CN108702320B

CN108702320B - System and method for providing at least one service to user equipment through multimedia gateway

Info

Publication number: CN108702320B
Application number: CN201780014758.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 罗许瑞亚思·萨德德拉; 尚卡尔·杰亚拉曼; 阿努拉格·索玛尼; 布哈拉斯库马·瑞迪M
Original assignee: Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd
Current assignee: Gio platform Co.,Ltd.
Priority date: 2016-03-29
Filing date: 2017-03-27
Publication date: 2021-01-12
Anticipated expiration: 2037-03-27
Also published as: WO2017168302A1; ZA201805232B; CN108702320A

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention relate to prioritization and analysis of multiple user equipment, multi-party calls and call forwarding services through a multimedia gateway [110 ]. In one embodiment, a method is disclosed, comprising: enabling registration of at least one of the plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] with the multimedia gateway [110], facilitating one of the at least one of the plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] and at least one third party user device [150] to define a prioritization scheme, wherein the prioritization scheme includes at least one custom rule to define at least one of a user device priority and a service priority on the multimedia gateway, and sequentially providing the at least one service to the at least one of the plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] according to the prioritization scheme of the multimedia gateway [110 ].

Description

System and method for providing at least one service to user equipment through multimedia gateway

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present invention relate to the field of communication systems, and in particular, to techniques for prioritizing and analyzing communication services provided by multiple devices.

Background

Currently, with the advancement of various wireless technologies for licensed networks (e.g., GMS, EDGE, HSPA, LTE) and unlicensed networks (Wi-Fi, UMA, DECT, bluetooth, ZigBee, RFID), wireless network operators provide communication services to multiple user devices by sharing the network resources available in the licensed and unlicensed networks; however, in order to provide such services to a plurality of user equipments, fiber to the home (i.e., FTTx) services play a crucial role.

A home gateway is a device that connects a plurality of user equipments to a broadband transmission network provided by a service operator, supports remote control, detection and configuration of the multi-user equipments as a part of a wireless service operator network, and the FTTx service is connected to the home gateway and provides a High Speed Internet (HSI), a media application and a home voice service; furthermore, the home gateway provides wireless and wired multimedia services to users, and as internet protocol networks dominate the market by providing Rich Communication Services (RCS) to the plurality of user devices, the current technology is directed to a home or office environment in which a plurality of user devices are connected to the home gateway to provide internet protocol multimedia services (IMS).

Currently, in a home environment, when an IP multimedia service on the home gateway receives an IMS session call or an RCS-based request, the session or request cannot be forwarded to all the user equipments associated to the home gateway; in particular, the IMS session call is not received simultaneously on all of the plurality of user equipment associated with the home gateway; in addition, there is no mechanism for everyone to receive the call from their respective location in the wireless ecosystem connected to a Fixed Line Number (FLN) at their convenience; furthermore, it is not possible to add any other user device to a conference call using the home gateway, and it is not even possible to set the priorities of the plurality of user devices in order to facilitate collisions.

In addition to the above problems, the home gateway cannot configure one specific IMS call from one specific number only for one set of user equipment.

Therefore, the related art cannot solve the problems of connecting a plurality of user equipments to the home gateway and analyzing, and prioritizing the plurality of user equipments to provide a priority-based communication service to the plurality of user equipments.

Disclosure of Invention

This summary presents some objects and features of the invention in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description, and is not intended to limit the key features or scope of the claimed subject matter.

Embodiments of the present invention may relate to a method for providing at least one service to at least one of a plurality of user equipments, the method being performed by a multimedia gateway, the method comprising: enabling the at least one of the plurality of user equipment to register with the multimedia gateway; facilitating the at least one of the plurality of user devices and the at least one third party user device to define a prioritization scheme; said prioritization scheme includes at least one custom rule to define at least one of a user equipment priority and a service priority on the multimedia gateway; further, the user equipment priority corresponds to a priority of the at least one of the plurality of user equipments transmitting the at least one service, and the service priority corresponds to a priority of the at least one service provided to the at least one user equipment; and sequentially providing the at least one service to the at least one of the plurality of user equipments according to the prioritization scheme of the multimedia gateway.

Embodiments of the present invention may also relate to a multimedia gateway system for providing at least one service to at least one of a plurality of user equipments, the multimedia gateway comprising: a module configured to enable registration of the at least one of the plurality of user equipment with the multimedia gateway; a prioritizer module configured to facilitate one of the at least one of the plurality of user equipment; and at least one third party user device to define a prioritization scheme, said prioritization scheme including at least one custom rule to define at least one of a user device priority and a service priority on said multimedia gateway; further, the user equipment priority corresponds to a priority of the at least one of the plurality of user equipments transmitting the at least one service, and the service priority corresponds to a priority of the at least one service provided to the at least one user equipment; and, providing the at least one service to the at least one of the plurality of user equipments in sequence according to the prioritization scheme of the multimedia gateway; a storage module configured to store the user equipment priorities and the service priorities of the plurality of user equipments.

Further, embodiments of the present invention may also relate to a method for establishing a multiparty call between at least three devices, the method being performed by the multimedia gateway, the method comprising: establishing a first connection between a first user device and a third party device via the multimedia gateway, wherein the third party device is not registered with the multimedia gateway; enabling the first user equipment to establish a second connection between the first user equipment and a second user equipment through said multimedia gateway, wherein the first user equipment selects said second user equipment from a list of user equipment registered to the multimedia gateway; receiving at least one parameter from the first user equipment, wherein the at least one parameter is related to the second connection; and merging the first connection and the second connection by the multimedia gateway according to the at least one parameter to establish the multiparty call.

Further, embodiments of the present invention may also relate to a method for transferring an ongoing call between a first user equipment and a third party device, the method being performed by the multimedia gateway; the method comprises the following steps: establishing a first connection between the first user device and the third party device via the multimedia gateway, wherein the third party device is not registered with the multimedia gateway; enabling the first user equipment to send a transmission request for establishing a second connection between the third party equipment and a second user equipment through said multimedia gateway, wherein the first user equipment selects the second user equipment from a list of user equipments registered to said multimedia gateway; and receiving at least one parameter from the first user equipment, wherein the at least one parameter relates to the first connection; and transferring the ongoing call from the first user equipment to the second user equipment through the second connection in dependence on the at least one parameter.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and constitute part of this specification, illustrate exemplary embodiments of the disclosed method and system, in which like numerals refer to like parts in the various drawings; the components in the drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present invention; some of the figures may use block diagrams to indicate components and may not represent internal circuitry for each component, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that the disclosure of these figures includes disclosure of electronic components or circuitry commonly used to implement such components.

Fig. 1 shows a detailed system architecture [100] for providing at least one service to at least one user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 shows a flowchart of an exemplary method for providing at least one service to at least one user equipment [200] according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 shows an exemplary signal flow diagram [300] for providing at least one service to at least one user equipment according to this first embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 shows an exemplary signal flow diagram [400] for providing at least one service to at least one user equipment according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 5 illustrates an exemplary signal flow diagram [500] that includes modifying a prioritization scheme for a plurality of user devices on a multimedia gateway [110] according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 shows a flowchart of an exemplary method [600] for establishing a multi-party call between a plurality of user equipments at the multimedia gateway [110] according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 7 shows an exemplary signal flow diagram [700] for setting up the multi-party call between a plurality of user equipments at the multimedia gateway [110] according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 8 shows a flowchart of an exemplary method [800] for providing a call forwarding service to the plurality of user equipments through the multimedia gateway [110] according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 9 shows an exemplary signal flow diagram [900] for providing the call forwarding service to the plurality of user equipments through the multimedia gateway [110] according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the invention. It may be evident, however, that the embodiments of the invention may be practiced without these specific details; several of the features described below may each be used independently of one another or with any combination of the other features, a single feature may not solve any of the problems discussed above, or may only solve one of the problems, some of which may not be completely solved by any feature described herein; exemplary embodiments of the invention are described below, as illustrated in the various figures, wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the different views.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a system and method for enabling a user equipment to define a prioritization scheme and enabling a multimedia gateway to provide at least one service to one or more user equipments according to the prioritization scheme.

Further, an embodiment may relate to a method and system for enabling the multimedia gateway to establish a multiparty call between the user equipment and a third party device, wherein the user equipment is registered to the multimedia gateway and the third party device is not registered to the multimedia gateway.

The invention also comprises a method and system for enabling said multimedia gateway to transfer a call between the user equipment and the third party device, wherein the at least one user equipment is registered to said multimedia gateway and the third party device is not registered to said multimedia gateway.

As used herein, the multimedia gateway may include, but is not limited to, an internet protocol multimedia subsystem gateway, a router, a proxy, and any combination of hardware and software, as may be apparent to those skilled in the art.

As used herein, the user device and the third party device may include, but are not limited to, mobile phones, tablets, tablet handsets, laptops, desktops, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), plain old telephone service devices, and any such devices apparent to those skilled in the art; furthermore, the user device and the third party device may comprise input means such as a keyboard, an operating system, a storage unit, a display interface, etc.

As used herein, at least one service may include, but is not limited to, audio call services, video calls, video conference call services, audio conference call services, call forwarding/forwarding services, internet protocol multimedia services, voice internet protocol services, and rich communication services, as well as any such services apparent to those skilled in the art.

As shown in fig. 1, the present invention illustrates a detailed system architecture [100] for providing at least one service to at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160], the system [100] comprising: a multimedia gateway [110], a plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160], a third party device [150], a gateway configuration server [120], an IP multimedia core [130] and a device configuration server [140 ]; the multimedia gateway [110] further includes, but is not limited to, a media multiplexer and conference server [112], a memory [114], a processor [116], a multimedia gateway subsystem [118], a multimedia gateway stack [122], a media/signal converter [124], a registration socket interface [126], a registration module [128], a prioritizer module [132], and a platform interface [134 ]. Details of the components of the multimedia gateway [110] are described below.

Said multimedia gateway [110] is connected to the gateway configuration server [120], the IP multimedia core [130], the device configuration server [140] and other components using an IP network; furthermore, said device configuration server [140] issues the FLN to the multimedia gateway [110] (i.e. a unique identifier of the IMS multimedia service) via a protocol, which in a preferred embodiment may be the tr.069 protocol; the multimedia gateway [110] then obtains configuration data for the specified FLN from the gateway configuration server [120 ]. Using the acquired configuration data, the multimedia gateway [110] registers with the IP multimedia core [130] to provide at least one service to the at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160 ].

Further, the invention comprises facilitating provision of said at least one service on the at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] through a network interface, the at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] obtaining the configuration data from said multimedia gateway [110] and registering said multimedia gateway [110] as a multimedia service capable client when connected to said at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] of the multimedia gateway [110] through at least one of a wired interface and a wireless interface; furthermore, the configuration data acquired by the multimedia gateway [110] ensures that all user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] connected to the multimedia gateway [110] share the same unique identifier of the IMS multimedia service.

In a preferred embodiment, said plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] are connected to the multimedia gateway [110] via the platform interface [134], and at least one user device [160] is connected to said multimedia gateway [110] via the registered jack interface [126 ].

The wireless interface as used herein may include, but is not limited to, cellular radio access technology, bluetooth interface, ZigBee interface, infrared interface, and any similar interface apparent to those skilled in the art.

The wired interface as used herein may include, but is not limited to, an ethernet cable, a registered jack cable, and any similar interface apparent to those skilled in the art.

Said configuration data as used herein may include, but is not limited to, a unique identifier of the at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160], the assigned unique identifier being used for IP multimedia services to provide at least one service and any similar identifier apparent to a person skilled in the art.

The invention further comprises a registration module [128] residing in said multimedia gateway [110] and being configurable to cause at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] to register with said multimedia gateway [110] for providing at least one service, the at least one equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] using the web portal being registered with said multimedia gateway [110 ]; -upon registration of the at least one device [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] with said multimedia gateway [110], said multimedia gateway [110] providing at least one service to the at least one device [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160 ]; the multimedia gateway [110] provides each registered user equipment with at least one of a unique identifier based on an equipment identifier and a universal identifier (i.e. user alias) to identify the at least one equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] and to authenticate the at least one equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] on the at least one service.

Said multimedia gateway subsystem [118] is a core component of the multimedia gateway [110] and may be configured to handle the at least one service session, configuration data related to the at least one service, signaling between the at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] and the multimedia gateway [110], and media transcoding; furthermore, the multimedia gateway subsystem [118] may be further configured to handle media stream conversion and video frame integration from multiple to one user equipment.

Said prioritizer module [132] may be configured to handle all priorities and analysis related information of the at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160], the priority and analysis related information of the at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] may be configured by at least one of said at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] registered to the multimedia gateway [110] and may also be configured by the third party equipment [150], which may not be registered to the multimedia gateway [110], and which third party equipment [150] may configure the priorities and analyze related information through the multimedia gateway [110 ]; further, one device setting a priority for receiving at least one service for the at least one user device [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] is an administrator with unique rights to set rules to the prioritizer module [132 ]; details for setting the priority of the at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] are explained below.

The platform interface [134] and the multimedia gateway stack [122] may be configured to handle chat sessions between a plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E ], an address book of at least one user device [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E ], group chat between a plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E ], presence status of the at least one user device [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E ], invocation and capacity of each session and content sharing.

The media multiplexer and conference server [112] may be configured to convert digital information flowing from the IP multimedia core [130] to analog information and provide the analog information to the at least one device [160 ].

The registration socket interface [126] may be configured to provide an interface between the POTS equipment and the multimedia gateway [110 ].

The multimedia gateway stack [122] may be configured to register with the multimedia gateway [110] on behalf of the at least one device [160] and to provide the at least one service to the at least one device [160 ].

The media/signal converter [124] may be configured to multiplex all or part of the video and audio streams from the at least one user device [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160 ].

The memory [114] may be configured to store and maintain information about the at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] and the at least one service provided to them. The memory [114] may include, but is not limited to, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, remote storage, cloud storage, high speed random access memory, and/or non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, one or more optical storage devices, and/or flash memory (e.g., NAND, NOR), or a combination thereof.

The processor [116] as used herein may include, but is not limited to, a processor or a group of processors configured to perform operations, such as a microprocessor, a multi-core microprocessor, a digital signal processor, a collection of electronic circuits, or a combination thereof.

The modules and/or components discussed herein may exist in hardware or software for performing the functions described herein. The connections between each module and/or component shown in the figures are exemplary and may be connected in other possible ways.

As shown in fig. 2, the present invention comprises an exemplary method [200] for providing at least one service to said at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160], comprising in the following detailed method steps involved in providing at least one service to said at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160], said method being initiated by step 202.

In step 204, the multimedia gateway [110] allows registering the at least one of the plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160], the at least one of the plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] may register with the multimedia gateway [110] through the network interface, and identify the at least one of the plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] to the multimedia gateway [110 ].

At step 206, said multimedia gateway [110] facilitates the at least one of the plurality of user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] and one of the at least one third party user equipment [150] to define a prioritization scheme; in particular, the plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] may be registered with the multimedia gateway [110], and the third party user device [150] may be a device not registered with the multimedia gateway [110 ]; in an exemplary embodiment, the prioritization scheme may be set forth for at least one of the plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] and one of the at least one third party user device [150] by the following table 1.1:

TABLE 1.1

Priority level

Type (B)

Size of

User equipment

1

Group of groups

2

110A

160

2

Alone

1

110D

3

Group of groups

3

110B

110C

110E

As seen in the above defined prioritization scheme, said user equipments [110A and 160] may be set to a first priority for receiving at least one service by the multimedia gateway [110 ]; the first priority as defined herein is a group type that prioritizes in a group of more than one device. Further, said user equipment [110D ] may be set to a second priority for receiving at least one service by the multimedia gateway [110 ]; the second priority as defined herein is one single type that sets priority at only one device; the

user equipment

110B,110C and 110E may then be set to a third priority for receiving at least one service by the multimedia gateway [110 ]; the third priority as defined herein is also a group type that prioritizes in a group of more than one device; further, both of the

user equipments

110A and 160 may initially receive the at least one service simultaneously according to the priority sequence defined in the prioritization scheme; then, after the

user equipment

110A and 160 stop receiving the at least one service, the user equipment 110D may receive the at least one service; finally, all

user equipments

110B,110C and 110E may receive the at least one service simultaneously after the user equipment 110 stops receiving the at least one service.

The prioritization scheme further includes an analysis of the at least one of the plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160 ]. The configuration of the at least one of the plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] comprises storing information associated with the at least one of the plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160], which may be personal information, such as a name, a date of birth associated with the at least one device.

In step 208, the multimedia gateway [110] provides the at least one service to at least one of the plurality of user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] in sequence according to the prioritization scheme defined by the at least one of the plurality of user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] and the at least one third party user equipment [150], and then the method [200] ends with step 210; furthermore, the at least one service may be provided to the plurality of user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] according to a predefined packet of the plurality of user equipments of said multimedia gateway, wherein the packet may be allocated to the at least one equipment according to said prioritization scheme.

As shown in fig. 3, the present invention comprises a signal flow diagram [300] for providing at least one service to at least one of said plurality of user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] according to a first embodiment, said signal flow initiating a call invitation by the IP multimedia core [130] to said multimedia gateway [110] in step 302, with reference to the prioritization scheme defined above.

The multimedia gateway [110] according to said defined prioritization scheme may send the call invitation to the at least one user equipment [160] in step 304, and said at least one user equipment [160] may start ringing and acknowledge the ringing to the multimedia gateway [110] in step 308, said multimedia gateway [110] in turn acknowledging the sent ringing to the IP multimedia core [130] in step 306.

The multimedia gateway [110] according to the defined prioritization scheme may simultaneously send the call invitation to the user equipment [110A ] at step 310, and the user equipment [110A ] may simultaneously start ringing and acknowledge receipt of the ringing to the multimedia gateway [110] at step 312.

At step 314, both user devices [110A and 160] may start ringing simultaneously according to this first priority in the prioritization scheme described above.

The user equipment [110A ] may accept the call invitation from the multimedia gateway [110] in step 316, and the receipt of the ringing is acknowledged by the user equipment [110A ] to the multimedia gateway [110] in step 318.

At step 320, the multimedia gateway [110] may stop or cancel the call ringing with the at least one user equipment [160] after receiving the confirmation of the call invitation from the user equipment [110A ].

At step 322, said at least one user equipment [160] may send an acknowledgement to the multimedia gateway [110] to stop or cancel said call ringing with the at least one user equipment [160 ].

In step 324, the multimedia gateway [110] may provide at least one service to the user equipment [110A ] as the user equipment [110A ] accepts the call invitation.

As shown in fig. 4, the present invention comprises a signal flow diagram [400] for providing at least one service to at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] according to a second embodiment, the signal flow initiated by the IP multimedia core [130] in step 402 may send a call invitation to the multimedia gateway [110] with reference to the above defined prioritization scheme.

In

steps

404 and 406, the multimedia gateway [110] may send a call invitation to the user equipment [110A, 160] and acknowledge receipt of the ringing by the user equipment [110A, 160] to the multimedia gateway [110 ].

At step 408, both user devices [110A and 160] may start ringing simultaneously according to this first priority in the prioritization scheme described above.

In

steps

410 and 412, said multimedia gateway [110] may cancel or stop said ringing of the user equipment [110A, 160] when the user equipment [110A, 160] does not answer said call before a predetermined amount of time; in a preferred embodiment, said predetermined amount of time may be defined as 30 seconds, after which said multimedia gateway [110] may cancel or stop said ringing of the user equipment [110A, 160 ].

In step 414, the multimedia gateway [110] may send a call invitation to the user equipment [110D ] and acknowledge receipt of the ringing by the user equipment [110D ] to the multimedia gateway [110] according to the second priority set in the above-described prioritization scheme.

In step 416, the user equipment [110D ] does not receive the call until the predetermined amount of time.

In step 418, the multimedia gateway [110] may cancel or stop the ringing of the user equipment [110D ] when the user equipment [110D ] does not answer the call before the predetermined amount of time.

In

steps

420, 422 and 424, according to the third priority set in the above-mentioned prioritization scheme, the multimedia gateway [110] may send a call invitation to the user equipment [110B,110C, &110E ], and the user equipment [110B,110C, &110E ] confirms receipt of the ringing to the multimedia gateway [110 ].

At step 426, the user equipments [110B,110C, &110E ] may start ringing simultaneously according to the third priority in the above-mentioned prioritization scheme.

The user equipment [110E ] may accept the call invitation at step 428 and acknowledge receipt of the ringing to the multimedia gateway [110] by the user equipment [110E ] at step 430.

When the user equipment [110E ] accepts the call invitation, the multimedia gateway [110] may cancel or stop the ringing of the user equipment [110B,110C ] in

steps

430 and 432.

At step 434, the multimedia gateway [110] may provide at least one service to the user equipment [110E ] when the user equipment [110E ] accepts the call invitation.

As shown in fig. 5, the present invention illustrates an exemplary signal flow diagram [500] for modifying the prioritization scheme of the at least one device in the multimedia gateway [110], the signal flow being initiated by step 502 with reference to the prioritization scheme defined above, the gateway configuration server [120] may send configuration data of the at least one user device [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] to the multimedia gateway [110 ].

In step 504, the user equipment [110A ] may send a request to access a prioritization and analysis scheme of at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] of the multimedia gateway [110 ]; in an alternative embodiment, the user equipment [110B,110C,110D,110E,114] and the third party user equipment [150] may send a request to the multimedia gateway [110] to access a prioritization and analysis scheme, and the multimedia gateway [110] may provide access to a list upon authentication; furthermore, in one embodiment of the invention, the multimedia gateway [110] may provide access to the user equipment [110A ] through at least one network interface, the at least one user equipment [110A ] may autonomously authorize and access a prioritization and analysis scheme for user equipment [110B,110C,110D,110E,114] registered to the multimedia gateway [110 ]; furthermore, the at least one user equipment [110A ] may modify the group/user and the priority associated with the registered user equipment, the modifications made by the at least one user equipment [110A ] may be pushed by the gateway configuration server [120] to the multimedia gateway [110] so that the multimedia gateway [110] may apply the modified prioritization and analysis scheme to at least one service.

In another embodiment of the invention, said multimedia gateway [110] may enable the network interface on the at least one user equipment [110A ], obtain said modified prioritization and analysis scheme from said multimedia gateway [110 ]; if the at least one user equipment [110A ] compiles the prioritization and analysis scheme in the multimedia gateway [110], this information may be updated in the gateway configuration server [120 ].

At step 506, the multimedia gateway [110] may provide access to the user equipment [110A ] for accessing the prioritization and analysis scheme of at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160 ].

At step 508, the user equipment [110A ] may begin modifying the prioritization and analysis scheme of at least one user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] and upon completion of the modification to the prioritization and analysis scheme, may transmit the modified prioritization and analysis scheme to the multimedia gateway [110 ].

Upon receipt of the modified prioritization and analysis scheme by the multimedia gateway [110], the multimedia gateway [110] may send the modified prioritization and analysis scheme to the gateway configuration server [120] at step 510.

At step 512, the gateway configuration server [120] may send a one-time password to an alternate mobile number [550] of the registered user device [110A ].

At step 514, the user device [110A ] may receive the one-time password at the alternate mobile number [550] and may send the one-time password to the multimedia gateway [110] by entering the received one-time password through the at least one user device [110A ].

The multimedia gateway [110] may further send the onetime password to the gateway configuration server [120] for authentication based on the onetime password at step 516.

The one-time password provided by the user device [110A ] may be verified by a server [530] at step 518 to ensure that the authenticated and registered user device can modify the prioritization and analysis scheme. The server [530] may match the one-time password provided by the user device with the one-time password received on the alternate mobile number; if the one-time password provided by the user device [110A ] matches the one-time password received on the alternate mobile number, the server [530] authenticates the user device [110A ] as an authenticated user; otherwise, the server [530] disables the user equipment [110A ] to modify the prioritization and analysis scheme.

At step 520, the gateway configuration server [120] may provide confirmation to the multimedia gateway [110] upon a match of the one-time password provided by the user equipment and the one-time password received on the alternative mobile number, modify the prioritization and analysis scheme upon the authentication performed by the server [530], the modifications made to the prioritization and analysis scheme may be stored in the memory [114 ].

The multimedia gateway [110] may in turn provide an acknowledgement to the user equipment [110A ] for modifying the prioritization and analysis scheme based on the authentication performed by the server [530], step 522. The server [530] may or may not be part of the multimedia gateway [110 ]; in a preferred embodiment, the server [530] may be a third party server for authenticating registered user devices.

The modifications to the prioritization and analysis scheme used herein may include, but are not limited to, adding at least one new user device to the list, deleting the at least one user device [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] in the list, changing the priority assigned to one user device, grouping different priorities of different devices and any such modifications apparent to those skilled in the art.

As shown in fig. 6, the third embodiment according to the present invention comprises an exemplary method flow diagram [600] for setting up a multiparty call between a plurality of user equipments in said multimedia gateway [110], said method flow being initiated by step 602.

In step 604, the multimedia gateway [110] may establish a first connection between the at least one first user equipment [110A ] and the third party device [150] through the multimedia gateway, the connection being established by sending a connection request from the at least one first user equipment [110A ].

In step 606, said multimedia gateway [110] may enable the at least one first user equipment [110A ] to establish a second connection between said at least one first user equipment [110A ] and at least one second user equipment [110B ]; said multimedia gateway [110] may further enable the user equipment [110A ] to select any user equipment from a list of registered user equipments [110B,110C,110D,110E,160] to establish said second connection; the list of registered user devices [110B,110C,110D,110E,160] is accessed through the user device [110A ] and through at least one web portal of at least one user device [110A ].

In step 608, the multimedia gateway [110] may receive at least one parameter from the at least one first user equipment [110A ]; in one embodiment, said at least one parameter may be one of a reference identifier of the second connection and a session identifier associated with the second connection.

In step 610, the multimedia gateway [110] may establish the multiparty call by merging the first connection and the second connection in accordance with the at least one parameter; the method [600] then ends at step 612.

As shown in fig. 7, the third embodiment according to the present invention comprises a signal flow diagram [700] for establishing said multi-party call between a plurality of user equipments in said multimedia gateway [110], said signal flow diagram [700] being initiated by step 702, establishing a multi-party call between the at least one equipment [110A ] and the third party equipment [150] through said multimedia gateway [110 ].

In step 704, the user equipment [110A ] may send a request to the multimedia gateway [110] to add the user equipment [110B ] to the multi-party call, the user equipment [110A ] may select any user equipment from a list of registered user equipments [110B,110C,110D,110E,160] to add to the multi-party call, the list of registered user equipments [110B,110C,110D,110E,160] being accessed through the user equipment [110A ] and through the at least one web portal of the at least one user equipment [110A ].

At step 706, the multimedia gateway [110] may send an acknowledgement for receiving the request from the user equipment [110A ] to add the user equipment [110B ] to the multi-party call.

In

steps

708A and 708B, the multimedia gateway [110] may keep the multiparty call between the at least one device [110A ] and the multimedia gateway [110] in a standby state; furthermore, the multimedia gateway [110] may also keep the multi-party call between the multimedia gateway [110] and the third party device [150] in a standby state.

In step 710, said multimedia gateway [110] may cause said user equipment [110A ] to establish a connection between the user equipment [110A ] and the user equipment [110B ], said user equipment [110A ] may send a request to the user equipment [110B ] through said multimedia gateway [110] for establishing said connection; thus, the multimedia gateway [110] can establish the connection between the user equipment [110A ] and the user equipment [110B ].

At step 712, the multimedia gateway [110] may maintain a connection between the user equipment [110A ] and the user equipment [110B ] in order for the user equipment [110A ] to communicate with the media multiplexer and conference server [112] at step 714.

At step 716, the multimedia gateway [110] may receive at least one parameter from the at least first user equipment [110A ]; in one embodiment, said at least one parameter may be one of a reference identifier of said connection between the user equipment [110A ] and the user equipment [110B ] and a session identifier associated with said connection between the user equipment [110A ] and the user equipment [110B ].

At step 718, the media multiplexer and conference server [112] may receive from the multimedia gateway [110] at least one parameter associated with the connection between the user equipment [110A ] and the user equipment [110B ].

In step 720, the media multiplexer and conference server [112] may communicate with the user device [110B ] in accordance with the at least one parameter, and may further send a notification to the user device [110A ] for communication with the user device [110B ].

In step 722, the user device [110A ] may disconnect the connection between the user device [110A ] and the user device [110B ] in accordance with the notification received from the media multiplexer and conference server [112 ].

At step 724, the user device [110A ] may resume the call placed on hold with the third party device [150 ].

The multimedia gateway [110] may then establish the multiparty call between the user device [110A ], the user device [110B ] and the third party device [150] at step 726.

As shown in fig. 8, the fourth embodiment according to the present invention comprises an exemplary method flow diagram [800] for providing a call forwarding service to the plurality of user equipments through said multimedia gateway [110], said method flow being initiated by step 802.

At step 804, the multimedia gateway [110] may establish a first connection between at least the first user equipment [110A ] and the third party device [150] through the multimedia gateway. The first connection may be established by sending a connection request from the at least first user equipment [110A ].

At step 806, the multimedia gateway [110] may cause the at least first user equipment [110A ] to send a transfer request for establishing a second connection between the third party equipment [150] and at least second user equipment [110B ].

At step 808, the multimedia gateway [110] may receive at least one parameter from the at least first user equipment [110A ]; in one embodiment, the at least one parameter may be one of a reference identifier of the first connection and a session identifier associated with the first connection.

In step 810, the multimedia gateway [110] may transfer the ongoing call from the at least first user equipment [110A ] to the at least second user equipment [110B ] over the second connection depending on the at least one parameter, and then the method [800] to step 812 end.

As shown in fig. 9, a fourth embodiment according to the present invention comprises a signal flow diagram [900] for providing the call forwarding service to the plurality of user equipments through the multimedia gateway [110], the signal flow diagram [900] initiated by the IP multimedia core [130] at step 902 enabling to set up a call between the user equipment [110A ] and the third party equipment [150 ].

In step 904, said user equipment [110A ] may provide a confirmation to the third party device through said multimedia gateway [110 ]; alternatively, the third party device [150] may provide a confirmation to the user equipment [110A ] through the multimedia gateway [110 ].

In step 906, said user equipment [110A ] may send a transfer request to said multimedia gateway [110] for transferring said call established between the user equipment [110A ] and the third party device [150] from the user equipment [110A ] to the user equipment [110B ], said user equipment [110A ] may select any user equipment from a list of registered user equipment [110B,110C,110D,110E,160] for transferring said call from the user equipment [110A ] to the user equipment [110B ]; said user device [110A ] accesses said list of registered user devices [110B,110C,110D,110E,160] through the at least one web portal of said at least one user device [110A ].

At step 908, the multimedia gateway [110] may provide an acknowledgement to the user equipment [110A ] to receive the transfer request transferring the call from the user equipment [110A ] to the user equipment [110B ].

At step 910, said multimedia gateway [110] may receive at least one parameter from the at least first user equipment [110A ], in one embodiment said at least one parameter may be one of a reference identifier of said call established between the user equipment [110A ] and the third party device [150] and a session identifier associated with said call established between the user equipment [110A ] and the third party device [150 ].

In step 912, the multimedia gateway [110] may provide an acknowledgement to the user equipment [110A ] for receiving the at least one parameter of the call established between the user equipment [110A ] and the third party device [150 ].

In step 914, the multimedia gateway [110] may maintain the call established between the user equipment [110A ] and the third party device [150] in a standby state.

In step 916, the multimedia gateway [110] may communicate with the user equipment [110B ] to establish a connection with the user equipment [110B ].

At step 918, the user equipment [110B ] may provide an acknowledgement to the multimedia gateway [110] upon establishing a connection with the user equipment [110B ]; alternatively, the multimedia gateway [110] may provide an acknowledgement to the user equipment [110B ].

At step 920, the user equipment [110A ] may disconnect the call or connection with the multimedia gateway [110 ].

Once the user equipment [110A ] disconnects the call from the multimedia gateway [110], the multimedia gateway [110] may resume the call with the third party equipment [150] at step 922.

At step 924, the third party device [150] may provide an acknowledgement to the multimedia gateway [110] upon resuming the call with the third party device [150 ]; alternatively, the multimedia gateway [110] may provide an acknowledgement to the third party device [150 ].

At step 926, the multimedia gateway [110] establishes a call and/or connection between the user device [110B ] and the third party device [150 ].

Although the invention has been described with respect to the above-referenced example, where said first, second and third priorities are defined for the user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] only, it will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that the invention is also applicable in scenarios where an unlimited number of priorities may be defined for N user equipments.

Although a limited number of user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160], a prioritization scheme, multimedia gateways [110], and links/connections/calls/requests/interfaces/communications have been shown in the figure; however, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the system [100] of the present invention comprises any number and type of entities/elements, such as user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160], a prioritization scheme, a multimedia gateway [110] and a link/connection/call/request/interface/communication.

While considerable emphasis has been placed herein on the embodiments disclosed, it will be appreciated that many changes can be made in the embodiments without departing from the principles of the invention; these and other variations upon embodiments of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and it is, therefore, to be understood that the foregoing descriptive matter is to be illustrative and not restrictive.

Claims

1. A method for providing at least one service to at least one of a plurality of user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160], the method being performed by a multimedia gateway [110], the method comprising:

-enabling registration of the at least one of the plurality of user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] with the multimedia gateway [110 ];

facilitating one of the at least one of the plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] and at least one third party user device [150] to define a prioritization scheme;

the method is characterized in that:

said multimedia gateway [110] transmitting at least one configuration data to the at least one of the plurality of user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160], said configuration data comprising at least one unique identifier of the at least one of the plurality of user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160],

the prioritization scheme includes at least one custom rule to define at least one of a user equipment priority and a service priority on the multimedia gateway,

the user equipment priority corresponds to a priority of the at least one of the plurality of user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] sending the at least one service, an

The service priority corresponding to a priority of the at least one service provided to the at least one user equipment; and

the at least one service is provided to the at least one of the plurality of user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] in sequence according to the prioritization scheme of the multimedia gateway [110 ].

2. The method of claim 1, wherein: the at least one service includes at least one of an audio call service, a video conference call service, an audio conference call service, a call transfer/forwarding service, an internet protocol multimedia service, a voice over internet protocol service, and a rich communication service.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein: the at least one of the plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] comprises at least one of a smart device, a mobile device, a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, a personal digital assistant, a plain old telephone service device, any communication device, and combinations thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein: the multimedia gateway [110] comprises at least one of an internet protocol multimedia subsystem gateway, a router and a proxy.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein: the plurality of user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] are connected to the multimedia gateway [110] via at least one of a wireless interface and a wired interface.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein: the wireless interface comprises at least one of a cellular radio access technology, a bluetooth interface, a ZigBee interface, and an infrared interface.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein: the wired interface includes at least one of an ethernet cable and a registered jack cable.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein: said registering of the plurality of user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] on said multimedia gateway [110] further comprises the step of providing at least one of a unique identifier and a universal identifier for authenticating the plurality of user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160 ].

9. The method of claim 1, wherein: said facilitating one of the at least one of the plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] and the at least one third party user device [150] further comprises:

-providing access to the at least one of the plurality of user devices [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] and one of the at least one third party user device through a network interface;

-authenticating and enabling the at least one of the plurality of user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] and one of the at least one third party user equipment [150] to access a list of registered user equipment through the multimedia gateway [110 ]; wherein

The registered user equipment is the plurality of user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] registered to the multimedia gateway [110 ]; and

-enabling one of the at least one of the plurality of user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] and the at least one third party user equipment [150] to modify or retain the at least one customized rule to set at least one of the user equipment priority and the service priority in the plurality of user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160 ].

10. A multimedia gateway [110] system for providing at least one service to at least one of a plurality of user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160], the multimedia gateway [110] comprising:

-a module configured to:

enabling registration of the multimedia gateway [110] with the at least one of the plurality of user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160 ]; and

-a prioritizer module configured to:

the method is characterized in that:

-said multimedia gateway [110] sending at least one configuration data to the at least one of the plurality of user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160], said configuration data comprising at least one unique identifier of the at least one of the plurality of user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160 ];

the prioritization scheme includes at least one custom rule to define at least one of a user equipment priority and a service priority on the multimedia gateway [110],

the user equipment priority corresponds to a priority of the at least one of the plurality of user equipments transmitting the at least one service, an

The service priority corresponding to a priority of the at least one service provided to the at least one user equipment,

providing the at least one service to the at least one of the plurality of user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] in sequence according to the prioritization scheme of the multimedia gateway [110 ]; and

-a storage module configured to:

storing the user equipment priority and the service priority of the plurality of user equipments [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160 ].

11. A method for establishing a multi-party call between at least three devices, the method being performed by a multimedia gateway [110], the method comprising:

-establishing a first connection between a first user equipment [110A ] and a third party equipment [150] via the multimedia gateway [110], characterized by:

-said multimedia gateway [110] sending at least one configuration data to the first user equipment [110A ], said configuration data comprising at least one unique identifier of the first user equipment [110A ];

the third party device [150] is not registered with the multimedia gateway [110 ];

-enabling the first user equipment [110A ] to establish a second connection between the first user equipment [110A ] and a second user equipment [110B ] via the multimedia gateway [110], characterized by:

the first user equipment [110A ] selects the second user equipment [110B ] from a list of user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] registered to the multimedia gateway [110 ];

receiving at least one parameter from the first user equipment [110A ], the at least one parameter relating to the second connection: and

the multiparty call is established by merging the first connection and the second connection through the multimedia gateway [110] according to the at least one parameter.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein: the method further comprises maintaining the first connection before establishing the second connection.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein: the method further comprises maintaining the second connection before establishing the multi-party call.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein: the multiparty call includes at least one of an audio call and a video call.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein: the first connection and the second connection comprise at least one of an air interface, a bluetooth interface, a ZigBee interface, and an infrared interface.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein: the at least one parameter comprises at least one of a reference identifier and a session identifier for the second connection.

17. A method for transferring an ongoing call between a first user equipment [110A ] and a third party equipment [150], the method being performed by a multimedia gateway [110], the method comprising:

-establishing a first connection between the first user equipment [110A ] and the third party equipment [150] via the multimedia gateway [110], characterized by:

-enabling the first user equipment [110A ] to send a transfer request for establishing a second connection between the third party equipment [150] and a second user equipment [110B ] through the multimedia gateway [110],

the first user equipment [110A ] selects the second user equipment [110B ] from a list of user equipment [110A,110B,110C,110D,110E,160] registered to the multimedia gateway [110 ]; and

receiving at least one parameter from the first user equipment [110A ], the at least one parameter relating to the first connection; and

the ongoing call from the first user equipment [110A ] is transferred to the second user equipment [110B ] over the second connection in dependence of the at least one parameter.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein: the ongoing call includes at least one of an audio call and a video call.