaming right management function, roaming identification function and roaming charge function.

Claims

1. A method for implementing terminal roam and roam management under a soft switch architecture, for implementing the roam and roam management of a Next Generation Network (NGN) terminal, comprising the steps of:

step 1, a user terminal moving in an Internet Protocol (IP) network, and when an IP address of the user terminal changes, the user terminal registering at a soft switch controlling device;

step 2, the user terminal attaining the IP address of the soft switch controlling device, and then sending a register request to the soft switch controlling device;

step 3, after receiving the register request of the user terminal, the soft switch controlling device attaining user data of the user terminal from a database, wherein the database is a database server group, the step of attaining user data of the user terminal from a database comprising one database server in the database server group searching for the user data, and if the database server finds no user data of the user terminal, the database server attaining the user data of the user terminal from another database server in the database server group by the database interconnecting protocol;

step 4, the soft switch controlling device judging whether the user terminal is roaming, and if it is roaming, the soft switch controlling device further determining whether to allow the user terminal to access; and

step 5, if the user terminal is roaming and being allowed to access, the soft switch controlling device sending a register success response to the user terminal, and the user terminal accessing the soft switch controlling device successfully.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the user terminal sending a register request to a default soft switch controlling device according to the attained IP address of the soft switch controlling device or directly.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the user data comprises one or more of user attribute information, home registration information and roam rights information.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the soft switch controlling device determining whether the user terminal roams according to the IP address and the home registration information of the user terminal.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising the soft switch controlling device determining whether to allow the user terminal to access according to the roam rights of the user terminal.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein after the user terminal roams and registers successfully, roam identifications are set on a charge list for all calls.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the database is provided in the soft switch controlling device.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein when the user terminal and the soft switch controlling device are not in a same network, and a traversing device for different form networks is further provided to implement the mutual communication of the control signaling between the soft switch controlling device and the user terminal.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the NGN terminal comprises one or more of:

a terminal supporting SIP, a terminal supporting a H323 protocol;

a terminal supporting Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP) protocol;

a terminal supporting a H248 protocol defined by International Telecommunications Union, Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T), a terminal supporting a Network-based Call Signalling (NCS) protocol; and

an Integrated Access Device (IAD).

10. The method of claim 1 wherein in step 2, the step of attaining the IP address of the soft switch controlling device is realized in a terminal accessing allocator.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the terminal accessing allocator allocates to the user terminal an IP address of a soft switch controlling device to which the user terminal can access at its proximity.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the terminal accessing allocator allocates to the user terminal an alternate IP address of the soft switch controlling device.