Advanced Roaming Controls in Home Location Register

• US 20130095828A1
• Filed: 11/30/2012
• Published: 04/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hursey, John T., Johns, Alan
• Granted Patent: US 8,712,410 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/433
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/06 Registration at serving network Location Register, VLR or user mobility server
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/12 between location registers or mobility servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

In a wireless telecommunication system, Home Location Register logic generates a subscriber roaming profile for use by a Visitor Location Register by retrieving a subscriber'"'"'s provisioned profile, retrieving a rule set associated with the subscriber, and applying the rule set to the set of provisioned service features indicated in the provisioned profile to generate a modified profile. The rules can be responsive to one or more of: the identity of the visited network, subscriber preferences, and provisioned features. The rules can be in the form of tables stored in the Home Location Register.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

detecting a subscriber is roaming on a visited network;

retrieving, by a processor, a provisioned profile associated with the subscriber, the provisioned profile indicating a set of provisioned service features to which the subscriber subscribes;

determining that the subscriber has preferred profiles stored at a database of a home network, each of the preferred profiles including roaming rules for a visited network and configured to modify the subscriber'"'"'s provisioned profile based on an identity of the visited network; and

in response to said determining;

identifying a visiting location registry or the visited network and determining a preferred profile suited for the visited network from among the preferred profiles;

applying the determined preferred profile to the provisioned profile by modifying the provisioned profile'"'"'s set of service features using the preferred profile'"'"'s roaming rules; and

generating a modified profile of the subscriber, the modified profile including the modified set of service features; and

at the visiting location registry, receiving and applying the modified profile while the subscriber is roaming on the visited network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the modified set of service features comprises the set of provisioned service features and at least one additional service feature.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the modified set of service features is a subset of the set of provisioned service features.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the provisioned service features has at least one parameter indicated in the provisioned profile, the parameter having a value, and wherein the modified profile is generated based on the value.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the modified set of service features is generated based on an identity of the visited network.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the modified set of service features is generated at least in part on the identity of the visited network and the set of provisioned service features.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the modified set of service features includes the set of provisioned service features and at least one service feature.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the modified set of service features is a subset of the set of provisioned service features.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the modified set of service features is generated based on a subscriber preference.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying an indication of a difference between the provisioned profile and the modified profile on a user interface.

11. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a data storage in communication with the processor,

the data storage including a logic that is executed by the processor to perform operations comprising;

retrieving a provisioned profile associated with a subscriber in response to detecting the subscriber roaming on a visited network,

the provisioned profile indicating a set of provisioned service features to which the subscriber subscribes;

determining that the subscriber has preferred profiles stored at a database of a home network,

each of the preferred profiles including roaming rules for a visited network and configured to modify the subscriber'"'"'s provisioned profile based on an identity of the visited network; and

in response to said determining;

identifying a visiting location registry of the visited network, and

determining a preferred profile suited for the visited network;

applying the determined preferred profile to the provisioned profile by modifying the provisioned profile'"'"'s set of service features using the preferred profile'"'"'s roaming rules, and generating a modified profile of the subscriber, the modified profile including the modified set of service features; and

at the visiting location registry, receiving and applying the modified profile while the subscriber is roaming on the visited network.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the modified set of service features includes the set of provisioned service features and at least one additional service feature.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the modified set of service features is a subset of the set of provisioned service features.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein at least one of the provisioned service features has at least one parameter indicated in the provisioned profile, the parameter having a value that is changeable by the logic.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor generates the modified set of service features based on an identity of the visited network.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor generates the modified set of service features based on a subscriber preference.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having a computer program product stored thereon, the computer program product comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations including:

detecting a subscriber is roaming on a visited network;

retrieving a provisioned profile associated with the subscriber, the provisioned profile indicating a set of provisioned service features to which the subscriber subscribes;

determining that the subscriber has preferred profiles stored at a database of a home network, each of the preferred profiles including roaming rules for a visited network and configured to modify the subscriber'"'"'s provisioned profile based on an identity of the visited network; and

in response to said determining;

identifying a visiting location registry or the visited network and determining a preferred profile suited for the visited network from among the preferred profiles;

applying the determined preferred profile to the provisioned profile by modifying the provisioned profile'"'"'s set of service features using the preferred profile'"'"'s roaming rules; and

generating a modified profile of the subscriber, the modified profile including the modified set of service features.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the modified set of service features comprises the set of provisioned service features and at least one additional service feature.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the modified set of service features is a subset of the set of provisioned service features.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein at least one of the provisioned service features has at least one parameter indicated in the provisioned profile, the parameter having a value, and wherein the modified profile is generated based on the value.