IP multimedia subsystem, proxy session control apparatus, and communication control method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9839063-B2
Application number	US-201415024818-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 22, 2014
Priority date	Sep 24, 2013
Publication date	Dec 5, 2017
Grant date	Dec 5, 2017

Abstract

A P-CSCF ( 310 ) includes a terminating call processing unit ( 311 ) which receives SIP INVITE from an S-CSCF. The SIP INVITE includes an identifier of UE, and is relayed in response to acceptance of a terminating call to the UE. The P-CSCF ( 310 ) further includes: a restoration execution unit ( 313 ) which executes restoration of a subscriber profile linked with the UE based on reception of the SIP INVITE; and an address holding unit ( 315 ) which holds an address of a PCRF included in a response received from a DRA along with the execution of the restoration. The restoration execution unit reestablishes a session between the UE and the PCRF based on the held address of the PCRF, and causes the UE to execute re-registration with an IP multimedia subsystem.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An IP multimedia subsystem comprising:
a serving session control apparatus configured to execute session control of user equipment; and
a proxy session control apparatus connected to the serving session control apparatus and located at an interface with an IP access network, wherein
the serving session control apparatus includes
a terminating call acceptance unit configured to accept a terminating call to the user equipment, and
a terminating call relay unit configured to relay terminating call information including an identifier of the user equipment to the proxy session control apparatus in response to acceptance of the terminating call to the user equipment by the terminating call acceptance unit,

the proxy session control apparatus includes
a terminating call processing unit configured to receive the terminating call information from the serving session control apparatus,
a restoration execution unit configured to execute restoration of a subscriber profile linked with the user equipment based on reception of the terminating call information by the terminating call processing unit, and
an address holding unit configured to hold an address of a policy-and-charging apparatus included in a response received from a routing agent along with the execution of the restoration by the restoration execution unit, and

the restoration execution unit reestablishes a session between the user equipment and the policy-and-charging apparatus based on the address of the policy-and-charging apparatus held by the address holding unit, and causes the user equipment to execute re-registration with the IP multimedia subsystem.

2. The IP multimedia subsystem according to claim 1 , wherein
based on the identifier included in the terminating call information, the restoration executing unit determines whether or not the subscriber profile linked with the user equipment is held, and
the restoration executing unit executes the restoration when the subscriber profile is not held or when the subscriber profile is missing.

3. The IP multimedia subsystem according to claim 1 , wherein
the restoration execution unit executes the restoration in a state where the terminating call processing unit suspends the terminating call to the user equipment, and
after the restoration is completed, the terminating call processing unit processes the terminating call to the user equipment.

4. The IP multimedia subsystem according to claim 1 , wherein
the serving session control apparatus includes an apparatus selection unit configured, when the serving session control apparatus detects that the proxy session control apparatus holding the subscriber profile is not operating normally, to select a proxy session control apparatus different from the proxy session control apparatus, and
the terminating call relay unit relays the terminating call information to the different proxy session control apparatus.

5. The IP multimedia subsystem according to claim 1 , wherein
the terminating call processing unit rejects the terminating call to the user equipment when there is a failure of a transmission line between the proxy session control apparatus and the policy-and-charging apparatus, and
the serving session control apparatus includes an apparatus selection unit configured, when the terminating call to the user equipment is rejected by the terminating call processing unit, to select a proxy session control apparatus different from the proxy session control apparatus.

6. A proxy session control apparatus constituting an IP multimedia subsystem and located at an interface with an IP access network, comprising:
a terminating call processing unit configured to receive terminating call information from a serving session control apparatus configured to execute session control of user equipment, the terminating call information including an identifier of the user equipment and being relayed in response to acceptance of a terminating call to the user equipment;
a restoration execution unit configured to execute restoration of a subscriber profile linked with the user equipment based on reception of the terminating call information by the terminating call processing unit; and
an address holding unit configured to hold an address of a policy-and-charging apparatus included in a response received from a routing agent along with the execution of the restoration by the restoration execution unit, wherein
the restoration execution unit reestablishes a session between the user equipment and the policy-and-charging apparatus based on the address of the policy-and-charging apparatus held by the address holding unit, and causes the user equipment to execute re-registration with the IP multimedia subsystem.

7. A communication control method implemented by an IP multimedia subsystem provided with
a serving session control apparatus configured to execute session control of user equipment, and
a proxy session control apparatus connected to the serving session control apparatus and located at an interface with an IP access network,
the method comprising the steps of:
causing the serving session control apparatus to accept a terminating call to the user equipment;
causing the serving session control apparatus to relay terminating call information including an identifier of the user equipment to the proxy session control apparatus in response to acceptance of the terminating call to the user equipment;
causing the proxy session control apparatus to execute restoration of a subscriber profile linked with the user equipment based on reception of the terminating call information; and
causing the proxy session control apparatus to hold an address of a policy-and-charging apparatus included in a response received from a routing agent along with the execution of the restoration, wherein
in the step of causing the proxy session control apparatus to execute restoration, a session between the user equipment and the policy-and-charging apparatus is reestablished based on the held address of the policy-and-charging apparatus, and the user equipment is caused to execute re-registration with the IP multimedia subsystem.

Assignees

• Ntt Docomo Inc

Inventors

• Tanaka Itsuma
• Machimoto Masaki
• Oonishi Kenta
• Miao Zhen

Classifications

• H04L65/1046

  Call controllers; Call servers · CPC title

• H04L65/1016

  IP multimedia subsystem [IMS] · CPC title

• H04L67/306

  User profiles · CPC title

• H04W76/028 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04M3/00

  Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges · CPC title