POLICY ENGINE IN AN INTERNET PROTOCOL MULTIMEDIA SUBSYSTEM

• US 20110231540A1
• Filed: 06/03/2011
• Published: 09/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: VERLARE, James L., WELCH, Gregory, TAI, Yung-Hwa
• Granted Patent: US 8,635,324 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• 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 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/509 wherein the managed service relates to media content delivery, e.g. audio, video or TV
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5096 wherein the managed service relates to distributed or central networked applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4557 Directories for hybrid networks, e.g. including telephone numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1096 Supplementary features, e.g. call forwarding or call holding systems providing special services or facilities to telephony subscribers H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/123 where the packet-switched network is an Internet Protocol Multimedia System-type network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/128 Details of addressing, directories or routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0025 Provisions for signalling
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0045 involving hybrid, i.e. a mixture of public and private, or multi-vendor systems

Abstract

A system includes a policy engine in an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). The policy engine may be configured to store a group of policies associated with the IMS, and forward the group of policies to a group of policy components in the IMS.

Claims

1-20. -20. (canceled)

21. A system, comprising:

a memory device to;

store a plurality of associations of information, relating to subscribers, and rules relating to a communications network, the communications network providing at least one service to which the subscribers subscribe, the rules including a first type of rule and a second type of rule, the first type of rule being different than the second type of rule;

a network device to;

receive an update to one association of the plurality of associations stored in the memory device, and

forward the update in response to receiving the update; and

a group of rule enforcement devices, the group of rule enforcement devices including a first rule enforcement device to enforce the first type of rule and a second rule enforcement device to enforce the second type of rule, where at least one rule enforcement device, of the group of rule enforcement devices, is to;

receive the update from the network device,

store the update, and

process a received communication request based on the update,

where the network device is further to;

forward, to the first rule enforcement device and not to the second rule enforcement device, the first type of rule, and

forward, to the second rule enforcement device and not to the first rule enforcement device, the second type of rule,

where the network device is still further to;

receive status information relating to the communications network,

update, in response to receiving the status information, at least one rule of the rules, and

forward, in response to updating the at least one rule, the update to the at least one rule to a rule enforcement device of the group of rule enforcement devices, and

where the rule enforcement device is to;

receive the update to the at least one rule from the network device,

store the received update to the at least one rule, and

process a different communication request using the update to the at least one rule.

22. The system of claim 21, where the subscribers include subscribers to an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS).

23. The system of claim 21, where the updated rule relates to a network resource identified in the status information.

24. The system of claim 21, where the group of rule enforcement devices correspond to rule decision points.

25. The system of claim 21, where the first type of rule includes a resource rule,

where the second type of rule includes a service level agreement,

where the first rule enforcement device is implemented in a serving call session control function (S-CSCF), and

where the second rule enforcement device is implemented in one or more of a proxy call session control function (P-CSCF), a breakout gateway control function (BGCF), a break in gateway control function (BIGCF), an access session border controller (A-SBC), or an internetworking session border controller (I-SBC).

26. The system of claim 21, where the first rule enforcement device is implemented in a gateway-related device of the communications network, and

where the second rule enforcement device is implemented in a core of the communications network.

27. A system, comprising:

a network device in a communications network that includes a plurality of rule enforcement devices, the plurality of rule enforcement devices including a first rule enforcement device and a second, different rule enforcement device, the network device comprising;

a memory to store a plurality of associations of information, relating to subscribers, and a plurality of rules relating to the communications network, the communications network providing at least one service to which the subscribers subscribe, the plurality of rules including a first type of rule and a second type of rule, the first type of rule being different than the second type of rule, and

a processor to;

forward, to the first rule enforcement device and not to the second rule enforcement device, the first type of rule,

forward, to the second rule enforcement device and not to the first rule enforcement device, the second type of rule,

receive status information relating to the communications network,

update, in response to receiving the status information, at least one rule of the plurality of rules stored in the memory, and

forward, in response to updating the at least one rule, the update to a rule enforcement device, of the plurality of rule enforcement devices, in the communications network,

where the rule enforcement device is to;

receive the update to the at least one rule from the network device,

store the received update to the at least one rule, and

process a communication request using the update to the at least one rule,

where the processor is further to;

receive an update to one association of the plurality of associations stored in the memory, and

forward the update to the one association in response to receiving the update to the one association, and

where one rule enforcement device, of the plurality of rule enforcement devices, is to;

receive the update to the one association,

store the update to the one association, and

process a different communication request based on the update to the one association.

28. The system of claim 27, where the status information identifies one or more resources.

29. The system of claim 27, where the rule enforcement device includes at least one of a border gateway function, a serving call session control function (S-CSCF), a proxy call session control function (P-CSCF), a breakout gateway control function (BGCF), or a break in gateway control function (BIGCF).

30. The system of claim 27, where the communications network includes an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), and

where the memory stores a copy of all rules used in the IMS.

31. The system of claim 27, where the processor forwards the update to the at least one rule enforcement device using an extensible markup language (XML) protocol.

32. The system of claim 27, where the at least one rule includes a resource rule, and

where the rule enforcement device is implemented in a serving call session control function (S-CSCF).

33. The system of claim 27, where the at least one rule includes a resource rule, and

where the rule enforcement device is implemented in a device in a core of the communications network.

34. A method comprising:

storing, at a network device, a plurality of associations of information, relating to subscribers, and a plurality of rules relating to a communications network, the communications network providing at least one service to which the subscribers subscribe, the plurality of rules including a first type of rule and a second type of rule, the second type of rule being different than the first type of rule;

forwarding, by the network device, the first type of rule, of the plurality of rules, to a first rule device;

forwarding, by the network device, the second type of rule, of the plurality of rules, to a second rule device, the second rule device being different than the first rule device;

receiving, by the network device, information affecting the first type of rule, the information affecting the first type of rule including first status information relating to the communications network or a first update to one association of the plurality of associations;

forwarding, by the network device and based on receiving the information affecting the first type of rule, an update to the first type of rule to the first rule device;

processing, by the first rule device, a received communication based on the update to the first type of rule;

receiving, by the network device, information affecting the second type of rule, the information affecting the second type of rule including second status information relating to the communications network or a second update to one association of the plurality of associations;

forwarding, by the network device and based on receiving the information affecting the second type of rule, an update to the second type of rule to the second rule device; and

processing, by the second rule device, another received communication based on the update to the second type of rule.

35. The method of claim 34, where one of the first status information or the second status information includes a resource status message identifying one or more resources.

36. The method of claim 34, where the communications network includes an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), and

where each rule of the plurality of rules relates to accessing the IMS.

37. The method of claim 34, where processing the received communication includes:

routing, via the first rule device, traffic through the communications network based on the update to the first type of rule; and

where processing the received other communication includes;

routing, via the second rule device, traffic through the communications network based on the update to the second type of rule.

38. The method of claim 34, where the first type of rule includes a resource rule,

where the second type of rule includes a service level agreement,

where the first rule device is implemented in a serving call session control function (S-CSCF), and

where the second rule device is implemented in one or more of a proxy call session control function (P-CSCF), a breakout gateway control function (BGCF), a break in gateway control function (BIGCF), an access session border controller (A-SBC), or an internetworking session border controller (I-SBC).

39. The method of claim 34, where forwarding the first type of rule includes:

forwarding the first type of rule to the first rule device using an extensible markup language (XML) protocol.

40. The method of claim 39, where forwarding the second type of rule includes:

forwarding the second type of rule to the second rule device using the XML protocol.