Communication policy frame

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9961109-B2
Application number	US-201313826254-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 14, 2013
Priority date	Mar 14, 2013
Publication date	May 1, 2018
Grant date	May 1, 2018

Abstract

Communication sessions may be initialized by sending an initialization request, and the request may include a frame of policy data identifying permissions, prohibitions and/or rules governing a requesting user or computing device's ability to make calls and use communication services. The policy frame of data may be included with the call initialization request for the session, and may be passed along to multiple nodes that receive the call initialization request.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a computing device, a communication request;
determining multiple call policies associated with the communication request;
generating a header comprising data indicating the multiple call policies, wherein the header comprises a plurality of data fields respectively corresponding to different ones of the multiple call policies, and each of the plurality of data fields indicates a permission level of a respective one of the multiple call policies; and
transmitting a communication initiation request comprising the communication request and the header.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the header is encapsulated in a common packet with the communication initiation request.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmitting the communication initiation request comprises transmitting the communication request and the header together through a plurality of computing nodes between a device sending the communication request and a destination device.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
passing the communication initiation request through intermediate nodes of different administrative domains; and
translating the header from one administrative domain format to another when passing the communication initiation request through the intermediate nodes.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the communication initiation request is a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) invite message, and the header is inserted into the SIP invite message.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising adding the header to a plurality of communication initiation requests for a plurality of different communication computing devices.

7. A method comprising:
receiving, by a computing device, a communication initiation request with a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) header, wherein the SIP header comprises data indicating multiple call policies associated with the communication initiation request, the SIP header comprises a plurality of data fields respectively corresponding to different ones of the multiple call policies, and each of the plurality of data fields indicates a permission level of a respective one of the multiple call policies; and
identifying a next node for establishing communication, and forwarding the communication initiation request with the SIP header to the identified next node.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the multiple call polices comprise information identifying a plurality of international country permissions applicable to a user making the communication initiation request.

9. The method of claim 7 , further comprising determining that the identified next node is of a different administrative domain different from an administration domain from which the communication initiation request is forwarded, and translating the SIP header to correspond to a format used by the different administrative domain.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the SIP header is encapsulated in a common packet with the communication initiation request.

11. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
including the SIP header in the communication initiation request when passing the communication initiation request through a plurality of intermediate nodes between a party initiating the communication and a receiving party, and
removing the SIP header from the communication initiation request prior to passing the communication initiation request to the receiving party.

12. A computing device comprising:
a processor; and
a memory, storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the following to occur:
receive a communication request;
generate a plurality of headers each of which comprises data indicating multiple call policies associated with the communication request, wherein each of the plurality of headers comprises a plurality of data fields respectively corresponding to different ones of the multiple call policies, and each of the plurality of data fields indicates a permission level of a respective one of the multiple call policies; and
transmit a communication initiation request comprising the communication request and the plurality of headers.

13. The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the plurality of headers are encapsulated in a common packet with the communication initiation request.

14. The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the memory further stores instructions that cause the following to occur:
transmit the communication request together with the plurality of headers through a plurality of computing nodes between a device requesting communication and a destination device, and
translate one or more of the plurality of headers from one administrative domain format to another when passing the communication initiation request through the plurality of computing nodes.

15. The computing device of claim 12 ,
wherein the permission level comprises a first level for calls to a first geographic region and a second level for calls to a second geographic region.

16. The computing device of claim 12 , wherein one of the plurality of headers comprises information indicating a plurality of international country permissions applicable to a user making the communication request.

17. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the memory further stores instructions that cause the following to occur:
include the plurality of headers in the communication initiation request when passing the communication initiation request through a plurality of intermediate nodes between a party making the communication and a receiving party.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the multiple call policies comprises permissions for two or more data carriers applicable to a user making the communication request.

Assignees

• Comcast Cable Comm Llc

Inventors

• Khan Sohel
• Boone Jon
• Lambardia Robert

Classifications

• H04L63/20 Primary

  for managing network security; network security policies in general (filtering policies H04L63/0227) · CPC title

• H04L65/1069

  Session establishment or de-establishment · CPC title

• H04L63/0236

  Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL · CPC title

• H04L65/1006

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L65/1104

  Session initiation protocol [SIP] · CPC title