Ribbon Communications Operating Company, Inc.

Sonus Networks, Inc.

Ashish Sharma

Justin Hart

Nagesh Kumar Bollapalli

Tolga Asveren

Kevin Riley

Shivakumar Venkataraman

Amol Sudhir Gogate

Pendyala Satya Ravi Kiran

Charles W Boyle

Ashish Nagpal

Siddharth Gahlaut

The present invention relates to communications methods and apparatus for session load balancing among session processing entities. An exemplary method embodiment includes the steps of receiving from a first device at a Signaling Front End Load Balancer (SLB) a first session initiation request destined for a second device; making a first session load balancing decision at the SLB with respect to the received first session initiation request; transmitting the first session initiation request to a first Session Border Controller (SBC) worker based on the first load balancing decision, the first SBC worker being one of a plurality of SBC workers forming a cluster of SBC workers, making a session mismatch determination at the first SBC worker with respect to a first session corresponding to the first session initiation request; and when the session mismatch determination is that a session mismatch has occurred notifying the SLB of the session mismatch.

Methods, apparatus and systems for cloud native application multi-factor load balancing

The present invention relates to communications methods, apparatus and systems for providing media micro-services in a scalable and efficient manner. In an exemplary method embodiment, a packet plane control service entity performs the following operations: (i) receives a request from a Signaling-Session Border Controller to implement one or more micro-services on a media packet stream, the request including information about the media packet stream including stream identification information; generates instructions for one or more entities under the control of the packet plane control service entity to implement the requested one or more micro-services on the media packet stream; and communicates the generated instructions to the one or more entities under the control of the packet plane control service entity for implementation on the media packet stream.

Communications methods, apparatus and systems for providing efficient and scalable media services

Methods, apparatus, and system for generating efficient cross-layer key performance indicators for monitoring, managing and debugging communications networks. An exemplary method embodiment includes the steps of: generating a plurality of different cross-layer key performance indicators (CL-KPIs) from a set of event data records corresponding to a first period of time and a first base protocol, each CL-KPI in said plurality of different CL-KPIs being for a different failure cause scenario; identifying a CL-KPI in the plurality of different CL-KPIs corresponding to the first period of time and the first base protocol having a highest CL-KPI value and determining a most likely failure cause scenario for said first base protocol to be the failure cause scenario associated with the identified CL-KPI having the highest CL-KPI value.

Methods, apparatus and systems for efficient cross-layer network analytics

The present invention is directed to methods, apparatus and systems for optimizing media paths in communications networks. An exemplary embodiment includes the steps of a first SBC (SBC) receiving a session request including a SDP offer for a session between first and second devices including media stream(s), said request being sent by a second SBC (SBC) and traversing a portion of a signaling path including intermediary device(s), determining that media stream(s) should bypass one or more of the intermediary device(s), generating and transmitting to SBCfrom SBCa SDP answer including at least one of: (i) all SDP media descriptor transport addresses being set to zero; (ii) all SDP media stream connection values being set to 0.0.0.0 and at least one media transport address being non-zero; or (iii) header information or SDP information indicating that at least one intermediary device should be bypassed for the one or more media streams.

Communications methods, apparatus and systems to provide optimal media routing

Communications methods, apparatus and systems for detecting a status condition indicative of a failure of a media processing entity and providing media redirection to increase media resource function availability. One embodiment of the present invention is a method that includes directing, by a first Session Border Controller (SBC), a first media call flow of a first call through a first media content processing entity to a second SBC, detecting, at one of said first or second SBCs, a status condition indicative of a failure condition for the first media content processing entity, and redirecting, by the SBC that detects the status condition indicative of a failure condition, the first media call flow for the first call so that the first media call flow passes through a second media content processing entity instead of through the first media content processing entity without terminating the first call.

Methods, apparatus and systems to increase media resource function availability

The present invention relates to communications methods, apparatus and systems for collecting metrics and/or traffic routing using SDN principles. In an exemplary method embodiment, the method includes the steps of: operating a SBC to: (i) receive a session initiation signal used to initiate a first media session; (ii) send to an SDN controller session identification information identifying a first RTCP packet stream corresponding to the first media session and causing said SDN controller to control a first open flow switch to establish an entry in a table to cause the first open flow switch to send a copy of the RTCP packets corresponding to the first RTCP packet stream to the SBC while also communicating the RTCP packets corresponding to the first RTCP packet stream towards the intended first RTCP packet stream destination.

Communications methods and apparatus

The present invention relates to communications methods, apparatus and systems for providing media micro flow services in a scalable manner using SDN principles. In an exemplary method embodiment a session border controller in a SDN network is operated to receive first signaling information for establishing a first media session, the first media session including a first media packet flow that passes through a first programmable switch of the SDN network; generate instructions to implement a media micro flow service on the first programmable switch through which the first media packet flow passes; and send the instructions to a SDN controller which controls the first programmable switch.

Communications methods, apparatus and systems for providing scalable media services in SDN systems

Communications methods, apparatus and systems for conserving Media Resource Function (MRF) resources by identifying streams of sessions, for example, non-real time streams, which can be routed to avoid use of MRF resources. An exemplary embodiment includes receiving by a SBC a session initiation request from a first device directed to a second device for a session including a plurality of streams; establishing a plurality of routes to the second device, said routes including at least a first route and a second route, the first route not including a media content processing entity and the second route including a media content processing entity; identifying from the streams for the session a first set of streams; said first set of streams including one or more streams that do not require media content processing; and routing one or more of the streams of the first set of streams via the first route.

Communications methods, apparatus and systems for conserving media resource function resources

Described are methods and apparatuses, including computer program products for utilizing emergency procedures to determine location information for a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) device. A wireless access gateway (WAG) determines location information of the VOIP device and stores the location information. A request for a location of the VOIP device from a Mobile Switching Center (MSC) is received by the WAG. The WAG translates the stored location information into a format used by the MSC to receive location information from a Radio Access Network (RAN). The WAG provides the translated location information to the MSC.

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Bengaluru, India

Ashish Sharma