WO2008077335A1

WO2008077335A1 - A method of a media gateway releasing an endpoint and the media gateway thereof

Info

Publication number: WO2008077335A1
Application number: PCT/CN2007/071064
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ming Lin; Fang Yin
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 2006-12-22
Filing date: 2007-11-15
Publication date: 2008-07-03
Also published as: CN1997085A

Abstract

A method of a Media Gateway releasing an endpoint is provided, which includes: determining to release the endpoint on the Media Gateway; the Media Gateway sends the announcement to the active endpoint; after the announcement is sent, the Media Gateway releases the endpoint. A Media Gateway is provided. Through the provided method and the Media Gateway, the question of the user's bad feeling due to the current call is cut-off suddenly when releasing endpoints and connections for off-line maintenance on the Media Gateway can be resolved.

Description

Method for releasing endpoint by media gateway and media gateway

This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 200610157984.X, filed on December 22, 2006, entitled "A Method for Release Endpoints of Media Gateways and a Media Gateway", all of which are filed on December 22, 2006. The content is incorporated herein by reference.

Technical field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular to a technology for a media gateway to release an endpoint.

Background technique

Next Generation Network (NGN) is a packet network that provides multiple services including telecommunication services. It can utilize multiple bandwidths and quality of service (QoS)-capable transmission technologies to implement business functions and underlying transmission. Separation of technology; it provides users with free access to different service provider networks, and supports universal mobility to achieve user consistency and uniformity in service usage.

NGN separates the functional modules of the traditional switch into independent network components, and each component is divided according to the corresponding functions and developed independently. Separate services and call control separation, call control and bearer separation technologies to achieve an open distributed network structure, so that services are independent of the network.

Softswitch, as the network control layer of NGN, uses a separate open computer platform to separate call control from the media gateway, and implement basic call control functions through software, including call routing, management control, and signaling interworking. The user can freely combine the bearer service and control protocol and provide an open application program interface (API interface), so that the third party can quickly, flexibly and effectively implement the service provision.

The Media Gateway (MGW, Media Gateway) is responsible for the integrated access of various users or various access networks, such as ordinary telephone users, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) users, Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) / ISDN network access, V5 access and 3G network access. The media stream accessed by the user is converted into a media stream format required by the core bearer network. The media gateway and service-related actions are all performed under the control of softswitch, such as coding, compression algorithm selection, call establishment, release, interruption, resource allocation and release, and detection and processing of special signals.

The special relationship between the media gateway and the softswitch determines the importance of the control protocol between them. MGCP (Media Gateway Control Protocol) and H.248 are the control protocols between the softswitch and the media gateway. The MGCP protocol is relatively simple to implement and has many early applications. However, the current application trend is to gradually shift to the H.248 protocol standard.

Since the media gateway and the softswitch are physically separate devices, there may be requirements for offline maintenance (such as software upgrade, replacement of some hardware boards, etc.): When the media gateway is ready to exit the service, the softswitch should be notified for softswitching. Dismantle the relevant connections on the media gateway in time to release the affected calls.

5 call. The RSIP message in the MGCP protocol and the ServiceChange message in the H.248 may be used by the media gateway to report the service status of the entire gateway or a part of the endpoint to which the gateway belongs, where the Method parameter indicates the event related to the service status. For example, when the reported method parameter is forced, it indicates that the gateway or endpoint has quit the service; when the reported method parameter is graceful, it indicates that the gateway or endpoint is about to exit the service, although the established connection is temporarily unaffected, but In the specified

0 will be forcibly released after the delay. For the graceful mode, if the media gateway gives a delay value of 0, it indicates that the softswitch can wait for the normal release of the connection, but in order to prevent the user from releasing the call at all times, the softswitch is waiting in an infinite time. Action, after waiting for a long enough time, start to remove the remaining connections.

The operator maintains the media gateway offline, and its time is usually planned. Therefore, from the perspective of the media 5 gateway, the graceful mode can be used to indicate the delay value. As required by the protocol, the softswitch should avoid establishing a new connection on the gateway and take action to release the existing call in an elegant manner.

When the media gateway will exit the service, the softswitch generally takes the normal call release procedure and releases the associated endpoints and connections. From the user's point of view, the ongoing call will be suddenly removed, and the user will be busy with a 0 tone or no sound at all, which will give the user a bad feeling.

Summary of the invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a method and a device for releasing a terminal by a media gateway, which is used to solve the problem that the media gateway performs offline maintenance, releases all endpoints, and disconnects the call abruptly.

Embodiments of the invention include:

!5 A method for a media gateway to release an endpoint, including the following steps:

Determining the endpoint on the release media gateway;

The media gateway sends a notification tone to the active endpoint; after the notification tone is sent, the media gateway releases the active endpoint.

A media gateway, including: Storage unit: used to store notification sounds that can be played;

The execution unit is configured to: according to the influence of the media gateway exiting the service on the terminal user, select, from the storage unit, a notification sound that can be played to be sent to the playing unit for playing;

Playback unit: used to play the received notification tone to the active endpoint on the media gateway.

5 The beneficial effects of the embodiments of the present invention are as follows:

When the media gateway exits the service release endpoint, the method of the present invention broadcasts a notification tone that the service is about to be interrupted to the user who has established the call, and then removes the call, so that the user can be notified in advance before the user is suddenly disconnected, to avoid sudden Interrupting the call can improve the bad feelings caused by the sudden interruption of the business.

0 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

1 is a flowchart of a method for releasing a terminal by a media gateway in a bearer and control separation architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a signaling flowchart of Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

3 is a signaling flowchart of Embodiment 2 of the present invention;

5 is a signaling flowchart of Embodiment 3 of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a signaling flowchart of Embodiment 4 of the present invention; FIG.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a communication system for releasing a terminal by a media gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention.

detailed description

As shown in FIG. 1, the method for releasing the !0 point of the media gateway under the bearer and control separation architecture provided by the embodiment of the present invention includes the following steps:

A. Softswitch and media gateway interact;

The interaction between the softswitch and the media gateway may specifically be an interaction caused by graceful exit of the media gateway, performing an isolated gateway operation by the softswitch, or a dual-homing switchover of the softswitch.

B. Decide to release all endpoints on the media gateway;

!5 In practice, all endpoints on the media gateway can be released by the softswitch or media gateway.

C. The media gateway sends a notification tone to all active endpoints;

Since the inactive endpoint no longer communicates with the user terminal, there is no need to send a notification tone to it.

D. After the notification tone is sent, the media gateway releases all endpoints.

Among them, although the playback is performed for multiple active endpoints, the same signal is played, because This media gateway can use the same source to generate this notification tone to save playback resources. Of course, the same source can produce the same notification tone or different notification tones.

According to the different impacts of the media gateway on the service after the service is exited, the softswitch or the media gateway can specifically capture the corresponding playback strategy. For example, for a trunking gateway, if it quits the service, softswitch

5 It is possible to select another trunking gateway to route new calls, so the media gateway can send a notification tone to the user, “The media gateway will perform device maintenance, the service will be interrupted briefly, please try again later”, so the user can redial A new number is called once. If the access gateway exits the service, since the subscriber line is connected to the gateway, as long as the gateway does not resume the service, the user cannot make a normal call, and then the media gateway can send a notification tone to the user, "the media gateway will proceed. Equipment maintenance, industry

0 will be interrupted for a certain period of time, please try again after 20 minutes.

Of course, it takes a certain amount of time to play an announcement. If the delay value indicated by the media gateway in the status change message is too short to play a complete voice announcement, then a tone can be played instead, for example, playing a few seconds of "beep, beep, beep," busy tone, Then remove the call connection.

Specific to the H.248 protocol network, there are different operations for different media gateways to exit the service.

5 process:

Embodiment 1: When the media gateway sends a ServiceChange message to the softswitch in a graceful manner, the softswitch avoids establishing a new connection on the gateway but also to the media. The gateway issues an instruction to play a notification tone on the existing endpoint of the established call.

!0 softswitch can specify ContextID = All (not including all contexts of the empty context),

TerminationID = wildcard (all wildcard endpoints), requires playback.

As shown in Figure 2, the following is the signaling process:

Step 21: During the user call, the media gateway sends a ServiceChange message to the softswitch;

!5 The endpoint is ROOT, indicating that the entire gateway status is changed. The method is graceful, indicating that the gateway will delay the service after the delay. The delay value is given in the ServiceChange message. If it is 0, it indicates that the media gateway waits for the softswitch to release the call when it is infinite.

Step 22: The softswitch sends a ServiceChange-Reply message to the media gateway, indicating that it has received the ServiceChange message of the media gateway. Step 23: The softswitch sends a Modify (Modify Endpoint) message to the media gateway, instructing the media gateway to play a notification tone on all active endpoints;

Step 24: The media gateway sends a Modify-Reply message to the softswitch to indicate to the softswitch that it is performing the Modify command. If the execution is successful, the media gateway sends a notification tone to each active endpoint;

Step 25: The media gateway sends a Notify message to the softswitch, indicating to the softswitch that the notification tone has been played.

Step 26: The softswitch sends a Notify-Reply message to the media gateway indicating that it has received the Notify message of the media gateway;

0 Step 27: The softswitch sends a Subtract message to the media gateway, releasing the endpoint on the media gateway;

Step 28: The media gateway sends a Subtract-Reply message to the softswitch indicating its execution of the Subtract message.

Embodiment 2: In addition to passively accepting the ServiceChange message reporting of the media gateway, an operation and maintenance instruction may also be provided on the soft switch, and a media gateway may be deferred and isolated. The operator can specify the delay value and the notification tone that needs to be played to the gateway. After the softswitch executes the command, no new calls are established on the gateway. At the same time, the media gateway is required to play the notification tone, and after the specified delay value expires, the playback is stopped and the corresponding call is forcibly removed.

As shown in Figure 3, the signaling process is as follows:

!0 Step 31: The isolated gateway operation is performed on the softswitch, and a Modify (Modify Endpoint) message is sent to the media gateway, instructing the media gateway to play the play tone on all active endpoints;

Step 32: The media gateway sends a Modify-Reply message to the softswitch to indicate its execution result for the Modify command. If the execution is successful, the media gateway sends a notification tone to each active endpoint;

!5 Step 33: The media gateway sends a Notify message to the softswitch, indicating to the softswitch that the notification tone has been played.

Step 34: The softswitch sends a Notify-Reply message to the media gateway indicating that it has received the Notify message from the media gateway;

Step 35: The softswitch sends a Subtract message to the media gateway, releasing the gateway. End point

Step 36: The media gateway sends a Subtract-Reply message to the softswitch indicating its execution result for the Subtract message.

Embodiment 3: When the media gateway loses contact with the current softswitch, if the media gateway is configured with multiple 5 softswitch addresses (ie, softswitch dual-homing function), the media gateway attempts to register to the alternate softswitch.

The standby softswitch does not have the information of the existing call on the active softswitch. Therefore, after the media gateway obtains the registration success response of the standby softswitch, the existing endpoint and the connection are usually released. Before releasing, you can also play a notification tone in the full gateway to notify the user that the call will be released and ask the user to try again.

As shown in Figure 4, the signaling process is as follows:

0 Step 41: The media gateway loses contact with the primary softswitch, and then attempts to register with the alternate softswitch, and the media gateway sends a ServiceChange message to the alternate softswitch;

The endpoint is ROOT, the method is Restart (restart mode), and the delay is given, indicating that the gateway will delay the service after the delay.

Step 42: The standby softswitch sends a ServiceChange-Reply message to the media gateway indicating that it has received the ServiceChange message of the media gateway and agrees to the gateway registration.

Since there is no resource information occupied by the media gateway on the standby softswitch, the call on the media gateway will be completely released. The media gateway automatically broadcasts the notification tone to each active endpoint before releasing all calls, and releases the resources occupied by all calls after the playback is completed.

!0 In order to avoid playing the notification tone, the standby softswitch initiates a new call on the endpoint listening to the notification tone. In the registration message of 41, the media gateway specifies the delay value, which indicates that the alternate softswitch After the specified time, the media gateway must be considered to have resumed service and a new call can be established. The playback of the media gateway will not be disturbed until the delay expires.

Embodiment 4: Like the H.248 protocol network, the above process can also be implemented under the MGCP protocol network. For example, for a media gateway to exit the service service in an elegant exit mode, for a media gateway using the MGCP protocol, mg (indicating the entire gateway) can be specified as an endpoint, and playback is required. As shown in Figure 5, the signaling process is as follows:

Step 51: During the user call, the media gateway sends a RSIP (Restart) message to the softswitch; The endpoint is a wildcard (*), and the method is graceful (elegance exit mode), indicating that the gateway will delay the service after the delay. The delay value is given in the RSIP message. If it is 0, it means that the media gateway waits for the softswitch to release the call when it is infinite.

Step 52: The softswitch sends a RSIP-RSP (Resend Response) message to the media gateway, indicating that it has received the RSIP (Restart) message of the media gateway;

Step 53: The softswitch sends an RQNT (Request Notification) message to the media gateway, instructing the media gateway to play a notification tone on all active endpoints;

Step 54: The media gateway sends an RQNT-RSP (Request Notification Response) message to the softswitch indicating its execution result for the RQNT command. If the execution is successful, the media gateway sends a notification tone to each active endpoint.

Step 55: The media gateway sends an NTFY (Notification) message to the softswitch, indicating that the notification tone has been played.

Step 56: The softswitch sends a NTFY-RSP (Notification Response) message to the media gateway, indicating that it has received the NTFY (Notification) message of the media gateway;

5 Step 57: The softswitch sends a DLCX (Remove Connection) message to the media gateway, releasing the endpoint on the gateway;

Step 58: The media gateway sends a DLCX-RSP (Remove Connection Response) message to the softswitch indicating its execution result for the DLCX command.

As shown in FIG. 6, a communication system for releasing a terminal for a media gateway includes: a soft switch 60 and a !0 media gateway 61. The media gateway 61 specifically includes: a receiving unit 611, an executing unit 612, a playing unit 613, and a storage unit 614.

The softswitch 60 interacts with the media gateway 61. The specific interaction process, such as the media gateway sends a ServiceChange message to the softswitch, indicating that an elegant release is required, or an isolated gateway operation is performed on the softswitch, and a Modify is sent to the media gateway. Endpoint) message, or softswitch dual return! 5 genre function, the media gateway switches to the alternate softswitch, etc.; media gateway 61 or softswitch 60 decides to release all endpoints, if softswitch 60 decides to release endpoint softswitch 60 to media gateway 61 The receiving unit 611 sends a message to instruct the media gateway 61 to send a notification tone to the active endpoint. The executing unit 612 selects the available notification sound from the storage unit 614 according to the effect of the media gateway exiting the service to the terminal user according to the playback indication message. Playback to playback unit 613, or dual-homing switching in softswitch Then, according to the influence of the media gateway exiting the service on the terminal user, the notification sound that is available for playing from the storage unit 614 is delivered to the playing unit 613 for playing; the playing unit 613 sends a notification to each active terminal after receiving the notification sound of the executing unit 612. Tone, that is, to broadcast a notification tone to each user terminal;

MSC Server (Mobile Switching Center Server) for WCDMA mobile network - MGW (Media Gateway), MGCF (Media Gateway Control Function) in IMS network - IM-MGW (IP Multimedia-Media Gateway), MRFC in IMS network (media) Resource Function Control) - MRFP (Media Resource Function Processing) uses an architecture similar to NGN-like bearer and control separation. The H248 protocol is used to complete the control of the bearer. Obviously, the technology described in the present invention can also be applied. However, in different networks, network elements have different names. MGC, MSC Server, MGCF, MRFC, etc. should be regarded as synonymous with softswitch, and IM-MGW and MRFP should be regarded as synonymous with MGW.

When the media gateway voluntarily quits the service, the softswitch performs the quarantine operation on the media gateway, and the media gateway performs the softswitch dual-homing switchover, the media gateway will release all the endpoints, and the method and device of the embodiment of the present invention, the media gateway to the established call The user plays the notification tone that the service is about to be interrupted, and then the call is removed, which can improve the bad feeling that the service interruption causes to the user. The spirit and scope of the Ming. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of the inventions

Claims

Rights request

A method for releasing an endpoint by a media gateway, comprising the steps of: determining to release an endpoint on a media gateway;

The media gateway sends a notification tone to the active endpoint; after the notification tone is sent, the media gateway

5 Release the active endpoint.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification tone is generated by a media gateway using the same source.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the same source generates the same notification tone or a different notification tone.

The method according to claim 1, wherein the notification tone is different according to different influences of the media gateway on the terminal user after the service is exited.

The method of claim 1, wherein the determining, before the releasing the endpoint on the media gateway, further comprises: the media gateway sending a state change message including a delay value to the softswitch, indicating that the media gateway will Exit the service after the delay.

The method of claim 1, wherein the determining, before the releasing the endpoint on the media gateway, further comprises: performing, by the softswitch, an operation of the isolation gateway.

7. The method of claim 5 or 6, wherein the determining to release an endpoint on the media gateway is made by the softswitch.

The method of claim 7, wherein the softswitch determines to release the endpoint of the media network !0, further comprising:

The softswitch instructs the media gateway to play a notification tone on the active endpoint;

After receiving the indication, the media gateway sends a notification tone to the active endpoint.

The method according to claim 8, wherein after the notification tone is sent, the method further comprises:

!5 the media gateway notifying the softswitch that the notification tone has been played;

The media network releases the endpoint after receiving the indication of the release endpoint of the softswitch.

The method of claim 1, wherein the determining, before the releasing the endpoint on the media gateway, further comprises:

The media gateway loses contact with the current softswitch and successfully registers with the second softswitch; The media gateway sends a status change message including a delay value to the second softswitch, indicating that the media gateway will delay the service at a given time.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining to release an endpoint on the media gateway is made by the media gateway.

The method according to claim 1, wherein the media gateway comprises: an IP multimedia media gateway IM-MGW, a media resource function control MRFP or a media gateway MGW in a next generation network.

The method according to claim 5, 6 or 10, wherein the softswitch comprises: a media gateway controlling an MGC, a mobile switching center server MSC Server, a media gateway control function MGCF, a media resource function controlling MRFC or Softswitch in a generation of networks.

14. A media gateway, comprising:

Storage unit: used to store notification sounds that can be played;

The media gateway of claim 14, further comprising:

Receiving unit: configured to receive a playback indication message from the softswitch, instructing the execution unit to start operation.