Alcatel Lucent

Nokia Technologies Oy

Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy

Fernando Cuervo

Kalyan Premchand Siddam

Kevin Scott Cutler

Haiqing H Ma

Ajay Kirit Pandya

Susan Patricia Ackerman

Felix Katz

Sachin J Lalseta

Pierrick Jacques Guingo

Steve Rock

Bruno Landais

Laurent Thiebaut

Konstantin Livanos

Mike Vihtari

Bashar Said Bou-Diab

Joseph M Regan

Ron E Haberman

Subhasis Laha

Hamdy Farid

Xiong Xue

Miroslav Vrana

Padmavathi Sudarsan

Bijan Raahemi

Allen Robinson

Ranga Tota

Michel Sim

Arnoldus Joannes Jacobus Jansen

David Huynh

Farid Hamdy

In an embodiment, there is provided a method for reducing the load due to user location change reporting for location-based policy and/or charging control services for said user, in a mobile communication system wherein granularity of user location includes granularity at cell level and/or granularity at service area level, a service area (or Location or Routing or Tracking Area) comprising a set of cells defined at network operation level, a method wherein said user location change reporting is based on at least one of:

Reducing the load due to reporting of information changes to a policy and/or charging controller in a mobile communication system

A service capability exposure function (SCEF) receives a short message service (SMS) message associated with a user equipment. The SCEF identifies a destination for the SMS message on the basis of a mapping between a unique identifier of the user equipment and an external identifier of the user equipment. The SCEF transmits the SMS message towards the destination. Receiving the SMS message and transmitting the SMS message are performed without establishing a packet data network (PDN) session for conveying the SMS message. A mobility management entity (MME) receives the SMS message and identifies the destination for the SMS message on the basis of a unique identifier of the user equipment included in the SMS message. The MME transmits the SMS message towards the destination.

Simplified short message service (SMS) procedure for communication with internet of things devices

Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method and related network node including one or more of the following: receiving, at a policy and charging rules node (PCRN) from a requesting entity, a message including a request associated with at least one service data flow (SDF); extracting a subscriber identifier and a first identifier from the message; retrieving a subscription record associated with the subscriber identifier, wherein the subscription record is associated with a first plurality of subrecords; identifying an first subrecord from the plurality of subrecords based on the first identifier; and conditionally fulfilling the request based on a first value stored in the first subrecord.

Method and system for authorizing sessions using subscriber database

The invention is directed to providing a method and apparatus for authorizing Quality of Service (QoS) at a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) node in response to receiving a service request for a subscriber having a requested QoS, a QoS Negotiation Attribute Value Pair (AVP) and a QoS Upgrade AVP such that the QoS Negotiation AVP takes precedence over the QoS Upgrade AVP.

Method for QoS authorization

Various exemplary embodiments relate to method of generating PCC rules for managing packet traffic across a network. The method may include: receiving a request message for PCC rules from a requesting network component, authorizing the first requested bandwidth for a first traffic mapping; authorizing a third bandwidth for at least a second traffic mapping wherein the third authorized bandwidth is less than or equal to a second requested bandwidth minus the first requested bandwidth; generating a first PCC rule comprising: a service flow corresponding to the first traffic mapping and the first authorized bandwidth; and generating a second PCC rule comprising: a service flow corresponding to the second traffic mapping and the third authorized bandwidth. Various exemplary embodiments relate to a Policy and Control Rules Node (PCRN) for generating PCC rules. The PCRN may include an interface, service flow extractor, policy engine, rule generator, rules storage and rules manager.

System and method for generating and updating PCC rules based on service requests

The invention is directed to 3GPP-compliant networks wherein a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) node provides a subscriber's maximum allowed Authorized Quality-of-Service (QoS) per QoS Class Identifier (QCI) to a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) as the authorized QoS per QCI, such that the PCEF node can then allocate resources and bandwidth over one or more Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) bearers with the same QCI.

Authorizing QoS per QCI

Various embodiments relate to a system and related method for managing a connection of a user device to a communications network. Various embodiments relate to a Policy and Charging Rules Node (PCRN) receiving a user requests through multiple serving gateways. The PCRN may assign one of the serving gateways as a primary serving gateway when the serving gateway sends a Gateway Control Session that binds to an IP-CAN session established in the PCRN. When the PCRN receives a subsequent message from another serving gateway, the PCRN may reassign the new serving gateway as primary when its Gateway Control Session matches. The PCRN may then mark the former serving gateway as pending termination and signal the marked gateway to terminate. After sending rules to serving gateways not pending termination, the PCRN may delete those serving gateways marked for termination.

Management of serving gateways for enhanced performance

Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method and related network node and machine-readable storage medium including one or more of the following: receiving, at the PCRN, the application request message; determining at least one requested service flow from the application request message; for each requested service flow of the at least one requested service flow, generating a new PCC rule based on the application request message; and providing each new PCC rule to a Policy and Charging Enforcement Node (PCEN). Various exemplary embodiments further include an application request message including at least one media component and at least one media subcomponent and the step of for each media subcomponent, determining a requested service flow from the media subcomponent.

PCC/QOS rule creation

Various embodiments relate to a system and related method for handling requests from a user device in a wireless communications network. Various embodiments relate to a Policy and Charging Rules Node (PCRN) attempting to bind an IP-CAN session established in a Packet Data Network gateway (PGW) with a gateway control session established in a serving gateway (SGW). In instances when the IP-CAN session and gateway control session no longer match, the PCRN may wait to receive a subsequent message from the PGW and/or SGW. When the PCRN does not receive the subsequent message containing a matching session, the PCRN may terminate the sessions in all the relevant gateways. This may cause the system to reestablish a new, matching connection instead of remaining in a hanging state.

Primary serving gateway resolution

Various embodiments relate to a system and related method for charging an actual subscriber using a single subscriber profile. A Policy and Charging Rules Node (PCRN) may receive a message including a service request and may refer to a subscriber profile to add at least one subscriber identifier (ID) to the message. An Online Charging System (OCS) may thereafter receive a translated message originating from the PCRN and use the at least one subscriber ID included in the translated message to find charging information for the actual subscriber. The OCS may include the charging information in a charged message. A device providing service may then use the charged information to charge the actual subscriber for the requested service.

PCRF-OCS interaction in wireless-wireline convergence

Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method of generating a Policy and Control Charging (PCC) rule for managing packet traffic across a network. The method may include: receiving a request message for PCC rules from a requesting network component; authorizing a set of QoS information based on the requested set of QoS information; generating a PCC rule; and transmitting the PCC rule to an enforcing network component. The request message may include a requested set of QoS information and multiple traffic mappings each describing a flow of packets transmitted across the network. The PCC rule may include the authorized set of QoS information and multiple flow descriptions corresponding to each traffic mapping. The PCRN may include: a first interface that receives a request message, a policy engine, a rule generator, and a second interface that transmits the PCC rule to an enforcing network component.

Method and system for generating PCC rules based on service requests

Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method and related network node including one or more of the following: receiving, at the policy and charging rules node from a requesting entity, a message including a request associated with at least one service data flow (SDF), wherein the request includes at least one requested bandwidth; extracting at least one subscriber identifier from the message; retrieving a subscription record associated with the at least one subscriber identifier; determining whether the request should be fulfilled by performing at least one comparison of the at least one requested bandwidth for the SDF against at least one field of the subscription record; if the request should be fulfilled, establishing the SDF; and if the request should not be fulfilled: generating a response message that indicates that the request was rejected, and transmitting the response message to the requesting entity.

Method of authorizing AF sessions using external subscriber database

Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method and related network node and machine-readable storage medium including one or more of the following: determining network status; receiving an application request at the PCRN; generating a new PCC rule in response to the application request and network status; and providing the new PCC rule to a PCEN. Various exemplary embodiments further include receiving an event message, determining the network status from received event messages and isolating congestion using previously issued PCC rules and a network topology.

Method for PCRF to autonomously respond to cell capacity shortage

PCRF-PCEF-OCS interaction in wireless-wireline convergence

Various embodiments relate to a system and related method for handling requests from a user device in a wireless communications network. Various embodiments relate to a Policy and Charging Rules Node (PCRN) attempting to bind an IP-CAN session established in a Packet Data Network gateway (PGW) with a gateway control session established in a serving gateway (SGW). In instances when the IP-CAN session and gateway control session no longer match, the PCRN may wait to receive a subsequent message from the PGW and/or SGW. When the PCRN does not receive the subsequent message containing a matching session, the PCRN may kill the sessions in all the relevant gateways. This may cause the system to reestablish a new, matching connection instead of remaining in a hanging state.

Growing community of inventors

Dunrobin, Canada

Fernando Cuervo