Multiple device association with a single telephone number

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10117090-B2
Application number	US-201514934890-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 6, 2015
Priority date	Nov 7, 2014
Publication date	Oct 30, 2018
Grant date	Oct 30, 2018

Abstract

Multiple user devices may be associated with a single telephone number to enable a user to initiate and receive communication via the single telephone number from any of the multiple user devices. An input is received at a service portal of a mobile telecommunication network. The input configures multiple user devices to share a common telephone number to initiate and receive communications. The input is stored as a device association profile in a device association data store that is accessible by a call session control function (CSCF) node of the mobile telecommunication network. The CSCF node then further determines based at least on the device association profile whether a user device is eligible to use the common telephone number to initiate and receive communications via the mobile telecommunication network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving an input at a service portal of a mobile telecommunication network, the input for configuring a call session control function (CSCF) node to concurrently register multiple user devices to use a common telephone number to initiate and receive communications via the mobile telecommunication network; storing the input as a device association profile in a device association data store that is accessible by the CSCF node of the mobile telecommunication network, the device association profile including multiple IP Multimedia Private Identities (IMPIs) of the multiple user devices that are permitted to use the common telephone number; receiving the device association profile at the CSCF node from the device association data store; determining at the CSCF node based at least on the device association profile whether a user device is eligible to use the common telephone number to initiate and receive communications via the mobile telecommunication network; and in response to determining that the device association profile indicates that an IMPI of the user device is permitted to use the common telephone number, registering the user device to initiate and receive communications through the common telephone number via the CSCF node.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving a registration request from the user device that includes the IMPI of the user device at the CSCF node; sending a request from the CSCF node to a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) of the mobile telecommunication network that includes the IMPI of the user device to obtain an Implicit Registration Set (IRS) that corresponds to the IMPI of the user device; and receiving the IRS at the CSCF node from the HSS, the IRS listing an IP Multimedia Public Identity (IMPU) and multiple associated IMPIs of a plurality of user devices that include the IMPI of the user device.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising registering the IMPU and the multiple associated IMPIs of the plurality of user devices at a Telephony Application Server (TAS) of the mobile telecommunication network to enable the TAS to send communications for the common telephone number to the CSCF node for routing to each user device that shares the common telephone number.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , further comprising:
receiving at the CSCF node an invite message from the TAS, the invite message for an incoming communication that is routed to the common telephone number;
access at the CSCF node the device association profile to ascertain one or more user devices that are permitted to receive the incoming communication routed to the common telephone number; and
directing via the CSCF node the incoming communication to the one or more user devices that are permitted to receive the incoming communication routed to the common telephone number.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the receiving the device association profile includes receiving the device association profile in response to the CSCF node sending a data request that includes the IMPU associated with the user device to the device association data store.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising sending a registration acknowledgement from the CSCF node to the user device in response to the determining that the device association profile indicates that the IMPI of the user device is permitted to use the common telephone number.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising sending a registration denial message from the CSCF node to the user device in response to determining the device association profile indicates that the IMPI of the user device is not permitted to use the common telephone number.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving an additional registration request from an additional user device that includes an additional IMPI of the additional user device at the CSCF node; registering the additional user device to initiate and receive communications through the common telephone number via the CSCF node in response to determining that the device association profile as previously received from the device association data store indicates that the additional IMPI of the additional user device is permitted to use the common telephone number; and sending a registration denial message from the CSCF node to the additional user device in response to determining the device association profile indicates that the additional IMPI of the additional user device is not permitted to use the common telephone number.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the IMPI of the user device is an International Mobile Station Equipment Identity (IMEI), a Mobile Equipment Identifier (MEID), or another electronic serial number (ESN) of the user device.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the multiple user devices include a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)-equipped mobile telecommunication device.

11. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media of a mobile telecommunication network storing computer-executable instructions that upon execution cause one or more processors to perform acts comprising: determining at a call session control function (CSCF) node, based at least on a device association profile, whether a user device is eligible to use a common telephone number to initiate and receive communications via the mobile telecommunication network, the device association profile for configuring the CSCF node to concurrently registering IP Multimedia Private Identities (IMPIs) of multiple user devices such that the multiple user devices use a common telephone number to initiate and receive communications via the mobile telecommunication network; registering the user device via the CSCF node to initiate and receive communications through the common telephone number in response to determining the device association profile indicates that the user device is permitted to use the common telephone number; and sending a registration denial message from the CSCF node to the user device in response to determining the device association profile indicates that the user device is not permitted to use the common telephone number; and
registering an IP Multimedia Public Identity (IMPU) and multiple associated IP IMPIs of a plurality of user devices at a Telephony Application Server (TAS) of the mobile telecommunication network to enable the TAS to send communications for the common telephone number to the CSCF node for routing to each user device that shares the common telephone number.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11 , further comprising: receiving a registration request from the user device that includes an IP Multimedia Private Identity (IMPI) of the user device at the CSCF node; sending a request from the CSCF node to a home subscriber information database of the mobile telecommunication network that includes the IMPI of the user device to obtain an Implicit Registration Set (IRS) that corresponds to the IMPI of the user device; receiving the IRS at the CSCF node from the home subscriber information database, the IRS listing the IP Multimedia Public Identity (IMPU) and the multiple associated IMPIs of the plurality of user devices; and receiving the device association profile at the CSCF node from a device association data store in response to the CSCF node sending a data request that includes the IMPU associated with the user device to the device association data store.

13. The one or more non-transitory comp

Assignees

• T Mobile Usa Inc

Inventors

• Jahangir Zeeshan
• Mufti Shujaur Rehman
• Zaifuddin Sabuhi Kiran

Classifications

• H04W8/18 Primary

  Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data · CPC title

• H04L65/1073

  Registration or de-registration · CPC title

• H04L65/1046

  Call controllers; Call servers · CPC title

• H04L65/1063

  Application servers providing network services (systems providing special services to telephonic subscribers H04M3/42) · CPC title

• H04L65/1016

  IP multimedia subsystem [IMS] · CPC title