Method and System for Resource Policy Decision in Roaming Scene

• US 20130137426A2
• Filed: 01/19/2011
• Published: 05/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Original Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Inventors: YOU, Jianjie
• Granted Patent: US 8,983,456 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/432.3
• 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 36/0055 Transmission or use of information for re-establishing the radio link
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0064 of control information between different access points
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/26 by agreed or negotiated communication parameters

Abstract

Disclosed in the present invention are a resource policy decision method and system in a roaming scenario, for improving the accuracy of the resources allocated to the user. The method includes: after having received an available resource query message from a mobility management and control function MMCF entity, a resource and admission control function RACF entity of a visited network acquiring degrade information of current service of a user from a resource and admission control platform, and according to a candidate access network list in the available resource query message, checking current availability of resource of each candidate access network in the candidate access network list, so as to obtain resource availability information of each candidate access network; the RACF entity of the visited network carrying out resource decision according to the degrade information, the resource availability information and user information of the user.

Claims

1. A resource policy decision method in a roaming scenario, comprising:

after having received an available resource query message from a mobility management and control function MMCF entity, a resource and admission control function RACF entity of a visited network acquiring degrade information of current service of a user from a resource and admission control platform, and according to a candidate access network list in the available resource query message, checking current availability of resource of each candidate access network in the candidate access network list, so as to obtain resource availability information of each candidate access network;

the RACF entity of the visited network carrying out resource decision according to the degrade information, the resource availability information and user information of the user.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the user information comprises resource information of the current service of the user and original resource information of the service of the user.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein

the resource information of the current service of the user and the original resource information of the service of the user comprises one or any combination of:

bandwidth information and priority information.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the resource and admission control platform refers to an RACF entity of a home network or a policy and charging rule function PCRF entity of the home network.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the step of the RACF entity of the visited network checking current availability of resource of each candidate access network in the candidate access network list comprises:

the RACF entity of the visited network checks whether each candidate access network has available resources.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the degrade information comprises a parameter indicating whether or not already degraded, and the parameter indicating whether or not already degraded is used for indicating whether the current service of the user has been degraded.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein

the step of the RACF entity of the visited network carrying out resource decision according to the degrade information, the resource availability information and user information of the user comprises:

if it is determined according to the degrade information that the current service of the user has been degraded, then in addition to choosing the candidate access network with the available resources meeting demand of the current service of the user, further choosing the candidate access network with the available resources meeting demand of the original resource information of the service of the user; and

/or

if it is determined according to the degrade information that the current service of the user has not been degraded, then in addition to choosing the candidate access network with the available resources meeting the demand of the current service of the user, in case when the current service of the user allows degradation, further choosing the candidate access network with the available resources meeting the demand of the degraded service of the user.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein

the degrade information further comprises a parameter indicating whether able to degrade, and the parameter indicating whether able to degrade is used for indicating whether degrade operation is allowed for the quality of service QoS of the current service of the user in case of insufficient resources.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein

the step of the RACF entity of the visited network carrying out resource decision according to the degrade information, the resource availability information and user information of the user further comprises:

if the RACF entity of the visited network judges that the current resources of a certain candidate access network fail to meet the demand of the current service of the user, and the parameter for indicating whether or not already degraded of the current service of the user indicates that it has been degraded, then the RACF entity of the visited network feeding back to the MMCF entity that resource state of that candidate access network is unavailable;

if the RACF entity of the visited network judges that the current resources of a certain candidate access network fail to meet the demand of the current service of the user, but the parameter for indicating whether or not already degraded of the current service of the user indicates that it has not been degraded and the parameter indicating whether able to degrade indicates that the degrade operation is allowable, then the RACF entity of the visited network further judging whether the current resources of that candidate access network can meet the demand of the degraded service of the user, if yes, then the RACF entity of the visited network configuring the parameter for indicating whether or not already degraded of that candidate access network as already degraded, and feeding back to the MMCF entity that the resource state of that candidate access network is available, by which the parameter for indicating whether or not already degraded of that candidate access network is carried at the same time;

if the RACF entity of the visited network judges that the current resources of a certain candidate access network can meet the demand of the current service of the user, then it feeds back to the MMCF entity that the resource state of that candidate access network is available.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein

the step of if the RACF entity of the visited network judges that the current resources of a certain candidate access network can meet the demand of the current service of the user, then it feeds back to the MMCF entity that the resource state of that candidate access network is available comprises:

after the RACF entity of the visited network judges that the current resources of a certain candidate access network can meet the demand of the current service of the user, the RACF entity further judging whether the parameter for indicating whether or not already degraded of the current service of the user is already degraded, if yes, then the RACF entity judging whether the current resources of the candidate access network can meet the demand of the original resource information of the service of the user according to original resource information of the service of the user, if yes, then the RACF entity feeds back to the MMCF entity that the resource state of that candidate access network is available, if not, then the RACF entity configuring the parameter for indicating whether or not already degraded of that candidate access network as already degraded, and carrying the parameter for indicating whether or not already degraded of that candidate access network while feeding back to the MMCF entity that the resource state of that candidate access network is available.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

after the RACF entity of the visited network has carried out resource decision, the RACF entity feeding back a resource decision result to the MMCF entity; and

the MMCF entity selecting an available access network for the user according to the resource decision result and takes the selected access network as a handover decision result to feed back to the user.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the step of selecting an available access network for the user comprises:

judging whether there is an available access network without needing to be degraded, if yes, then selecting the available access network without needing to be degraded; and

if not, then selecting the degraded available access network.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein

the resource decision result comprises the resource state information of each candidate access network in the candidate access network list, and the parameter for indicating whether or not already degraded, when the resource state information of a certain candidate access network indicates available, of that candidate access network, wherein, the parameter for indicating whether or not already degraded of that candidate access network is used for indicating if the user accesses that candidate access network, then the service of the user needs to degrade or still needs to maintain the state of the current degraded service.

15. The method as claimed in claim 7, further comprising:

after the RACF entity of the visited network has carried out resource decision, the RACF entity feeding back a resource decision result to the MMCF entity; and

the MMCF entity selecting an available access network for the user according to the resource decision result and takes the selected access network as a handover decision result to feed back to the user.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15, wherein the step of selecting an available access network for the user comprises:

judging whether there is an available access network without needing to be degraded, if yes, then selecting the available access network without needing to be degraded; and

if not, then selecting the degraded available access network.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein

the resource decision result comprises the resource state information of each candidate access network in the candidate access network list, and the parameter for indicating whether or not already degraded, when the resource state information of a certain candidate access network indicates available, of that candidate access network, wherein, the parameter for indicating whether or not already degraded of that candidate access network is used for indicating if the user accesses that candidate access network, then the service of the user needs to degrade or still needs to maintain the state of the current degraded service.

18. The method as claimed in claim 9, further comprising:

after the RACF entity of the visited network has carried out resource decision, the RACF entity feeding back a resource decision result to the MMCF entity; and

the MMCF entity selecting an available access network for the user according to the resource decision result and takes the selected access network as a handover decision result to feed back to the user.

19. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein the step of selecting an available access network for the user comprises:

judging whether there is an available access network without needing to be degraded, if yes, then selecting the available access network without needing to be degraded; and

if not, then selecting the degraded available access network.

20. The method as claimed in claim 19, wherein

the resource decision result comprises the resource state information of each candidate access network in the candidate access network list, and the parameter for indicating whether or not already degraded, when the resource state information of a certain candidate access network indicates available, of that candidate access network, wherein, the parameter for indicating whether or not already degraded of that candidate access network is used for indicating if the user accesses that candidate access network, then the service of the user needs to degrade or still needs to maintain the state of the current degraded service.

14. A resource policy decision system in a roaming scenario, comprising:

a mobility management and control function (MMCF) entity, a resource and admission control function (RACF) entity of a visited network and a resource and admission control platform, wherein

the MMCF entity is configured to send an available resource query message to the RACF entity of the visited network when preparing for handover;

the RACF entity of the visited network comprises a receiving unit, a sending unit, a resource availability checking unit and a resource deciding unit, wherein

the receiving unit is configured to;

receive the available resource query message sent by the MMCF entity and receive degrade information of current service of a user fed back by the resource and admission control platform;

the sending unit is configured to send a request of acquiring the degrade information of the current service of the user to the resource and admission control platform;

the resource availability checking unit is configured to, according to a candidate access network list in the available resource query message, check the current resource availability of each candidate access network in the candidate access network list so as to obtain the resource availability information of each candidate access network;

the resource deciding unit is configured to carry out resource decision according to the degrade information, the resource availability information and user information of the user;

the resource and admission control platform is configured to feed back the degrade information of the current service of the user to the RACF entity of the visited network.