JP4379379B2 - Network system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a presence information management system for managing status information of users and terminals, and more particularly, to a technology in which a device for controlling and managing a session notifies a change in the status of a user or a terminal instead of the user or the terminal. .

  The concept of “presence” has been studied mainly by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) impp (Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol) working group (see, for example, RFC 2778) and uses a communication protocol called SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). A method for transmitting and receiving presence information has been proposed (see, for example, RFC3265). In addition, a presence server that specially manages information describing such presence is being developed.

  On the other hand, in the implementation, the concept of presence is incorporated in so-called IM (Instant Message), and is used as a mechanism for notifying a transmission destination when a partner who wants to send a message comes online.

  Further, although not a generalized concept of “presence”, an information notification service corresponding to a part of presence information is also used in a conventional analog telephone. For example, a service such as notifying a caller of an absence message or the like when the other party is absent.

  FIG. 9 shows an example of a conventional presence information utilization system. In the presence information utilization system of FIG. 9, a presence information notification function 200 is installed in the terminal 1. Using this function, the terminal 1 transmits a packet including presence information to the session control server 3 having the packet relay function 210, and passes through the session control server 3 to the presence server 7 having the presence information management function 220. It is a form of delivery.

  FIG. 10 shows another example of a conventional presence information utilization system. In this example, the presence information is directly notified and updated between the terminal 1c and the terminal 1d without using the presence server. However, in both cases of FIGS. 9 and 10, the presence information is processed on the terminal side. The function is still needed. In particular, in the case of the configuration of FIG. 10, in addition to the presence information notification function 200, it is necessary to install a presence information reception management function 250 with display in the terminal.

Conventionally provided presence information utilization systems such as the IM service require a program on the client side to be capable of notifying the presence status change.
The situation is the same for the analog telephone network, and in the case of a service for notifying the caller of the absence information of the user, the telephone user must register the absence information in the telephone. That is, the telephone needs to have a function of notifying the other party of the presence information.
One of the objects of the present invention is to enable a terminal user to enjoy a service using presence information even when using a terminal that does not have a presence information notification / update function.

  In order to achieve the above object, it is necessary for the client program installed in the terminal to reflect the state of the user or the terminal in the presence server without updating / notifying the presence information. For this reason, the present invention provides means for notifying the presence server of the status information of the terminal in the control server that manages the communication session between the terminals. The control server is arranged on a communication network including a presence server.

  In another aspect of the present invention, as a network component, a communication line connecting at least two communication terminals, a plurality of servers arranged somewhere on the communication line, and at least one presence In an architecture network having a server, any server other than the terminal detects a change in the status information or presence information of the terminal, and notifies the presence server of the changed status information or presence information.

  The presence status update means provided inside the session control server notifies the presence server of the changed status when the status changes, such as establishment or disconnection of a call session, so that the user or client program consciously exists. Even if the information is not updated, the status of the user or client program is reflected in the information managed by the presence server.

  In addition, by controlling the consistency of the update information notified by the presence information control means provided on the presence server side, for example, when an online notification expecting a periodic notification is not sent when it is busy, There is no inconsistency in status information.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of a presence information utilization system will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a presence information utilization system according to the present embodiment. The presence information utilization system manages presence information, which is the status information of the user and the terminal 1 owned by the user, and notifies the update when the status is updated, relay of the presence information, voice and video And the like, and a session control server 3 that relays session control information when establishing a communication session for transmitting and receiving data and the like, and a terminal 1 or an application used by a user. The “call path” in FIG. 1 is a communication line connecting the terminal 1a and the terminal 1b. Alternatively, it may be considered as a connection formed on the Internet. A solid line extending from terminal A (1a) to terminal B (1b) via session control server 1 (3a), session control server 2 (3b), and session control server 3 (3c) is used for session control. A control signal line through which the control signal passes. There is no inconvenience even if the communication path for the control signal is formed by the same communication line and logically the same connection as the speech path.
In this embodiment, “session” means a series of communication operations between terminals that start with a communication start message and end with a communication end message. “State information” literally means information representing the state of a terminal or a terminal user. For example, it is information indicating a state such as online or offline by the user. The “presence information” means attribute information in a broad sense of the terminal or terminal user. For example, the information includes a wide range of attributes such as date of birth, address, service to which the terminal is subscribed, and the like. Therefore, in this embodiment, “presence information” is defined as a concept including “state information”.

  FIG. 11 shows a conceptual diagram of the network system of the present embodiment. By using the session control server 3 on behalf of the status information of the terminal 1e having no presence information notification function (for example, a conventional IP telephone), the presence server 7 is used to notify the presence server 7. Allow other users to check the status of the current user. Specifically, the presence status update unit 15 is provided in the session control server 3 so that the presence status update unit 15 notifies the presence server 7 when a status change occurs while monitoring the terminal session. To do.

  This mechanism will be described in detail with reference to the block diagram of the session control server 3 shown in FIG. Conventionally, when transmitting and receiving audio and video, a communication address and encoding method for transmitting and receiving audio and video are notified between the terminals, and then the audio data and video data are transmitted. Realizes transmission and reception. Normally, the former communication is referred to as session information communication, and the latter communication is referred to as data information communication. In the session control server 3 of this embodiment, in particular, packets used for communication of the former session information are transmitted and received.

  The session control server 3 is registered from the communication control unit 10 that performs packet reception and analysis, header information shaping operation and transmission necessary for relaying, the state management unit 11 that manages the state of each session, and the accommodation terminal A terminal location management unit 12 that manages the address information to be notified, a presence status update unit that formats the updated contents when the status is updated into a notification format and issues an instruction to send a status update notification to the presence server 3 15 is comprised. Each of the state management unit 11 and the terminal location management unit 12 includes a first timer and a second timer for measuring the current time (the reason will be described later). IF16 is a network interface, and packets are transmitted and received through IF16.

  Upon receiving the packet, the communication control unit 10 analyzes the content of the packet and transmits the content of the received message to the state management unit 11. When the content of the received message is a registration notification or a deletion notification from the accommodation terminal, the content of the received message is also notified to the terminal location management unit 12. The state management unit 11 that manages the state of each session changes the state of the corresponding session based on the notified contents. On the other hand, the terminal location management unit 12 having received the registration notification registers the notified address information and holds it for a set period. Further, the terminal location management unit 12 that has received the deletion notification deletes the corresponding registration information even within the set period. When it is desired to use a specific communication protocol, for example, SIP, a protocol stack for SIP is provided in the communication control unit so that the server 3 can understand the SIP protocol.

The communication control unit 10 and the state management unit 11 described above are functional blocks necessary for realizing the SIP (RFC3261) proxy server function, and the terminal location management unit 12 is a functional block necessary for realizing the location server function. It is.
In the present embodiment, the target function of the present application is realized by adding a function block called the presence state update unit 15 to this.

  The communication control unit 10 notifies the state management unit 11 when a packet is received. As a result of the notification, when the state transitions to a specific state (for example, busy state, disconnected state, etc.), the presence state The update unit 15 is also notified. The notification may be issued to the presence state update unit 15 by either the state management unit 11 or the communication control unit 10 that receives a report of the state transitioned from the state management unit 11. The contents notified as presence status update notification at this time are updated status information and address information specifying a user or terminal that has established the corresponding session.

  Upon receiving the presence status update notification, the presence status update unit 15 queries the terminal location management unit 12 in order to check whether the user or terminal that has established the corresponding session is a terminal accommodated by the own server. Do. For the search item used in this inquiry, address information for identifying the user or terminal received by the presence status update notification is used.

  As a result of the inquiry to the terminal location management unit 12, if the corresponding session is from a user or terminal accommodated in the own server, the presence status update unit 15 determines that the status of the accommodated user or terminal is in accordance with the presence status update notification. The communication control unit 10 is instructed to notify the presence server 7 that it has been updated to the notified state. The presence status update unit 15 designates the contents to be notified and the destination.

  Upon receiving an instruction from the presence status update unit 15, the communication control unit 10 transmits the content instructed by the presence status update unit 15 to a specified destination. That is, the session control server 3 of the present embodiment has a new request message issue function in addition to a request message and response message relay function and a response message issue function for the request message.

  Although not shown, the control server shown in FIG. 2 includes an external storage device, and stores a control program for executing the control described above. When the server operates, the control program is expanded on a memory provided in the housing, and the control program is executed by the CPU. Further, in this embodiment, it is assumed that each functional block shown in FIG. 2 is realized by software processing. However, hardware or hardware is used by using a processor or a signal processing circuit corresponding to each functional block. Specifically, the configuration of FIG. 2 may be realized.

  FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram showing an example of a busy notification issuance procedure when SIP is used as the session control protocol. When establishing a voice or video communication session, SIP uses an INVITE message. The INVITE session adjusts between terminals according to the flow shown in the sequence from F20 to F34 in the figure, and uses RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol, RFC1889) for voice based on the contents notified by the INVITE request or 200 response. Send and receive data and video data.

  A case where the session control server 3 notifies the presence server 7 that the user terminal that established the session is in a busy state when a session using voice or video is established and the busy state is established. Will be described as an example.

  FIG. 3 is a sequence example in the case of receiving 200 responses as an opportunity to transition to the busy state. In this example, a method of issuing a presence status update notification to the presence status update unit 15 triggered by reception of a 200 response of F29 or F30 is shown.

  FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram showing another example of a busy notification issuing procedure when SIP is used. The procedure from F40 to F54 is the same as the procedure from F20 to F34. In this example, a method of issuing a presence status update notification to the presence status update unit 15 upon reception of an ACK message of F52 or F53 is shown.

  When notifying information necessary for data communication with an INVITE request and a 200 response, the method shown in FIG. 3 or the method shown in FIG. 4 may be used. However, the information necessary for data communication with a 200 response and an ACK message may be used. When notifying each other, it is necessary to use the method shown in FIG. In the method shown in FIG. 4, even when information necessary for data communication is notified by an INVITE request and a 200 response in a single method, information necessary for data communication is notified by a 200 response and an ACK message. There is a merit that it can be applied in some cases. However, when the information necessary for data communication is notified by the INVITE request and the 200 response, depending on the specifications of the terminal side, the data communication may be started without waiting for the transmission / reception of the ACK message. In order to correctly reflect the state of a terminal that starts data communication without waiting for an ACK, such as a terminal with the above specifications, in the presence server even when it is lost due to packet loss or the like, the data communication is performed with an INVITE request and a 200 response. For this reason, it is necessary to use the method shown in FIG. 3 only when notifying necessary information.

  FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 are sequence diagrams showing an example of a disconnection notification issuance procedure when SIP is used as the session control protocol. When the INVITE session is ended and the data communication is ended, a BYE message is used, but a method of issuing a presence state update notification to the presence state update unit 15 as an opportunity to change the reception of the BYE request to a disconnected state is shown in FIG. FIG. 6 shows a method of issuing a presence status update notification to the presence status update unit 15 as a trigger for transitioning the 200 response to the BYE request to the disconnected status.

  In the system of FIG. 5, the disconnection notification of the terminal 1a is transmitted from the session control server 3a accommodating the terminal 1a to the presence server 7 triggered by the reception of the BYE request of F60, and triggered by the reception of the BYE request of F61. A disconnection notice of the terminal 1b is transmitted from the session control server 3c accommodating the terminal 1b to the presence server 7.

On the other hand, in the system shown in FIG. 6, when the 200 response of F73 is received, the disconnection notification of the terminal 1b is transmitted from the session control server 3c accommodating the terminal 1b to the presence server 7, and the 200 response of F74 is received. As a result, the disconnection notification of the terminal 1a is transmitted from the session control server 3a accommodating the terminal 1a to the presence server 7.
Even if the 200 response is lost due to packet loss or the like in the method shown in FIG. 5, when using a terminal with a specification that terminates data communication triggered by transmission / reception of the BYE message without waiting for reception of the 200 response to the BYE message, There is an advantage that the state of the terminal can be accurately reflected on the presence server. On the other hand, since the method shown in FIG. 6 is triggered by the time when the session communication is completed, there is an advantage that the state change can be reflected on the presence server at a more accurate timing.

  The method shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 is a method that considers receiving a message as an opportunity to transition to a disconnected state, but as another method, the expiration date has passed based on the expiration date specified in the request message. There is a method that considers the time of the transition as a trigger for state transition. As a specific example, when the expiration date of the session timer specified by the INVITE request has passed, the presence service is considered when the expiration date specified by the SUBSCRIBE request has elapsed. Considered as a transition to the end of use. Here, the expiration date monitoring as described above is performed by, for example, the state management unit 11 or the terminal location management unit 12. That is, the state management unit 11 and the terminal location management unit 12 include a timer that counts the current time, and a unit that reads information on the expiration date described in each message, and monitors whether the expiration date has passed. To do.

  FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of a semi-normal case. Here, a method for performing online notification and offline notification as terminal status notification will also be described. In this method, the presence status update notification is issued to the presence status update unit 15 and the online notification is sent to the presence server 7 in response to REGISTER registration such as F80 and F81 (F86, F87).

  Since REGISTER registration is handled with an expiration date set, it may be used for terminal existence confirmation using this characteristic. In this case, before the expiration date of the information registered in F80 or F81, the expiration date is updated by reissuing the REGISTER registration as in F82 or F83. Whether or not a notification such as F89 is issued also depends on the information content managed by the presence server 7. When the expiration date is managed also in the presence server 7, notifications such as F88 and F89 are indispensable, but conversely, the presence server 7 manages only the online state or the offline state and does not manage the expiration date. In this case, notifications such as F88 and F89 may be omitted. In the latter case, for example, the session control server 3 determines that the presence server 7 is notified at the time of new registration, and that the notification to the presence server 7 is not performed when only the expiration date has been registered and is updated. .

On the other hand, the offline notification is performed when the registration is explicitly requested by the REGISTER message from the terminal 1 and when the registered information has expired. In FIG. 2, taking the INVITE session as an example, the notification to the presence status update unit 15 has been described as the status management unit 11 or the communication control unit 10. The terminal location management unit 12 may instruct the unit 15.
In the communication sequence shown in FIGS. 3 to 7 described above, all operations performed on the control server side are converted into a control program and stored in an external storage device connected to the server. The algorithm of the program differs depending on the sequence of FIGS. 3 to 7, but the following steps are included in common.
(1) monitoring a communication session to detect a change in state information;
(2) a step of generating a status information update request message triggered by the change detection;
(3) A step of transmitting the generated update request message to the network interface.

  For example, in the SIP Server 1 (3a) in the sequence of FIG. 5, the step of receiving the F60 BYE message from the terminal A (a) corresponds to the step of detecting the change in the state information of the terminal A, and the presence server 7 The step of transmitting the message F67 to the step corresponds to the step of generating a status information update request and transmitting it to the network interface. This step is actually a transmission operation to the presence server 7, but if only the internal operation of the SIP server is seen, it is equivalent to an operation of transmitting the generated message to the interface. The operation of SIP Server 3 (3c) is the same. In the sequences shown in FIGS. 3, 4, 6, and 7, the operation steps of each SIP server can be associated with the steps (1) to (3).

  As described above, in the presence status update notification from the session control server 3 to the presence server 7, when the busy / disconnected notification and the online / offline notification are processed independently, the presence server 7 side in the following situation There is a risk of inconsistency in the status information to be managed.

  For example, when a terminal is used in a wireless environment such as a hot spot and the terminal performs voice communication while periodically updating the REGISTER registration to confirm the existence of the terminal, the terminal is out of the radio range for a while. If you get out. When the expiration date of the contents registered in REGISTER expires while out of service area, the update is not performed within the expiration date (the REGISTER message for updating has not arrived, F85). Sends an offline notification to the presence server 7 as shown at F91. On the other hand, while the call is out of service area, the busy state is continued unless a disconnection command such as F70 is explicitly issued from the other user who has given up because the sound has stopped. (A call session also requests periodic notification in the same way as the terminal's existence check, and there is a usage in which the session is automatically disconnected if there is no session continuation notification. In addition, when returning to the service area again within the time-out time, it is possible that the call is restored and the busy state is continued substantially. In such a case, the state managed on the presence server 7 side is “offline”, but there is a possibility that the state is inconsistent, such as “busy”.

  In order to eliminate the inconsistency of the state as described above, the presence server 7 is provided with presence information control means for controlling the state transition based on the presence state update notification.

Next, presence information control means will be described with reference to FIG.
Upon receiving the presence information update notification packet (step 100), the presence server 7 confirms the notification content. If the notification content is an online notification (step 101), the presence server 7 manages the value of the presence information for managing the terminal status. If it is changed to “online” (step 102) and the notification content is offline notification (step 103), the presence information for managing the call state is referred to, and if the state is “busy” (Step 105) The terminal state is changed to an intermediate state between an online state and an offline state, which is “offline waiting”. On the other hand, when the reference result in step 105 is not busy but in an idle state, the terminal state is changed to “offline”.

  If the notification content by the presence information update notification is a busy notification (step 111), the call state is changed to "busy" (step 112). As in the example shown in FIG. 7, this process is not necessary before starting a call session, for example, when online notification is performed simultaneously with activation (F88, F89). If no notification is made, the terminal status is changed to “online” at the same time as the processing of step 112.

  If the notification content by the presence information update notification is a disconnection notification (step 114), the call state is changed to “disconnected” and the presence information for managing the terminal state is further referred to, and the status is set to “offline”. If it is “waiting” (step 115), the terminal state is changed to “offline” (step 116). Such state transition control is performed by the presence server 7 so that presence state inconsistency does not occur. Therefore, the presence server 7 detects whether there is a contradiction between the presence information included in the presence information update packet and the presence information already stored in the presence server in the information related to the presence information. And means for changing the already stored presence information so as to resolve the contradiction to the newly received presence information. As a result, for example, when the notification for survival confirmation does not reach due to some trouble, the information (offline notification) notified by the session control server on behalf of the user or terminal is already stored in the presence server. The purpose is to prevent the presence information (busy) being present from being confused.

  FIG. 13 shows a functional block diagram of a presence server having a function of resolving inconsistencies between registered presence information. The IF 400 is a network interface and performs header processing up to the TCP / IP layer for received packets. A communication control unit 420 includes a protocol stack of communication protocols. For example, in order to process a SIP packet, the communication control unit 420 includes a SIP protocol stack. The information transmitting / receiving unit 422 is a block that transmits and receives SIP packets to and from the TCP or UDP layer of received packets. The reception packet received by IF 420 is transferred to reception information extraction section 424, and information is extracted.

When the IF 400 receives a status information update request message from the session management server, the received message is transferred to the presence information management unit 430 after predetermined information is extracted by the reception information extraction unit 424. “Predetermined information” is, for example, presence information of terminals and terminal users. The “presence information management unit” is a general term for a block group that manages presence information, and includes a plurality of functional blocks that perform various processes related to presence information management. The presence information extracted from the received packet is finally recorded in the setting content recording unit 438.
The setting content recording unit 438 includes, for example, a storage unit (for example, an HDD device or a memory) provided inside the server casing, a DB provided outside the server casing, and the like.

The presence information extracted by the reception information extraction unit 424 is transmitted to the setting content matching unit 436. The setting content matching unit 436 refers to the setting content recording unit 438 and compares the consistency between the received presence information and the stored presence information. If there is no contradiction, the received presence information is input to the setting content input unit 432. If there is a contradiction, the recorded presence information is generated and information to be rewritten is input to the setting content input unit 432 together with the received presence information.
The setting content input unit 432 is a block for performing presence information registration operation with respect to the setting content recording unit. The setting content output unit 434 is a block for extracting presence information recorded in the setting content recording unit 438.
The transmission information construction unit 426 is a functional block that shapes information to be transmitted into a SIP packet structure, and may be considered as a block that actually generates a transmission packet. The generated transmission packet is transferred to the information transmitting / receiving unit 422 and transmitted to the outside via the IF 400.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a message format of the presence information update message according to the present embodiment. In this embodiment, a SIP REGISTER message is used for presence information update notification. The SIP message includes a start line 300, a header 310, a blank line 320, and a body 330. In a general REGISTER message, the body part is described in XML (eXtensible Markup Language) in the message format shown in FIG. Although the content of the body does not exist, in the present embodiment, information to be notified to the body part is carried and sent. In principle, it is possible to make a notification including status information in the header portion, but there is a limit to the information that can be included in the header portion due to the SIP specification. For example, in the case of status information not directly related to session control, the status information that can be included in the header part is the user's handle name, terminal type (phone / pc / PDA, etc.), and the browser that the user is using It is about related information such as the type of software.

  On the other hand, it is possible to include a variety of information in the body part. Therefore, by including the state information in the body part, it is possible to notify more various state information than in the method in which the state information is included in the header information. It becomes. With regard to the format, various formats can be used by specifying the type in the header part, and can be described in a format other than the XML shown in FIG.

  In addition, regarding the contents of information included in the body part, it is possible to include not only state information but also various presence information. For example, it is possible to notify together with information related to a terminal that has established a session such as the address and type of the terminal, and information related to the details of the session such as information about the encoding method used. The session type and the like can be notified by verifying the connection destination address, for example, by determining whether the streaming service or the voice mail is used.

The block diagram of the presence information utilization system concerning embodiment of this invention. The block diagram in a session control server. The sequence diagram which shows an example of a busy notification issuing procedure. The sequence diagram which shows another example of a busy notification issuing procedure. The sequence diagram which shows an example of a disconnection notification issue procedure. The sequence diagram which shows another example of a disconnection notification issue procedure. The sequence diagram which shows an example of a semi-normal case. The flowchart which shows the process sequence of a presence information control means. The system explanatory drawing which shows an example of the conventional presence information utilization system. Explanatory drawing which shows another example of the conventional presence information utilization system. The system explanatory drawing which shows an example of the presence information utilization system of this invention. The figure which shows an example of the message format of a presence information update packet. The functional block diagram of a presence server.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Terminal, 3 ... Session control server, 7 ... Presence server, 10 ... Communication control part, 11 ... State management part, 12 ... Terminal location management part, 15 ... Presence state update part

Claims (9)

A network system connected to a plurality of devices,
Status information management means for managing status information of the device;
State information detecting means for detecting a change in the state of the device based on communication data transmitted and received between at least two devices among the plurality of devices ;
A network system comprising: means for updating the state information of the device managed by the state information management unit based on a change in the state of the device detected by the state information detection unit. The network system according to claim 1, wherein
A network system, wherein the communication data transmitted and received by the device is a session control message. The network system according to claim 2, wherein
The network system, wherein the session control message is a message conforming to a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). The network system according to claim 3, wherein
The SIP-compliant message is an INVITE message.
Network system. The network system according to claim 3 , wherein
The SIP-compliant message is a 200 response message to the INVITE message.
A network system characterized by being a sage. The network system according to claim 3 , wherein
The SIP-compliant message is a BYE message.
Work system. The network system according to claim 3 , wherein
The message conforming to the SIP is a 200 response message to the BYE message.
A network system characterized by The network system according to claim 3 , wherein
The network system, wherein the message conforming to the SIP is a REGISTER message. The network system according to claim 1, wherein
The apparatus is a communication terminal,
The state information of the communication terminal is
Status information of the user of the communication terminal or the communication terminal,
The address of the communication terminal,
The type of communication terminal,
The type of encoding method used by the communication terminal,
The type of session with which the communication terminal is communicating,
A network system characterized by being at least one of the above.

Images