MANAGING HIERARCHICALLY ORGANIZED SUBSCRIBER PROFILES
First Claim
1. An apparatus comprising:
- a subscriber manager to receive a connection request from a subscriber of a plurality of subscribers of a service provider and to receive a first profile identifier based on the connection request;
a profile manager to provide a lower-level profile identifier to the subscriber manager, wherein the lower-level profile identifier is associated with the first profile identifier, and wherein the lower-level profile identifier defines a subscriber connection service;
a policy engine to store the first profile identifier and the lower-level profile identifier in a profile identifier database; and
a virtual interface to apply the subscriber connection service to data packets received from the subscriber.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Apparatus are provided for managing hierarchically organized subscriber profiles. According to one embodiment, a router includes a subscriber manager, a database and a virtual interface. The subscriber manager is operable to receive a connection request from a subscriber of a service provider. The database has stored therein hierarchically organized profile identifiers, including multiple lower-level profile identifiers, which explicitly define subscriber services, and multiple first-level profile identifiers, which define service contexts representing combinations of services available to subscribers when connected to the service provider by (i) explicitly defining the subscriber services or (ii) referring to one or more of the plurality of lower-level profile identifiers. The virtual interface defines a subscriber connection between the router and the subscriber and is created and configured responsive to the connection request based on a first-level profile identifier that is associated with the subscriber.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. An apparatus comprising:
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a subscriber manager to receive a connection request from a subscriber of a plurality of subscribers of a service provider and to receive a first profile identifier based on the connection request; a profile manager to provide a lower-level profile identifier to the subscriber manager, wherein the lower-level profile identifier is associated with the first profile identifier, and wherein the lower-level profile identifier defines a subscriber connection service; a policy engine to store the first profile identifier and the lower-level profile identifier in a profile identifier database; and a virtual interface to apply the subscriber connection service to data packets received from the subscriber. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A router comprising:
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a subscriber manager operable to receive from a subscriber of a plurality of subscribers of a service provider a connection request; a database of hierarchically organized profile identifiers, including a plurality of lower-level profile identifiers, which explicitly define subscriber services, and a plurality of first-level profile identifiers, which define service contexts representing combinations of services available to subscribers when connected to the service provider by (i) explicitly defining the subscriber services or (ii) referring to one or more of the plurality of lower-level profile identifiers; and a virtual interface, defining a subscriber connection between the router and the subscriber, created and configured responsive to the connection request based on a first-level profile identifier of the plurality of first-level profile identifiers that is associated with the subscriber. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12)
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13. A router comprising:
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a means operable within a virtual router for receiving from a subscriber of a plurality of subscribers of a service provider a connection request; a repository means associated with the virtual router for maintaining hierarchically organized profile identifiers, the hierarchically organized profile identifiers including a plurality of lower-level profile identifiers, which explicitly define subscriber services, and a plurality of first-level profile identifiers, which define service contexts representing combinations of services available to subscribers when connected to the service provider by (i) explicitly defining the subscriber services or (ii) referring to one or more of the plurality of lower-level profile identifiers; and a means responsive to successful authentication of the subscriber for creating a subscriber connection corresponding to the connection request by creating and configuring a virtual interface within the virtual router for the subscriber connection based on a first-level profile identifier of the plurality of first-level profile identifiers that is associated with the subscriber.
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Specification