PROFILE MODIFICATION FOR ROAMING IN A COMMUNICATIONS ENVIRONMENT

• US 20070298788A1
• Filed: 04/30/2007
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: O'Neill, Alan, Tsirtsis, George, Vanderveen, Michaela, Park, Vincent, Corson, Mathew
• Granted Patent: US 7,869,803 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/433
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/12 between location registers or mobility servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/20 Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

The claimed subject matter relates to systems and methods for roaming in a wireless communications environment. A method for roaming between networks is provided in one aspect. This includes receiving a request for network access at a visited network and receiving a profile from a home network in response to the request. Upon receiving the profile, selectively offering services to one or more access terminals based at least in part on the profile.

Claims

1. A method for roaming between networks, comprising:

receiving a request for network access at a visited network;

receiving a profile from a home network in response to the request; and

selectively offering services to one or more access terminals based at least in part on the profile.

2. The method of claim 1, the services relate to Quality of Service (QoS) parameters.

3. The method of claim 1, the visited network modifies, deletes, or adds services to the profile.

4. The method of claim 3, the visited network selectively offers a subset of services from the profile.

5. The method of claim 3, the visited network offers additional services than specified by the profile.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the profile upon receiving an access grant from the home network.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising employing a virtual homing component as part of a home network.

8. The method of claim 7, the virtual homing component is associated with a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO).

9. The method of claim 8, the virtual homing component is employed with a roaming service.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing authentication and authorization for devices on a visited network or on a home network.

11. The method of claim 1, the profile provides service differentiation between subscribers or application services authorized by a given subscriber.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying the profile according to an XML services description.

13. The method of claim 1, the profile includes QoS parameters that are associated with identification of packets as belonging to a traffic flow, parameters associated with traffic conditioning of a traffic flow, parameters associated with queuing/scheduling of a traffic flow, or parameters characterizing a traffic flow that enables access node to determine a suitable QoS configuration to provide servicing of the traffic flow.

14. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a memory that retains instructions for receiving a profile associated with one or more services, the profile associated with a home network component and modifiable via a visited network component, the profile employed to offer services to a roaming access terminal; and

a processor that executes the instructions.

15. The communications apparatus of claim 14 the visited network component includes an authentication and authorization server that communicates with an authentication and authorization server associated with the home network component.

16. The communications apparatus of claim 14, the profile is associated with a Quality of Service (QoS) data set generated from the home network component.

17. The communications apparatus of claim 16, the QoS data set to relate to one or more of latency associated with the multiple traffic flows, minimum data rate associated with the multiple traffic flows, and maximum data rate associated with the multiple traffic flows.

18. A communications apparatus, comprising:

means for receiving subscriber profile generated from a home network;

means for modifying the subscriber profile; and

means for offering services based in part on the modified subscriber profile.

19. The communications apparatus of claim 18, where means for modifying the subscriber profile further comprises adding or deleting services from the profile.

20. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-executable instructions for:

receiving a request from an access terminal for network services;

receiving a profile at a visited network component in view of the request; and

analyzing the profile to determine available services to process the request.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 20, further comprising modifying the profile in view of the available services,

22. The machine-readable medium of claim 21, where modifying the profile further comprises adding services to the profile, deleting services from the profile, or editing a parameter within the profile.

23. A processor that executes the following instructions:

requesting a subscriber profile in view of a visited network access request; and

employing the subscriber profile to selectively offer services in accordance with the profile, as a subset of the profile, or as a superset of the profile.

24. A method for roaming between networks, comprising:

receiving a profile request for network access at a home network;

transmitting the profile from the home network in response to the profile request; and

generating an access grant signal from the home network when transmitting the profile.

25. The method of claim 24, the profile included services that relate to Quality of Service (QoS) parameters.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising modifying, deleting, or adding services to the profile.

27. The method of claim 24, the virtual homing employing a virtual homing component as part of the home network.

28. The method of claim 27, the virtual homing component is associated with a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO).

29. The method of claim 28, the virtual homing component is employed with a roaming service.

30. The method of claim 24, further comprising generating the profile according to an XML services description.

31. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a memory that retains instructions for generating a profile associated with one or more services, the profile associated with a home network component and modifiable via a services description component, the profile employed to offer services to a roaming access terminal; and

a processor that executes the instructions.

32. The communications apparatus of claim 31, the services description component includes XML schema component.

33. The communications apparatus of claim 31, the profile is associated with a Quality of Services (QoS) data set generated from the home network component.

34. A communications apparatus, comprising:

means for generating a subscriber profile from a home network;

means for annotating the subscriber profile to enable modifications to the profile; and

means for granting access to the home network.

35. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-executable instructions for:

receiving a profile request for network services at a home network, the request in response to an access terminal request;

generating a profile in view of the profile request; and

transmitting the profile upon granting access from the home network.

36. A processor that executes the following instructions:

generating a subscriber profile in view of a visited network access request; and

enabling modifications in the subscriber profile to facilitate selective offering of services in accordance with the profile, the modifications enables for a network other than a home network.