Method and system for changing a subscription

1. A method, comprising:

detecting a change in subscription information of a subscriber;

checking whether a capability of an old Serving Call State Control Function (S-CSCFo) serving a terminal device of said subscriber is still in accordance with said changed subscription information; and

initiating, in response to a result of said checking being that said capability of said S-CSCFo serving said terminal device of said subscriber is not still in accordance with said changed subscription information, a registration procedure for registering said terminal device of said subscriber to a new Serving Call State Control Function (S-CSCFn) that is in accordance with said changed subscription information.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said checking comprises checking whether said S-CSCFo is still capable of serving said terminal device of said subscriber based on said changed subscription information.

3. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said detecting is based on a detection of a subscriber profile update.

4. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said detecting is based on a detection of a subscription of said subscriber to a new service.

5. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said checking is performed on the basis of a capability information added based on said detecting a response message of a re-registration procedure initiated by said terminal device.

6. A method according to claim 5 , wherein said re-registration procedure is initiated by said terminal device in response to a de-registration procedure initiated when a change of said subscription information has been detected in said detecting.

7. A method according to claim 5 , wherein said re-registration procedure is a periodic re-registration procedure initiated at predetermined intervals.

8. A method according to claim 1 , wherein a configuration information is provided for determining subscribed services needing predetermined S-CSCFs.

9. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said checking further comprises:

transmitting a capability query comprising an information indicating at least one required capability to said S-CSCFo,

comparing capabilities of said S-CSCFo with said information about said at least one required capabilities, and

receiving an acknowledgement indicating the result of said comparing from said S-CSCFo.

10. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said checking further comprises:

transmitting an information indicating at least one required capability and an identification of said S-CSCFo to an interrogating Call State Control Function (I-CSCF),

checking at said I-CSCF whether said S-CSCFo fulfills said at least on required capabilities, and

receiving an acknowledgement indicating the result of said checking from said I-CSCF.

11. A method according to claim 9 , further comprising:

sending a de-register message for de-registering said terminal device to said S-CSCFo in response to the received result.

12. A method according to claim 11 , wherein a re-registration procedure is initiated by said terminal device in response to a message issued by said S-CSCFo.

13. A method according to claim 11 , wherein said de-register message includes a cause information which indicates that the reason for de-registration was a need for changing said subscriber information.

14. A method according to claim 13 , wherein said cause information is used by said terminal device to detect that a re-registration is required.

15. A method according to claim 9 , wherein a selection function of said data network is initiated using said information about said at least one required capability, and a resulting identification information of said S-CSCFn is notified to a proxy Call State Control Function (P-CSCF) connected to said terminal device.

16. A method according to claim 15 , wherein said notification is performed using an identification of said P-CSCF stored at a subscriber database.

17. A method according to claim 16 , wherein said identification is requested from said S-CSCFo using said de-register message.

18. A method according to claim 15 , wherein said selection function is performed by an I-CSCF.

19. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said checking is performed by requesting from said data network a capability list comprising required capabilities of S-CSCFs.

20. A method according to claim 19 , wherein said capability list is requested from an I-CSCF.

21. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory comprising computer program code; and

a processor;

the memory and the computer program code configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:

detecting a change in a subscription information of a subscriber; and

initiating a registration procedure for registering a terminal device of said subscriber to a S-CSCFn in response to a result of a checking operation that has checked whether a capability of a S-CSCFo serving said terminal device of said subscriber is still in accordance with said changed subscription information and that has determined said result is that said capability of said S-CSCFo serving said terminal device of said subscriber is not still in accordance with said changed subscription information, and wherein said S-CSCFn is in accordance with said changed subscription information.

22. An apparatus according to claim 21 , wherein said initiating further comprises initiating said registration procedure by issuing a de-register message.

23. An apparatus according to claim 21 , wherein said initiating further comprises initiating said registration procedure by initiating a selection function to select said S-CSCFn.

24. An apparatus according to claim 21 , wherein said apparatus is a home subscriber server.

25. An apparatus according to claim 21 , wherein said memory and said computer program code are further configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to perform inhibiting an unnecessary registration based on a configuration information provided at said apparatus.

26. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory comprising computer program code; and

a processor;

the memory and the computer program code configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:

registering to a S-CSCFo providing session control services for said apparatus,

receiving a de-register message containing a cause information, which indicates a reason for the de-register message, the reason indicating that a result of a checking operation for checking a capability of the S-CSCFo indicates that the capability is not in accordance with a change in subscription information of a subscriber associated with the apparatus;

in response to said de-register message, initiating automatically a new initial registration procedure for registering said apparatus to a S-CSCFn providing session control services for said apparatus, wherein the S-CSCFn is in accordance with said changed subscription information.

27. An apparatus according to claim 26 , wherein said de-register message is a message in accordance with a session initiation protocol.

28. An apparatus according to claim 27 , wherein said de-register message is a session initiation protocol NOTIFY-message.

29. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory comprising computer program code; and

a processor,

the memory and the computer program code configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:

checking whether a capability of a current S-CSCFo serving a terminal device of a subscriber is still in accordance with a change in subscription information; and

in response to a result of the checking indicating the capability of the current S-CSCFo serving the terminal device of the subscriber is not still in accordance with the change in subscription information, performing a registration procedure for registering said terminal device to a S-CSCFn that is in accordance with the change in subscription information.

30. An apparatus according to claim 29 , wherein the memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to perform:

sending a registration authorization message to a subscriber database in response to a registration message for a new registration of said terminal device;

receiving in response to the registration authorization message a response message comprising capability information corresponding to the current S-CSCFo; and

using the capability information in the checking.

31. An apparatus according to claim 29 , wherein said apparatus is an interrogation call state control function of an Internet Protocol multimedia subsystem.

32. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium bearing computer program code embodied therein for use with a computer, the computer program code comprising:

code for detecting a change in subscription information of a subscriber;

code for checking whether a capability of a S-CSCFo serving a terminal device of said subscriber is still in accordance with said changed subscription information; and

code for initiating, in response to a result of said checking being that said capability of said S-CSCFo serving said terminal device of said subscriber is not still in accordance with said changed subscription information, a registration procedure for registering said terminal device of said subscriber to a S-CSCFn that is in accordance with said changed subscription information.