POLICY AND CHARGING RULES NODE EXPIRED MESSAGE HANDLING

• US 20110202491A1
• Filed: 02/18/2010
• Published: 08/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent Canada Incorporated (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Vihtari, Mike, Pandya, Ajay Kirit
• Granted Patent: US 8,447,717 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/47
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1403 Architecture for metering, charging or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1407 Policy-and-charging control [PCC] architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1425 involving dedicated fields in the data packet for billing purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/25 Routing or path finding in a switch fabric

Abstract

Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method and related network node and machine-readable storage medium including a policy and charging rules node (PCRN) receiving a plurality of related service requests from different devices. The PCRN may proceed to generate a policy and charging control (PCC) rule based on at least one service request and other information stored in the PCRN if a mate service request does not arrive during the duration of a waiting timer. If the mate service request arrives subsequent to the expiry of the waiting timer, the PCRN may then generate a subsequent PCC rule to replace the previously generated rule, with the new PCC rule incorporating information from both of the mate service requests.

Claims

1. A method performed by a Policy and Charging Rules Node (PCRN) for processing a first request message from a first device to generate at least one Policy and Charging Control (PCC) rule, the method comprising:

receiving the first request message;

starting a timer to begin a period for the PCRN to receive a second message from a second device before generating a first PCC rule, the second message being a mate of the first message;

generating the first PCC rule based at least on the information received in at least the first request message received by the PCRN when the timer expires; and

forwarding the first PCC rule to at least one gateway.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the PCRN generates the first PCC rule without receiving the second message after the period elapsed.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

generating, by the PCRN, a second PCC rule using at least information received in at least the first and second messages when the PCRN receives the second message after the period elapsed.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

canceling, by the PCRN, the first PCC rule, the first PCC rule already forwarded to the at least one gateway; and

forwarding, by the PCRN, the second PCC rule to the at least one gateway.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first PCC rule includes:

a Bearer Control Mode Operation (BCMO) marker to indicate which device initiated a service request to generate the first PCC rule; and

a Waiting for Application Node Request (WANR) marker to indicate whether the first PCC rule is waiting for a mate application node (AN) request.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the PCRN uses a service derived from one of the first or second messages received to generate the first PCC rule, wherein at least one of the first or second messages is received from an application node.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the service flow includes a Waiting for Gateway Request (WGR) marker to indicate whether the service flow is still waiting for a mate gateway request.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the PCRN uses a service flow derived from one of the first or second messages received to generate the first PCC rule, wherein at least one of the first or second messages is received from an application node.

8. A method performed by a Policy and Charging Rules Node (PCRN) for processing a first request message from a first device to generate at least one Policy and Charging Control (PCC) rule, the method comprising:

receiving a first request message containing flow information;

determining the status of a Packet-Filter-Operation associated with the first request message;

determining whether a first PCC rule exists that is a mate to the flow information;

checking at least one marker included in the service flow;

generating the first PCC rule using the information received by the PCRN when the first PCC rules does not exist as a mate to the flow information;

starting a timer beginning a period to receive a second message from a second device, the second message being a mate of the first message; and

pushing the first PCC rule to at least one gateway.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the PCRN generates the first PCC rule without receiving the second message after the period elapsed.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

generating, by the PCRN, a second PCC rule using at least information in at least the first and second messages when the PCRN receives the second message after the period elapsed.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

canceling, by the PCRN, the first PCC rule, the first PCC rule already forwarded to the at least one gateway; and

forwarding, by the PCRN, the second PCC rule to the at least one gateway.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the first PCC rule includes:

a Bearer Control Mode Operation (BCMO) marker to indicate which device initiated a service request to generate the first PCC rule; and

a Waiting for Application Node Request (WANR) marker to indicate whether the first PCC rule is waiting for a mate application node (AN) request.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the service flow includes a Waiting for Gateway Request (WGR) marker to indicate whether the service flow is still waiting for a mate gateway request.

15. A Policy and Charging Rules Node (PCRN) for processing at least a first request message to generate at least one Policy and Charging Control (PCC) rule, the PCRN comprising:

an Rx interface that receives a first request message from an application node;

a Gx interface that receives a second request message from a gateway, the second request message being a mate to the first request message and containing flow information complementary to the service flow;

a mate checker that determines whether the PCRN received a mate message when the PCRN receives at least one of the first and second messages;

a timer that begins a period to receive a mate message when the PCRN receives at least one of the first and second messages and did not yet receive the mate message; and

a rule processor that creates the PCC rule using at least one of the first and second messages when the period elapsed.

16. The PCRN of claim 15, wherein the PCRN generates the first PCC rule without receiving the mate request message after the period elapsed.

17. The PCRN of claim 16, wherein the rule processor generates a second PCC rule using at least the information received in at least the first and second messages, wherein the PCRN receives the second message after the period elapsed.

18. The PCRN of claim 17, wherein the PCRN cancels the first PCC rule after generating the second PCC rule.

19. The PCRN of claim 15, wherein the rule processor generates at least the first PCC rule that includes:

a Bearer Control Mode Operation (BCMO) marker that indicates which device initiated a service request to generate the first PCC rule; and

a Waiting for Application Node Request (WANR) marker that indicates whether the first PCC rule is waiting for a mate application node (AN) request.

20. The PCRN of claim 15, wherein the service flow derived from the message includes a Waiting for Gateway Request (WGR) marker to indicate whether the service flow is still waiting for a mate gateway request.