Patent Application
20140149570
n/a
n/a
The present invention relates to provisioning of IP communication terminals.
The IP (Internet Protocol) data network has created a number of opportunities and challenges for multimedia and voice Communications Service Providers. Unprecedented levels of investment are being made in the data network backbone by incumbent telecommunication operators and next generation carriers and service providers. At the same time, broadband access technologies are bringing high speed Internet access to a wide community of users. Service providers would like to make use of the IP data network to deliver voice, video and data services right to the desktop, the office and the home alongside high speed Internet access.
The H.323 standard applies to multimedia communications over Packet Based Networks that have no guaranteed quality of service. It has been designed to be independent of the underlying transport network and protocols. Today the IP data network is the default and ubiquitous packet network and the majority of implementations of H.323 are over an IP data network. Other protocols for real-time (voice and video) communications, for example, SIP (Session Initiated Protocol) also use the IP data network for the transport of call signaling and media. New protocols for new applications associated with the transport of real-time voice and video over IP data networks are also expected to be developed.
Hitherto, there have been a number of barriers to the mass uptake of multimedia (particularly video) communications. Ease of use, quality, cost and communications bandwidth have all hampered growth in the market. Technological advances in video encoding, the ubiquity of cheap IP access and the current investment in the data network now alleviates most of these issues making multimedia communications readily available.
Service provider networks typically utilize packet-switched IP networks through which multiple enterprise subscriber networks may access a global IP network, such as the Internet. Typically, the service provider network includes an access point, such as a POP. The POP has a unique IP address that a device on the enterprise subscriber network may contact to access network.
Traffic coming into the POP can be classified into videoconferencing data and non-videoconferencing data. Videoconferencing data typically includes control data and streaming voice and audio data according to the H.323 or SIP standards. H.323 refers to International Telecommunications Union, Telecommunications Sector, Recommendation H.323 (version 1, published November 1996; version 2, published 1998, entitled, “Visual Telephone Systems and Equipment for Local Area Networks Which Provide a Non-guaranteed Quality of Service,”. SIP refers to Session Initiation Protocol Proposed Standard (RFC 2543), Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) (published March 1999).
Each of the enterprise subscriber networks typically includes a plurality of terminals. Terminals, along with video conferencing service switches and the various other components of system, are typically H.323 or SIP compliant. The terminals are typically videoconferencing devices configured to display and record both video and audio. The terminals may be desktop computers, laptop computers, mainframes and/or workstation computers, or other videoconferencing devices
In video conferencing, provisioning means inserting required system data in the endpoint such as access information to the VSP (Video conference Service Provider), user credentials, identification of the subscriber in the VSP architecture which typically could be an URI, etc. Provisioning is traditionally done either manually by typing the required data in a User Interface on each endpoint, or remotely from a Video conferencing Management Suit where the endpoints are already registered. The provisioning process is one of many technical thresholds for the use of video conference equipment. A user is rarely trained in inserting advanced settings in an endpoint. When batches of endpoints are to be provisioned, manual provisioning will be too time consuming, and the risk of an erroneous insertion of data is high. There is a need for a process for identifying endpoints connected to a network and for automatically provisioning the identified endpoints with the correct provisioning data e.g. when a new subscriber at a VSP is to initiate the subscription and connect its endpoint to the VSP's network.
The subject matter of the present invention is a method for provisioning one or more IP terminals connected to a IP network, by running a computer executable code on the computer which includes the steps of extracting the IP address of the computer, respectively addressing one or more media communication protocol requests for all IP addresses in the range or segment in which the IP address of the computer belongs, and unicasting them in the first IP network from the computer, identifying the one or more IP terminals and corresponding media communication protocol from media communication protocol responses received by the computer and remotely provisioning the one or more IP terminals from the computer and/or the provisioning server. The subject matter of the invention also includes a corresponding computer program and a provisioning system.
A more complete understanding of the present invention, and the attendant advantages and features thereof, will be more readily understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:
The present invention is related to one of the specific components in the elastic cloud, namely the endpoint provisioning component. As already mentioned provisioning in telecommunication is the process of preparing and equipping terminals to allow it to be provided with services to a service provider's subscribers. It is also equates to “initiation” and includes altering the state of an existing priority service or capability. In video conferencing, provisioning means inserting required system data in the endpoint such as access information to the VSP, user credentials, identification of the subscriber in the VSP architecture which typically could be an URI, etc. Provisioning is traditionally done either manually by typing the required data in a User Interface on each endpoint, or remotely from a Video conferencing Management Suit where the endpoints are already registered.
The present invention discloses a method, computer program and device for identifying and provisioning IP terminals like video conference endpoints connected to a common LAN. According to one embodiment of the invention, a provisioning server sends an email with a provisioning URL to a user which is being asked to activate the URL while the computer receiving the email is connected to the LAN. At activation, an http session is established between the computer and a provisioning server. The provisioning server then delivers configuration details for the subscription together with a Java applet which is executable on a Java virtual Machine on the computer. The Java applet starts by extracting the IP address of the computer. It then scans the LAN for video communication endpoints by sending out media protocol request like SIP or H.323 requests addressed with IP addresses belonging to the same IP address segment as the computer's IP address. The computer then provision the IP units responding to the media protocol requests by inserting required settings into the endpoints via XML files 25 (for example, as shown in
In the following, an example embodiment of the present invention will be further described.
According to the example embodiment, the provisioning process is initiated when a provisioning email is being sent to an email address given by the new subscriber. A user at the new subscriber opens the email 32 that may appear as illustrated in
The provision process starts when the user clicks on the link 34.
The link 34 in the email 32 is addressed to the provisioning server at the VSP. Therefore, an http request is sent from the computer to the provisioning server. The provisioning server is adjusted to respond to the http request by delivering a Java applet (or any other code packages similar to Java applet). In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the Java applet (or similar) is provided to the computer 30 without the initial http connection with the provisioning server, but brought to the computer 30 in e.g. a memory stick or via a hand held device through wireless transfer.
The Java applet contains instructions to the computer 30 on how to proceed, and is executable on a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) preferably preinstalled on the computer 30. The applet starts by extracting the computer's IP address with an internal “Request local socket address”, the computer 30 responds with a “Local socket address” which includes the IP address of the computer 30.
The applet is now aware of one IP address of the local network to which the endpoints 28 are connected. The present invention utilizes the fact that the IP addresses assigned to IP units connected to the same LAN 26 defined as a subnet most often belongs to one IP address segment, which usually is of the size 256. When one IP address is known, the segment is therefore also known, and there will in most cases be 256 possible IP addresses assigned to the IP units in the LAN. The video conference units of today are adjusted to communicate either according to the SIP standard or the h.323 standard (or both). When sending a SIP request to units in an IP network, only SIP units will respond, and sending an h.323 request to units in an IP network, only h.323 units will respond. According to the present invention, one SIP request message and one h.323 request message are unicasted from the computer 30 to all possible IP addresses in the segment of the computer's LAN 26. As illustrated in
The result of sending out SIP and h.323 requests on the above-mentioned ports addressing them to all IP addresses in the segment to which the IP address of the computer 30 belongs, is that no one but all endpoints 28 connected to the same LAN 26 as the computer 30 will respond. What kind of responses will depend on whether the endpoints 28 are SIP or H.323 units. Most SIP units will respond with 2000K and h.323 units will respond with IRR Response. These responses include, inter alia, the IP addresses of the responders. In the example illustrated in
At this point, the computer 30 has identified the IP addresses of the endpoints 28 connected to the new subscriber's LAN 26 and to which standard they are configured. However, provisioning of video endpoints 28 vary from one unit to another. As an example, a Cisco EX90 unit has a different format of the provisioning file to be inserted via the codec API than a Polycom HDX 4500 (Video endpoints are always equipped with a codec for coding and decoding media data, and most often have Application Programming Interface (API) installed). Therefore, to complete the provisioning process, the computer 30 also needs to have system information of the identified video conferencing unit. System information can be accessed through various different URLs. Based on the response from the SIP or H.323 probes, you might try different URLs or other API requests to access the IP terminal. On a Cisco Telepresence unit the preferred URL would be http://IP/systemunit.xml, where IP is the unit's IP address. The system information of a Cisco EX60 unit with the IP address 192.168.1.114, can be accessed through the URL http://192.168.1.114/systemunit.xml. The PC creates an URL for all known system units including the respective IP addresses of the identified video conferencing units. Information gathered are presented to the user so he/she can visualize the IP terminals found and give the user a possibility to choose the correct IP terminal to provision. In the example illustrated in
The PC 30 has in the example of
When the process is completed an email can be sent to the subscriber with a list of endpoints that have been provisioned successfully. In the embodiments discussed above, only SIP and H.323 adjusted video endpoints are discussed. However, provisioning of IP terminals using other media communication protocols could be imaginable for a person skilled in the art, and would be included in the scope of the present invention. The scope is neither limited to video communication, but would be useful also for provisioning of Voice over IP (VoIP) terminals. Note that the provisioning method according to the present is applicable for both first time provisioning and re-provisioning in the case where the user changes VSP or wishes to swap subscriptions between endpoints.
The scope of the present application as defined in the independent claims also includes special case LANs like WLAN or WiFi, and the computer is not limited to a traditional PC or laptop, but could be any kinds of computer devices included smart phones and video conferencing endpoints. Also within the scope of the present application as defined in the independent claims, the computer executable code is not limited to Java Applets running on JVM, but could also be code downloaded to and executed on a smart phone or cell phone app.
