RU2287227C2 - Method for suggesting user device that it should be logged - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: radio engineering[ networks rendering services to logged users.

SUBSTANCE: proposed method includes following phases: reception of service request from network user element (UE) and checkup for user logging; if user is not logged, response message including warning information is generated and relevant pulse (B3, B4) is sent to network user element.

EFFECT: enlarged functional capabilities; extended information about user logging.

25 cl, 3 dwg

Description

Technical field

The present invention relates to a method and a network device for monitoring a network.

State of the art

The invention relates to networks that provide services to registered users. For example, in the Internet Protocol (IM) multimedia subsystem, as defined in 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), a user device (UE) must be registered before the user device UE can use multimedia services.

Thus, in the case when the user (i.e. the UE) does not first send the registration request (for example, the SIP registration message (Session Initiation Protocol) REGISTER), the network is not able to process service requests from the user, which leads to failures . In turn, the user is not notified of the failure and, therefore, cannot identify the cause of the failure, that is, the lack of acceptance of the service request.

In addition, in a 3GPP environment, the network can initiate a deregistration (deregistration) procedure initiated by the network. This is done, for example, to avoid problems in the servers. The user may or may not be notified of this action, depending on whether he has previously been subscribed to the service of such notification and whether he is within reach. If a user’s registration was canceled from the network and he was not notified about this for one of the above reasons, he can send a request to initiate a communication session to the network at any time. If this happens, then the network may not provide services to this user because he has not registered. However, in this case, the user also does not have information that he is no longer a registered user.

Thus, the above situation entails the problem that the user may not receive services and that the user does not have information about why the network does not accept his request for the service.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, the object of the present invention is to remedy the aforementioned disadvantages of the prior art.

This problem is solved by the method of monitoring the network, and the network provides services to registered users, the method includes the following steps:

receiving a request for a service,

checking whether the user requesting the service is a registered user or not, and

if the user is not registered, then generating a response message, including warning information in the response message, and transmitting the response message to the user.

Alternatively, the above problem is solved by a network monitoring device for monitoring the network, the network providing services to registered users, the device being configured to receive a service request, check whether the user requesting the service is a registered user or not, and generate a response message, containing warning information for the user if the user is not registered.

Thus, by the method and control device in accordance with the invention, the user is automatically informed that he is not registered. This ensures the simplicity of processing requests for services of unregistered users.

The response message may be a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) response. In addition, the SIP response may be a prohibition response (403 Forbidden). Therefore, a predefined standard message can be used to convey warning information. Therefore, the invention can be easily applied in existing systems.

The warning information may include a warning text message. This warning text message can be understood by the user so that he can be easily informed of the situation.

The warning text message may be a predefined warning text message. In this way, the user can be informed more clearly, since the warning text message is predefined and, therefore, symbolic to the user.

The warning information may contain a predefined warning code. In this way, the user device of the user can be easily informed of the deregistration using such a predetermined code.

In addition, automatic registration can be triggered on a user's network device. That is, the user's network device can be adapted to perform automatic registration in response to a received response message that contains a specific warning code. In this way, the necessary registration is performed, which does not require entering a command for this by the user.

In addition, you can check whether the user had a valid registration before or not, and in the case when the user did not have a valid registration before, information that registration is required can be inserted into the warning information.

Alternatively, it can be checked whether the user had a valid registration before or not, and if the registration was canceled, and in the case when the user previously had a valid registration and registration was canceled, the information that re-registration is required is entered warning information. Thus, the condition is taken into account when the user previously had a valid registration and that the registration was canceled, and the user is informed about this condition .

The network may be a third-generation network, the registration step being performed by a representative function of call state management (P-CSCF).

The network may be a third-generation network, wherein the shaping step is performed by a call state management function (S-CSCF).

The invention also provides a network device having the ability to connect to a network, the network providing services to registered users, the device being configured to receive a message and automatically register to the network if the message contains predefined warning information. The warning information may contain a warning code and / or may contain a warning text message.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The present invention is explained below with reference to the drawings, which represent the following:

Figure 1 is a diagram of a network system in which the first and second embodiments are applicable,

FIG. 2 is a signaling diagram of a procedure according to the first embodiment, and

3 is a signaling diagram of a procedure according to a second embodiment.

Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiments

In the following description, preferred embodiments of the invention are presented in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a diagram of a network system in which embodiments of the invention are applicable. The network system can be configured in accordance with the concept of the IP multimedia subsystem, as defined by the 3GPP standard (Partnership Project for the Creation of Third Generation Systems).

The network system contains the source ("home") network of the user equipment UE and the visited network. The source network comprises a Call State Management Function (S-CSCF) that manages services for the user (i.e., UE). The S-CSCF function has access to the home server (HSS) of the subscriber to receive information related to the user. The visited network comprises a Call State Management Representation Function (P-CSCF), which essentially performs an interface function for connecting the user equipment UE to the serving S-CSCF in its home network. The S-CSCF is located in the home network of the user equipment UE, which roams in the visited network and connects to the P-CSCF.

The following describes a first embodiment of the invention. According to the first embodiment, it is assumed that the user sends a Session Invitation Protocol (SIP INVITE) invitation message before transmitting the registration protocol (SIP REGISTER) message to the network. The network returns a standard 403 Forbidden prohibition message with a warning header to the user.

In Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), warning headers are used in response messages to carry additional information about the status of the response. The warning headers contain the following fields: warning code, warning agent, and warning text message.

The warning code contains a three-digit number. SIP warning codes begin with 3 as the first digit. The alert agent specifies the name or alias of the server that adds the alert header. A warning text message is plain text that is understandable to a user who is an individual.

According to this embodiment of the invention, the warning header contains the text message “Registration required”. This warning text message is associated with a 3GPP compliant warning code. Therefore, it must begin with a different digit other than 3 in order to distinguish it from warning codes that comply with the SIP protocol. The SIP puncture warning code should preferably trigger a registration message in the user device UE to be forwarded to the network.

Figure 2 shows the signaling flow in accordance with the second embodiment, which illustrates the above procedure in more detail. As mentioned above, it is assumed that the user (i.e., UE) is not registered on the network. That is, the first action performed by the user equipment UE is to send a SIP (SIP INVITE) invitation request to the P-CSCF representative function, as shown in step A1. In this example, it is assumed that the user device UE is not registered, and a corresponding response is sent back to the UE in step A2.

That is, in step A2, the P-CSCF representation function returns a final 4.xx response to the user equipment UE, preferably in the form of a standard Forbidden 403 ban message. In the Forbidden message 403, the warning header contains a warning text message, for example, “registration is required,” and a warning code corresponding to the 3GPP standard is included. This warning code should be standardized and, for example, should preferably be defined by the IANA (Internet Protocol Name and Parameter Allocation Agency).

The P-CSCF representative function sends a Forbidden prohibition message 403 to the user equipment UE in step A2. Thereby, the user equipment UE is informed that the SIP INVITE invitation message sent in step A1 was unsuccessful, and further, the user equipment UE is also informed why the invitation message was unsuccessful, namely because the UE is still not registered with network.

Preferably, the user equipment UE is triggered by Forbidden message 403 to send a SIP REGISTER registration message, as shown in step A3. Using the aforementioned 3GPP compliant warning code, the user equipment UE can start to automatically send such a registration request without requiring the user to manually enter the corresponding request. That is, the user equipment UE may be adapted to automatically perform registration in response to receiving the above warning code.

After sending the SIP REGISTER registration message in step A3, the normal registration procedure is performed. A detailed description thereof is omitted to simplify the illustration.

It should be noted that for the above automatic registration, a warning text message is optional. That is, in order to start automatic registration of a user device UE, only a warning code is needed.

The same procedure as described above can be used to start the registration message from the user equipment UE when the INVITE invitation message arrives at the P-CSCF representative function after the user registration in the P-CSCF expires, that is, when registration is restricted to time. The “registration required” warning header should preferably be inserted by the P-CSCG representative function since this element provides an interface from the network to the user equipment of the UE. It should be noted that in the above description, it is assumed that the status information of the user (that is, registered or not registered) is stored in the HSS server. However, this information can also be stored in a database in the serving S-CSCF function or also in the P-CSCF representative function. This eliminates the need for sending requests to the HSS server or home network.

The second embodiment is described below with reference to FIG. 3.

According to a second embodiment, it is assumed that the user equipment of the UE has been registered, but that the home network where the user equipment of the UE is registered is performing a network-initiated deregistration for that user. This means that the S-CSCF serving function will remove this user from the user registration database. This may not implicitly mean that the P-CSCF representative function will also delete the user.

Then the alarm for this case is described with reference to figure 3. In step B1, the user equipment UE sends a SIP INVITE invitation message to the P-CSCF representation function. There may be cases where the registration of the user equipment UE is valid in the P-CSCF representative function, but is no longer valid in the serving S-CSCF function. Therefore, the P-CSCF representative function forwards the SIP INVITE invitation message to the S-CSCF serving function in step B2.

However, the S-CSCF serving function detects that the registration of the user equipment UE has been canceled or the timer associated with registration has expired, that is, the user equipment UE no longer has a valid registration. Therefore, the S-CSCF serving function returns a standard 403 Forbidden response message to the user. Since in this scenario it may be that the user has recently had a valid registration, the S-CSCF serving function preferably introduces another warning header with a text message warning “re-registration required”. As described in the first embodiment, this warning text message should preferably be associated with a warning code conforming to the 3GPP standard (which may be the same as corresponding to the first embodiment). The S-CSCF serving function sends a standard Forbidden message 403 thus compiled to the P-CSCF representative function (step B3), which in turn sends it to the user equipment UE (step B4).

Similarly to the first embodiment, the warning text message and warning code should preferably trigger a re-registration at the user device UE, which should be forwarded to the network, as indicated in step B5. After that, the normal registration procedure is performed. A detailed description of this procedure is omitted to simplify the illustration.

Preferably, only a “re-registration required” warning text message is entered by the S-CSCF serving function.

It should be noted that in the SIP standard, registration and re-registration look exactly the same. The reason for the presence of different warning text messages is to inform the user on the user device UE that the user has not yet registered with the network, or that the last valid registration has been canceled by the network accordingly.

It should be noted that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. Various changes and modifications are possible.

In particular, embodiments of the invention may be combined. That is, both procedures can be applied on a network system and, depending on the situation, the standard Forbidden message 403 sent to the user equipment UE may include a text message warning “registration required” or “re-registration required”.

In addition, it should be noted that the IP multimedia subsystem is taken only as an example. That is, the invention can be applied to any network system in which a user must register before he can receive any services.

In addition, SIP is also used as an example only. Instead, messages of any protocols may be used, which may include specific text warning messages and / or warning codes.

Claims (25)

1. A method of monitoring a network in which the network provides services to registered users, the method comprising the steps of receiving (A1; B1, B2) a service request from a network device (UE) of a user, checking whether the user is registered or not, and if the user is not registered, then forming a response message, including warning information and sending (A2; B3, B4) a response message to the user's network device (UE). 2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the response message is a response of a session initiation protocol (SIP), 3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that the SIP response is a standard Forbidden 403 ban response message. 4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the warning information includes a warning text message. 5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that the warning text message is a predefined warning text message. 6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the warning information contains a predefined warning code. 7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises the step of starting (A3; B5) automatic registration in the network device (UE) of the user. 8. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises the step of checking whether the user had a valid registration before or not, while in case the user did not have a valid registration before, information is entered into the warning information at the generation stage, that registration is required. 9. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises the steps of checking whether the user has previously had a valid registration or not and whether the user has been unregistered or not, and in this case, if the user had a previous valid registration and user registration was canceled, then at the stage of formation, information is entered into the warning information that re-registration is necessary. 10. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that the network is a third-generation network, wherein said formation step is performed by a representation function in a call state management (P-CSCF). 11. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that the network is a third-generation network, wherein said formation step is performed by a serving call state control (S-CSCF) function. 12. A network monitoring device for monitoring a network in which the network provides services to registered users, the device being configured to receive a service request, check whether or not the user requesting the service is registered, and generate a response message containing warning information for the user in case if the user is not registered. 13. The device according to p. 12, characterized in that the response message is a response of a session initiation protocol (SIP). 14. The device according to item 13, wherein the SIP response is a standard Forbidden 403 ban response message. 15. The device according to p. 12, characterized in that the warning information will include a warning text message. 16. The device according to clause 15, wherein the warning text message is a predefined warning text message. 17. The device according to p. 12, characterized in that the warning information contains a predefined warning code. 18. The device according to p. 12, characterized in that the device is configured to check whether the user has previously had a valid registration or not, and if the user did not have a valid registration, then enter information into the warning information that registration is required. 19. The device according to p. 12, characterized in that the device is configured to check whether the user has previously had a valid registration or not, and to check whether the user has been unregistered or not, and enter information into the warning information about that re-registration is necessary if the user had a previous valid registration and the user was unregistered. 20. The device according to claim 1 or 18, characterized in that the network is a third-generation network, while the network monitoring device is a representative function of call state management (P-CSCF). 21. The device according to claim 1 or 19, characterized in that the network is a third-generation network, wherein said input step is performed by a call state management function (S-CSCF). 22. A network system comprising a network monitoring device according to any one of claims 12 to 21, characterized in that it further comprises a network device (UE), said network device being designed to perform automatic registration in response to a response message. 23. A network device connected to a network, the network providing services to registered users, wherein said device is configured to receive a message and automatically register to the network if the message contains predetermined warning information. 24. The network device according to item 23, wherein the warning information contains a warning code. 25. The network device according to item 23, wherein the warning information contains a warning text message.

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