Managing hierarchically organized subscriber profiles

Abstract

Methods are provided for managing hierarchically organized subscriber profiles. According to one embodiment, subscriber services are modified without requiring a change to the subscriber's first-level profile identifier and without requiring the subscriber to reestablish a connection with the service provider. A database of hierarchically organized profile identifiers, including multiple lower-level profile identifiers, explicitly defining subscriber services, and multiple first-level profile identifiers, defining service contexts representing combinations of services available to subscribers by (i) explicitly defining the subscriber services or (ii) referring to one or more of the lower-level profile identifiers, are maintained within a virtual router operable within a telecommunications system of the service provider. Updated service profile information, representing a change to the subscriber's service context, is received. Responsive the updated service profile information, lower-level profile identifiers currently associated with the subscriber's first-level profile identifier are replaced with lower-level profile identifiers corresponding to the updated service profile information.