Methods for managing presence information in a real-time communications network
View Patent ↗Methods for updating presence information between a first user equipment (UE) and a second UE over a communications network are presented including: on an INVITE message delivery failure to the second UE from the first UE, sending a first PUBLISH message on behalf of the second UE to a presence server by a communications server; sending a NOTIFY message to the first UE by the presence server; and setting a current presence status of the second UE to UNAVAILABLE. In some embodiments, methods further include: if an immediately previous presence status of the second UE is set to AVAILABLE, sending a NOTIFY message to all watchers of the second UE to indicate the current presence status of the second UE. In some embodiments, the first PUBLISH message utilizes a user-agent header to indicate that the communications server originated the first PUBLISH message.
1. A method for updating presence information between a first user equipment (UE) and a second UE over a Push-to-Talk over Cellular (PoC) communications network, the method comprising:
publishing a first presence status with a presence server by the second UE, wherein the first presence status indicates that the second UE is available;
subscribing with the presence server by the first UE, wherein the first UE is subscribed as a watcher to the second UE;
while the first presence status incorrectly indicates the second UE is available, on an INVITE message delivery failure to the second UE from the first UE, sending a first PUBLISH message on behalf of the second UE to a presence server by a POC communications server indicating that the second UE IS unavailable;
sending a NOTIFY message to the first UE by the presence server indicating that the second UE is unavailable; and
setting the first presence status by the presence server to indicate that the second UE is unavailable; and
sending a NOTIFY message by the presence server to all watchers of the second UE indicating that the second UE is unavailable.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first PUBLISH message utilizes a user-agent header to indicate that the communications server originated the first PUBLISH message.
3. The method of claim 2 further comprising: utilizing the first PUBLISH message to indicate the current presence status of the second UE until the presence server receives a second PUBLISH message from the second UE; and when the presence server receives the second PUBLISH message, discarding the first PUBLISH message.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the NOTIFY message and the first PUBLISH message each utilized an originator field to indicate a source of the current presence status.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein the NOTIFY message and the first PUBLISH message are Presence Information Data Format (PIDF) compliant.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein the presence server maintains presence information from any source as a separate PUBLISH session.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications server includes a PoC server for handling messages and media between the first UE and the second UE.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein the first UE and the second UE each include: a PoC client for communicating with the PoC server; and a user interface for providing user input to the PoC system and for providing PoC system output to a user.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the PoC client of the second UE sends a message to the presence server when a lost network connection is restored, the message selected from the group consisting of: a PUBLISH message and a SUBSCRIBE refresh message.
10. The method of claim 7 wherein the messages and media are transmitted over an access network and an SIP/IP core.