WO2015018427A1

WO2015018427A1 - Mobile presence status exchange

Info

Publication number: WO2015018427A1
Application number: PCT/EP2013/066343
Authority: WO
Inventors: Thomas Schimper
Original assignee: Nokia Solutions And Networks Oy
Priority date: 2013-08-05
Filing date: 2013-08-05
Publication date: 2015-02-12

Abstract

The present invention addresses method, apparatus and computer program product for enhancing Mobile Presence Status Exchange via intelligent Radio Base Station. The present invention comprises assigning to a peer-to-peer IP network of intelligent base stations with one or a plurality of network elements, registering a user equipment, determining a presence status of the registered user equipment, generating, in case of determining a presence change of the presence status, a message indicating the presence change of the registered user equipment, and causing a peer-to-peer transmission, via the peer-to-peer IP network, of the message to one or a plurality of network elements in the peer-to-peer IP network, to which a target user equipment is assigned which has a permission for exchanging presence change information with the registered user equipment.

Description

Title

Mobile Presence Status Exchange

Field of the invention

The present invention generally relates to communication networks, and more specifically relates to a method, apparatus and computer program product for enabling improved Mobile Presence Status Exchange.

Background

Mobile presence is a feature which allows persons to exchange their presence state via their mobile handset or smartphone. The presence state, such as online, offline, busy by network, can be set either automatically or manually by setting the status on the device, such as "do not disturb", "invite for chat". Typically, additional information may be added to the presence state, which can be put into context of the presence status, e.g. a personal picture, a location, a personal (mood) expression, etc.

This set of information forms the presence context. Current available implementations of presence exchange systems are built either on a central office concept (prior art 1 ), for example Rich Communication Suite RCS, 'Google Talk'™, or on a complete peer to peer approach, like the software 'Skype'™ (prior art 2).

Prior art 1

The central office approach (RCS, Google Talk implementation) may be described as follows. In large telecommunication networks with tenths of millions of Subscribers, every presence update between subscribers is signaled through the whole network to the central office. The standard presence notification scenario is based on a subscription to changes in a list of buddies and notification of a change in that list.

In detail, that means every subscriber participating in the presence service keeps a list of buddies where he/she wants to see the presence status and gets informed about changes. Internally the system maintains an additional list to the buddy list, for each subscriber, which collects all buddies who want to be notified about the subscriber's presence changes.

On device initialization in the central office approach, a subscription sends a request to the presence server to be notified about a presence change. Any subscriber which is sharing presence status with others notifies the same server on a presence status change. The server itself notifies all subscribers on presence changes which have initially requested a presence change notification to that subscriber (i.e. buddy). Fig. 1 shows a Presence Exchange in a centralized office approach, devices A, B, such as User Equipments UEs, register to a Presence Server via respective base stations, such as eNodeB, IP Networks and IP multimedia subsystems. Then, Presence Subscriber B may be subscribed by the device A to the Presence Server. In turn, a presence change of device B is transmitted to the Presence Server, and the Presence Server notifies device A about the presence change. This procedure may be repeated upon any further presence change of device B.

The motivation for the approach above is to minimize presence exchange packets across the entire network as it would happen if there would be direct peer to peer updates between the devices. On the other hand the approach multiplies the number of central office servers needed to keep all the data in a central place and maintain the number of buddy list and respective subscriptions to these.

The overall stability and accuracy of the presence status is quite good as the presence status is kept on a high-availability HA server and a client can always sync with the server in case it has lost connection and potentially lost buddy list.

Prior art 2

In contrast to the central office approach described above, there is second approach currently in use, the full peer to peer P2P approach:

The full peer to peer P2P approach, e.g. Skype, may be described as follows. In a pure the P2P approach all information including presence status is exchanged between the clients directly, no central office server is needed, i.e. every node in a P2P system is a server and client simultaneously. As smartphones are becoming more and more powerful they can act today as full qualified peer to peer nodes. The advantage of a P2P approach is to reduce the number of central office servers to almost zero due to an intelligent distribution of processing power across the idle nodes. On the other hand the number of messages increase significantly as each of the clients sends out a notify message to each of it buddies on a presence status change. Instead of sending one message to a server for a presence change notification, each clients sends out n (where n=size of the resource list) Messages for each presence change notification.. This type of increased network usage leads to more drain in battery power. Field studies comparing of smartphones running e.g. Skype comparing with those not running Skype or a similar P2P solution show a significant reduction in battery life. This is proved by network monitoring where a significant higher throughput on P2P traffic can be explored. Pure P2P gives efficient and battery drain penalties on the devices. Another problem comes along with pure the P2P approach as it requires that the device shares processing power, in acting as client and a server for its pears simultaneously thus pulling even more energy from the battery. Fig. 2 shows a signaling for pure P2P networks. A device A, such as a User Equipment

UE, registers to a target device, such as a further User Equipment UE device B, via respective base stations, such as eNodeB, and an IP network the devices are connected to, Presence Subscriber B is subscribed by device A, and device B directly notifies device A about presence changes.

Conclusion on prior art

Presence information can be maintained and delivered either centrally by a presence server and its communication with the UEs, or in a distributed manner by maintaining and updating the presence information between the individual UEs over Peer-to-Peer connections.

Downside of the P2P approach is excessive signaling load over the network and, subsequently, drainage of the UE battery. Downside of the centralized office implementation is the requirement of dedicated network nodes for management and dissemination of presence information. Hence, in view of the above drawbacks, there is a need for providing enhanced Mobile Presence Status Exchange.

Summary of the Invention Therefore, in order to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art, it is an object underlying the present invention to provide improved Mobile Presence Status Exchange.

In particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method, apparatus and computer program product for providing enhanced Mobile Presence Status Exchange.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method, comprising assigning to a peer-to-peer IP network with one or a plurality of network elements, registering a user equipment, determining a presence status of the registered user equipment, generating, in case of determining a presence change of the presence status, a message indicating the presence change of the registered user equipment, and causing a peer-to-peer transmission, via the peer-to-peer IP network, of the message to one or a plurality of network elements in the peer-to-peer IP network, to which a target user equipment is assigned which has a permission for exchanging presence change information with the registered user equipment.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus, comprising an assigning unit configured to assign to a peer-to-peer IP network with one or a plurality of network elements, a registration unit configured to register a user equipment, a determination unit configured to determine a presence status of the registered user equipment, a generation unit configured to generate, in case of determining a presence change of the presence status, a message indicating the presence change of the registered user equipment, and a processing unit configured to cause a peer-to-peer transmission, via the peer-to-peer IP network, of the message to one or a plurality of network elements in the peer-to-peer IP network, to which a target user equipment is assigned which has a permission for exchanging presence change information with the registered user equipment.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer program product comprising computer-executable components which, when the program is run, are configured to carry out the method according to the first aspect. Advantageous further developments or modifications of the aforementioned exemplary aspects of the present invention are set out in the dependent claims.

According to certain embodiments of the present invention, information comprising a presence change of a user equipment assigned to a network element in the peer-to-peer IP network, which has a permission for exchanging presence change information with the registered user equipment is received via the peer-to-peer IP network, and the registered user equipment is notified about the presence change comprised in the received information.

According to certain embodiments of the present invention, a peer-to-peer transmission, via the peer-to-peer IP network, of the message to a dedicated node in the peer-to-peer IP network is caused, wherein the dedicated node is acting like a presence server.

Further, according to certain embodiments of the present invention, a traffic state between the registered user equipment and a communications network is monitored, and the presence information of the registered user equipment is automatically determined based on the traffic state.

Further, according to certain embodiments of the present invention, the presence information is manually changed by a user of the registered user equipment.

Further, according to certain embodiments of the present invention, the presence change information is exchanged by the P2PSIP protocol. According to certain embodiments of the present invention, addressing the network element is done by Domain Name System entries or plain IP address.

According to certain embodiments of the present invention, the network element is an intelligent base station of a wireless communications network.

Moreover, according to certain embodiments of the present invention, the claimed apparatus is a computing node comprised in a base station of a wireless communications network.

Still further, the present invention may be implemented as an apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform Still further, the present invention may be implemented as an apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform assigning to a peer-to-peer IP network with one or a plurality of network elements, registering a user equipment, determining a presence status of the registered user equipment, generating, in case of determining a presence change of the presence status, a message indicating the presence change of the registered user equipment, and causing a peer-to-peer transmission, via the peer-to-peer IP network, of the message to one or a plurality of network elements in the peer-to-peer IP network, to which a target user equipment is assigned which has a permission for exchanging presence change information with the registered user equipment.

Brief description of drawings For a more complete understanding of example embodiments of the present invention, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 schematically shows a Presence Exchange in centralized office approach according to the prior art; Fig. 2 schematically shows a Presence exchange using pure peer-to-peer P2P approach according to the prior art;

Fig. 3 schematically shows a Presence Exchange using hybrid P2P based on intelligent radio access network RAN according to certain embodiments of the present invention;

Fig. 4 illustrates a method according to certain embodiments of the invention; and

Fig. 5 schematically illustrates an apparatus according to certain embodiments of the invention.

Description of exemplary embodiments

Exemplary aspects of the present invention will be described herein below. More specifically, exemplary aspects of the present invention are described hereinafter with reference to particular non-limiting examples and to what are presently considered to be conceivable embodiments of the present invention. A person skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention is by no means limited to these examples, and may be more broadly applied. It is to be noted that the following description of the present invention and its embodiments mainly refers to specifications being used as non-limiting examples for certain exemplary network configurations and deployments. Namely, the present invention and its embodiments are mainly described in relation to 3GPP specifications being used as non- limiting examples for certain exemplary network configurations and deployments. As such, the description of exemplary embodiments given herein specifically refers to terminology which is directly related thereto. Such terminology is only used in the context of the presented non-limiting examples, and does naturally not limit the invention in any way. Rather, any other network configuration or system deployment, etc. may also be utilized as long as compliant with the features described herein. Hereinafter, various embodiments and implementations of the present invention and its aspects or embodiments are described using several alternatives. It is generally noted that, according to certain needs and constraints, all of the described alternatives may be provided alone or in any conceivable combination (also including combinations of individual features of the various alternatives). As computing power increases in network elements namely in intelligent radio base stations, the invention is to store the presence context neither in a central office nor purely in the device but in an intelligent radio base station network element. The base stations network act as a peer to peer network on behalf of the devices.

The advantages thereof are: · traffic reduction, due to direct exchange of the involved presence information producers and consumers (compared to the centralized approach).

• Reliable peer nodes compared to end user equipment (like smart phones & notebooks) as the Base Stations are under the regime of the operator and fulfill the general requirements of needed operations quality (i.e. reliability, availability). · Reachability is as well improved as the intelligent base station is responding even in cases where the device is partially out of reach or in Idle state for battery savings. Incremental growth. Each of the intelligent bases stations serve today approximately up to 20k subscribers. In making the base stations intelligent the computing demand for the presence processing is delivered together with the base station. So there is no additional planning for the computing power of any centralized office presence services needed.

Reduction of Traffic. In the cases where presence subscribers are in close proximity, i.e. attached to the same base station, the signaling traffic is kept in the network of intelligent base station with this invention. Compared to the central office approach where all the signaling has to travel from the edge to the core forth and back.

According to certain embodiments of the present invention, each of radio base stations may be equipped with a computing node, thus transforming it into an intelligent base station. The computing node monitors the traffic between the device and the network and can infer the traffic. It can act as server providing and consuming information. It can observe the status of all phones associated with the radio base station (attached, busy, ..).

At least for all associated mobile devices a presence status of the device is kept in the devices list of the computing node. Each device may change its own status from an automatic status (online, offline, busy) to manual status (busy, "in a meeting") and vice versa by sending notify messages to the presence server.

In case an intelligent radio base station is present, according to certain embodiments of the present invention, the notify message is processed in the computing node of the base station, and exchanged with all buddies who have subscribed to the presence status changes. The computing nodes in the base stations exchange the presence information, e.g. in a P2PSIP way, with each other. One dedicated node, or proxy, in this P2P network may act acting as bridge to the traditional IP multimedia subsystem IMS network exchanging signals in traditional SIP packets.

In case of mixed network setups (i.e. with and without intelligent base stations, device, exchanging presence status via centralized office approach and IMS could exchange this presence information via this bridge.

The presence functionality on the computing node of the intelligent radio base station according to certain embodiments of the present invention is building a peer-to-peer P2P network among the base station eliminating the central office servers, reducing traffic load on the air interface between the device and the network, as well as reducing computing power on the device. Fig. 3 shows a Presence Exchange using hybrid P2P based on intelligent radio access network RAN according to certain embodiments of the present invention.

As is illustrated in Fig. 3, a device A 31 is connected and registers to an intelligent In- eNodeB 34a, which is part of a P2P IP Network 35, to which further intelligent IN-eNodeBs 34b, 34c are assigned to. A device B 32 may be connected and registered to the IN- eNodeB 34b. In case of a presence change of device A 31 , a respective notification is transmitted to the In-eNodeB 34a, and a P2P message comprising notification of the presence change of device 31 is generated and transmitted to In-eNodeB 34b via the P2P IP network 35, so that the In-eNodeB 34b is caused to notify device B 32 about the presence change of device 31 .

As is further depicted in Fig. 3, in case a further device C 33 is intended to be notified about the presence change of device 31 but is not connected to an intelligent base station, a dedicated node in the P2P IP network 35 may act as bridge to the IP multimedia subsystem, to which a Presence Server 38 and the base station 39 the device 33 is connected to, is assigned to.

According to certain embodiments of the present invention, in case not all of the eNodeB^'s in an operator network are equipped as intelligent base stations, there may be one particular dedicated node (cnode, bridge) acting as one intelligent instance of the non intelligent base stations. Addressing the right intelligent eNodeB or the cnode is done by DNS entries. All Devices receive a URL with a hostname pointing to the cnode. A device attached to a intelligent eNodeB receives a modified IP Address pointing to the intelligence server of the associated eNodeB. The modification of the DNS entry is done in the intelligence base station server as well.

The above description uses for explanation the SIP and P2P protocol families and can be applied to typical 3G/LTE networks based on IP protocol stack for VoIP and RCS with existing clients. According to certain embodiments of the present invention, it holds however as well for any other P2P protocol stack, like Sykpe and similar implementations. According to certain embodiments of the invention, the described system of the intelligent base station is based on the AdHoc principles and doesn't require per se a central instance for authentication/authorization of the service. According to certain embodiments, it can, however, easily be added if there is any demand to do so.

Fig. 4 shows a principle flowchart of an example for a method according to certain embodiments of the present invention.

In Step S41 , it is assigned to a peer-to-peer IP network with one or a plurality of network elements.

In Step S42, one or a plurality of user equipments are registered.

In Step S43, a presence status of the registered user equipment(s) is determined.

In Step S44, a message indicating the presence change of the respective registered user equipment is generated in case of determining a presence change of the presence status. In Step S45, a peer-to-peer transmission, via the peer-to-peer IP network, of the message to one or a plurality of network elements in the peer-to-peer IP network, to which a target user equipment is assigned which has a permission for exchanging presence change information with the registered user equipment, is caused.

Fig. 5 shows a principle configuration of an example for an apparatus according to certain embodiments of the present invention.

The apparatus 50 comprises an assigning unit 51 configured to assign to a peer-to-peer IP network with one or a plurality of network elements, a registration unit 52 configured to register a user equipment, a determination unit 53 configured to determine a presence status of the registered user equipment, a generation unit 54 configured to generate, in case of determining a presence change of the presence status, a message indicating the presence change of the registered user equipment, and a processing unit 55 configured to cause a peer-to-peer transmission, via the peer-to-peer IP network, of the message to one or a plurality of network elements in the peer-to-peer IP network, to which a target user equipment is assigned which has a permission for exchanging presence change information with the registered user equipment. An implementation according to certain embodiments of the present invention may be based on the P2PSIP schema published in years 2006/2007. P2PSIP is a modified IP Protocol based on P2P principles and based on Distributed Hash Tables. It is a sufficient good base for building a P2P network based on SIP with possible backward compatibility for interworking with classical IMS systems and non intelligent Radio Base Stations. The main difference to P2PSIP in its original sense is that P2PSIP builds on real P2P nodes, i.e. replicating the Skype with a SIP variant by joining arbitrary P2P nodes to the network.

This invention builds a hybrid P2P network in the sense that the intelligent radio base stations build the P2P network on behalf of the devices. The P2P network of intelligent Radio Base Stations adds the significant advantage to a pure P2P network that it has more stability, algorithms supporting frequent join and disjoin are not needed, simplifying the overall approach. Further on it does not need frequent exchanges between the peer devices on the air interface, simplifying the device implementation and utilization.

According to certain embodiments of the invention, the presence context is stored neither in a central office nor purely in the device, but in the intelligent base station network element. The intelligent base station acts as a presence server towards a client of a centralized presence service and as a peer towards a client of a P2P presence service. The network of intelligent base stations works as a peer-to-peer network, exchanging the presence information of their UEs e.g. by P2PSIP signaling. The above implementation according to certain embodiments of the invention can coexist with the two legacy types of presence service.

The present invention reduces the network load, especially in the air interface, and enables smooth scalability of presence service. It can mediate between the two main presence service types of prior art and coexist with the two by only minor additions in the network.

It is to be noted that embodiments of the present invention may be implemented as circuitry, in software, hardware, application logic or a combination of software, hardware and application logic. In an example embodiment, the application logic, software or an instruction set is maintained on any one of various conventional computer-readable media. In the context of this document, a "computer-readable medium" may be any media or means that can contain, store, communicate, propagate or transport the instructions for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer or smart phone, or user equipment.

As used in this application, the term "circuitry" refers to all of the following: (a) hardware- only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and/or digital circuitry) and (b) to combinations of circuits and software (and/or firmware), such as (as applicable): (i) to a combination of processor(s) or (ii) to portions of processor(s)/software (including digital signal processor(s)), software, and memory(ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and (c) to circuits, such as a microprocessor(s) or a portion of a microprocessor(s), that require software or firmware for operation, even if the software or firmware is not physically present. This definition of 'circuitry' applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term "circuitry" would also cover an implementation of merely a processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a processor and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware. The term "circuitry" would also cover, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or applications processor integrated circuit for a mobile phone or a similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other network device.

The present invention relates in particular but without limitation to mobile communications, for example to environments under UMTS, LTE™ or LTE-Advanced, and can advantageously be implemented also in controllers, base stations, user equipments or smart phones, or computers connectable to such networks. That is, it can be implemented e.g. as/in chipsets to connected devices.

If desired, the different functions discussed herein may be performed in a different order and/or concurrently with each other. Furthermore, if desired, one or more of the above- described functions may be optional or may be combined. Although various aspects of the invention are set out in the independent claims, other aspects of the invention comprise other combinations of features from the described embodiments and/or the dependent claims with the features of the independent claims, and not solely the combinations explicitly set out in the claims. It is also noted herein that while the above describes example embodiments of the invention, these descriptions should not be viewed in a limiting sense. Rather, there are several variations and modifications which may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.

The following meanings for the abbreviations used in this specification apply:

P2P Peer to Peer

SIP Session Initiation Protocol

HA High Availability

IMS IP Multimedia Subsystem

RCS Rich Communication Suite

P2PSIP A modified IP Protocol based on P2P principles and based on

Distributed Hash Tables

Telco A Telecommunication Operator Environment

Skype A P2P telephony application for the Internet (including presence and

messaging)

eNodeB evolved NodeB ( The radio base station in LTE/4G and 3G Networks) NAT Network Address Translation Protocol

DNS Domain Name System

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising: assigning to a peer-to-peer IP network with one or a plurality of network elements; registering a user equipment; determining a presence status of the registered user equipment; generating, in case of determining a presence change of the presence status, a message indicating the presence change of the registered user equipment; and causing a peer-to-peer transmission, via the peer-to-peer IP network, of the message to one or a plurality of network elements in the peer-to-peer IP network, to which a target user equipment is assigned which has a permission for exchanging presence change information with the registered user equipment.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: receiving, via the peer-to-peer IP network, information comprising a presence change of a user equipment assigned to a network element in the peer-to-peer IP network, which has a permission for exchanging presence change information with the registered user equipment; and notifying the registered user equipment about the presence change comprised in the received information.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising: causing a peer-to-peer transmission, via the peer-to-peer IP network, of the message to a dedicated node in the peer-to-peer IP network, wherein the dedicated node is acting like a presence server.

4. The method according to any of claims 1 to 3, further comprising monitoring a traffic state between the registered user equipment and a communications network, and automatically determining the presence information of the registered user equipment based on the traffic state.

5. The method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the presence information is manually changed by a user of the registered user equipment.

6. The method according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the presence change information is exchanged by the P2PSIP protocol.

7. The method according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein addressing the network element is done by Domain Name System entries or plain IP address.

8. The method according to any of claims 1 to 7, wherein the network element is part of an intelligent base station of a wireless communications network.

9. An apparatus, comprising: an assigning unit configured to assign to a peer-to-peer IP network with one or a plurality of network elements; a registration unit configured to register a user equipment; a determination unit configured to determine a presence status of the registered user equipment; a generation unit configured to generate, in case of determining a presence change of the presence status, a message indicating the presence change of the registered user equipment; and a processing unit configured to cause a peer-to-peer transmission, via the peer-to- peer IP network, of the message to one or a plurality of network elements in the peer-to- peer IP network, to which a target user equipment is assigned which has a permission for exchanging presence change information with the registered user equipment.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising: a reception unit configured to receive, via the peer-to-peer IP network, information comprising a presence change of a user equipment assigned to a network element in the peer-to-peer IP network, which has a permission for exchanging presence change information with the registered user equipment; and a notification unit configured to notify the registered user equipment about the presence change comprised in the received information.

1 1 . The apparatus according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the processing unit is further configured to cause a peer-to-peer transmission, via the peer-to-peer IP network, of the message to a dedicated node in the peer-to-peer IP network, wherein the dedicated node is liked to a presence server.

12. The apparatus according to any of claims 9 to 1 1 , further comprising a monitoring unit configured to monitor a traffic state between the registered user equipment and a communications network, and a determination unit configured to automatically determine the presence information of the registered user equipment based on the traffic state.

13. The apparatus according to any of claims 9 to 1 1 , wherein the presence information is manually changed by a user of the registered user equipment.

14. The apparatus according to any of claims 9 to 13, wherein the presence change information is exchanged by the P2PSIP protocol.

15. The apparatus according to any of claims 9 to 14, wherein addressing the network element is done by Domain Name System entries or plain IP address.

16. The apparatus according to any of claims 9 to 15, wherein the network element is part of an intelligent base station of a wireless communications network.

17. The apparatus according to any of claims 9 to 15, wherein the apparatus is a computing node comprised in a base station of a wireless communications network.

18. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform assigning to a peer-to-peer IP network with one or a plurality of network elements, registering a user equipment, determining a presence status of the registered user equipment, generating, in case of determining a presence change of the presence status, a message indicating the presence change of the registered user equipment, and causing a peer-to-peer transmission, via the peer-to-peer IP network, of the message to one or a plurality of network elements in the peer-to-peer IP network, to which a target user equipment is assigned which has a permission for exchanging presence change information with the registered user equipment.

19. A computer program product comprising computer-executable components which, when the program is run, are configured to carry out the method according to any of claims 1 to 8.

20. The computer program product according to claim 19, wherein the computer program product comprises a computer-readable medium on which the software code portions are stored, or wherein the program is directly loadable into an internal memory of the processing device.