Method and device for network capacity control

• US 10,051,520 B2
• Filed: 07/28/2014
• Issued: 08/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Company Limited (China Information Communication Technology Group Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Company Limited (China Information Communication Technology Group Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Duan, Jianghai
• Primary Examiner(s): Kassim, Khaled
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cairns, Thomas R
• Application Number:
  US14/912,401
• Publication Number:
  US 20160192240A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,478 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/66 Policy and charging system
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/16 Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 Allocation or use of connection identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 Setup of transport tunnels

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for network capacity control for use in controlling use by a MVNO of MNO network capacity. The method of the present invention comprises: an MNO-PCRF receives an IP-CAN session establishment instruction message and, on the basis of the user identifier therein, determines the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) to which a UE belongs and forwards the IP-CAN session establishment instruction message to the MVNO-PCRF unit; an IP-CAN session establishment confirmation message is received from the MVNO-PCRF carrying the policy and charging control (PCC) rules of the UE, and the PCC rules of the UE are then used; when it is confirmed that the MVNO to which the UE belongs has not exceeded the authorized capacity of said MVNO, an IP-CAN session establishment confirmation.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a network capacity, the method comprising:

receiving, by a Mobile Network Operator Policy and Charging Rule Function (MNO-PCRF), an instruction message for setting up an IP Connectivity Access network (IP-CAN) session for a User Equipment (UE), obtaining a UE identifier from the instruction message, and determining from the UE identifier a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) serving the UE corresponding to the UE identifier;

forwarding, by the MNO-PCRF, the IP-CAN session setup instruction message to a Policy and Charging Rule Function (PCRF) in the MVNO (MVNO-PCRF), the MVNO serving the UE;

receiving, by the MNO-PCRF, an IP-CAN session setup acknowledgement message carrying a Policy and Charging Control (PCC) rule of the UE, sent by the MVNO-PCRF, wherein the PCC rule of the UE comprises a first granted bandwidth allocated by the MVNO-PCRF for the UE;

upon determining according to the PCC rule of the UE that the MVNO serving the UE does not exceed a granted capacity of the MVNO, replying, by the MNO-PCRF, to a network element sending the instruction message, with the P-CAN session setup acknowledgment message for the UE; and

upon determining according to the PCC rule of the UE that the MVNO serving the UE exceeds the granted capacity of the MVNO, sending, by the MNO-PCRF, to the MVNO-PCRF an alert that the granted capacity of the MVNO serving the UE is exceeded;

wherein after the alert is sent to the MVNO-PCRF that the granted capacity of the MVNO serving the UE is exceeded, the method further comprises;

starting a preset wait timer;

when a new PCC rule of the UE sent from the MVNO-PCRF is received by the MNO-PCRF before the wait timer expires, then determining again according to the new PCC rule of the UE whether the MVNO serving the UE exceeds the granted capacity of the MVNO, wherein the new PCC rule of the UE comprises a second granted bandwidth allocated by the MVNO-PCRF for the UE, the second granted bandwidth is allocated so as to avoid exceeding the granted capacity of the MVNO; and

when no new PCC rule of the UE sent by the MVNO-PCRF is received before the wait timer expires, then replying to the network element sending the instruction message, with an IP-CAN session setup failure message for the UE.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein replying to the network element sending the instruction message, with the IP-CAN session setup acknowledgment message for the UE upon determining according to the PCC rule of the UE that the MVNO serving the UE does not exceed the granted capacity of the MVNO comprises:

determining, by the MNO-PCRF, according to the PCC rule of the UE through a preset Mobile Network Operator Bandwidth Control Function (MNO-MBCF) whether the MVNO serving the UE exceeds the granted capacity of the MVNO, and replying to a network element sending the instruction message, with the IP-CAN session setup acknowledgment message for the UE upon determining that the MVNO serving the UE does not exceed the granted capacity of the MVNO.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein determining, by the MNO-PCRF, according to the PCC rule of the UE through the preset Mobile Network Operator Bandwidth Control Function (MNO-MBCF) whether the MVNO serving the UE exceeds the granted capacity of the MVNO comprises:

extracting Quality of Service (QoS) information of the UE from the PCC rule of the UE, and sending the QoS information to the preset MNO-MBCF, so that the MNO-MBCF obtains a bandwidth granted for the UE by the MVNO serving the UE, included in the QoS information of the UE, determines a sum of a bandwidth used by the MVNO serving the UE and the bandwidth granted for the UE by the MVNO, and determines whether the sum is more than the granted capacity of the MVNO serving the UE, and if so, then the MNO-PCRF receiving an alert fed back by the MNO-MBCF that the granted capacity of the MVNO serving the UE is exceeded;

otherwise, the MNO-PCRF receiving an alert fed back by the MNO-MBCF that a condition for setting up the IP-CAN session for the UE is satisfied.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving an instruction message to terminate an IP-CAN session which is set up for the UE, when the IP-CAN session is set up for the UE and the IP-CAN session which is set up for the UE needs to be terminated;

forwarding the instruction message to terminate the IP-CAN session which is set up for the UE, to the MVNO-PCRF; and

updating the sum of granted bandwidths of all the UEs served by the MVNO serving the UE upon reception of an acknowledgment message for terminating the IP-CAN session which is setup for the UE, replied by the MVNO-PCRF.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein updating the sum of granted bandwidths of all the UEs served by the MVNO serving the UE comprises:

sending to a preset MNO-MBCF a message to terminate the IP-CAN session which is set up for the UE, so that the preset MNO-MBCF updates the sum of granted bandwidths of all the UEs served by the MVNO serving the UE.

6. A method for providing a Policy and Charging Control (PCC) rule, the method comprising:

receiving, by a Policy and Charging Rule Function (PCRF) in the MVNO (MVNO-PCRF), an instruction message for setting up an IP Connectivity Access network (IP-CAN) session for a User Equipment (UE), sent by a Mobile Network Operator Policy and Charging Rule Function (MNO-PCRF);

determining, by the MVNO-PCRF, a PCC rule of the UE from the instruction message, and sending to the MNO-PCRF an IP-CAN session setup acknowledgement message carrying the PCC rule of the UE, wherein the PCC rule of the UE comprises a first granted bandwidth allocated by the MVNO-PCRF for the UE;

receiving, by the MVNO-PCRF, an alert sent from the MNO-PCRF that a granted capacity of an MVNO serving the UE is exceeded; and

allocating, by the MVNO-PCRF, again a new PCC rule for the UE in response to the alert, and sending the new PCC rule to the MNO-PCRF, wherein the new PCC rule comprises a second granted bandwidth allocated by the MVNO-PCRF for the UE, the second granted bandwidth is allocated so as to avoid exceeding the granted capacity of the MVNO.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, by the MVNO-PCRF, an instruction message sent by the MNO-PCRF to terminate an IP-CAN session which is set up for the UE when the IP-CAN session which is set up for the UE needs to be terminated, and determining the PCC rule corresponding to the UE from the instruction message; and

sending, by the MVNO-PCRF, to the MNO-PCRF an acknowledgement message to terminate the P-CAN session which is set up for the UE.

8. A device for controlling a network capacity, the device comprising:

a transceiver;

a processor; and

a memory storing at least one instruction, wherein the processor is configured to execute the at least one instruction to;

control the transceiver to receive an instruction message for setting up an IP Connectivity Access network (IP-CAN) session for a User Equipment (UE), obtain a UE identifier from the instruction message, and determine from the UE identifier a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) serving the UE corresponding to the UE identifier;

control the transceiver to forward the IP-CAN session setup instruction message to a Policy and Charging Rule Function (PCRF) in the MVNO (MVNO-PCRF), the MVNO serving the UE;

control the transceiver to receive an IP-CAN session setup acknowledgement message carrying a Policy and Charging Control (PCC) rule of the UE, sent by the MVNO-PCRF, wherein the PCC rule of the UE comprises a first granted bandwidth allocated by the MVNO-PCRF for the UE;

control the transceiver to reply to a network element sending the instruction message, with the IP-CAN session setup acknowledgment message for the UE upon determining according to the PCC rule of the UE that the MVNO serving the UE does not exceed a granted capacity of the MVNO, and control the transceiver to send to the MVNO-PCRF an alert that the granted capacity of the MVNO serving the UE is exceeded, upon determining according to the PCC rule of the UE that the MVNO serving the UE exceeds the granted capacity of the MVNO; and

start a preset wait timer after the transceiver sends to the MVNO-PCRF the alert that the granted capacity of the MVNO serving the UE is exceeded, and when a new PCC rule of the UE forwarded by the transceiver is received before the wait timer expires, determine again according to the new PCC rule of the UE whether the MVNO serving the UE exceeds the granted capacity of the MVNO, wherein the new PCC rule of the UE comprises a second granted bandwidth allocated by the MVNO-PCRF for the UE, the second granted bandwidth is allocated so as to avoid exceeding the granted capacity of the MVNO; and

when no new PCC rule of the UE sent by the MVNO-PCRF is received before the wait timer expires, control the transceiver to reply to the network element sending the instruction message, with an IP-CAN session setup failure message for the UE.

9. The device according to claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the at least one instruction to determine according to the PCC rule of the UE through a preset Mobile Network Operator Bandwidth Control Function (MNO-MBCF) whether the MVNO serving the UE exceeds the granted capacity of the MVNO.

10. The device according to claim 9, wherein the processor is specifically configured to execute the at least one instruction to:

extract Quality of Service (QoS) information of the UE from the PCC rule of the UE, and control the transceiver to send the QoS information to the preset MNO-MBCF, so that the MNO-MBCF obtains a bandwidth granted for the UE by the MVNO serving the UE, included in the QoS information of the UE, determines a sum of a bandwidth used by the MVNO serving the UE and the bandwidth granted for the UE by the MVNO, and determines whether the sum is more than the granted capacity of the MVNO serving the ULE, and if so, control the transceiver to receive an alert fed back by the MNO-MBCF that the granted capacity of the MVNO serving the UE is exceeded;

otherwise, control the transceiver to receive an alert fed back by the MNO-MBCF that a condition for setting up an IP-CAN session for the UE is satisfied.

11. The device according to claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the at least one instruction to control the transceiver to receive an instruction message to terminate an IP-CAN session which is set up for the UE, when the IP-CAN session is set up for the UE and the IP-CAN session which is set up for the UE needs to be terminated;

control the transceiver to forward the instruction message to terminate the IP-CAN session which is set up for the UE, to the MVNO-PCRF; and

update the sum of granted bandwidths of all the UEs served by the MVNO serving the UE when the transceiver receives an acknowledgment message for terminating the IP-CAN session which is setup for the UE, replied by the MVNO-PCRF.

12. The device according to claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the at least one instruction to control the transceiver to send to a preset MNO-MBCF a message to terminate the IP-CAN session which is set up for the UE, so that the preset MNO-MBCF updates the sum of granted bandwidths of all the UEs served by the MVNO serving the UE.

13. A device for providing a Policy and Charging Control (PCC) rule, the device comprising:

a transceiver;

a processor; and

a memory storing at least one instruction, wherein the processor is configured to execute the at least one instruction to;

control the transceiver to receive an instruction message for setting up an IP Connectivity Access network (IP-CAN) session for a User Equipment (UE), sent by from a Mobile Network Operator Policy and Charging Rule Function (MNO-PCRF);

determine a PCC rule of the UE from the instruction message, and control the transceiver to send to the MNO-PCRF an IP-CAN session setup acknowledgement message carrying the PCC rule of the UE, wherein the PCC rule of the UE comprises a first granted bandwidth allocated by the MVNO-PCRF for the UE;

control the transceiver to receive an alert sent from the MNO-PCRF that a granted capacity of an MVNO serving the UE is exceeded; and

allocate again a new PCC rule for the UE in response to the alert, and control the transceiver to send the new PCC rule to the MNO-PCRF, wherein the new PCC rule comprises a second granted bandwidth allocated by the MVNO-PCRF for the UE, the second granted bandwidth is allocated so as to avoid exceeding the granted capacity of the MVNO.

14. The device according to claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the at least one instruction to:

control the transceiver to receive an instruction message sent by the MNO-PCRF to terminate an IP-CAN session which is set up for the UE when the IP-CAN session which is set up for the UE needs to be terminated, determine the PCC rule corresponding to the UE from the instruction message, and control the transceiver to send to the MNO-PCRF an acknowledgement message to terminate the IP-CAN session which is set up for the UE.