Lucent Technologies Inc.

Alcatel Lucent

Alcatel-lucent USA Inc.

Kumar Venkata Vemuri

Douglas William Varney

Ramesh V Pattabhiraman

Sarit Mukherjee

Katherine Hua Guo

Ramachendra Prahlada Batni

Peter James McCann

Warren A Montgomery

Tsun-Chieh Chiang

Janet Beeler Douglas

Jeroen Van Bemmel

George Ransom Murphy

The invention includes a method and apparatus for regenerative signaling. Specifically, the method includes receiving at least one base protocol message formatted in accordance with at least one base protocol, obtaining service information associated with at least one network service, and generating, in response to the at least one base protocol message, at least one companion protocol message formatted in accordance with at least one companion protocol. The at least one base protocol message is associated with at least one service endpoint. The service information associated with at least one network service is obtained using the at least one base protocol message. The at least one companion protocol message is generated using at least a portion of the service information. The at least one companion protocol message is operable for controlling the at least one network service in a manner substantially transparent to the at least one service endpoint.

Method and apparatus for utilizing network services in a manner substantially transparent to service endpoints

An exemplary method facilitates automatic recovery upon failure of a server in a network responsible for replying to user requests. Periodic heartbeat information is generated by a first group of servers responsible for replying to user requests. The heartbeat information provides an indication of the current operational functionality of the first group of servers. A second group of servers determines that one of the first servers has failed based on the periodic heartbeat information. The second group of servers is disposed in communication channels between users and the first group of servers. One of the second group of servers receives a message containing a request from a first user having the one of the first group of servers as a destination. One of the second group of servers determines that the message is part of an ongoing dialog of messages between the first user and the one of the first group of servers. Stored dialog information contained in previous communications between the first user and the one of the first group of servers associated with the ongoing dialog is retrieved. Another message is transmitted from the one of the second group of servers to another of the first group of servers. The another message includes the request contained in the message and the retrieved dialog information. This enables the another server to process the request based on the retrieved dialog information without requiring the first user to have to retransmit previously transmitted information that was part of the dialog information.

Heartbeat distribution that facilitates recovery in the event of a server failure during a user dialog

Systems and methods are described for dynamically generating one or more group lists as a sub-group of the contact list by assigning tags to contacts in a contact list. A user may define one or more tags for contacts in the contact list to generate a tag list in addition to the contact list. The tags indicate additional attributes of the contact that cannot be included in the contact list. To dynamically generate the group list, the user enters list criteria, and the tag list is searched to identify which of the contacts in the contact list has tags that match the list criteria. The contacts having tags that match the list criteria are combined into a group list which the user may then access to initiate communication with those contacts, or store for later use.

Dynamic generation of group lists for a communication device using tags

An exemplary method is implemented in a communication system in which periodically updated data for respective end-users is stored in a notification profile at a communication infrastructure node. The updated data is based on conditions associated with each end-user's communication device and its network context, where the data is not presence status. Predetermined rules are stored at the communication infrastructure node and generate respective results based on factors such as network contextual data and corresponding values contained in the notification profile data for each end-user. An event is detected by the communication infrastructure node where the event is intended to cause communication with all the communication devices that are interested in that event. The communication infrastructure node determines an action to be taken in response to the event based on the results of the rules for data associated with the first end-user. The communication infrastructure node implements the action related to the first end-user.

Event notification control based on data about a user's communication device stored in a user notification profile

Cryptography is used to generate a token that both authorizes request processing and establishes constraints on that authorization. A mobile communications device user or client subscribes to an information service of a content provider. A description of the subscribed service is generated. The client applies a digital signature to the description and optionally encrypts the signed description. A token is generated based on the signed description. The content provider presents the token to the request processing entity of a mobile service provider in order to establish trust between the content provider and the request processing entity. The request processing entity decrypts the token and verifies the signature of the client. The request of the content provider is validated through a comparison of the request with the constraints indicated in the decrypted token. Valid requests are processed. For example, a request for location information about the client is fulfilled in order for the content provider to push a local weather report to the mobile device of the client.

Streamlined service subscription in distributed architectures

In an Internet protocol (IP)-based multimedia system having a voice over packet infrastructure call handling involves the execution of a call processing program that controls state transitions in a finite state machine termed the &ldquo;call model.&rdquo; These transitions are representative of the events that occur during the lifetime of the call and result in the execution of pre-defined actions. In order to provide high level Intelligent Network (IN) capabilities to IP end-point subscribers, a call model layer implements the IN call model, but is closely integrated with the IP-based, multimedia call model that runs within the base platform. The integration employs a precisely defined state-level map between states in the IN call model and the corresponding states in the base call model. The IN call model layer is thus able to support access to IN components to permit the existing base of IN services to be easily accessed and to permit the base layer to support client-level interaction and event handling. A call state information is shared between the two layers to enable them to operate in synchrony. State transitions made by one call model finite state machine (FSM) are thus reflected in the other. Services within the IP space may still be accessed by the base call model layer, allowing for access to both IP-based and IN-based services. The IN call model layer can be reused across various base platforms with little, if any, modification making it essentially portable.

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Naperville, IL, United States of America

Kumar Venkata Vemuri