Systems and methods for policy-based service management

• US 20080216148A1
• Filed: 03/01/2007
• Published: 09/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amdocs Canadian Managed Services Inc. (Amdocs Ltd.), Amdocs Development Limited (Amdocs Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Bridgewater Systems Corp. (Amdocs Ltd.)
• Inventors: Li, Yong, Henry, Pascal, Bienek, Michal, Toptygin, Dmitry
• Granted Patent: US 8,127,336 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/16 using machine learning or artificial intelligence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5061 characterised by the interaction between service providers and their network customers, e.g. customer relationship management

Abstract

Systems and method for policy-based service management are provided. An exemplary system includes a rule definition interface module configured to receive a plurality of rule definitions and a separate policy management interface module configured to allow a user to define a rule instance from an existing rule definition instance and to define a policy instance based on the defined rule instance. A policy may be simply expressed via the policy management interface as “perform the following set of action if all of the following rule instances are true unless any of the following rule instances are true.” Additionally, policies may be associated with a context at a specific a level in a context hierarchy having multiple levels. The policy may therefore inherit rules from contexts at a higher level in the hierarchy.

Claims

1. A system for policy-based service management, comprising:

a rules definition interface module configured to receive a plurality of rule definitions, wherein a rule definition includes a variable; and

a policy management interface module configured to allow a user to define a rule instance from a rule definition defined via the rule definition interface and to define a policy instance based on the defined rule instance, wherein the rule instance includes one or more conditions containing selected members of a value set associated with the rule definition variable, wherein the value set is predefined by a user.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a policy decision interface module configured to evaluate a policy instance upon request, wherein the policy decision interface is configured to retrieve one or more rule instances associated with the policy instance and to substitute one or more values in the user-defined value set associated with each variable in the rule instance in real-time when the rule instance is being evaluated by the policy decision interface.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a rule repository configured to store a plurality of rule definitions.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the rule repository further includes a trigger to identify the addition of a rule definition into the rule repository.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the policy decision interface module is further configured to initiate synchronization of the added rule definition with the policy management interface module when a rule repository trigger event is received.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the policy decision interface module is further configured to access an external database for information when a request is received.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the policy decision interface module is further configured to access an application programming interface for information when a request is received.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the policy management interface module is configured to allow a user to associate the policy instance with a context.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the context is associated with a level in a context hierarchy having N-levels.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the policy management interface is further configured to associate one or more rule instances defined for contexts at higher levels in the context hierarchy with the policy instance.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the policy management interface comprises:

a graphical user interface including an inclusion rule definition portion and an exclusion rule definition portion.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the policy management interface comprises:

an application programming interface.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the policy management interface further comprises an action definition portion, wherein the action definition portion presents a set of possible actions which can be associated with the policy instance.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the inclusion rule definition portion presents the plurality of rule definitions, wherein a rule definition from the plurality of rule definitions is selected for association with a set of inclusion rules.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the exclusion rule definition portion presents the plurality of rule definitions, wherein a rule definition from the plurality of rule definitions is selected for association with a set of exclusion rules.

16. A method for generating a policy instance in a policy management interface subsystem, comprising:

receiving a request to define a policy instance in the policy management interface subsystem;

providing a plurality of existing rule definitions, each rule definition including a variable, wherein a rule definition from the plurality of rule definitions is selected for inclusion in the policy instance definition; and

receiving an instance of the selected rule definition for the policy instance, wherein the rule instance includes one or more conditions containing selected members of a value set associated with the rule definition variable, wherein the value set is predefined by a user,

wherein the plurality of existing rule definitions is defined via a rule definition interface separate from the policy management interface subsystem.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

storing the defined policy instance in a data repository, wherein the policy instance is accessed when a request for a service management decision is received by a provider.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the rule instance is associated with a set of inclusion rules for the policy instance.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the rule instance is associated with a set of exclusion rules for the policy instance.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

providing a set of possible actions for the policy instance; and

receiving an action to be associated with the policy instance, wherein the action was selected from the set of possible actions for the policy instance.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving a request to associate the policy instance with a context.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the context is associated with a level in a context hierarchy having N-levels.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

associating one or more rule instances defined for contexts at higher levels in the context hierarchy with the policy instance.

24. A method for evaluating a request for a policy-based service management decision, comprising:

receiving a request from a policy enforcement element for a service management decision associated with an access attempt;

retrieving one or more policy instances and one or more rule definitions necessary to process the service management decision request, wherein the policy instance includes a set of actions;

retrieving a set of values for each variable defined in the retrieved rule definitions;

substituting one or more values in the user-defined value set into the rule definitions in real-time as the rule is being evaluated;

evaluating each of the retrieved policy instances and values to determine if the set of actions defined in the policy is to be performed by the policy enforcement element; and

communicating a result of the evaluation to the policy enforcement element.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the request includes information about the subscriber.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the one or more rule definitions are retrieved prior to the receipt of the request and stored locally.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the one or more rule definitions are retrieved from a rule repository when the request is received.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein a first set of rule definitions is retrieved prior to receipt of the request and a second set of rule definitions is retrieved from a rule repository when the request is received.

29. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

retrieving information from an external database prior to evaluating the retrieved policies.

30. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

retrieving information from an application programming interface prior to evaluating the retrieved policies.

31. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

prior to retrieving the set of values, identifying a source of the values for each variable.