Specification of a Software Architecture for Capability and Quality-Of-Service Negotiations and Session Establishment for Distributed Multimedia Applications

Abstract

A system for establishing a session between two entities in a telecommunications network. The system includes the following Application Programming Interfaces (APIs): a Management API representing an interface between the system and an entity managing it, an API representing an interface between the system, middleware and/or an application using services offered by the system, and a generic session-layer protocol API representing an interface between the system and a User Agent of a session-layer protocol.

1 . (canceled) 
     
     
         2 . A system for establishing a session between two entities in a telecommunications network, said system comprising the following Application Programming Interfaces (APIs):
 a Management API representing an interface between the system and an entity managing it,   an API representing an interface between the system, middleware and/or an application using services offered by the system, and   a generic session-layer protocol API representing an interface between the system and a User Agent of a session-layer protocol.   
     
     
         3 . A system according to  claim 2 , further comprising a two-stage E2ENP Cache for managing negotiation object identifiers in order to decouple the identification scheme of a specific application and/or middleware from the one specified for the E2ENP by non-persistently storing and retrieving E2ENP session identifiers referring to the respective mobile telecommunication session, the E2ENP session identifiers referring to the respective Service Provider handled by the Finite State Machine of the system, and the E2ENP session identifiers referring to the respective Service User handled by any application and/or middleware using the services offered by said system. 
     
     
         4 . A system according to  claim 2 , wherein the system is configured to pre-cache information during the execution of a given E2ENP pre-negotiation or negotiation procedure, wherein the pre-cached data remains cached for future reference during a later E2ENP session once the given procedure has been successfully completed, and to cache information which can be applied as a reference to data, which has already been negotiated among the end peers, during a new E2ENP pre-negotiation or negotiation procedure. 
     
     
         5 . A system according to  claim 2 , wherein E2ENP session-layer protocol APIs are independent of the actually used session-layer protocol and the session description protocol implementations. 
     
     
         6 . A system according to  claim 2 , further comprising a Factory API representing an interface between the system and a Factory instance used for encoding an E2ENP session description. 
     
     
         7 . A system according to  claim 2 , further comprising a Parser API representing an interface between the system and a Parser instance needed for decoding an E2ENP session description. 
     
     
         8 . A system according to  claim 7 , wherein the Parser instance and the Factory instance can be configured independently by using the same protocol. 
     
     
         9 . A system according to  claim 2 , wherein the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is used in conjunction with extensions of the Session Description Protocol (SDP) or Session Description Protocol—Next Generation (SDPng), respectively. 
     
     
         10 . A system according to  claim 2 , wherein the session-layer protocol and the Session Description Protocol (SDP) or Session Description Protocol—Next Generation (SDPng), respectively, are independently configurable.