Patent ID: 8331354
Filing Date: 2012-12-11
Classification: H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. A method of allocating a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Application Server to a subscriber within an IP Multimedia Subsystem, the method comprising the steps of: identifying at a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) a set of provisioned initial filter criteria for said subscriber, said set of initial filter criteria containing at least one generic SIP Application Server identity; sending said set of initial filter criteria from the HSS to a Serving Call/Session Control Function (S-CSCF) allocated to said subscriber; receiving said set of initial filter criteria at the S-CSCF and resolving the generic SIP Application Server identity by the S-CSCF into a plurality of Application Server addresses; receiving a SIP request associated with the subscriber at the S-CSCF, the SIP request including a subscriber identity; allocating by the S-CSCF, one of said addresses to said subscriber for use in provisioning a service to said subscriber; caching the allocated address at the S-CSCF for said subscriber for subsequent use; sending a SIP message from the S-CSCF to the application server at said allocated address, the SIP message including the subscriber identity; and upon receipt of said SIP message at the application server, dynamically allocating the subscriber to the application server and sending the address of the application server and the subscriber identity from the application server to the HSS over an Sh interface for storage as non-transparent data.