Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (publ)

José Javier Pastor Balbás

Susana Fernandez Alonso

David Castellanos Zamora

Maria Belen Pancorbo Marcos

Stephen Terrill

Ana Maria Lopez Nieto

Victor Manuel Avila Gonzalez

Guadalupe Sanchez Santiso

Susana Fernández Alonso

Being aware of a loss of signalling bearer transport through an IP Connectivity Access Network is an important issue. Therefore, the present invention relies on amending the Policing and Charging Control model with means to provide the IMS infrastructure with subscriptions to and notifications about signalling session events detected on the signalling IP flow transported through the bearer layer. To this end, a P-CSCF, or AF included therein, is amended to allow the establishment of a signalling session for subscription to notification of bearer level events for a signalling IP flow. Apart from that, new processing rules are required at the AF and PCRF for handling the signalling session, the notification of events and the termination of the signalling session.

Loss of signalling bearer transport

In scenarios where the quality of service is negotiated through a signalling layer whereas the services are actually carried through a bearer layer, application functions at the signalling layer are not always aware of how quality of service is individually accomplished at the bearer layer on a service basis. The invention provides a method and devices whereby events are detected on a service data flow basis at a detection device in the bearer layer and notified towards an application device in the signalling layer via a control device between the signalling and the bearer layer. The list of events to be notified is obtainable at the control device from the application device and is included in Quality of Service related rules, along with service data flow filters. This Quality of Service related rules are provided to the detection device for inspecting individual service data flows in order to detect and notify the indicated events.

Devices and method for guaranteeing quality of service per service data flow through the bearer layer

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Madrid, Spain

José Javier Pastor Balbás