WO2010139570A1

WO2010139570A1 - Service platform

Info

Publication number: WO2010139570A1
Application number: PCT/EP2010/057103
Authority: WO
Inventors: David Moro Fernandez; David Lozano Llanos; Diego Gonzalez Martinez; Ana Sobrino Jular; Jose Antonio Rodriguez Fernandez; Luis Angel Galindo Sanchez
Original assignee: Telefonica, S.A.
Priority date: 2009-06-02
Filing date: 2010-05-25
Publication date: 2010-12-09
Also published as: UY32678A; AR076805A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a service platform (100) for providing services and capabilities of a telecommunication network (200) towards an Internet Web environment (300) and allowing the exploitation of the Internet environment to enrich the services of the telecommunication network. The platform comprises adaptation entities (110,140) in charge of the adaptation between technologies of the Internet environment and of the telecommunication network, interacting on one hand with Internet and on the other hand with the service capabilities and with the resources of the telecommunication network. The platform furthermore comprises an entity (190) for executing applications of the telecommunication network on-line from a terminal in the Internet environment.

Description

SERVICE PLATFORM

Background of the Invention

Technical Field

The invention herein described belongs to the telecommunications sector, and specifically to service platforms for fixed, mobile and converged telecommunications operator networks (Next Generation Networking NGN and/or 3G/GSM).

Description of the Related Art

In the telecommunication field, voice services and the provision of broadband IP (Internet Protocol) access continue to be the basis of this market, leaving the provision of basic services as the main source of income for operators, so it is difficult to find new ways of earning a profit.

For this purpose, mobile and fixed networks have evolved towards models based on layers which allow decoupling the network transport from the network control, and both of these in turn from service platforms.

Telecommunication service platforms generally make use of transport resources and of service capabilities of the telecommunication network to create and provide users with added value services. These platforms have generally been closely related to the services offered by the telecommunications network, for example the control of voice calls or sending SMS messages, offering increasing innovation and increasing isolation to the service platform of the network technology to be used. In this sense, the general objective of the innovation and development in this field is to improve the time of creation and market launch of a new added value service, such that the users' demand for new services can be met.

In this sense, there are earlier examples in the state of the art for service platforms for telecommunication networks. For example, OSA/Parlay platforms standardized by 3GPP allow accessing resources of the network agnostically with respect to the technology used to implement said resources. This allows applications to have simple access to service capabilities of the network. Another known platform is the Service Delivery Platform (SDP), defined by several manufacturers of the telecommunications sector and by the SDP Alliance. It is based on the technological principles of OSA/Parlay and on IT sector technologies to offer in the telecommunications environment a service delivery environment. The benefits created by SDP include a fast creation of services, independent access to resources of the network which isolates the applications of the underlying network technology and integration of the applications with the business support environment of the operator for the complete management of the life cycle of a service.

On the other hand, and still relating to the telecommunications sector, the technological trend in telecommunication networks is aimed at the implementation of all-IP networks in a near future in which connectivity and service remain separated, as previously mentioned, and it is the user who must choose at will, and according to his preferences, the applications, devices and platforms to be used. IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem), which is the service architecture and network core technology designed for 3G/GSM and NGN networks by the 3GPP in collaboration with the OMA (Open Mobile Alliance), has emerged as a solution for developing personal communications towards a new generation of telecommunications services aimed at providing multimedia telephony, presence, instant messaging, push to talk over cellular, etc. IMS is based on applying new technologies based on the IP protocol. IMS technology for telecommunication networks allows significant flexibility for creating interpersonal communications services. Therefore IMS is presented as a relevant network base on which SDP service platforms can be deployed. However, the existing solutions are limited and require further development even though they already exist on the market.

On the other hand, a revolution known as Web 2.0 is taking place in the Internet environment, offering Internet users a wide range of services in which the user is the center of the service. It establishes a high level of user participation in the creation of the service itself and in the creation and categorization of contents. Web 2.0 applications are focused on the social and community nature of services. Examples of services of this type are social networks such as Facebook, Tuenti, etc.; the content repositories generated by the user such as YouTube for video contents, or lmeem.com for music; blogs and microblogs, etc.

After what was known as the "dot-com crash" in 2001 , pessimism was the common denominator in predictions as to the future development of Web services. These predictions, based on the non-compliance of the initial outrageous expectations, questioned the commercial viability of the World Wide Web. Nevertheless, in the years after the dot-com crash, a group of revolutionary Web services began to emerge that were based on service lines and aspects that had not even been considered up until that point. The huge success of these new services and their acceptance by users brought about the spectacular growth of some companies, such as Google, causing the resurgence of commercial interest and representing a great revolution, the Web 2.0 revolution.

The term Web 2.0 encompasses the concepts no which this revolution has been constructed, abandoning the classic Web philosophy consisting of static pages and contents, to focus on interaction and dynamism as main objectives. The key after Web 2.0 is based on a new philosophy in the design and development of Web services which will allow the revolution to become an authentic, significant and sustainable change. The central concepts of this new philosophy are:

The user is the center: The user is no longer a mere passive spectator, but rather he has become the differentiating component of the Web 2.0 services, adding value, generating and organizing content, customizing and developing services and expressing his/her preferences. Providers are therefore in an advantageous situation to offer the users what they really want, diversifying the offer and increasing chances of success and, therefore, profits.

Combination and flexibility: Because of its worldwide dissemination, Internet has become the largest service enabling platform. The proper use of the IP connection capabilities, together with the suitable deployment of remote procedure calls (open Web APIs (Application Programming Interfaces)), allow the combination of functionalities of different services (mashups) and contents (syndication), providing extraordinary flexibility for the creation of new services quickly and easily, reaching any part of the world.

These two pillars and their enormous potential have converted the Web 2.0 revolution, rather than into a simple trend, into the new means for creating innovative and prosperous services. Web 2.0 is the new ecosystem for the evolution of IP services.

The state of the art in the area of telecommunications networks and service platforms for telecommunications networks does not have the technology or the solutions to offer convergence services combining characteristics of new generation telecommunication networks, such as those based on IMS, with the typical features of Web 2.0 applications, or contents and events of the Web 2.0 environment.

There are specifically no technical solutions or technology for:

- Offering its thin clients for access to the personal communications services typical of telecommunication networks (such as call set-up and

SMS/MMS messaging) and more specifically clients for personal communications services based on IMS technology (IMS Communicator, Agenda, Rich Communication Suite, multimedia call set-up and instant messaging, Push to talk over Cellular, multimedia multiparty conferencing etc.). The concept of Thin Client involves ubiquitous access to the application, generally by means of a web browser, maintaining the same characteristics and functionality for the user independently of the type of browser, the computer from which the user connects or even in comparison with the equivalent functionality offered by a telephone which offers said telecommunication services. These thin clients are common on the Internet for access to information and entertainment applications, in which the nature of the communications is synchronous: the client requests from the server certain information and the server responds. For interpersonal communications, the nature of the interaction is asynchronous, i.e., the server may require communicating with a client in order to indicate to him an incoming call, or a received message.

- Offering portable telecommunications service elements which, in terms of web 2.0, could be widgets, which offer telecommunication services to users embedded in a Web 2.0 service or site which has no explicit relationship with the telecommunication widget other than being a container of said portable service element.

- Using the services and service capabilities of the telecommunication network as a content generation engine in the Web 2.0, or inversely, using these amenities of the telecommunication network for the distribution of contents generated by users in the Web 2.0 towards users of the telecommunication network. The telecommunications networks has several personal communications mechanisms and services which can serve to generate, publish user contents in the form of text, video clips, images, audio and music, or to subscribe to and distribute to the telecommunications user contents of this kind from the Internet. An example of such network amenities would be calls and video calls to generate towards web 2.0 (and vice versa, to distribute from web 2.0) audio clips and video clips to the users of the telecommunications network; other examples of candidate services include: SMS/MMS messaging or instant messaging for images and text, speech technology combined with a calls to generate text from speech, etc. - Offering the services and service capabilities of the operator for the development of new functions in web 2.0 services by means of the direct integration of said functionality in the web 2.0 site by the provider of said site. There is no technology for telco mashups to be formed by agents outside the telecommunications network. To that end it is necessary to have the technology to expose the capabilities using web API technology. This means that the telecommunications network offers interfaces for fast integration in the web environment.

In summary, having described the state of the art and trends in the telecommunication environment and in the Internet environment, it is hereby indicated that there are no technical mechanisms, technology or service platforms existing in the state of the art which allow creating, offering and delivering to users services which offer the combination of characteristics of the Internet world (Web 2.0), and of the Telecommunication world (IMS).

Description of the Invention

An objective of the invention is to provide a platform by means of which the problems described above are solved at least in part.

To that end, according to the invention a platform according to independent claim 1 is provided. The dependent claims include particular embodiments of the invention.

According to one aspect of the invention, a service platform is provided for providing services and capabilities of a telecommunication network towards an Internet environment and for allowing the exploitation of the Internet environment to enrich the services of the telecommunication network. The platform comprises adaptation entities in charge of the adaptation between technologies of the Internet environment and of the telecommunication network, interacting on one hand with Internet and on the other hand with the service capabilities and with the resources of the telecommunication network. The adaptation entities comprise a first group of entities for exposing capabilities of the telecommunications network for their direct use from Internet and a second group of entities for exchanging means and events between the telecommunication network and the Internet environment through Application Programming Interfaces exposed in Web sites in the Internet environment. The platform furthermore comprises an entity for executing applications of the telecommunication network on-line from a terminal in the Internet environment.

The first group of entities preferably comprises an entity in charge of exposing capabilities of the IP Multimedia Subsystem towards the Internet environment by means of Application Programming Interfaces and an entity in charge of hosting and serving towards the Internet environment widgets or

Portable Service Elements (PSEs) of the telecommunication network.

The second group of entities preferably comprises an entity in charge of the management of subscriptions to contents and events generated in the Internet environment, an entity in charge of acquiring and adapting the contents and events of the Internet environment for delivering them to a user of the telecommunication network and an entity in charge of receiving contents and events generated by users of the telecommunication network and adapting them towards the Internet environment. Said entities are configured to be authenticated in the Internet services the Application Programming Interfaces of which it consumes, using the credentials of an end user of the telecommunication network or service credentials of the telecommunication network.

The second group of entities can additionally comprise an entity in charge of managing the relationship between user identities in the telecommunication network and user identities in the Internet environment.

The service platform according to the invention provides the telecommunications operator with tools for providing telecommunication services and capabilities towards the web 2.0 environment of Internet, on one hand, and on the other hand, inversely, the platform offers mechanisms so that the operator can exploit the Web 2.0, enriching the telecommunication services that the operator offers to its users. A detailed breakdown of these solutions provided by the service platform according to the present invention is given below:

The platform offers capabilities of the telecommunications network towards the web 2.0 environment: through the platform, the operator offers tools for the creation of services from third parties. The following are, specifically, the tools offered by the platform for such purpose:

Embedding of telecommunication capabilities in Web 2.0 services by means of PSEs (Portable Service Elements). The service elements or PSEs are added to the Web 2.0 in the form of widgets interacting remotely with the APIs of the IMS capabilities of the operator. There is no special requirement for the web 2.0 site, so its applicability is immediate, enabling the virtual introduction of the operator through its services and resources in the web 2.0 environment. Exposure of telecommunication service capabilities through open Web APIs. Through the service platform, the Web 2.0 services can access and interact directly in the operation thereof with the service capabilities of the operator through APIs, exposing capabilities and service enablers such as Presence, Instant Messaging, Multimedia Telephony, Network Agenda, Push to talk over Cellular, multimedia sharing, live video sharing, etc. This amenity of the platform allows complete integration of the capabilities of the operator in the Web 2.0 world, which is very important for positioning in the new value chain. Publication in Web 2.0 of content generated by the users of the operator. New ways of publishing contents from the terminals of the users, making use of the capabilities and services of the network of the telecommunications operator, are sought. The latter acts as an enabling intermediary, receiving the contents of the users and adapting them for their publication in the web 2.0 site on behalf of the user or of the operator. For content generation, the operator enables the use of services such as voice calls to generate audio clips, video calls and video sharing to generate video clips in semi-real time, instant messaging and presence to generate contents of text and images, etc. These amenities of the platform according to the invention allow exposing the capabilities of the operator for creating mashups in the Web

2.0, an enormous potential for creating services from third parties in the Internet thus being offered. Therefore, opening up capabilities of the telecommunication network towards the Web 2.0 by means of open APIs is considered the central amenity of the platform, because it involves the integration of telecommunication capabilities in the end Web 2.0 service. The platform offers mechanisms so that the operator can exploit Web

2.0 in its own telecommunication services for the purpose of enriching the end services of the operator using the technology, the contents and the functionalities of Web 2.0 services. The actual services of the operator thus acquire attractive features for the users which as of today are lacking. Specifically, the amenities of the platform are:

Acquiring and distributing contents and events of users generated in the Web 2.0. The platform allows acquiring the contents and events from the Web 2.0, generally produced by Internet users and not subject to digital rights, and incorporating them in the services of the operator, which are given a boost because they have the contents that the users want.

Web interfaces for providing IMS services: IMS Virtual Terminal. The platform offers the advances of the Web 2.0 in the field of user interfaces, hosting Web applications which act as the IMS terminal with respect to the user from which all personal communications services can be accessed. Since on-line applications are used, the service client logic resides in the service platform according to the invention, located in the network of the operator, instead of said client logic residing in the terminal devices of the user, as has been common practice in IMS services. With this improvement, the devices are simplified and the development and deployment of new services is expedited, with the considerable implications this involves for reducing the Time-To-Market.

These and other aspects of the invention will become evident from and be clarified in relation to the embodiments described below.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Other features and advantages of the invention will become evident from the following description of an embodiment, which is provided by way of non-limiting illustration, in relation to the attached drawings. Figure 1 shows a platform according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Preferred Embodiments of the Invention

Figure 1 shows the platform 100, services and capabilities of a telecommunication network 200 and a Web 2.0 domain 300. The services and capabilities of the telecommunication network 200 comprise an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) 210, which includes the following functionalities: Push to talk over Cellular (PoC) 220, Call Control (CC) 230, real-time message exchange (Instant Messaging, IM) 240, Group and List Management (XML Document Manager, XDM) 250, Presence 260 and others 270.

The service platform 100 is formed by entities, preferably modules, each of which is associated with a set of functionalities which can be reused by any of the enabled services. Furthermore, this model represents a horizontal and modular architecture which provides scalability and stability to the end solution, which are desirable and even required features of any platform offering services in massive telecommunication networks. The modules making up the service platform have the following structure:

Modules in charge of the adaptation between technologies of the Web 2.0 world and of IMS in the network of the operator, interacting with the Web 2.0 and with IMS service capabilities and with IMS resources. The modules in charge of the adaptation comprise a first group of modules 110 for exposing IMS capabilities towards the Web 2.0. Their function is to enable IMS capabilities for their direct use from the Web 2.0.

Within the first group of modules there is an IMS Exposure Layer Module 120 in charge of exposing IMS capabilities towards the Web 2.0 by means of APIs (Application Programming Interface) designed with a Web 2.0 friendly philosophy, which means that since it follows web 2.0 principles and techniques, the use of these APIs from web environments is immediate. To do this, the APIs are modeled as service interfaces which use a combination of resource orientation techniques, such as REST (REpresentational State Transfer), and procedure orientation techniques, such as RPC (Remote

Procedure Call). Through this module, http APIs are offered to access the communications resources and services associated with a user, which are modeled as Web resources which can be accessed by means of URLs. This module exposes the following IMS capabilities, but this list is not a comprehensive list. • Presence.

Group and List Management (XDM). Stand-Alone Instant Messaging (IM). Multimedia Telephony.

Enriched CS Calls (CSI services): Video sharing, Instant Sharing, etc . SIP Push.

Customized Alerting Tone. Multimedia Mailbox.

Furthermore, other non-IMS or pre-IMS capabilities of the telecommunication network can also be exposed through this module: The capabilities of the telecommunications network are exposed according to three behavior patterns of the exposed communications service.

1. Information exchange capabilities, the basic operation of which consists of acquiring, publishing, modifying and erasing information: User Profile, UE Profile, Address&PIM, Advertisement, Content Management, RBT&Alerting, Charging, Location, Presence.

2. Interactive capabilities, in which the concept of session control must somehow exist: Messaging-USSD, IP Messaging (session-based), Call&Conference Control, MediaResources, PoC, Rich Media Interaction, Identity&SSO. 3. Capabilities for sending content to users of the telecommunication network, located in an intermediate point of the previous groups: Messaging, IP Messaging (pager mode), Mail, Content Push, Dynamic Delivery.

The capabilities herein mentioned represent a non-comprehensive list of those which can be exposed through the IMS Exposure Layer Module. In other words, the module is extensible and does not limit said capabilities or services.

The groundwork of API is based on a combination of RPC and REST techniques. RPC techniques provide a representation of the IMS capability as if it were a resource the representation of which can be consulted or modified as if it were a simple database. If the actions to be performed are more complex and cannot be modeled as a mere data read, it is necessary to use RPC techniques. Depending on the exposed capability of the network, clients can directly modify the representation of the resource (REST APIs) or use actions and methods for requesting modification of the resource (RPC APIs). For REST APIs, standard http methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) are used in a consistent manner with the AtomPub specification, and the resources are represented and modeled with a specific data model. The ATOM data format is used when the data of the API are expressed as feed.

For the capabilities exposed via RPC APIs, the methods depend on the capability of the network that are specifically exposed and are encoded in the URL (form-urlencoded) as URL parameters. The methods are called by means of an http PUT request. Other parameters of the API RPC are represented in XML within the body of the request message. The XML format to be used depends on each capability exposed and is not based on Atom, though the generic rules of the data model apply to these XML. The specific data model is based on two possible representations:

JSON and Atom (XML).

The user identities are 3GPP IMS IMPUs although the use of other schemes such as OpenIDs is not excluded. The initial discovery of services is done with XRDS. The first group of modules furthermore comprises a module referred to as IMS 2.0 PSE (Portable Service Element) Platform 130, the purpose of which is to host and serve towards the Web the widgets or PSEs of the operator. The capabilities exposed by the IMS Exposure Layer module 120 are thus presented in a simplified manner to Web 2.0 users without reducing functionalities.

The IMS 2.0 PSE platform exposes simplified Web APIs towards the Web 2.0, providing users with a simple means of accessing IMS capabilities from the Web 2.0, since the PSEs (widgets) offered by this entity automatically incorporate the logic necessary for using said APIs. The interactions (with widgets) through these APIs are subsequently translated into interactions towards IMS capabilities. For exposing simplified APIs, as is done for the IMS Exposure Layer, a REST strategy, i.e., one that is resource oriented, is mainly followed. Alternatively, it is also possible for this entity to interact with the widgets through the Web presentation layer, whereby for these cases the exposure of APIs in the strict sense of the word is not necessary. In any case, for those cases in which simplified Web APIs are offered, the consumption scenario corresponds to a Client-Server scenario. Therefore, the client must have the capability of selecting a data format from among the following: XML, Atom 1.0, RSS and JSON.

Another aspect to be considered in this platform comprises the mechanisms necessary for its interaction towards IMS. To that end, the module uses SIP and XCAP protocols to interact directly with IMS capabilities and the consumption of the exposed APIs from the IMS Exposure Layer module can also be considered as an alternative. In this sense, by means of the client libraries offered by the IMS Exposure Layer, said functionality is covered. Therefore, by means of the integration of the suitable client, the IMS 2.0 PSE platform can access IMS capabilities for their subsequent transfer to the Web 2.0 world. The technologies that these clients will enable can be one or several of the following: Java, PHP, Python and RoR (Ruby), there being a freedom of choice in consideration of the reasons for the internal implementation of the platform, so other technologies can be used. In any case, it is important to point out that in order to increase the flexibility and speed for creating new widgets, the IMS 2.0 PSE platform must allow the reuse and combination of its capabilities of interaction towards IMS.

The adaptation modules comprise a second group of modules 140 for exchanging means and events between IMS and the Web 2.0. Unlike with the previous entities, interaction with the Web 2.0 is done through the exposed APIs in the different Web sites, these entities acting as client-side.

The second group of modules 140 comprises a module 150 for the management of subscriptions to contents and events generated in the Web 2.0.

The module 150 has suitable clients for the consumption of APIs for the subscription to contents and events (feeds) in the Web 2.0. A continuous and increasing adaptation of the Web 2.0 APIs consumed by this entity is required. Therefore, this module assures mechanism scalability for updating and maintaining the clients of the consumed Web 2.0 APIs.

The module 150 can be authenticated in the Web 2.0 services the APIs of which it consumes either by using the credentials of the end user or service credentials of the operator. It also supports consultation towards the IDs and Preferences module 180 described in detail below. The subscription management module 150 manages the subscriptions to each of the feeds, defining a method for managing the subscriptions of several users to the same feed.

The subscription management module 150 communicates with the Contents and Events Distribution module 160 described in detail below to inform it of the existence of a new content or event, indicating the location, how to acquire it, format and interested IMS services/users.

The subscription management module 150 manages and acts in accordance with the user preferences for the different subscription services it offers. For such purpose, it supports the suitable mechanisms for interaction with the user and the communication with the IDs and Preferences module 180.

The second group of modules comprises furthermore a Contents and Events Distribution module 160 in charge of acquiring and adapting the Web 2.0 contents and events for delivering them to the IMS user.

The module 160 can access, by means of API or directly, the following IMS capabilities to transmit means or events to IMS users and enrich services of the operator, for example: Presence.

Group and List Management (XDM). Stand-Alone Instant Messaging (IM). • Multimedia Telephony.

Enriched CS Calls (CSI services): Video sharing, Instant Sharing, etc SIP Push.

Customized Alerting Tone. Multimedia Mailbox. This list of capabilities is neither comprehensive nor exclusive.

The module 160 has suitable clients for the consumption of the Remote APIs which will provide the Web 2.0 contents to enrich the services of the operator. These clients can be internally implemented or downloaded from the actual Web 2.0 sites which provide them. A continuous and increasing adaptation of the Web 2.0 APIs consumed by this entity is required. Therefore, the module 160 assures mechanism scalability for updating and maintaining the clients of the consumed Web 2.0 APIs.

The module 160 can be authenticated in the Web 2.0 services the APIs of which it consumes either by using the credentials of the end user or service credentials of the operator. It also supports consultation towards the

IDs and Preferences module 180. The module 160 has the capability of storing and caching the means for enriching the services of the operator or the direct distribution to IMS users. It supports the capability of caching and relating the information of the different sources and generates a single content towards the IMS capability which provides the enriched service to the user. It can transcode the events format and means received from the Web 2.0 for the adaptation and use thereof towards the IMS capabilities which enrich the services of the end user.

Furthermore, module 160 can receive notifications from the management of subscriptions module 150 in which it is informed of the existence of a new content or event, location, how to acquire it, format and IMS services/users interested in the distribution thereof. The module 160 manages and acts in accordance with the subscription and user preferences for the different distribution services it offers. For such purpose, it supports the mechanisms suitable for interaction with the user and the communication with the IDs and Preferences module 180.

The second group of modules furthermore comprises a User Generated Content module (UGC) 170 which is the entity in charge of receiving contents and events generated by IMS users and adapting them towards the Web 2.0 world.

The module 170 can maintain IMS sessions with an end user. In theory, these sessions can correspond to the capabilities of Multimedia Telephony and enriched Circuit Switched Calls such as Video Sharing, Instant Sharing, etc. The support of other session-based IMS capabilities can be advisable depending on specific service needs.

The module 170 has the capability of receiving different types of messaging, such as SMS, MMS, Stand-Alone IM or e-mail, from an IMS user. The support can be implemented in other forms of messaging depending on specific service needs. The module 170 can capture (receive, compose and store) means received, through any of the previous means, from IMS users. It can furthermore transcode the captured means to adapt and publish them towards the Web 2.0 world.

To publish contents towards the Web 2.0, the module 170 has suitable clients for using the different Remote APIs offered from the Web 2.0 which are considered to be of interest by the operator. A continuous and increasing adaptation of the Web 2.0 APIs consumed by this entity is required. Therefore, the module 170 assures mechanism scalability for updating and maintaining the clients of the consumed Web 2.0 APIs.

The module 160 can be authenticated in the Web 2.0 services the APIs of which it consumes either by using the credentials of the end user or service credentials of the operator. It also supports consultation towards the IDs and Preferences module 180.

The module 170 can access, by means of API or directly, the IMS capabilities of Presence, XDM and Multimedia Mailbox to automatically complete/add information or means to the contents sent by the IMS user. It can also preferably access the location capabilities of the operator. For the automatic enrichment of the publication, the access to other capabilities of the operator can be advisable depending on specific service needs.

The module 170 manages and acts in accordance with the subscription and user preferences for the different publication services it offers. For such purpose, it supports the suitable mechanisms for interaction with the user and the communication with the IDs and Preferences module 180.

Said IDs and Preferences module 180, the last module belonging to the second group of modules, is in charge of managing the relationship between user identities in IMS and user identities in Web 2.0. Therefore, it supports and stores the relationships existing between the user identities in IMS and the Web credentials and identities used in the external services. When the Web identities are controlled by the external service, these relationships between identities must be configured directly by the end user, so the suitable mechanisms for interaction with the user must be supported for such purpose.

The module 180 supports communication with the HSS (Home Subscriber Service) and other IMS capabilities, either directly or by means of API, to consult details about the IMS identity and subscription of the users.

This module supports and stores user preferences in relation to the Web 2.0 contents and events publication and distribution services. These preferences are directly configured by the end user, so the suitable mechanisms for interaction with the user are supported for such purpose. The module 180 supports the communication and consultation from other modules of the platform 100 about user identities and preferences. The module 180 is the entity in charge of authenticating users to provide a secure mechanism for accessing the platform 100.

In addition to the adaptation modules, the platform 100 comprises functionality for executing IMS applications on-line which are reflected in the IMS Thin Client module 190. The main function of this module is based on enabling the "IMS virtual terminal" to interact towards one side with the IMS capabilities and to have an advanced multimedia Web interface for presentation towards the Web user.

The module 190 communicates with the IMS core 210 acting on behalf of the user as an end IMS client (XCAP, SIP and user plane) and implements the logic necessary for using any of the IMS capabilities available from the operator.

For the user located in the Web 2.0, the IMS Thin Client module 190 provides a Web interface with advanced multimedia interaction functions suitable for providing the IMS services or capabilities that the user wants to use. The presentation of the service provided to the user can be reflected in the Web interface through the interaction with the presentation layer of Web pages. The IMS Thin Client module provides the mechanisms necessary for instantaneously updating the Web interface provided to the user as a strategy for the delivery to the user of events generated in the network.

This capability requires an asynchronous communication mechanism in the IMS Thin Client -> user's browser direction.

The IMS Thin Client module supports bidirectional data path set-up between it and the user's browser. Such data streams correspond with the transport plane of the IMS services provided to the user. When the means come from the user, the IMS Thin Client is in charge of injecting these means towards the network so that they can thus reach the other end of the communication, and vice versa. Such mechanisms make use of Web APIs or technologies (particularly for discrete means) or other protocols such as SIP, RTP, etc. (particularly for the case of continuous means). The IMS Thin Client module supports adapting the format of the means exchanged with the IMS side for correctly presenting them towards the user in the Web interface of the service, and vice versa. Similar to the IMS 2.0 PSE platform, the IMS Thin Client module provides Web 2.0 users with widgets that represent a virtual IMS client. In addition to the Web interfaces, there is an asynchronous channel for communication towards the user client, such that it is possible to inform of events generated in the network in real time.

The industrial applications of the platform according to the invention are closely related to service creation, execution and delivery for users. The platform 100 is a technological platform which supports new services. With the simple objective of exemplifying possibilities of industrial application, the deployment of the service platform of the invention in the network of a telecommunications operator can support services such as:

Personal communications widgets for blogs: click on a "Call Me" button and an IM Conversation (Instant Messaging) is achieved. The widgets of the telecommunications operator represent a Web interface for commencing a communication between two IMS users, or they represent a communications agent so that not necessarily IMS users can contact and communicate with IMS users.

Widgets for Facebook: Click-to-Multiconf and Find Us: Facebook provides the creation of applications which are integrated in the user interface of its social network with the same appearance as its own applications. Furthermore, it provides APIs for accessing information of the profile of Facebook users either directly from these embedded applications (or widgets) or from external applications which will not be executed in the context of the Facebook Web interface.

In the first case the logic of the applications resides in platforms of the operator, although they are integrated in the user interface of the social network. The logic of the applications furthermore makes use of different service capabilities of the operator and of Facebook information acquired through API.

In the case of the Click-to-Multiconf application, the logic of the application makes use of capabilities of the operator to call a multiconference between a series of given telephone numbers. The logic of the application must acquire these numbers from Facebook. To that end, the application first acquires the Facebook identifier of the user that is calling the application and consults Facebook, through its API, to acquire the profile of the user with a dual objective: to learn the number of the user and the Facebook groups to which he/she belongs. Once the user has selected a specific group, based on the identifier of this group, the application can acquire information as to the users forming said group, as well as their telephone numbers based on their Facebook profiles. With this information, the number of the calling user and the numbers of the users of the group, the application can call a multiparty conference through the IMS multiconference capability.

In the case of the application Find us, the logic of the application acquires, in the same way as in the previous case, the list of numbers of the users of the group to be located. Once acquired, it calls the location capability and the presence capability of the operator. Finally, the information of each user is presented in a Google Map, acquired through the Google Map API, based on the acquired location information. The possible actions of call invocation or sending a message to a located user are implemented using the click-to-call services (third-party call control capability) and the messaging capability, respectively.

The YouTube real time video sharing with a mobile service is based on opening up IMS capabilities for real-time video sessions, standardized as multimedia telephony, pure IMS video sharing (which uses voice calls over IP) or video sharing combined with voice call over circuit switching. The use of the generic SIP multimedia sessions capability can also be considered to set up audiovisual streaming.

Additionally, IMS instant messaging capabilities which allow setting up a conversation, such as those included in the OMA SIMPLEJM or OMA CPM standards, are also used.

In this case of use, the operator offers an API to YouTube to commence real time video sessions from the network towards the IMS device of the user, which can be a mobile device, fixed device, an application Communicator for PCs or specific IMS clients of, for example, Imagenio. The IMS session is therefore set up from a network server, which represents the

YouTube user, and an IMS terminal device, which represents the user agent of the IMS customer invited to the viewing.

The Real time video generation for YouTube service is based on the different types of IMS multimedia sessions which allow video transfer, and which standard terminals could support. These are, specifically, the capabilities of multimedia telephony (video call), video sharing for circuit switching or pure IMS video sharing. For backward compatibility, service can be provided to legacy terminals with UMTS video telephony using circuit switched infrastructure if the IMS network has suitable MGW video gateways. The service allows any user device which has the described features to commence an IMS video session towards a network server acting as an end of the call, captures the video streams sent from the user device and generates a video file at the end of the session. The network server publishes the file in the web 2.0 site, YouTube in the present case, through the mechanisms it offers for such purpose. After capturing the video file in the network, the server can interact with the device of user to compile more data which completes the description of the video file to be published. For example, by means of messaging, or redirect to browsing, the service could compile from the user descriptive information of the video, customized title, etc. Therefore, this network server implements a series of IMS interfaces which allow supporting the variants of video sessions described above, and on the other hand, it must implement the interfaces, APIs or mechanisms for publishing video files offered by YouTube. The video generated could be published on behalf of a YouTube user or on behalf of a generic user representing the service.

Although the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and in the previous description, such illustrations and descriptions must be considered to be illustrative or exemplifying and non- restrictive; the invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed. Other variations of the embodiments disclosed can be understood and carried out by persons skilled in the art upon putting the claimed invention into practice after having analyzed the drawings, the description and the attached claims. In the claims, the expression "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite article "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. A single processor or other unit can perform the functions of several elements mentioned in the claims. The mere fact that certain measurements are mentioned in the dependent claims different from one another does not mean that a combination of these measured cannot be used more advantageously. A computer program can be stored/distributed on suitable means, such as optimal storage means or solid state means supplied together with or as part of other hardware, but it can also be distributed in other manners, for example through the Internet and other wired or wireless telecommunication systems. Any reference sign in the claims should not be interpreted as limiting the scope.

Claims

1. Service platform (100) for providing services and capabilities of a telecommunication network (200) towards an Internet Web environment (300) and allowing the exploitation of the Internet environment to enrich the services of the telecommunication network, characterized in that the platform comprises: adaptation entities in charge of the adaptation between technologies of the Internet environment and of the telecommunication network, interacting on one hand with Internet and on the other hand with the service capabilities and with the resources of the telecommunication network; wherein the adaptation entities comprise: a first group of entities (110) for exposing capabilities of the telecommunications network for their direct use from Internet; a second group of entities (140) for exchanging means and events between the telecommunication network and the Internet environment through Application Programming Interfaces exposed in Web sites in the Internet environment; and an entity (190) for executing applications of the telecommunication network on-line from a terminal in the Internet Web environment.

2. Platform according to claim 1 , characterized in that it is configured to provide the services and capabilities of an IP Multimedia Subsystem (210) of the telecommunication network towards the Internet Web environment (300) and to allow the exploitation of the Internet Web environment to enrich the services of the IP Multimedia Subsystem (210).

3. Platform according to claim 2, characterized in that the first group of entities (110) comprises an entity (120) in charge of exposing capabilities of the IP Multimedia Subsystem towards the Internet Web environment by means of Application Programming Interfaces.

4. Platform according to any of the previous claims, characterized in that the first group of entities (110) comprises an entity (130) in charge of hosting and serving towards the Internet Web environment widgets or Portable Service Elements of the telecommunication network.

5. Platform according to any of the previous claims, characterized in that the second group of entities (140) comprises an entity (150) in charge of the management of subscriptions to contents and events generated in the

Internet Web environment.

6. Platform according to any of the previous claims, characterized in that the second group of entities (140) comprises an entity (160) in charge of acquiring and adapting the contents and events of the Internet environment for delivering them to a user of the telecommunication network.

7. Platform according to any of the previous claims, characterized in that the second group of entities (140) comprises an entity (170) in charge of receiving contents and events generated by users of the telecommunication network and adapting them towards the Internet environment.

8. Platform according to any of claims 5-7, characterized in that the entity in charge of the management of subscriptions to contents and events generated in the Internet Web environment and/or the entity in charge of acquiring and adapting the contents and events of the Internet Web environment for delivering them to a user of the telecommunication network and/or the entity in charge of receiving contents and events generated by users of the telecommunication network and adapting them towards the

Internet Web environment is configured to be authenticated in the Internet services the Application Programming Interfaces of which it consumes, using the credentials of an end user of the telecommunication network or service credentials of the telecommunication network.

9. Platform according to any of the previous claims, characterized in that the second group of entities (140) comprises an entity (180) in charge of managing the relationship between user identities in the telecommunication network and user identities in the Internet Web environment.