System and Method for Provisioning Charging and Policy Control in a Network Environment

• US 20100150003A1
• Filed: 12/12/2008
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hamel, Eric P., Andreasen, Flemming S., Evans, John W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,957,314 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes requesting real-time transfer protocol (RTP) quality metrics to be generated by a network for a specific flow in the network. The method also includes recording the RTP quality metrics and reporting the metrics as accounting data associated with the flow. In more specific embodiments, the accounting data includes a correlator with application level accounting and the accounting data is used for quality monitoring and troubleshooting on a per-subscriber basis, on a per-flow basis, or on a per-call basis. An application function can request RTP quality monitoring with a trigger that identifies if a quality parameter reaches a certain threshold.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

requesting real-time transfer protocol (RTP) quality metrics to be generated for a specific flow in a network; and

recording the RTP quality metrics, wherein the metrics are reported as accounting data associated with the flow.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the accounting data includes a correlator with application level accounting and the accounting data is used for quality monitoring and troubleshooting on a per-subscriber basis, a per-flow basis or on a per-call basis.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein an application function requests RTP quality monitoring with a trigger that identifies if a quality parameter reaches a certain threshold.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein an RTP quality thresholds information element is defined that outlines a trigger condition associated a selected one of the RTP quality metrics, and wherein the trigger condition is used by the application function to adjust parameters for an associated application.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the application function, for a streaming media application, switches to a lower bandwidth codec or uses additional forward error correction.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the RTP quality metrics are RTP packet loss, RTP packet jitter, and RTP packet delay.

7. An apparatus, comprising:

a network element operable to request real-time transfer protocol (RTP) quality metrics to be generated for a specific flow in a network, wherein the RTP quality metrics are recorded by a policy and charging enforcement function (PCEF) and reported as accounting data associated with the flow.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the accounting data includes a correlator with application level accounting and the accounting data is used for quality monitoring and troubleshooting on a per-subscriber basis.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the accounting data includes a correlator with application level accounting and the accounting data is used for quality monitoring and troubleshooting on a per-call basis or a per flow basis.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein an application function requests RTP quality monitoring with a trigger that identifies if a quality parameter reaches a certain threshold.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein an RTP quality thresholds information element is defined that outlines a trigger condition associated a selected one of the metrics.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the trigger condition is used by the application function to adjust parameters for an associated application.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the application function, for a streaming media application, switches to a lower bandwidth codec or uses additional forward error correction.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the RTP quality metrics are RTP packet loss, RTP packet jitter, and RTP packet delay.

15. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein a selected one of the RTP quality metrics encompasses an RTCP Extended Report (XR).

16. Logic encoded in one or more tangible media for execution and when executed by a processor operable to:

request real-time transfer protocol (RTP) quality metrics to be generated for a specific flow in a network; and

record the RTP quality metrics, wherein the metrics are reported as accounting data associated with the flow.

17. The logic of claim 16, wherein the accounting data includes a correlator with application level accounting and the accounting data is used for quality monitoring and troubleshooting on a per-subscriber basis, a per-flow basis, or on a per-call basis.

18. The logic of claim 16, wherein an application function requests RTP quality monitoring with a trigger that identifies if a quality parameter reaches a certain threshold.

19. The logic of claim 18, wherein an RTP quality thresholds information element is defined that outlines a trigger condition associated with a selected one of the metrics, and wherein the trigger condition is used by the application function to adjust parameters for an associated application.

20. A system, comprising:

means for requesting real-time transfer protocol (RTP) quality metrics to be generated for a specific flow in a network; and

means for recording the RTP quality metrics, wherein the metrics are reported as accounting data associated with the flow.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the accounting data includes a correlator with application level accounting and the accounting data is used for quality monitoring and troubleshooting on a per-subscriber basis, a per-flow basis, or on a per-call basis.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein an application function requests RTP quality monitoring with a trigger that identifies if a quality parameter reaches a certain threshold.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein an RTP quality thresholds information element is defined that outlines a trigger condition associated with a selected one of the metrics, and wherein the trigger condition is used by the application function to adjust parameters for an associated application.