GB2396771A

GB2396771A - Telecoms service delivery platform

Info

Publication number: GB2396771A
Application number: GB0225387A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Andrew James Odgers
Original assignee: ZYNETIX Ltd
Current assignee: ZYNETIX Ltd
Priority date: 2002-10-31
Filing date: 2002-10-31
Publication date: 2004-06-30
Anticipated expiration: 2022-10-31
Also published as: GB0225387D0; GB2396771B

Abstract

Telecommunications Equipment (30) that contains one or more Virtual Network logical entities (3). Physical network resources, which may include packet (34) or circuit (35) based traffic channels or media processing (37) facilities, are represented by one or more Virtual Network entities in such a way that the service logic on application servers (1) views the Virtual Network as if it was an autonomous physical network. Advantageously, the invention allows for hierarchical and multi-tenancy implementations of Virtual Networks entities, and for autonomous management of each Virtual Network.

Description

TELECOMS SERVICE DELIVERY PLATFORM

DESCRIPTION

This invention relates to telecommunications Equipment with multitenanting capability, such that it permits the operator of the Equipment to offer outsourced telecommunication resources and capabilities to multiple customers, who may be virtual Service Providers. Significantly, the Equipment allows the managed cherry-picking' and aggregation of resources and capabilities from multiple underlying Providers and are presented to high-level service logic programs and virtual Service Providers in such as way as to appear like a homogeneous dedicated physical network.

The Equipment contains advantageous and novel control and management features that allow the Equipment to be securely deployed by 3rd parties. That is, by neither a Network Provider or by a Service Provider, but by a specialist outsourcing company, eg. an 'Internet Hotel'.

Backoround. Consider brand-oriented telecommunication Service Providers (SPs) who supply voice telephony services to consumers and businesses, but who typically are themselves not public network operators. Such SPs may provide services that, for example, include discounted international voice calls (ie. basic call completion), calling card facilities or may offer a mobile telephone service, performing the role of a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO).

These SPs may either: a) Outsource the supply of the services they offer to a single Network Provider (NP). In this scenario the NP provides the use of its network infrastructure and services, which the SP resells under its own brand. The

SP benefits from an asset-light cashflow positive outsourcing business model but is tied to one supplier and has little control over the services themselves. Or, b) Deploy their own telecoms switching infrastructure. Here the SP must make a significant capital investment in infrastructure and then subsequently manage it, detracting from their core consumer facing operations. However the SP benefits from access to multiple underlying networks and full control over services deployed on their own equipment.

SPs cannot currently take advantage of the benefits of both a) and b) above at the same time. That is, the business benefits of outsourcing their network operations to a third party whilst at the same time having the same level of operational control and flexibility that they would have if they deployed all equipment themselves. This situation compromises the business model of the SP, limits service innovation and competition in the marketplace and deprives end-users of greater choice and lower prices.

In a similar scenario, large businesses (as end-users) are currently typically obliged to compromise on their own internal telecoms requirements by having to put out to tender for and then select a single NP for the supply of their voice telecoms services, often under onerous contracts. Being tied in with the products and services that the NP chooses to supply is not in the businesses' interest.

Essentially, a business is able to outsource their IT services to a third party, who then manages the data infrastructure and application on their behalf, but they cannot outsource telecoms services in the same way. Nor can an outsourcing firm, eg. an IT Managed Service Provider (MSP) or Systems Integrator (Sl), take on the operation and management of voice services on behalf of clients in a constructive way.

With respect to the aforementioned scenarios, this invention allows a business user or Service Provider of voice based services to outsource the necessary operating network infrastructure requirements to an Network Provider-

independent party (eg. an MSP) whilst retaining full control over the application

or service logic aspects of the voice service. Significantly, the invention allows the creation of a managed Virtual Network (VN) which, to the higher-level service logic applications appears and behaves just like a real physical network, but is actually composed of network resources and capabilities from one or more underlying Providers. The composition of the Virtual Network is transparent to the associated service logic instances, and indeed may be changed at any time unbeknowst to the ssociated service logic instances.

This invention addresses the fundamental demands of SPs, which include: a) The ability to outsource the operation of a voice network; b) Independence from Network Providers; c) Transparent access to a wide range of network and non-network related facilities from a wide range of different providers; d) Flexible, service-oriented supply model. SPs can pay for resource usage when they are actually needed and used - low overheads.

e) Complete control over the specification of their own actual high-level

service applications, eg. calling card, voice VPN or call-centre.

Prior Art.

Service Control Point (SOP) of an Intelligent Network (IN): Traditionally, public network operators have deployed expensive Intelligent Network infrastructure to complement their fixed line or mobile network infrastructure and provide added-

value voice services. IN-based solutions do not support converged TDM/packet mode networks well, the programming of new services is highly specialised and IN services can only by deployed within the bounds of a single network provider.

Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) Servers: CTI servers offer rich functionality themselves, but are entirely Enterprise based with very limited functional integration with underlying networks and generally don't scale well.

Applications are typically dedicated to servers from particular vendors and the network facilities of a particular SP cannot be shared amongst its applications on different servers.

Softswitches: Prior art softswitches are typically for deployment within the

domain of a particular network operator, much as in the same way as the SOP equipment of a traditional IN deployment. They do not offer the multitenancy capability necessary for an outsourcing role.

Gateways: A Network Gateway is a network edge device deployed by a Network Provider to manage the access by remote 3rd party service logic to their network's core facilities in a secure manner. As it does not offer the secure virtual network capabilities necessary to provide programmatic access to many networks at once.

FIGURE 1 shows a high-level view of the invention.

FIGURE 2 shows the logical composition of a Virtual Network object.

The invention herein described is a Telecoms Service Delivery Platform. The invention takes the form of telecoms Equipment, consisting of a computer hardware element and a computer software element. The Equipment has physical interfaces to one or more packet-based networks and to one or more circuit-based networks, eg. the PSTN. The Equipment contains processing capability, data memory and executes stored computer code which gives it the innovative features described in this invention. To achieve a high traffic carrying capacity, processing capacity and service availability, the Equipment may consist of multiple hardware elements, for example computer chassis, which are linked together and operate in either a load-sharing or redundant manner.

The Invention can be characterized by the following main features: a) Multiple, hierarchical Virtual Networks. A Virtual Network is a logical representation of a collection of physical network and non-network based resources and capabilities from multiple providers of such resources and capabilities. VNs may be logically arranged in a hierarchical manner.

b) Realtime Usage Management. The level of access to resources and capabilities can be controlled in real-time according to management policies or defined Service Level Agreements.

c) Protocol Policing. Filters, or Policy Execution Points, manage what parameters and values are permitted on the physical network interfaces and on the programatic interfaces to service logic instances.

d) Encapsulated Execution Environment. Each VN may logically contain an execution environment for service applications whose service logic may be remote.

The invention exhibits the following further characteristics: a) A switching backbone may be incorporated within the Equipment, facilitating the interconnection of circuit and packet based traffic channels.

b) Multimedia processing capabilities may be incorporated within the Equipment, eg. voice announcement or speech recognition.

A high-level schematic of the invention is shown in Figure 1. The Equipment (30) is connected using digital communication links (33) to one or more communication networks, such as Mobile Networks (36), Fixed Line Networks (35) and Packet Networks (34), eg. the Internet. In a typical embodiment, the digital communications links (33) may utilse SS7, ISDN or SIP protocols over either circuit or packet based transport mechanisms in order to handle calls and media sessions in realtime.

Typically the digital communications links (33) convey not only the signaling information that controls the call or session, but also the media stream, or traffic, itself for switching within the Equipment. The communication links allow the Equipment (30) to access and manipulate the network resources physically contained within the Networks.

The different signaling protocols carried over the digital communication links (33) are nommalised within the Equipment using a Protocol Conversion function (32).

This function creates an abstraction from the specifics of the signaling protocols

so that the higher-level service applications need not be concerned with the type of network interface at any time. Furthermore, the Protocol Conversion function allows for calls and sessions using one protocol to interwork with calls using a different protocol.

The circuit switched frame and packet based media streams from the external networks are able to be switched across an internal switching plane or backbone (31), which itself may be duplicated to retain a high degree of service availability.

This switching backbone allows traffic from different networks, or the same network, to be connected together in a flexible manner under the control of the application service logic running on the remote Application Servers (1). Where a packet-based stream is required to be connected to a circuit-based stream, a packetisation/depacketisation function is provided within the Equipment.

Multimedia resources (37) may optionally be incorporated within the Equipment.

Such resources may include the capability for voice announcements and speech recognition and are typically implemented upon dedicated processing units. The multimedia resources are connected to the switching backbone (31) to receive and transmit the media content, depending on the resource involved. The Multimedia resources are under the control of the application service logic running on the Application Servers (1).

Key to this invention is the incorporation within the Equipment of the concept of Virtual Networks (3), which are software objects. Each VN presents an abstracted view of the underlying resources and capabilities provided by the Networks (34, 35, 36) and internal resources, such as the multimedia resources (37). By supporting multiple, self-contained VNs, the Equipment supports multiple clients, each of whom may control one or more application service logic instances running on one or more Application Servers (1). The Virtual Networks (3) incorporate novel features, which are the basis of this invention, that permit Service Providers to use their alloted Virtual Network just as if it was their own dedicated physical network. These features make the Equipment ideal for allowing Service Providers to outsource their network to a party who has deployed the Equipment described in this invention.

In a typical deployment scenario, a company that specialises in IT or telecoms facilities management, eg. web hosting firms, 'Internet Hotels', or telecoms co-

location firms, would purchase the Equipment and deploy it within their premises.

Such fimms would connect the Equipment to multiple providers of multiple network and non-network related resources and capabilities, and market the Virtual Network to clients, who may include virtual Service Providers and large corporate businesses. These clients subscribe to a dedicated VN as an outsourced service and are able to manage the VN in the same way as if it was a dedicated physical network with the same resources and capabilities available. Each VN may be driven programatic via a datalink by remote service logic instances.

The Virtual Network Feature The invention describes a method and Equipment by way of which a telecoms Service Provider can subscribe to a logical grouping of physical network and non-network related capabilities and resources. This grouping of capabilities and resources is manipulated in real-time by remote application service logic using open standard programmatic interfaces to create voice-based telecommunication services for the benefit of end-users.

This logical grouping of physical capabilities and resources is called a Virtual Network, which is a logical software entity within the Equipment. The underlying physical capabilities and resources that the Virtual Network represents at any one time may change with management action. Significantly, the invention provides for a mapping function within each Virtual Network so that the remote service logic accessing the Virtual Network does so transparently to any changes of underlying physical capabilities and resources. The remote service logic instances accessing the Virtual Network, by means of a programmatic interface, do so just as if they were directly accessing physical capabilities and resources.

In a typical scenario, the Equipment is deployed by outsourcing companies, who are telecom Network Provider independent and may already provide outsourced

IT facilities. The outsourcing companies have commercial agreements with multiple providers of network and non-network related capabilities and resources to which the Equipment physically connects using data links. The outsourcing company then creates a Virtual Network for its Service Provider clients. The actual service logic, which may be deployed on an application server owned by the Service Provider, or itself outsourced separately, accesses the Service Provider's Virtual Network using a data link. The application server that executes the service logic handles realtime control of the calls but does not handle the actual traffic or media.

Multi-tenanting communication software system that packages underlying services and capabilities into an SLA-driven virtual network for the benefit of applications of multiple Service Providers.

Typically each Virtual Service Provider is associated with one VN, and the service logic instances belonging to that SP 'drive' the VN through a programmatic API as if the VN was actually a physical network itself.

The Equipment creates a cross-network and cross-technology abstraction between the suppliers of low-level services and service components, and Communication Service Providers.

A novel feature of the Equipment is that it is able to package the underlying network services, service components and capabilities into high-level network services for use by Service Providers. These highlevel network services will typically be independent of the underlying technology and of the underlying technology provider. The Service Providers will operate service applications on Application Servers that will utilise these high-level network services in order to provide services to the end-user.

Each Virtual Network may be accessed, upon authentication, by one or more applications each using one of a number of supported programmatic APls.

The equipment interfaces with 3rd party Application Servers using open standard APls. The Application Servers provide the high-level logic that binds the resources and capabilities exposed by the Equipment in a particular Virtual Network into usable end-user services. Such APls may include, but are not limited to, SIP, Parlay/OSA and SS7 INAP. One embodiment of the Equipment may include support for Web Service technology (SOAP & WDSL) to expose the aggregated services within the Virtual Network of a Service Provider to the remote applications.

Description of VN

The Equipment is capable of supporting one or more Virtual Networks, each one a logical software object. Each Virtual Network object within the Equipment is associated with one Service Provider, in a typical deployment scenario, and thus the Equipment can be termed multi-tenanting. Each VN may operate autonomously from any other VN, creating a dedicated and isolated network managed and operated by the SP alone. Remote application servers either execute the service logic of the telecoms service applications or supply the logic in a format suitable for execution on the Equipment. The application service logic communicates directly to the SPs Virtual Network on the Equipment.

Significantly, the Virtual Network appears, and behaves, to the application service logic just as if it was a dedicated physical network and the service logic controls it as if it was just that.

A VN is a logical grouping of a set of network or non-network related capabilities and resources that may include, but are not limited to, the following: a) Packet-switched bandwidth and physical interfaces; b) Voice announcement resources; c) Speech recognition resources; d) Tone detection resources; e) Circuit-switch network capacity, eg. an E1 port or a 64k traffic channel; fl Other Virtual Networks, so creating a hierarchy of VNs and resources; 9) Digit translation tables;

h) Call-flow event reporting, eg. static BCSM trigger points according to Intelligent Network CS-1 standards; i) Physical datalinks, eg. SS7 datalinks, or packet-based logical links.

j) Logical session associations to remote service logic instances and service logic authentication parameters; k) A logical group or pool of resources; The suppliers of low-level communication services and capabilities include, but are not restricted to, the following: a) Cellular mobile network infrastructure operators; b) Fixed line telecoms (PSTN) public network operators; c) Internet infrastructure operators; d) User authentication agencies.

e) Electronic payment capability providers.

Virtual Network objects may be logically configured in a hierarchical manner.

There permanently exists a Root VN that represents the complete set of resources that is configured and available on the Equipment. All other VNs each represent a subset of those capabilities and resources that exist in the Root VN, and each is associated with a single Service Provider. That is, there is a one to one relationship between all non- root VNs and a Service Provider.

The Operator of a VN is defined as the party who is responsible for the use of the VN and transparently offers service on the VN to customers as if the VN was a physical network. The operator of the Root VN would typically be the maintainer of the Equipment itself. The operator of all other VNs would be the virtual Service Provider or end-user associated with the VN.

The Creator of a VN is defined as the operator of the VN that creates a new VN object as a new resource. The Root VN has no creator itself, as it is a static object in software, but may be a VN Creator. Service Providers, as operators of a VN, may create new VNs.

A new VN may only be configured with capabilities and resources that are in the scope of the VN of its Creator. That is, the capabilities and resources of a child VN are a subset of the capabilities and resources of its parent VN. This creates a logical hierarchy of VNs. Typically, only the Creator of a VN can add resources to or remove resources from that VN. The Operator of a VN cannot normally add or remove resources from their own VN.

A capability or resource that is made available to a VN by its parent VN is associated with a set of Access Rights & Rules (ARR) for that resource. There is a set of ARRs for each resourceNN pair that has been configured. For each resourceNN pair the ARR determines the following: a) The degree of management control that the operator of the VN has over the resource, eg. ability to change resource attributes or temporarily remove the resource from operational service.

b) The rules and policies that govern the degree of real-time call control that the VN operator (or the applications that the VN operator deploys) has over the resource, if applicable. For example, call or session setup attributes. c) The level of access to the resource, or Quality of Service. This determines whether the VN has dedicated access to the underlying physical resource, or, if the resource is mapped to pooled or shared resources, the rules which permit the system to arbitrate access to the underlying resources amongst competing VNs.

The Virtual Network is a software entity that is instantiated on the Equipment.

Referring to Figure 2, a single VN is shown as (3). It contains a number of software functions and interfaces.

A telecoms service application such as (1) communicates to the VN entity using a logical data link connection and protocol (2). More than one application service logic instance may interact with the VN, each using a different logical data link connection. In a typical embodiment, (1) would be an application server acting as a Service Control Point in an Intelligent Network whilst data link (2) would convey INAP signalling. In another embodiment, the data link (2) may convey

SIP signalling. In a further embodiment, the data link (2) may convey XMLbased scripts, eg. VoiceXML and CCXML, from a server or cache (1) for interpretation within the XML execution environment (or 'browser') associated with the VN.

The Authentication Function (4) identifies and controls which, and how many, Application Service Logic instances can logically connect to the VN. The Authentication mechanism may include, in some embodiments, data encryption and the checking of data integrity.

The API Policing Function (5) ensures that the programmatic instructions from the remote service logic complies with policies and restrictions associated with the VN, limiting what the service logic may attempt to do. The instructions may be written by a 3 party (not the SP itself) and may well comply with the open standard specification for the application API in use, but the SP may chose to

restrict the functionality available to certain service logic instances further, for commercial or technical reasons.

The core engine (6) of the VN maintains the identity, levels of access and state of all the resources and capabilities in use for each call for each service logic instances. The core engine (6) effectively performs a function similar to the SSF in an Intelligent Network architecture, that is, it acts under the control of remote service logic. It may also however also execute application scripts, written for example in VoiceXML/CCXML, in an encapsulated execution environment once transferred from a remote server.

The core engine (6) also maps the logical resource identifiers, as known to the service logic instances and locally within the VN, to the identifiers of the underlying resources of the parent VN. If the parent VN is the Root VN then the mapped underlying resources will be the actual physical resources. The core engine (6) communicates with the underlying resources using bidirectional call control messages, (13) and (14), via the Message Policing Function (10).

The Message Policing Function (10) applies optional filters and policies associated with the VN to the call control messages, so controlling and limiting

the functionality of the call control instructions issued and received by the core engine to a managed scope. The managed call control messages are logically passed for processing to the parent VN, as shown by (11) and (12), whose own Message Policing Function will apply its own filters to the messages received, (8) and (9), before passing them on again. The root VN applies the filtered call control messages to the underlying physical resources.

The Network Management Function (7) provides self-contained configuration, alarm and reporting and administrative capabilities, limited to the resources within the scope of VN itself. In this way the SP may manage and configure its VN as an autonomous entity, just as if the VN was actually a network dedicated to that SP alone.

The Policy Management Function (16) is interrogated by the Core Engine (6) whenever the service logic (1) attempts to select a resource of perform an action upon a resource. The Policy Management Function holds all the Access Rights & Rules (ARR) associated with all resources within the scope of the VN, and determines whether the action attempt by the service logic is permitted within the bounds of the relevant ARRs.

If service logic attempts to select a resource for use, for example an outgoing circuit or a voice annoucement resource, and the Policy Management Function approves the attempt, then the Resource Management function (17) performs the actual allocation of the resource according to predetermined access methods and the actual current operational state of the resource. Resources may be dedicated to particular VNs, or be selected from a pool of resources according to a given selection algorithm. To allocate an actual physical resource, the request (21) is passed on to the parent VN via a security function (19).

Each VN may receive requests (20) from child VNs for access to or allocation of VN resources. The Security Function (19) authenticates the requests and passes them on to the Policy Management to be processed in a similar manner to requests generated by the local Core Engine. This mechanism delivers the hierarchical nature of the Virtual Network architecture.

Claims

ILL Claims

In respect of patent GB022S387.0 1. Telecommunication Equipment that embodies a Virtual Network logical software entity that represents a collection of physical network voice resources whereby: Voice services using the resources in the Virtual Network are controlled by independent application service logic through a programmatic interface in a manner that appears to the service logic that it is managing an exclusive, physical network.

The mapping of physical resources to logical resources within the Virtual Network entity and the level of access that the service logic has to them is able to be changed dynamically by management action transparent to the Service logic.

The logical resources within the Virtual Network are managed by means of standard alarming and management protocols as if the Virtual Network was a physical network.

The network voice resources are single traffic channels and associated signaling using packet or circuit based interfaces.
2 The Telecommunications Equipment as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the network voice resources include both voice-over-packet and circuit-based voice telephony interfaces.
3. The Telecommunications Equipment as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein the network voice resources include voice playback or detection, tone processing or other voice media processing resources.
4. The Telecommunications Equipment as claimed in Claims 1, 2 or 3, wherein the equipment supports multiple autonomous Virtual Network entities.
5. The Telecommunications Equipment as claimed in Claim 4, wherein the physical resources that the resources of a Virtual Network represent are the logical resources of a different Virtual Network, thereby creating a hierarchy of Virtual Networks.
6. The Telecommunications Equipment as claimed in any procedure claim wherein the mapping and access control of Virtual Network resources is changed automatically according to previously specified policy rules associated with to use of the Virtual Network.