Patent ID: 8438255

Claim:
A management unit for managing a channel in a telecommunications network, the management unit comprising: a registering section configured to define and register a visibility attribute associated with a first channel belonging to a first session for accessing a service in the telecommunications network; a receiving section configured to receive a request to obtain information on the first channel from a second channel, the second channel belonging to the first session or a second session for accessing the service; a sending section configured to determine and send, as a response to the request, information on the first channel, only if the first channel is visible to the second channel, taking into account the visibility attribute associated with the first channel, and further taking into account whether the second channel belongs to the first session or the second session; and a register for a visibility attribute associated with data, wherein the receiving section is configured to receive a request to obtain information on the data, and wherein the sending section is configured to determine and send a response to the request to obtain information on the data, taking into account the visibility attribute associated with the data, and wherein the visibility attribute associated with the first channel indicates one of at least the following three channel types: a public channel type which is visible to all channels, a protected channel type which is visible to all other channels of the session to which the protected channel belongs, and a private channel type which is not visible to any other channel.