Patent ID: 9369887
Filing Date: 2016-06-14
CPC Classification: H04L,H04M,H04W

Claim Text:
1. A computer-implemented method for tracing signaling through a plurality of network elements (NEs) during a trace session, wherein a first one of the network elements comprises an Interrogating Call Session Control Function (I-CSCF) network element, the method comprising: receiving at the I-CSCF network element a call invite message from a communication terminal (UE) via a Media Gateway Control Function (MGCF) and, responsive to the call invite message, generating a first SIP message with an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Charging IDentifier (ICID) in a P-Charging-Vector header and communicating the first SIP message from the I-CSCF network element to a Serving Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF) network element; further responsive to receiving the call invite message at the I-CSCF network element, generating a first Diameter protocol message with an Attribute-Value-Pair (AVP) containing the ICID and communicating the first Diameter protocol message from the I-CSCF network element to a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) network element; electronically generating at the first one of the network elements (NEs) a trace record that records information associated with a communication session and that includes a charging identifier that is used as a trace recording session reference for the trace session; and distributing to a second one of the NEs the charging identifier for use as a trace recording session reference.