Telephonic communications – Special services – Provisioning
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-18
2004-02-10
Hong, Harry S. (Department: 2642)
Telephonic communications
Special services
Provisioning
C379S221080, C379S221090, C379S221150, C709S250000, C709S241000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06690781
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
This invention relates to the field of telecommunications, and more particularly, to generic service components for use with a service logic execution environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
The development of the open network application programming interface (API) represents an important departure from traditional methods for opening the architecture of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Presently, the Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) architecture defines a call model which allows the creation of telecommunications service applications outside of the switch environment. Telecommunications service applications are a la carte telecommunications applications which can perform enhanced services for a telecommunications session established among two or more parties. Exemplary service applications can include Call Waiting, Caller ID, Call Forwarding, Voice Activated Dialing, and Meet-me Conferencing.
When AIN first had been introduced, in terms of the service application creation process, the AIN architecture represented an important advance. AIN separated service development from switching, allowing service logic components to be developed more quickly and placed in specialized network elements attached to databases. Switches, in turn, being free from all service logic, could be optimized for speed and efficiency. Still, typical service applications developed to the AIN specification are written in specialized languages by specially trained programmers using specialized service creation environments.
Importantly, future telecommunications networks will be characterized by new and evolving network architectures where packet-switched, circuit-switched, and wireless networks are integrated to offer subscribers an array of innovative multimedia, multiparty applications. Equally important, it is expected that the process by which telecommunications applications are developed will change, and will no longer solely be the domain of the telecommunications network or service application provider. In fact, in order to provide a broad portfolio of novel, compelling applications rapidly, service application providers will increasingly turn to third-party applications developers and software vendors. Thus, application development in the telecommunications domain will become more similar to that in software and information technology in general, with customers reaping the benefits of increased competition, reduced time to market, and the rapid leveraging of new technology as it is developed.
To make this vision a reality, the principles of AIN have been discarded in favor of a new service application component development paradigm. Specifically, it has been recognized that future integrated networks must offer application developers a set of standard, open APIs so that applications written for compatibility with one vendor's system can execute in the system of another vendor. In consequence, the cost of applications development can be amortized, reducing the final cost to the customer. Java APIs for Integrated Networks (JAIN) fulfills the requirements of the new service application component development paradigm. Presently, JAIN includes standard, open published Java APIs for next-generation systems consisting of integrated Internet Protocol (IP) or asynchronous transport mode (ATM) networks, PSTN, and wireless networks. The JAIN APIs include interfaces at the protocol level, for different protocols such as Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and Transactional Capabilities Application Part (TCAP), as well as protocols residing in the higher layers of the telecommunications protocol stack.
JAIN includes a set of integrated network APIs for the Java platform and an environment to build and integrate JAIN components into services or applications that work across PSTN, packet and wireless networks. The JAIN approach integrates wireline, wireless, and packet-based networks by separating service-based logic from network-based logic.
FIG. 1
illustrates a conventional JAIN implementation. As shown in
FIG. 1
, a conventional JAIN implementation can include a protocol layer
102
which can include interfaces to IP, wireline and wireless signaling protocols. These protocols can include TCAP, ISUP, INAP, MAP, SIP, MGCP, and H.323. The JAIN implementation also can include a signaling layer
103
which can include interfaces to provide connectivity management and call control. The conventional JAIN implementation also can include an application layer
104
for handling secure network access and other external services. Finally, the conventional JAIN implementation can include a service layer
106
which can include a service creation and carrier grade service logic execution environment (SLEE)
108
.
In JAIN, the protocol layer
102
and the signaling layer
103
are based upon a Java standardization of specific signaling protocols and provide standardized protocol interfaces in an object model. Additionally, applications and protocol stacks can be interchanged, all the while providing a high degree of portability to the applications in the application layer using protocol stacks from different sources. By comparison, the application layer
104
provides a single call model across all supported protocols in the protocol layer
102
. Fundamentally, the application layer
104
provides a single state machine for multiparty, multimedia, and multiprotocol sessions for service components in the application layer
104
. This state machine is accessible by trusted applications that execute in the application layer
104
through a call control API.
Notably, applications or services executing at the service level
102
can communicate directly with protocol adapters in the SLEE
108
. Protocol adapters typically are class methods, callbacks, event or interfaces that encapsulate the underlying resources such as TCAP, MGCP, etc. The underlying resources can be implemented in many programming languages, but a JAIN-conformant protocol product must provide at least the relevant JAIN API. In contrast, an external application or service executing in the application layer
104
does not have to be aware of the underlying resources and can remain oblivious to the fact that some of its session or call legs may be using different protocols.
Service components
112
are the core JAIN components and can execute in the SLEE
108
. More particularly, service components
112
are constructed according to a standard component model and, instantiations of component assemblies can execute in coordination with the SLEE
108
. Using information regarding the protocol layer
102
which can be incorporated into the SLEE
108
, service components
112
can interact with the underlying protocol stacks without having specific knowledge of the protocol stack. Thus, service components
112
can use the call model provided by the signaling layer to implement telephony services. More importantly, the SLEE
108
can relieve the service components
112
of conventional lifecycle responsibilities by providing portable support for transactions, persistence, load balancing, security, and object and connection instance pooling. In this way, the service components
112
can focus on providing telephony services.
Despite the advantages provided by JAIN, however, the development of a telecommunications service application still requires knowledge of many disparate communications interfaces and protocols for accessing service application and functions. For example, service applications such as call blocking or call forwarding, in addition to service components for accessing the call model, can require access to directory services or other proprietary databases for accessing information to implement the call model. For example, access to directory services can require knowledge of lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP). Access to a particular database can require knowledge of DB2, MQSeries, or another proprietary protocol. Accordingly, th
Creamer Thomas E.
Kallner Samuel
Moore Victor S.
Shachor Gal
Walters Glen R.
Akerman & Senterfitt
Hong Harry S.
International Business Machines - Corporation
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