Patent Application
20070258455
For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure and its advantages, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals represent like parts:
The following discussion is presented to enable a person skilled in the art to make and use the invention. The general principles described herein may be applied to embodiments and applications other than those detailed below without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined herein. The present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features disclosed herein.
Certain aspects of the present invention are illustrated and describe now with reference to
In
P-CSCF 121 forwards a corresponding indication communication (i.e., SIP INVITE request 102) to I-CSCF 122. I-CSCF 122 determines a serving node for a user/session and forwards SIP INVITE request 102 to S-CSCF 123.
S-CSCF 123 authenticates UE 111, and forwards a SIP INVITE request 103 to an IP-TV AS 140, based on initial filter criteria. Upon receiving SIP INVITE request 103, IP-TV AS 140 communicates a SIP INVITE request 104 with MRF 170, to determine whether content is being served by MRF 170, or another associated content server.
Then, IP-TV AS 140 attaches a new Content-Type fragment in a SIP response 105 indicating channels (multicast ports) that UE 111 has subscribed to. SIP response 105 may be a profiled group of channels/ports. Upon receiving SIP response 105 from IP-TV AS 140, S-CSCF 123 determines that no other applications apply in the initial filters, and forwards a SIP response 106 to I-CSCF 122, and then to P-CSCF 121.
P-CSCF 121 processes this information, and requests a Quality of Service (QoS) 107 for a session, via an interface to RACS 160. In addition, P-CSCF 121 conveys a list of multicast ports that UE 111 has permission to access. This process may be accomplished by extending a DIAMETER protocol or other protocols at the interface. P-CSCF 121 also communicates a response 108, including a program guide (multicast channels), over to UE 111.
When UE 111 selects a channel during communication with AN/A-BGF 151, AN/A-BGF 151 communicates 110 with RACS 160, and checks to ensure that UE 111 has appropriate access authorization or permissions. Then AN/A-BGF 151 constructs a multicast tree and forwards a channel to UE 111.
In certain embodiments, multicast access control decision information per subscriber may be maintained or kept in a service stratum. In an IP-TV application, for example, this may be addressed through the use of an IP-TV application server (AS). Other embodiments may convey access control information, from an application server, to a session control server in charge of proxying for resources using a new Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) fragment. Other embodiments may implement DIAMETER or other protocols so that when a session control proxy receives an access control list, the session control proxy conveys the access control list to a resource control subsystem. In various embodiments, an IPv4 or an IPv6 multicast may be applied in the distributed architecture as depicted in
The previous description of the disclosed embodiments is provided to enable those skilled in the art to make or use the present invention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art and generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.
This application claims the priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/798,506, filed on May 8, 2006.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60798506 | May 2006 | US |
