Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04M7/00—Arrangements for interconnection between switching centres
  • H04M7/006—Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L65/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communication
  • H04L65/40—Support for services or applications
  • H04L65/401—Support for services or applications wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L69/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass
  • H04L69/30—Definitions, standards or architectural aspects of layered protocol stacks
  • H04L69/32—Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
  • H04L69/322—Intralayer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions
  • H04L69/329—Intralayer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
  • H04L67/50—Network services
  • H04L67/51—Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Definitions

• the present invention relates to the provision of remote services via telecommunications networks. It applies in particular, but not exclusively, to networks operating according to the IP protocol ("Internet Protocol").
• IP protocol Internet Protocol
• the intermediation device can form a “proxy” server, the role of which is to group together under a single address vis-à-vis the external servers the elements originating from or intended for a set of client terminals.
• the intermediary device can also act as a portal, that is to say providing client terminals with an access interface for various services available through the Internet.
• This access interface typically includes home pages containing links to various services offered such as electronic mail, electronic directory, databases or all kinds of web services.
• the links also allow you to "navigate” between various services managed by dedicated servers.
• Some portals offer customization of the access interface, allowing users to define how the services will be presented to them (customization of the display, list of "favorites", ...) and / or filter the services to which he will have access.
• An object of the present invention is to enrich the services offered from intermediation devices, without necessarily requiring a multiplication or modification of existing dedicated servers.
• the invention thus proposes an intermediation device between stations connected to a communication network and including dedicated servers managing respective services.
• the device comprises means for integrating services and means for interfacing between the means for integrating services and the stations.
• the service integration means include a memory in which scripts are recorded defining additional services, the execution of which involves the invocation of services managed by the dedicated servers, and control means cooperating with the script memory to execute services additional in response to messages from at least some of the stations.
• the stations connected to the network include subscriber terminals, and the interface means advantageously comprise means for managing subscriber contexts to establish communication sessions with the subscribers, and means for presenting services to the terminals in the framework of sessions established between the context management means and the subscribers using said terminals.
• This intermediation device is not a simple platform for browsing between the services offered by dedicated servers. It acts as a portal, itself providing additional value-added services based on those to which the servers connected to the network are dedicated, in a particularly simple and flexible way, while making it possible to manage subscribers and subscribers independently. terminals.
• the service integration means communicate with the interface means by exchanging pages of marked data, in particular according to an XML language (“eXtended Markup Language”).
• XML language eXtended Markup Language
• the scripts defining the additional services can then be recorded in the memory of the integration means in the form of marked data pages describing the parameters and input and output data of the procedures invoked in the context of the external services.
• This architecture gives great flexibility in the deployment of the services offered on the network.
• the creator of additional services can obtain servers dedicated to different services from different suppliers, taking into account the know-how of these suppliers, the technologies implemented and / or the price conditions applied. All services supported by these servers will be merged at the level of the intermediation device, thanks to which the creator of additional services may also, according to his needs, define all kinds of value-added services, describing these services as well as the input messages taken into account in the invocation of dedicated servers in a markup language, such as XML.
• the presentation means comprise means for interpreting the pages transmitted by the context management means within the framework of a current session with a subscriber using one of the terminals, so as to generate commands adapted to the presentation on the terminal of interaction elements described by the data marked on the page.
• This makes it possible to connect very simple terminals (“thin terminais”) to the network, which may nevertheless have the services rendered through the intermediation system, including additional value-added services.
• FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a telecommunications network incorporating a device according to the invention
• - Figure 2 is a general diagram of a device according to the invention
• - Figure 3 is a diagram of another embodiment of a device according to the invention.
• terminal equipment of different types have access, via a corporate communication network and a device according to the invention , to diversified telephony, database access, directory, unified messaging (i.e. voice or electronic), web browsing services on an Internet or Intranet network that are provided by a set of dedicated servers connected to the network.
• unified messaging i.e. voice or electronic
• Figure 1 shows the terminals of different types (for example mobile station 100, microcomputer 101, ISDN station with an IP adapter 102, native IP station 103) connected to a packet communication network 300 operating according to the IP protocol.
• the network 300 may be a local area network (LAN) with which an organization is equipped to provide data transmission services to the holders of the terminals 100-103. It is for example made up of several subnetworks of the type Ethernet between which the switching of IP packets is carried out conventionally by routers not shown.
• LAN local area network
• a telephony server 200 a directory server 201, a unified messaging server 202, a web browsing server 203, as well as a database manager server (DBMS) 204.
• DBMS database manager server
• SIP Session Initiation Protocol
• LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
• SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
• IMAP Internet Message Access Protocol
• HTTP HyperText Transfer Protocol
• Such servers can also be used in the architecture of FIG. 1.
• An intermediation device according to the invention 400 is connected to the LAN 300.
• This device fulfills a function of proxy server, that is to say that, to access the services managed by the dedicated servers 200-204 of the network 300, the terminals 100-103 can only open a session with the device 400.
• the incoming signaling relating to these services can only be addressed to the terminals through the device 400.
• the device 400 also fulfills a portal function, that is to say that it presents to the terminals 100-103 an interface for accessing the various services available.
• the intermediation device 400 can be seen as having an integrated three-thirds type architecture, of which FIG. 2 shows the three stages 410, 420, 430.
• the access stage to services 410 (business entity) groups together all of the processing specific to the various services managed by dedicated servers 200-204. It performs the interface of the intermediation device 400 with the various dedicated servers 200-204, and exchanges data from and to the service entity 420 according to a unified format.
• the stage 420 (service entity) is itself divided into two levels: a service integrator 421 and a subscriber context manager 426. It performs the interaction between the different services managed by the dedicated servers 200-204, routes the requests from the presentation stage 430 to the modules of the access stage 410, and transmits to the presentation stage data coming from the access stage 410.
• the context manager 426 administers open sessions with the various terminals connected to the intermediation device 400. Seen from the service integrator 421, the access stage 410 forms an interface to the dedicated servers 200-204, while the context manager 426 and the presentation stage 430 form an interface to the client terminals 100-103 and the subscribers who use them.
• the service presentation stage 430 contains all the means of connection and dialogue with the different types of terminals compatible with the intermediation device 400, and fulfills the function of presentation of the data received from the stage 420 towards the terminal from which the subscriber receiving the data has opened a session with the intermediation device 400. According to their characteristics, the terminals 100-103 can be arranged to communicate according to different types of formats and communication protocols.
• the access stage 410 and the presentation stage 430 are connected to a module 440 for interfacing with the LAN 300 which performs the functions of layers 1 to 4 of the OSI model. In the example considered, the module 440 manages the exchanges of the intermediation device 400 according to the TCP, IP and Ethernet protocols.
• Stage 410 comprises access modules 4100-4104 respectively associated with dedicated servers 200-204 with which they are able to communicate through the interface module 440.
• Each access module 4100-4104 performs the processing relating to the provision of a service by the associated dedicated server 200-204 to the users of the network integrating the intermediation device 400.
• there is an access module 4100 associated with the dedicated telephony server 200 an access module 4101 associated with the dedicated directory server 201, an access module 4102 associated with the dedicated messaging server 202, an access module 4103 associated with the dedicated navigation server 203 and an access module 4104 associated with the base server of data 204.
• each access module 4100 associated with the dedicated telephony server 200
• an access module 4101 associated with the dedicated directory server 201 an access module 4102 associated with the dedicated messaging server 202
• an access module 4103 associated with the dedicated navigation server 203
• an access module 4104 associated with the base server of data 204.
• each access module 4100 associated with the dedicated telephony server 200, an access module 4101
• 4100-4104 manages a connection at the application level of the OSI model with its associated dedicated server 200-204.
• the structure of the data exchanged and the protocol for exchanging this data depends on the service concerned (for example SIP for telephony, LDAP for the directory service, IMAP4 for electronic messaging, HTTP for navigation, etc.).
• part or all of the dedicated servers 200-204 communicate directly with the corresponding access modules 4100-4104 according to a connection of a transport level protocol, typically TCP (“Transmission Contrai Protocol”) , and exchange tagged data pages providing semantic descriptions of elements in an XML language.
• a transport level protocol typically TCP (“Transmission Contrai Protocol”)
• TCP Transmission Contrai Protocol
• the access stage 410 generates tagged data pages, that is to say sets of element descriptions whose syntax is common to all the access modules 4100-4104, which it transmits on stage 420.
• structured data description pages are used in the XML sense. The interest of such pages lies in their flexibility of use, and the possibility of presenting data in a format which can be adapted by a simple filtering operation to any type of terminal.
• XML pages are produced by the 4100-4104 access module by translating the elements received from the corresponding dedicated server.
• the translation if required, is carried out by means of XSL (“XML Stylesheet Language”) transformations.
• XSL XML Stylesheet Language
• This type of transformation is described in the Recommendation “XSL Transformations (XSLT)”, version 1.0, published on November 16, 1999 by the W3C organization.
• the XML pages delivered by the access stage 410 at least some of which are transmitted to the presentation stage 430, contain data tagged which describe, in a format independent of the terminals, elements of interaction with the subscribers.
• Some of these interaction elements are to be presented dynamically to the subscriber concerned by the page, the mode of presentation being defined in stage 430 as a function of the type of human-machine interface with which the terminal used is provided ( display on screen of such or such type or size, audible signaling, voice messages, etc.) and possibly configuration parameters of the human-machine interface defined by the subscriber.
• These dynamically presented elements can represent a subscriber context (for example, incoming call, busy position, message received, etc.), information provided as part of a service (for example directory number, content a message, web page, etc.), input fields allowing the subscriber to enter information useful to the servers (for example, call number, identification of directory card, message to be sent, etc.), or actions that the subscriber can select using a programmable event in the presentation stage (actuation of a virtual key, voice command, etc.).
• the tagged data on the XML page belongs to a dynamic link which points to a page address.
• interaction elements described in the XML pages transmitted to presentation stage 430 may relate to specific events likely to occur at the terminal level and defined statically, that is to say independently of the subscriber context and dynamic elements presented. These events, defined at the presentation stage 430 level, include for example the actuation by the subscriber of a special key, the expiration of a time delay, etc.
• the tagged data of the XML page describing this kind of element belongs to a static link pointing to a page address.
• the presentation stage 430 has an XML 436 browser that incorporates an XSL 431 processor or equivalent.
• This browser analyzes, in connection with a memory 432 containing terminal profiles, the pages received from the context manager 426 of the stage 420, and controls the man-machine interfaces of the terminals 100-103, which may only perform very limited processing (“thin terminal” concept).
• the XSL 431 processor transforms the semantic description of the data in the XML pages into another language suitable for the presentation of services on terminals. .
• a terminal provided with suitable navigation software can directly receive HTML pages (“HyperText Markup Language”),
• the browser 436 further monitors the occurrence of events corresponding to the action links defined in the XML page, and signals the detection of such an event.
• the presentation stage 430 returns to the context manager 426, as part of the current session with the subscriber concerned, a GETJJRL primitive including the page address of the corresponding link. .
• Each pair association creation (physical terminal, subscriber) via the presentation stage 430 gives rise to a subscriber session opening request received by the context manager 426 (primitive OPEN_SESSION) .
• This works with a table 427 for recording the contexts of the subscribers for which a session is open.
• the subscriber login request contains information indicating inter alia a subscriber identifier (for example his telephone number) and a logical port of the presentation stage for sending the pages intended for the 'subscriber. It also contains information relating to the authentication of the subscriber, such as a password entered by the latter.
• the context manager 426 interrogates the table 427 in order to make sure that the subscriber is not already registered there, in which case it returns a negative acknowledgment NACK which is transmitted to the presentation stage 430. Otherwise, it creates a record in table 427 including the information contained in the logon request, then returns an ACK positive acknowledgment to the presentation entity.
• a mechanism for deleting a recording is also provided, for example, in the event of the dissolution of a couple (terminal, subscriber) which gives rise to the sending by the presentation floor of a closing request. subscriber session to destination of the context manager (primitive CLOSE_SESSION).
• the reception of a positive acknowledgment ACK by the presentation stage 430 triggers the presentation of a home page to the subscriber, from which he can access the various services.
• the service integrator 421 includes an event filter 422 which performs the following functions:
• Such an event can be the presence of a particular URL in the data originating from the presentation stage for a terminal;
• additional services can be performed locally in the intermediation facility. But in general the execution of at least some of these additional services will involve the invocation, by the integration engine 423, of one or more services managed by the dedicated servers 200-204.
• An example of such an additional service is the presentation of value added incoming call according to the following script: in response to the detection of an incoming telephone call (in an XML page coming from the access module
• the event filter 422 extracts the number of the caller, then the engine 423 integration invokes a directory service (via module 4101) to obtain the name of the caller, searches in an electronic mailbox for all messages concerning the caller (via module 4102), or look up information in an external database, and it presents all of this information (or only part of it) to the subscriber along with the incoming call.
• a directory service via module 41011
• the engine 423 integration invokes a directory service (via module 4101) to obtain the name of the caller, searches in an electronic mailbox for all messages concerning the caller (via module 4102), or look up information in an external database, and it presents all of this information (or only part of it) to the subscriber along with the incoming call.
• a similar value-added service can be provided in the case of an outgoing call.
• this kind of additional service is defined at the level of the integrator 421 without requiring any particular adaptation of the dedicated servers 200-204 or their access modules 4100-4104 .
• This provides great flexibility in the definition of new services, since the server dedicated to a given “trade” (for example telephony) does not need to know the details of the other trades (for example messaging).
• it is not necessary to make specific adaptations of protocols to make the different dedicated servers communicate.
• the integration engine 423 cooperates with a memory 424 where the scripts defining the additional services are saved, in XML format.
• a meta-language such as XML can describe the inputs and outputs of any program. In other words, it uses data whose syntax defines meta-APIs (an API is a software programming interface, or "Application Programming Interface”) allowing automatic interactions between applications.
• meta-APIs an API is a software programming interface, or "Application Programming Interface"
• Any program can thus be described in XML by placing a program name, its parameters and the result it returns between appropriate tags defined in a DTD ("Document Type Description") or an "XML schema”.
• a script stored in memory 424 can be called by the integration engine 423 by means of its name which is associated with the event detected by the filter 422.
• Each script describes actions which include the invocation by the engine 423 integration of one or more services managed by remote servers 200-204, by defining the input and output parameters of the services invoked. The output parameters can in turn serve as input parameters for invoking other services.
• the value-added service is presented to the user by the integration engine 423 via the context manager 426 and the presentation stage 430.
• the concept of Internet intermediation is applied for the benefit not of the consumers of services as in the example described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, but of the producers of services.
• the device then constitutes a “reverse portal” providing value-added services to the servers connected to the network.
• the telephony server 200 can interrupt its call processing, recover the location of the mobile subscriber in a database managed by another server 204 and continue its processing of appeal in a relevant way.
• a reverse portal device then allows the creation of new services by exploiting the separation between telephone switching over IP and the service logic located at the level of the service integrator 421.
• an additional value-added service rendered by a reverse portal for a telephony server 200 there may be mentioned a call transfer service according to the agenda and / or the mobility of the called party, the agenda and mobility being managed autonomously in separate servers (databases). Similar value-added services can be rendered to the messaging server 202 when messages arrive.
• the reverse portal will generally not have the function of proxy vis-à-vis the beneficiaries of the value added services. Consequently, the event filters 422 triggering the execution of the value added services of the reverse portal will generally be located in the dedicated servers (200, 202 in the two examples of services above). These event filters can establish sessions with the integration engine 423 of the reverse portal and exchange data with it in XML format. Engine Integration 423 executes the script corresponding to the detected event by interrogating the other servers as required, then returning the enriched data in the form of an XML page to the server dedicated to the origin of the request.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
• Computer Security & Cryptography (AREA)
• Telephonic Communication Services (AREA)
• Multi Processors (AREA)
• Computer And Data Communications (AREA)
• Hardware Redundancy (AREA)

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Country Status (4)

• 2000
  • 2000-07-06 FR FR0008800A patent/FR2811496B1/fr not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2001
  • 2001-07-04 WO PCT/FR2001/002140 patent/WO2002003658A2/fr active Search and Examination
  • 2001-07-04 AU AU2001272623A patent/AU2001272623A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2001-07-04 EP EP01951770A patent/EP1312196A2/de not_active Withdrawn

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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