Methods, systems, and computer program products for a hierarchical, redundant oam&p architecture for use in an ip multimedia subsystem (ims) network

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer program products for a hierarchical, redundant OAM&P architecture for use in an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) are disclosed. According to one aspect, the subject matter described herein includes a system for managing an Internet protocol multimedia system (IMS) network. The system includes a network operations, administration, maintenance, and provisioning (OAM&P) entity for communicating with an operator's network, a system OAM&P entity associated with the network OAM&P entity, and at least one message processing entity associated with the system OAM&P entity for processing signaling information and for implementing at least one application. The system OAM&P entity receives OAM&P information from one or more message processing entities and communicates at least some of the received OAM&P information to the network OAM&P entity. The network OAM&P entity receives OAM&P information from the system OAM&P entity and communicates at least some of the received OAM&P information to the operator's network.

1 . A method for remotely configuring an Internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) entity, the method comprising:
 (a) detecting the presence of a configurable IMS entity at a system operations, administration, maintenance, and provisioning (OAM&P) entity;   (b) communicating the detection to a network OAM&P entity;   (c) receiving configuration data from the operator at the network OAM&P entity; and   (d) communicating the configuration data to the system OAM&P entity and configuring the configurable IMS entity based on the configuration data.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein communicating the detection to a network OAM&P entity includes providing an operator with options to configure the configurable IMS entity to perform at least one of a proxy call session control function (P-CSCF), an interrogating call session control function (I-CSCF), a serving call session control function (S-CSCF), a home subscriber server (HSS) function, an authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) function, and an application server (AS) function. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  wherein the an application server function includes at least one of a prepaid services function, a presence services function, an E.164 number translation (ENUM) services function, a location-based services function, a number portability services function, a message services function, a billing applications function, a network monitoring function, a call control function, a conference call services function, an announcement services function, a push-to-talk services function, a voicemail services function, a text to speech/speech to text services function, a law-enforcement-related services function, and a 2-G gateway services function. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein configuring the configurable IMS entity comprises activating at least one of a plurality of preloaded applications. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein at least some of the plurality applications perform different application functions or different variants of an application function. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4  wherein activating the at least one of a plurality of preloaded applications comprises setting a software or hardware flag, the flag corresponding to a preloaded application to be activated. 
     
     
         7 . A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions that when executed by the processor of a computer control the computer to perform steps comprising:
 (a) detecting the presence of a configurable IMS entity at a system operations, administration, maintenance, and provisioning (OAM&P) entity;   (b) communicating the detection to a network OAM&P entity;   (c) receiving configuration data from the operator at the network OAM&P entity; and   (d) communicating the configuration data to the system OAM&P entity, wherein the system OAM&P entity configures the configurable IMS entity based on the configuration data.