Method, system and devices for managing user provisioning of a service in an IMS network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9413618-B2
Application number	US-201314083147-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 18, 2013
Priority date	Nov 16, 2012
Publication date	Aug 9, 2016
Grant date	Aug 9, 2016

Abstract

Present invention refers to a method, system and devices for managing user provisioning of a service in an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network. The proposed solution optimizes the dimensioning of Home subscriber server (HSS) according to active users.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for managing user provisioning of at least one service in an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network, the method comprising:
a) acquiring service traffic information of a user for the at least one service from the IMS network at a first server and the first server sending the service traffic information to a managing node;
b) receiving the service traffic information of the user at the managing node;
c) checking in the managing node if said service traffic information of the user meets a set of predefined criteria in the managing node;
d) if the service traffic information of the user does not meet the set of criteria, marking said user as non-active for the at least one service by the managing node and the managing node sending an indication to a configuration server, indicating that said user has been marked as non-active for the at least one service; and
e) after receiving said indication, the configuration server sending a message to a Home subscriber server (HSS) telling the HSS to delete the data of said user, said message including a user identification of said user;
f) deleting the data of said user at the HSS;
g) monitoring, by a detecting node, messages between the HSS and a call session control function (CSCF) server;
h) when the CSCF server receives a request for a communication between a first user and a second user, if the detecting node detects an error message from the HSS to the CSCF server indicating that the data of the second user is not included in the HSS, the detecting node sending a message to the CSCF server indicating that said communication request should be directed to the first server, and the CSCF server forwarding said communication request to the first server;
i) the first server receiving the communication request directed by the detecting node and notifying the managing node,
j) the configuration server sending a message to the HSS including information to register said second user's data in the HSS, and
k) after receiving the message from the configuration server, the HSS registering said second user's data.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising after step h), a step where the first server indicates to the first user, to try again the request for communication with the second user after a certain period of time.

3. The method according to claim 2 wherein said indication by the first server to the first user is a response to a SIP INVITE message sent by the CSCF server to the first server, said response being a 503 Retry After.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the message in step j) is sent from the managing node to the HSS.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the message in step j) is first sent from the managing node to a Network Abstraction Layer and from the Network Abstraction Layer to the HSS.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the message in step j) is first sent from the managing node to the configuration server and from the configuration server to the HSS.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one service is a Rich Communication Suite (RCS) service and the configuration server is an RCS auto configuration server and the user is an RCS user.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the managing node is part of the configuration server.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the message from the HSS to the CSCF server, indicating that the data of the second user is not included in the HSS, is a Diameter Error User Unknown Message.

10. A hardware apparatus comprising a network node configured to monitor messages between a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) and a call session control function (CSCF), server, the network node being configured such that when the CSCF server receives a request for a communication between a first user and a second user and the network node detects an error message from the HSS to the CSCF server indicating that the data of the second user is not included in the HSS, the network node sends a message to the CSCF server indicating that said communication request should be directed to a first server.

11. A system for managing provisioning of users of services in an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network, the system comprising:
a hardware apparatus comprising a first server configured to acquire service traffic information of a first user for at least one service from the IMS network and to send the service traffic information to a managing node;
a managing node, configured to receive said service traffic information from the first server and to check if said service traffic information meets a set of predefined criteria in the managing node and to, if the service traffic information does not meet the set of predefined criteria, send a request to a configuration server for deleting the data of said first user from a Home subscriber server (HSS);
a configuration server, configured to receive the request from the managing node for deleting the data of said first user from the HSS and to send a message to the HSS to delete the data of said first user from the HSS; and
a detecting node, configured to monitor messages between the HSS and a call session control function (CSCF) server, the detecting node being configured such that when the CSCF server receives a request for a communication between a second user and the first user and the detecting node detects an error message from the HSS to the CSCF server indicating that the data of the first user is not included in the HSS, the detecting node sends a message to the CSCF server indicating that said communication request should be directed to the first server.

Assignees

• Vodafone Ip Licensing Ltd

Inventors

• Martinez Perea Rogelio
• Collado Enrique
• Dominguez Rafael

Classifications

• H04L65/1073

  Registration or de-registration · CPC title

• H04L65/1016 Primary

  IP multimedia subsystem [IMS] · CPC title

• H04L41/50 Primary

  Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements · CPC title