WO2012035236A1

WO2012035236A1 - Management of access to the status of a resource

Info

Publication number: WO2012035236A1
Application number: PCT/FR2011/052046
Authority: WO
Inventors: Yann Gestraud; Laurence Bertin; Thibaut Coadic
Original assignee: France Telecom
Priority date: 2010-09-14
Filing date: 2011-09-07
Publication date: 2012-03-22
Also published as: FR2964815A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for managing access from a terminal (2) of a user (8), connected to a communication network, to the status of a software and/or physical resource (4) managed by a manager (16). The invention is characterised in that it comprises the following steps, which are carried out by the manager (16), namely: determining at least one property related to the terminal (2); and establishing a rule for the management of access from the terminal (2) to the status of the resource (4), on the basis of the pre-determined property.

Description

MANAGING ACCESS TO THE STATUS OF A RESOURCE

The present invention relates to the management of the access of a user terminal, connected to an access network, to the status of a physical and / or software resource managed by a manager.

The invention applies advantageously, but not exclusively, in the communication networks of the IP ("Internet Protocol") type implementing a protocol for opening, modifying, and logging off SIP ("Session Initiation Protocol"). ).

According to the SIP protocol, a user has the possibility of accessing the status of a physical and / or software resource by sending from his terminal a "SIP SUBSCRIBE" request to a resource manager, which is generally a server of a telecommunications operator.

A physical resource is in particular a data processing device, for example a fixed or portable personal computer, a radiotelephone, a digital assistant ("PDA"), a smart card, etc. The status of the device is typically its electrical state, or the presence state of the device user.

A software resource is in particular a software application capable of having a status, such as a messaging application. The status of such an email application is typically an alert to the user that a new message has been dropped in the mail.

The OMA-TS-Presence_SIMPLE-V2_0 standard of the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) standardization organization allows a user, called "Watcher", to subscribe to information about the presence status of another user, called "Presentity".

This subscription is triggered by the sending from the terminal of the "Watcher" to the terminal manager of the "Presentity", called "Enabler of Presence" of a request "SIP

SUBSCRIBE ". If this subscription is accepted, the "Presence Enabler" keeps a context of the subscription. At each modification of the presence state of the "Presentity", a notification is sent by "Presence Enabler" to the "Watcher" in the form of a "SIP NOTIFY" request. Such notification is also sent to each refresh of the subscription.

According to the SIP protocol, this request is acknowledged by the "Watcher". To receive this notification and send the corresponding acknowledgment, it is necessary that the terminal of the "Watcher" has connectivity to the network.

In the case where the terminal of the "Watcher" does not have this connectivity to the network during the processing of the notification, "Enabler of Presence" can not receive an acknowledgment and the transaction of the request "SIP NOTIFY" is then considered In error. After to this failure, it is recommended to "Enabler of Presence" to close the context related to the subscription of the "Watcher". This is particularly the case in the "IETF RFC 3265" standard

This systematic removal of the "Watcher" context is a desirable behavior in an environment in which connectivity is considered stable, for example when the "Watcher" accesses the IP network with xDSL type access.

However, this systematic deletion is not desirable in an environment in which connectivity is considered less stable, especially when the "Watcher" accesses the IP network with mobile access. Indeed, in this case, the receipt of the notification "SIP NOTIFY" by the terminal of the "Watcher" is not guaranteed, for example in case of loss of radio coverage.

More particularly, when the "Watcher" finds the connection of his mobile terminal to the network, he is not aware of the deletion of his subscription and he thus no longer receives notification of modification of the presence status of "Presentity" to which he has subscribed. The user then has a bad experience of the access service to the presence state.

The present invention improves the situation.

For this purpose, the present invention aims first of all at a method of managing the access of a user terminal, connected to a communication network, to the status of a physical and / or software resource managed by a manager. .

This method comprises the steps, implemented by the manager, of: determining at least one property relating to the terminal;

establishing a management rule for the access of the terminal to the status of the resource from the determined property.

Thus, the invention makes it possible to take into account the properties, for example of connectivity, of the user terminal when managing the access of the terminal to the status of the desired resource.

In one embodiment, the method comprises a step of the manager receiving an access request from the terminal to the resource, said request comprising information relating to the terminal, and a step of determining properties using this information.

Thus, the determination step is preceded by a step of reception by the aforementioned manager of a terminal access request to the status of the resource, this request comprising information relating to the terminal and the aforementioned determination step uses the terminal information included in the access request for determining the aforementioned property relating to the terminal.

As an exemplary embodiment, in the context of the SIP protocol, the access manager receives a request "SIP SUBSCRIBE". This request includes SIP headers containing terminal information. For example, the header "P-Access-Network-Info" carries information about the access network of the terminal and the header "User-Agent" contains information on the type of terminal. This information makes it possible to determine properties relating to the terminal and thus to define a type of terminal from this information. For example, when the header "P-Access-Network-Info" indicates an access of type xDSL, the manager deduces that the terminal is a terminal of fixed type having a stable connection.

In an embodiment where the SIP protocol is used, the aforementioned reception step can advantageously be followed by a step of preserving a SIP subscription context and, in the event of failure of the acknowledgment when the connection of the terminal is unstable. , the method may then comprise a step of preserving the SIP subscription context for a determined period of time, thus enabling the repetition of the sending of the notification whose acknowledgment has failed and / or the sending of new notifications.

In another embodiment, the determination step uses information relating to the terminal previously stored in the manager.

This is the case, for example, when the data concerning the type of terminal is previously provisioned in the manager when the user subscribes to the telecommunications operator.

Advantageously, the property determined by the manager may relate to the stability of the connection of the terminal to the communication network.

Thus, when the terminal type is fixed, the connection of the terminal is considered stable. In the context of the access to a state of presence of another user, the access management rule then established by the manager can then be to delete the context following a failure when receiving the acknowledgment of the request. "SIP NOTIFY" or keep this context until reaching a pre-defined number of errors. Indeed, this failure may be due in this case to the fact that the user's terminal is turned off without having previously made specific request closing context. It is therefore useless to continue to send him notifications concerning the state of presence.

When the type of terminal is mobile, the connection of the terminal is considered unstable. As part of the access to a state of presence of another user, the access management rule then established by the manager, following a failure when receiving the acknowledgment of the request "SIP NOTIFY" , can then be to keep the context for a determined duration for example by triggering a timer ("timer"). Indeed, this failure may be due to the fact that the terminal of the user has momentarily lost the connection to the network. It is therefore useful to continue to send him for a certain period of time notifications about the state of presence. If, during this time, another "SIP NOTIFY" request is acknowledged correctly, the manager stops the duration counter and the context returns to a normal state. If after the expiry of the duration counter, another "SIP NOTIFY" request is not acknowledged correctly, the context is removed.

Another example relates to the case in which the header "User-Agent" indicates that the type of the terminal is a smartphone for example of the type "iphone 3.0" ®. The connection of the terminal is considered ghost since the execution of the subscription permanently on the terminal is not guaranteed. As part of the access to a state of presence of another user, the access management rule then established by the manager, following a failure when receiving the acknowledgment of the request "SIP NOTIFY" , then can delete the context.

It is generally indicated that the aforementioned status of the resource can be advantageously (but not exclusively) a state of presence of a user of this resource.

All the variants of the process described above may be present in isolation or in any technically possible combination.

The invention also aims at a system for managing the access of a user terminal, connected to a communication network, to the status of a physical and / or software resource of the network, comprising a resource manager, the manager comprising in particular: means for determining at least one property relating to the terminal;

means for establishing a terminal access management rule for the resource from the determined property.

The present invention also aims at the aforementioned manager as such, able to manage the access of a user terminal to the status of a physical and / or software resource, and including in particular

means for determining at least one property relating to the terminal;

The present invention also aims at a computer program adapted to be implemented by a manager of a physical and / or software resource, the program comprising code instructions which, when the program is executed by a processor, perform the steps of the aforementioned access management method. By way of example, FIG. 2 commented below can correspond to a flowchart representing the general algorithm of such a program.

Other features and advantages of the invention will appear on examining the detailed description below, and the attached drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating the structure of a management system according to one embodiment of the invention;

Figure 2 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a management method according to an embodiment of the invention.

The embodiment described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 relates to the management of the access of a user terminal ("Watcher") to the presence state of another user ("Presentity").

The invention is however not limited to this case and may concern the management of access to the state of any physical or software resource using a SIP subscription.

FIG. 1 represents a system comprising user terminals 2, 4, 6 associated respectively with users 8, 10, 12. These terminals 2, 4, 6 communicate with each other through a communication network 14 managed by a user. network manager 16. This manager 16 is typically a server of the telecommunications operator with which the users 8, 10, 12 subscribe.

In the exemplary embodiment considered, the user 8 has subscribed to the telecommunications operator in order to access the states of presence of the users 10 and 12 that are part of his contacts.

By way of example, the access of the terminal 2 of the user 8 to the status of the terminal 4 associated with the user 10 is managed by the manager 16 according to the procedure described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 2.

In step 18, the manager 16 receives from the terminal 2 a subscription request to the presence state of the user 10. In the context of the SIP protocol, this request is a "SIP SUBSCRIBE" request.

This request "SIP SUB SCRIBE" includes information relating to the type of the terminal 2 and the access network of the terminal 2. More particularly, the information relating to the terminal 2 are contained in a header "User-Agent" and information relating to the network access are contained in a header "P-Access-Network-Info".

In step 20, the manager 16 verifies that the user 8 has the rights for this subscription, for example by verifying that this user is subscribed to the access service to the states of presence of other users with his operator.

It then determines, in step 22, a property relating to the stability of the connection of the terminal 2 to the communication network 14 from, in particular, information concerning the type of the terminal 2 and the type of access of the terminal 2 contained in the "SIP SUBSCRIBE" request received in step 18.

Alternatively, the manager 16 has this information prior to the subscription request of the user 8, for example through a static assignment of a terminal type and / or access during the subscription of the user 8 to his operator.

As an illustration, if the terminal 2 is connected to an xDSL access, the type of this terminal is considered to be fixed. The manager 16 deduces that the connection of the terminal 2 is stable.

Conversely, if the terminal 2 is connected to a mobile access, the type of this terminal is considered mobile. The manager 16 deduces that the connection of the terminal 2 is unstable.

If the terminal 2 is of the operating system type (or "operating system") single-ended, such as for example the "iphone 3.0" ®, the execution of the access application to the presence state of other users permanently on the terminal 2 is not guaranteed. The manager 16 deduces that the connection of the terminal 2 is of the ghost type.

In step 24, the manager 16 retains a subscription context of the terminal 2, comprising the property relating to the stability of the connection defined in step 22, so that, at each modification of the presence state of the terminal 4 and each refresh of the subscription, the manager 16 sends in step 26 a notification to the terminal 2 in the form of a request "SIP NOTIFY".

The remainder of the flowchart of FIG. 2 concerns the case where the terminal 2 does not acknowledge the request "SIP NOTIFY".

In step 28, the manager 16 recognizes the failure of the acknowledgment.

In step 30, the manager 16, as a function of the property relating to the stability of the connection determined in step 22, decides how to deal with the failure of the acknowledgment of the "SIP NOTIFY" request.

Thus, when the connection is stable, the manager 16 deletes the context. In a variant, the manager 16 retains the context until it reaches a previously defined number of acknowledgment errors.

When the connection is unstable, the manager 16 keeps the context for a determined duration by triggering a duration counter. If, during this time, another request "SIP NOTIFY" is correctly acknowledged, the manager 16 deletes the counter. Otherwise, in the case where another request "SIP NOTIFY" is not acknowledged correctly after expiry of the duration counter, the manager 16 deletes the context.

When the connection is of the ghost type, the manager 16 deletes the context. Although the embodiment described with reference to FIG. 2 concerns the treatment of the failure of the acknowledgment of the notification, the invention is not limited to this case.

The invention applies in fact advantageously to several types of operations related to the life cycle of a SIP subscription.

For example, the manager 16 can establish a rule according to which the terminal 2 must update its subscription by sending the request "SIP SUBSCRIBE" more or less regularly according to the stability of its connection. Thus, in the case of a fixed connection, the terminal 2 can simply send this request every few hours while in the case of a mobile connection, the terminal 2 must send this request every few minutes to ensure the continuity of the service of access to the state of presence. Another example concerns the content of the "SIP NOTIFY" notification. For a PC type terminal 2, the manager 16 advantageously decides to send a video link associated with the profile of the user 10 in this notification, since the user 8 has the possibility to access the content of such a link. link with his terminal. On the other hand, for a terminal 2 of the mobile phone type, the manager 16 advantageously decides to send only the photo and the mood phrase associated with the profile of the user 10 in the notification.

The invention also advantageously applies to access management to the status of a software resource, for example, a messaging application. Thus, when the manager sends an alert to the terminal indicating the receipt of a new message and the terminal does not acknowledge this message, the manager decides according to the stability properties of the terminal connection, continue to send the message. new alerts for a certain period of time or no longer send them.

The invention thus makes it possible to improve the user experience of the services relating to access to the status of a physical and / or software resource proposed by the telecommunications operator.

Claims

A method for managing the access of a user terminal (2) (8), connected to a communication network (14), to the status of a physical resource (4) and / or software managed by a manager (16), characterized in that it comprises the steps, implemented by the manager (16), of:

determining (22) at least one property relating to the terminal (2);

setting (30) a terminal access management rule (2) to the resource status (4) from the determined property.

2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the property determined by the manager (16) relates to the stability of the connection of the terminal (2) to the communication network (14).

3. Method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the determination step is preceded by a step of

- reception (18) by the manager (16) of an access request from the terminal (2) to the status of the resource (4), said request comprising information relating to the terminal (2);

and in that the determining step (22) uses the information relating to the terminal (2) included in the access request to determine the said at least one property relating to the terminal (2).

4. Method according to claim 3, characterized in that it uses a SIP protocol, in that the reception step (18) is followed by a storage step (24) of a SIP subscription context

and in that, in the event of failure of an acknowledgment when the connection of the terminal (2) is unstable, the method comprises a step of preserving the SIP subscription context for a determined duration.

5. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the determination step (22) uses information relating to the terminal (2) previously stored in the manager (16).

6. Management system for the access of a user terminal (2) (8), connected to a communication network (14), to the status of a physical resource (4) and / or software of said network, comprising a manager (16) of the resource (4), characterized in that the manager (16) comprises:

means for determining at least one property relating to the terminal (2);

means for setting a terminal access management rule (2) to the resource (4) from the determined property.

7. Manager (16) able to manage the access of a user terminal (2) (8) to the status of a physical resource (4) and / or software, characterized in that it comprises

means for determining at least one property relating to the terminal (2);

8. Computer program adapted to be implemented by a manager (16) of a physical resource (4) and / or software, the program comprising code instructions which, when the program is executed by a processor, realizes the process steps defined in any one of claims 1 to 5.