POLICY AS A NETWORK SERVICE IN A MOBILE CORE NETWORK

• US 20120259970A1
• Filed: 04/06/2011
• Published: 10/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hu, Qingmin, Eng, Douglas, McKnight, Jie
• Granted Patent: US 8,874,729 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/16 Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel

Abstract

Aspects describe using a network element to facilitate scalability within a communication network and to provide policy as a network service in a mobile core network. The network element can be scalable and can be a primary policy access gateway for a first geographic region and can be a secondary policy access gateway for at least a second geographic region. The first geographic region and the second geographic region can have portions that overlap. Further, the network element can hide topology of the home network from roaming partners.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a tracking component configured to monitor a first state of a first user service activity;

a cache component configured to retain the first state of the first user service activity; and

an interface component configured to communicate the first state of the first user service activity to a plurality of managed mobile services.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the interface component is further configured to receive information related to a second state of a second user service activity, wherein the first user service activity and the second user service activity are associated with a user equipment located in a first geographic area.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising a support module configured to provide direct support for the first geographic area and indirect support for a second geographic area, wherein at least a portion of the first geographic area and the second geographic area comprises a common area.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to hide a topology of a home network from a roaming partner.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first user service activity comprises a first activity and a second activity for a user equipment.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first user service activity comprises a plurality of services provided to one user equipment.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first user service activity is provided by different network elements.

8. A method performed by a network entity for providing mobile services, comprising:

tracking a set of first user session data associated with a first session for a user device;

temporarily caching the set of first user session data; and

sending the set of first user session data to a data store.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving an indication of a second session for the user device;

obtaining the set of first user session data from the data store; and

applying the set of first user session data to the second session for the user device.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

pushing session record information of the set of first user session data to at least one gateway for authorized access.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the pushing comprises providing the session record information to at least one of a network element, an application, a resource, or another gateway.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprises associating the set of first user session data with policy record information.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprises communicating with a roaming network, wherein the communicating hides a home network topology from the roaming network.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprises generating a session record for the set of first user session data, wherein the session record comprises an identification of the user device and associated network elements.

15. The method of claim 8, further comprises providing routing between network entities and five or more service zones.

16. A system, comprising:

a first component configured to monitor a set of first user service activities within a first geographic region; and

a second component configured to monitor a set of second user service activities within the first geographic region, wherein the first user service activities and the second user service activities are for a user device.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising a third component configured to provide backup support for a network entity, wherein the network entity monitors a third set of user service activities associated with a second geographic region, wherein at least a portion of the first geographic region and the second geographic region overlap.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the backup support provides redundancy.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the first component is further configured to point to an active policy record information in a network element.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the first component interfaces to a plurality of network elements that perform functions related to policies and charging functions.