Computer program products, methods, and protocol for...

Details Computer program products, methods, and protocol for... Computer program products, methods, and protocol for...

1999-07-23

2003-03-04

Coulter, Kenneth R. (Department: 2141)

Multiplex communications

Communication techniques for information carried in plural...

Adaptive

C709S230000, C709S232000, C709S236000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06529524

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to telecommunications and networking, and more particularly to computer program products, related methods, and a protocol for interworking services between public telephone networks, Intelligent Networks, and internet protocol (IP) networks.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Telecommunications originated over a century ago using traditional landline based telephony technology. Over time, standards, protocols, and topologies were developed and optimized to provide telephony services. More recently, wireless telephony was developed as an alternative means of telecommunications. Wireless telephony evolved with its own separate and distinct standards, protocols, and topologies optimized for the mobile telephony environment. The SS7 (Signaling System 7) network was developed to provide digital out-of-band signaling channels for both the landline and wireless telephone networks. The modern public telephone network (PTN) leverages SS7 capabilities to establish telephone call connections and provide advanced services, such as 800 or toll free, calling card, Intelligent Network services, Call Back, Calling Name Delivery, Local Number Portability and wireless roaming services. Further, new architectures and interfaces have been developed recently that permit further integration and cooperation between landline and wireless telephony networks. It has been proven advantageous to share resources and provide PTN services more generically, without being concerned whether the telephone terminals involved in the communication are landline or wireless.
IP networks (including the public Internet) developed in parallel with the converging landline and wireless telephony infrastructures. While the function of the PTN network was primarily to provide end-to-end connections between telephone service subscribers, IP networks were developed to interconnect and leverage the information and processing capabilities of millions of networked computers. Given the substantially more complex purpose of an IP network, it evolved as a separate network infrastructure with distinct protocols optimized for the functions to be provided.
Over time, the functions provided by the PTN network have become increasingly more sophisticated. Therefore, it is not surprising that cooperation between an IP network and a PTN network is desired, and in some instances, required. For example, it would be advantageous to provide services to the PTN network from the vast resources resident on an IP network. In this regard, one early application used the Internet to setup a connection and establish a voice telephone call. An IP telephone call can be originated from any telephone terminal, such as a conventional telephone terminal or an appropriately equipped computer connected to an IP network, and placed to another telephone terminal, such as any other conventional telephone terminal or another appropriately equipped computer connected to an IP network. While this capability is useful, the IP telephone calls are only capable of establishing an end-to-end connection across an IP network. As such, no other services or applications can cross the IP network and PTN network border, although the need for doing so persists.
The IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) is an open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the public Internet. The actual technical work of the IETF is done in its working groups, which are organized by topic into several areas (e.g., routing, transport, security, etc.). Much of the work is handled via email mailing lists and electronic document submissions. Proposals are discussed, evolved, and implemented if advantageous. Proposals have been submitted attempting to converge the capabilities of the IP networks and telecommunication networks. In services interworking for IP telephone calls, one submitted proposal suggests encapsulating the SS7 protocol stack from the link layer to the above layers, including the MTP level 2 and level 3 layers, the SCCP layer, and the TCAP layer. Another proposal suggests encapsulating the SCCP layer and the above layers in the SS7 protocol stack. However, neither proposal properly addresses differences in the addressing and routing functions as implemented in the IP networks and the PTN networks. In addition, neither proposal defines a convergent protocol between these diverse networks. At best, these proposals might ultimately provide transport on an IP network between two PTN networks.
However, in order to effectively converge and leverage these distinct networks, true interworking is required. Interworking refers generally to transporting a message between a first network entity executing a software application program in a first network domain and a second network entity executing a software application program in a second network domain. In other words, interworking refers to exchanging messages between software application programs executing in different network domains. The above proposals fail to provide exchanges of PTN messages, such as TCAP (Transaction Capabilities Application Part) messages, between entities in different networking domains, such as an IP network and the PTN network. Accordingly, a TCAP application executing in an IP network and a TCAP application executing in a PTN network typically cannot exchange TCAP messages, cannot exchange telephony services, and cannot interwork effectively.
As such, a need exists for a fully functional interworking solution between an IP network and the PTN network to preserve the transparency of TCAP messaging in the PTN networks while the TCAP messages are routed to or from IP networks. Further, a need exists for a communication protocol and supporting methods for effectively transporting TCAP messages between a public telephone network and an internet protocol network. Were these needs met, telephony based services could be provided from a public telephone network, an IP network, or both, as desired. A number of other advantages would also likely emerge from providing fully functional interworking between an IP network and a public telephone network, as was observed from the convergence of the landline and wireless network infrastructures.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a protocol, computer program products, and related methods for supporting services interworking between an IP network and a public telephone network, including the Intelligent Network and wireless networks. As such, the present invention addresses at least some of the above needs while providing some advantages. According to the present invention, conventional TCAP messages from the public telephone network can be exchanged with encapsulated TCAP messages in an IP network. The protocol, computer program products, and related methods of the present invention cooperatively support exchanging encapsulated TCAP messages in the IP network. Computer software application programs executing in network nodes disposed in an IP network and in a public telephone network can thereby cooperatively process information and exchange services therebetween. Existing services can be provided to telephony services subscribers, while new services could be developed by leveraging the processing capability of network nodes in an IP network, according to the present invention.
In one embodiment, the present invention provides a Simple TCAP-IP Interworking protocol (STIPP), represented as a computer data signal embodied in an electrical signal represented as a plurality of bits, for exchanging an encapsulated message between two internet protocol entities. The computer data signal comprises an internet protocol portion, a transport portion, and a STIP (Simple TCAP Interworking Part) portion. The internet protocol portion supports physical layer functions, datalink layer functions, and network layer functions compatible with an internet protocol network. The transport portion is operably c

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