WO2008084166A2 - Method for controlling the registration of terminals in a network - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for controlling the registration of terminals for accessing a multimedia network. The method is characterised in that a terminal manages a registration state machine for a registration address of said terminal, said machine being in a non-active state when at least one user's contact address is associated with said registration address. The method further comprises: controlling (21) that the state machine for the terminal registration address is in the active state; and registering (22) the terminal when this control is negative.

Description

 Method of controlling a record of terminals in a network

The invention is in the field of recording terminals in a multimedia network It relates more specifically to the registration of user terminals in the field of IP telephony, or Voice over IP, or "VoIP" (of the English "Voice over IP").

The invention finds a particularly interesting application in the eyes of a user of such a technology to control in a simple way its access to a multimedia network when recording its end.

A VoIP device must register to access a multimedia network in order to be able to send, receive calls, or exchange media content with other users. For example, with the SIP protocol. Session Initiation Protocol ") defined by the" IETF "(of the English" Internet Engineering Task Force "), the terminal registers with a network registration server to announce its current position, in order to be able to This recording phase consists in sending a signaling message across the IP network to a device of the network. In the case of the SIP protocol, however, the registration server associated with the terminal II happens that this initial registration phase fails. , for reasons of network failure, problem on network equipment, or poor quality of service on links between the terminal and the network, for example in the case where the terminal is connected to the network. water via a wireless link Thus, the registration message sent by the terminal does not arrive at the network, or the response of the network following the registration of the terminal does not reach the terminal. The terminal can therefore not be registered despite its registration request, it is then impossible for it to initiate or receive an application. In the event of failure of the registration phase, the terminal is isolated from the network and it can not be registered. No mechanism for reactivation of the recording by the multimedia protocol, for example the SIP protocol, is provided.

To overcome this problem of registration, solutions exist. Either the user reactivates the recording of his terminal, but this manipulation is complex and reserved for experienced users Either terminal manufacturers set the registration phase at the terminal in such a way that it is longer than a temponsatton / a deiar set by the standard, but this solution entails overloading the network and network equipment, which affects the quality of service Therefore, there is no suitable solution to the problem of registering a VoIP terminal with a network

The patent application published under the number US2002 / 0150226 discloses a telephone system of a multimedia network arranged to process, at the level of a server of the network, unwanted de-registration of SIP terminals. A SIP terminal, in a state recorded at a given moment. t, inadvertently goes into an unregistered state at a time t1, for example when a recording time expires or when an error appears at the server According to the invention, a terminal that inadvertently goes into a state The system according to the invention comprises a server of the network which supervises the state of these terminals by means of a table of information on the terminals SlP when the server is unregistered. SIP terminal goes into a deregistered state following an expiration of the temponsation, or an error at the server, the server of the network according to the invention in terminate a SIP signaling message type "REGISTER Request" The terminal can respond to the signaling message by a new registration request if the deregistration was not desired In an embodiment of the invention, the user of the terminal is notified of the de-registration and may explicitly request the sending of a new registration request to re-establish the terminal in the registered state.

However, the solution recommended in the above-mentioned patent application requires the creation of new SIP signaling. In fact, the SIP recommendation RFC 3261 does not provide for the network server to send the terminal the "REGISTER Request" signaling message. In addition, the proposed solution n is not applicable when the first registration of the terminal is done at the initialization of the terminal In fact, in the case of registration initial, the transition from the registered state to this register can not be detected, no passage in the registered state has occurred.

The present invention makes it possible to overcome all or some of the disadvantages mentioned. To this end, the invention relates to a method for controlling the recording of terminals for accessing a multimedia network, characterized in that a terminal manages a recording state machine for a registration address of said terminal, said machine being in an active state when at least one contact address of a user is associated with said registration address. Said method further comprises: a check that the state machine for the registration address of the terminal is in the active state, said check being carried out prior to a call establishment and initiated by the terminal,

- a record of the terminal when the control is negative

Advantageously, a state machine which specifies the current state of the registration of the terminal with a network registration server is managed on and by the terminal. Thus, the registration state, managed at the terminal allows the terminal, or even the user if an interface is provided for this purpose, to know in real time the current state of registration of the terminal, and in case failure to register the terminal due to a network problem or a timer expiry, to initiate a registration of the terminal with the network. Thus, during initialization of the terminal, if an initial registration of the terminal with the network, could not be considered by the network registration server, the terminal or the user is informed of this non initial registration and can remedy In addition, the use of state machine at the terminal can overcome problems of non-registration of the terminal without changing the signaling and without overloading the network with exchanges of new messages between the server and the terminal. In fact, in the case of the SIP protocol, to activate a record which has failed, the terminal conventionally sends a standard signaling message of the "REGISTER" type.

The method according to the invention intervenes upstream of the call setup phase and makes it possible to ensure, in addition to being able to transmit calls, that a user can be reached via his terminal In the case of a temporary loss of network connectivity, the invention allows a recovery of the terminal registration status when recovering network connectivity

In addition, since the detection of a problem during the registration of the terminal and the registration of the terminal are initiated by the terminal, the method according to the invention is applicable to a complex network architecture that includes local networks. connected to a network, for example the Internet, by a modem configured in router mode (the term commonly used to refer to this network device is the term modem-router) A modem-router offers only a network operator very limited visibility of the local network that connects to the network since only the modem-router has an address visible to the SP network operator. It is the modem-router that assigns and manages the IP addresses of the equipment of the local network The translation of addresses between the two types of network is done by a network mechanism of translation of address called "NAP" (of English Thus, even if the address matches between the local network addresses and the network addresses expire at the modem router, a terminal of the local network is isolated from the network due to a problem. registering with the registration server, will be aware of this and will be able to activate the registration with the registration server on its own and reactivate the correspondence of its address in the local network with a network address at the modem level. -routeur

Finally, since the registration problem is handled terminal by terminal, potential network congestion that would be due to many messages sent simultaneously to or by many terminals is avoided.

In one embodiment of the invention, a gateway of the terminal triggers the control of the method according to the invention Advantageously, the control of the activation of the registration of the terminal with the network and the activation / reactivation of the recording if necessary is done before a call establishment requested by the user of the terminal Thus, the user does not have to worry about the registration status of his terminal before making a call. The call is therefore transparent, regardless of the registration status of the user's terminal.

In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the result of the control is provided in real time by an interface of the terminal and the method according to the invention further comprises a trigger by a user of the recording. Advantageously, the user is informed in real time of the state of registration of his terminal with the network, via a user interface of the terminal The information on the state of registration of the displayed terminal is a result provided in real-time record state monitoring function that is permanently active.

In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the user triggering the registration occurs by selecting a tab of the user terminal with respect to the state machine that specifies the registration status of the terminator! at the network, the tab is available when the state machine is in the initial state, or in the transient state terminated. Selecting the tab triggers the recording function.

In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the triggering by the user of the recording occurs on pressing a predefined key of the user terminal. Advantageously, a key on the keyboard of the user terminal is dedicated to the recording function. The selection by the user of this key triggers the recording function. Thus, the control of the user actions at the keyboard allows to trigger the recording function when the dedicated key is selected

The invention also relates to a terminal for access to a multimedia network, characterized in that it comprises:

a state machine for registering the terminal with the network, arranged to be in an active state when at least one contact address is associated with a registration address of the terminal,

control means arranged to control, prior to call establishment and at the initiative of the terminal, that the terminal registration state machine is in the active state, and recording means, arranged to trigger a recording of the terminal with the network when the control performed by the recording control means is negative

Advantageously, the termina! further comprises - display means arranged to give the result of the control performed by the control means, and

trigger means arranged to activate the recording means.

The invention also relates to a multimedia network comprising a recording server, and at least one termina! access to said network comprising

a state machine for registering the terminal with the network, arranged to be in an active state when at least one contact address is associated with a registration address of the terminal, control means arranged to control, beforehand at a call establishment and at the initiative of the terminal, that the terminal registration state machine is in the active state, and

- Recording means, arranged to trigger a recording of the termina! to the network when the control performed by the recording control means is negative

The invention also relates to a computer program on a data medium and loadable in the internal memory of a user terminal, the program comprising portions of code for executing the steps of the method for controlling the registration of user terminals. according to the invention when the program is executed on said computer

The invention also relates to a partially or totally removable data storage means comprising computer program code instructions for executing the steps of the terminal recording control method according to the invention. Many details and advantages of the invention will be better understood on reading the description of a particular embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings given in a non-limiting manner and in which

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a recording state machine of a terminal,

FIG. 2 illustrates the steps of the process according to the invention,

FIGS. 3a, 3b and 3c illustrate trots implemented in a network of the method according to the invention,

FIG. 4 is a functional representation of a VoiP terminal which implements the method according to the invention,

FIG. 5 is a schematic representation of a network architecture that implements the method according to the invention

The invention, although decnte for a multimedia network that implements the SIP protocol is not limited to this protocol Indeed, the invention applies to any multimedia network in which a registration of the terminals is necessary in order to route telephone calls other than by a telephone network Thus, the invention also applies to a multimedia network that implements the H323 protocol

RFC 3261 from HETF "(from the English" Internet Engineeπng Task

Force ") describes the functional components of a voice-over-IP network (the acronym that is commonly used is" VoIP ", from" Voice over IP "). A functional component consists of user agents (ie commonly used term is used is the term "User Agent") The user agents can be implemented on devices of the user terminal type, such as for example a dedicated telephone equipment, a PC (of the English "Personal Computer" for personal computer) which emulates the functions of a telephone equipment (the term commonly used is the English term softphone), or network equipment, eg gateways (the term commonly used is the term "gateway")

A second component of the SIP multimedia network consists of SIP servers SIP servers include location servers that provide information on the possible location of a called user, proxy servers (the term commonly used is the term "proxy"), redirection servers and registration servers A registration server is a server capable of receiving SIP registration requests, or "REGISTER" requests. Such a server makes it possible to associate a registration address (the term commonly used is the term "address-of-record" or "URI", of the English "Uniform Resource Identifier") which can be described as a public address from the user, to a contact address of the user (the term commonly used is the term contact, or address-of-contact) which allows to locate the user The contact address of the user can change to course of time A registration address is of the form sip user @ domaιn com, for example A contact address of the user is for example an IP address

Finally, the third functional component of a network SlP consists of SIP messages, for example the messages "INVITE", "REGiSTER", "ACK", "BYE" These messages define the exchanges of the SIP protocol. They can carry parameters, for example routing parameters, error message numbers, tempoπsation times (the term commonly used is the term "timer").

Fig. 1 is a schematic representation of a state machine for recording a terminal.

Such a machine is managed, in a known way, at a recording server for each registration address of a terminal, in accordance with RFC 3680. To implement the method according to the invention, such a machine has States is advantageously impregnated at each of the terminals by the constructors of said terminals. Thus, on each terminal, an instance of the state machine is associated with each registration address of the terminal. An initial state 10 corresponds to a registration state of the terminal where for the registration address which concerns the state machine, there is no contact address of the registered user. As soon as a first contact address is registered and associated with the registration address of the terminal, the registration state machine makes a transition from the initial state to a second state called the active state. As long as at least one contact address is associated with the registration address of the terminate, the state machine remains in the active state 11, which is schematized by the loop on the active state 11.

When the last user's contact address associated with the registration address of the terminal is deleted or has expired according to the time limits used in RFC 3261, the state machine makes a transition from the active state 1 1 to a third state 12, called the finished state. The completed state 12 is a transient state: once in the completed state 12, the state machine spontaneously transitions to the initial state 10, schematized by the dashed arrow.

Figure 2 is a schematic representation of the steps of the method according to the invention.

During a consultation, illustrated in FIG. 2 by an initial step 20, the registration status of the user terminal is consulted with the network registration server. The registration status corresponds to the state in which the registration state machine is located.

During a control, illustrated by a control step 21, following the step 20 of consultation of the registration status of the terminal, it is tested whether the user terminal is registered with the network. For this purpose, it is controlled that the registration state machine for the registration address of the terminal is in the active state 11 according to FIG. 1. The test is negative if the state machine is in the state initial 10 or in the transient state completed 12.

If the result of the test performed during the check is positive, then the user terminal is registered with the network.

If the result of the test performed during the check is negative, the user terminal is registered with the network. The recording is represented by a step 22, following a negative result of the test carried out in step 21. In the case of the use of the SIP protocol, the recording performed in step 22 corresponds to the sending by the user terminal of a REGISTER type SIP signaling message including as parameters an association between the terminal registration address and a contact address of the terminal. user.

FIGS. 3a, 3b and 3c show three possible distinct modes of implementation of the method according to the invention in a multimedia network.

In a first embodiment, illustrated by FIG. 3a, the control and, if applicable, the registration of the user terminal are initiated by a line pickup of the terminal.

The user who wishes to initiate a multimedia call makes a terminal line of the terminal, illustrated by a step 30a in Figure 3a. For example, the user picks up the handset of his terminal, or presses a predefined key to take line, or makes the line picking by voice command, or selects an icon in the case of a software emulation of the telephone terminal on a PC type terminal. A touch of a touch screen and more precisely of a predefined part of the screen associated with the line is assimilated to the pressure of the predefined key line. The line taken in step 30a triggers the execution of steps 20, 21 and, if appropriate, the method according to the invention. In a step 31a, following a positive result of the test performed in step 21, or in step 22 in the case where the result of the test is negative, it is proceeded to call establishment as desired by the user.

In a second embodiment, illustrated by FIG. 3b, the activation of the registration of the terminal occurs by selecting a tab of the terminal, visible on a man-machine interface of the terminal, for example the screen of the terminal, whether it is a telephone terminal type terminal or a software emulation of the telephone terminal on a PC type terminal. In this embodiment, the tab is the graphical representation of the result of a recording state monitoring function that is permanently active. So, during the check illustrated by step 21, it is checked if the user is registered or not For this purpose, the state in which the terminal state machine is located is checked.

In a step 30b, following a positive result of the test performed in step 21, the terminal registration tab is displayed on the interface of the user terminal.

In a selection step 31b it is véπfié if the user selects the recording tab

In step 22 following the selection by the user of the recording tab, the recording is completed! user to the network.

In a third embodiment, illustrated in FIG. 3c, the activation of the recording is done by pressing a predefined key of the user terminal. In the case of a software emulation by a termina! PC-type activation is done by selecting the corresponding key The touch of a touch screen and more precisely of a predefined part of the screen associated with the line pπse is similar to the pressure of the predefined key of take line

In a step 30c monitoring keyboard actions or pressures on the screen, it is checked whether the user exerts pressure on the predefined key

In step 20 corresponding to the selection by the user of the predefined key, it is consulted the registration status of the terminal, and in accordance with the steps of the method, it is checked in step 21 if the user terminal is registered with the network If the result of the check is negative, it is recorded at the network at step 22

Many variants exist For example, in a not shown variant of the mode illustrated in FIG. 3c, the result of the registration status of the terminal is displayed in real time on the user interface of the terminal. pressing the predefined key triggers the registration of the terminal with the network FIG. 4 is a functional representation of a terminal that implements the method according to the invention

The user terminal 40, be it a dedicated telephone terminal or a software emulation of a telephone terminal on a PC type terminal, comprises in a non-represented memory the recording state machine 41, managed in real time by the terminal , and

control means 42, arranged to control the registration status of the user terminal with the network. The means 41 perform a check of the state in which the state machine of the user terminal is located.

means 43 for registering the user terminal with the network, arranged to trigger the registration of the terminal with the network when the control performed by the recording control means is negative. The triggering of the recording is done by sending a registration message. In the case of the SIP protocol ₁ a REGISTER message is sent.

Optionally, the terminal also includes.

means 44 for displaying the result of the registration check performed by the recording control means 42. The display means are a user interface, for example the terminal screen.

triggering means 45, arranged to activate the recording means 43. The triggering means 45 are, in an exemplary implementation of the method according to the invention, a dedicated key of the terminal.

The means 42, 43, 44 and 45 as well as the memory which comprises the recording state machine 41 exchange information via a communication bus 46.

The means 42, 43, 44 and 45 and the state machine 41 which implement the method according to the invention are preferably software modules comprising software instructions for executing the steps of the method by the terminal 40. software can be stored in or transmitted by a data carrier. This can be a storage medium, for example a CD-ROM, a magnetic floppy disk or a disk hard, or a transmission medium such as an electrical signal, optical or radio, or a telecommunications network.

FIG. 5 represents an exemplary network architecture that implements the method according to the invention.

A plurality of terminals of which two, 50-1 and 50-n, are represented is adapted to make IP telephony in accordance with the SIP protocol. Such terminals are for example a dedicated 50-n telephone terminal, or a terminal 50. -1 of the personal computer type that software emulates IP telephony functions. The terminals 50-1, 50-π are part of a not shown local area network and are connected to a modem 51 The modem 51 provides the connection of the local area network to a multimedia network, for example an IP 52 network. 53 is accessible via the IP network 52. The server 53 is adapted to register the SIP terminals 50-1, 50-n with the IP network 52 and store, for these terminals 50-1, 50-n associations between an address recording of each of said terminals and at least one contact address of the users of said terminals. The modem 51 is configured in router mode; In such a configuration, a network operator managing the IP network 52 has only a very limited visibility of the local network since only the modem router 51 has an IP address that is visible to the network. network operator. It is the modem-router 51 which assigns and manages the IP addresses of the terminals 50-1, 50-n of the local network. The translation of addresses between the two types of network is done by an address translation network mechanism called "NAT" (of the English "Network Address Translation"). The terminals 50-1, 50-n according to the invention, each managing a recording state machine instance by registration address of the terminal, can, according to the method according to the invention activate / reactivate their registration with the server. 53 in the event of untimely de-registration or when the registration deadline has expired.

Claims

A method of controlling the recording of terminals for accessing a multimedia network, characterized in that a terminal manages a recording state machine for a registration address of said terminal, said machine being in an active state when at least one contact address of a user is associated with said registration address, said method further comprising a control (21) that the state machine for the registration address of the terminal is in the active state, said check being carried out prior to a call establishment and initiated by the terminal, a record (22) of the terminal when the control is negative 2. A recording control method according to claim 1, wherein a terminal line (30a) of the terminal triggers the control (21). A recording control method according to claim 1, wherein the result of the control (21) is provided in real time by a terminal interface and the method further comprises a trigger (31b) by a user of the the recording (22). The record control method of claim 3, wherein the user triggering the record (22) occurs by selecting a terminal tab. The recording control method according to claim 3, wherein the user triggering the recording occurs upon pressing a predefined key of the terminal. 6. Terminal (40) for access to a multimedia network, characterized in that it comprises: a state machine (41) for registering the terminal with the network, arranged to be in an active state when at least one contact address is associated with a registration address of the terminal, control means (42) arranged to control, prior to call establishment and at the initiative of the terminal, that the registration state machine of the terminal is in the active state, and recording means (43) arranged to trigger a recording of the terminal with the network when the control performed by the recording control means is negative. Terminal according to claim 6, further comprising display means (44) arranged to give the result of the control carried out by the control means, and - Trigger means (45) arranged to activate the recording means. 8. Multimedia network including. a recording server (53), and at least one terminal (50-1, 50-n) for accessing said network comprising - a state machine (41) for registering the terminal with the network, arranged to be in an active state when at least one contact address is associated with a registration address of the terminal, control means (42) arranged to control, prior to call establishment and at the initiative of the terminal, that the registration state machine of the terminal is in the active state, - Recording means (43) arranged to trigger a recording of the terminal near the network when the control performed by the recording control means is negative. Computer program on a data carrier and loadable in the internal memory of a user terminal, the program comprising portions of code for executing the steps of the control method of the terminal recording according to any one of claims 1 to 5 when the program is executed on said computer. 10, Partially or fully removable data storage means having computer program code instructions for performing the steps of the terminal registration checking method according to any one of claims 1 to 5.