US 7,058,042 B2 · One-to-one communication

Abstract

A packet mode (e.g. IP) communication service layer is provided on top of a standard mainstream cellular radio network. Conceptually, the communication layer comprises a pair of basic logical entities, an application bridge and a call processing server (CPS). The bridge and the CPS run packet mode communication service applications, which communicate with packet mode communication service application(s) in a mobile station MS over the IP connections provided by the radio network. The CPS is responsible for control plane management of communications. Embedded user-plane signaling is used for connecting call parties for a packet mode speech two-party (one-to-one) communication. Embedded signaling in the user-plane's bearer makes it unnecessary to reserve another bearer for the control plane's signaling, which saves network resources and allows to achieve a short connection setup time.

Claims47

Dependent claims

A method for establishing a one-to-one voice communication in a communications system having different control plane and user-plane logical entities, comprising the steps of

starting a one-to-one call by call setup signaling embedded in a user-plans traffic sent front a calling subscriber to one of said user-plane logical entities, said embedded signaling identifying a called subscriber,
establishing, in response to said embedded call setup signaling, a logical call path between the ones of said user-plane logical entities which are to be involved in routing of the call related user-plane traffic,
assigning a call identifier to said call, and
forwarding any subsequent user-plane traffic relating said call and containing said call identifier over said call path from said calling subscriber to said called subscriber.

1 more element

A method for establishing a one-to-one voice communication in a communications system having different control plane and user-plane logical entities, said method comprising the steps of

starting a packet-mode voice communication by sending a user-plane leader packet from a calling user to a first user-specific logical user-plane network entity serving said calling user, said leader packet containing identifier of said sending user and a receiving user,
creating, in response to receiving said user-plane leader packet from said calling user, a logical user-plane channel between said first user-plane entity and a second user-specific logical user-plane network entity serving said called user,
assigning a call identifier to said call,
sending a user-plane leader packet from said second user-plane entity to said called user, said leader packet containing said call identifier,
notifying said call identifier to the calling user by a user-plane communication,
sending user-plane voice packets provided with said call identifier from said calling user to said first user-plane entity,
forwarding said user-plane voice packets to said called user over said logical channel and via said second user-plane entity.

4 more elements

A communications system, comprising

logical control plane network entities,
at least first and second user terminal supporting packet-mode one-to-one voice communication,
a dedicated user-specific logical user-plane network entity for each user terminal,
each user terminal having a one-to-one call setup mechanism sending a user-plane leader packet to a respective one of said first user-plane network entities in order to start a one-to-one voice call, said leader packet containing identifier of a calling user I and a called user, means responsive to receiving said user-plane leader packet from said calling user for creating a logical user-plane channel between a user-plane network entity of a calling user terminal to a user-plane network entity of a called user terminal,
means for assigning a call identifier for said call,
means for notifying said call identifier to the calling user terminal,
means at said user-plane network entity of said called user for sending a user-plane leader packet from said user-plane network entity of said called user terminal to said called user terminal, said leading packet containing said call identifier,
means at said first and second user-plane network entities for forwarding user-plane voice packets sent by said calling user terminal and provided with said call identifier to said called user terminal over said logical user-plane channel.

5 more elements

A user terminal for a communications system, said user terminal comprising

a one-to-one call setup mechanism sending a user-plane leader packet to one of a plurality of logical user-plane network entities in order to start a one-to-one voice call by call setup signaling embedded in user-plane traffic sent from a calling user to a called user, said leader packet containing an identifier of the calling user and the called user,
means for starting to send user-plane voice packets to said one of said plurality of logical user-plane network entity entities in response to receiving a user-plane call setup acknowledgement packet containing a call identifier assigned to a call, whereby said user plane voice packets containing said call identifier are forwarded over a logical call path established by ones of said plurality of logical user plane network entities for said call from said calling user to said called user in response to said embedded call setup signaling.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

One-to-one communication

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One-to-one communication

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims47