QOS CONTROL IN PCRF BASED ON USAGE AND TIME OF DAY

• US 20130231081A1
• Filed: 03/02/2012
• Published: 09/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fan Mo, Kevin Scott Cutler, Lui Chu Yeung
• Inventors: YEUNG, Lui Chu, Farid, Hamdy, MO, Fan, CUTLER, Kevin Scott
• Granted Patent: US 9,107,062 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/405
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1432 Metric aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5067 Customer-centric QoS measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/61 based on the service used
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/66 Policy and charging system
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) node and a method for authorizing a Quality of Service (QoS) for a wireless subscriber based on subscriber usage and time-of-day for a 3GPP-compliant packet data network

Claims

1. A Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) node for a 3GPP-compliant packet data network, the PCRF node configured to:

receive from a PCEF, a subscriber usage level;

monitor the usage of the subscriber by adding the amount of usage to a record of an accumulated usage of the subscriber;

determine a current time period;

authorize a Quality of Service (QoS) for the subscriber based at least on the usage of the subscriber and the current time period; and

transmit an authorization message indicating the QoS that the network should provide to the subscriber.

2. The PCRF node of claim 1, wherein said authorized QoS is restricted if said usage of the subscriber exceeds a threshold.

3. The PCRF node of claim 2, wherein said authorized QoS is determined by a Policy and Charging Control (PCC) rule set.

4. The PCRF node of claim 3, wherein said authorized QoS is communicated to a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF).

5. The PCRF node of claim 4, further comprising a reauthorization scheduler that determines that a session must be reauthorized based on a change in current time period, wherein the PCRF reauthorizes the session by determining a new QoS based on the current time period.

6. The PCRF node of claim 5, wherein said authorization message comprises a Re-Authorization Request (RAR) message.

7. The PCRF node of claim 2, further comprising:

a usage report handler, wherein the usage report handler monitors a monitoring key, the monitoring key corresponding to a type of subscriber usage, at least one threshold amount of usage, and a policy to be applied if the subscriber'"'"'s usage exceeds the threshold;

a usage recorder that updates and stores in a subscriber record, the subscriber'"'"'s accumulated usage based on the monitoring key corresponding to the subscriber usage, wherein the subscriber'"'"'s record includes a set of monitoring keys; and

a policy engine that applies the policy of a monitoring key if the subscriber'"'"'s usage has exceeded the at least one threshold of the monitoring key.

8. A method at a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) node for authorizing a Quality of Service (QoS) for a wireless subscriber, the method comprising steps of:

receiving from a PCEF, a subscriber usage level;

monitoring the usage of the subscriber by adding the amount of usage to a record of an accumulated usage of the subscriber;

determining a current time period;

authorizing a Quality of Service (QoS) for the subscriber based at least on the usage of the subscriber and the current time period; and

transmitting an authorization message indicating the QoS that the network should provide to the subscriber.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said authorized QoS is restricted if said usage of the subscriber exceeds a threshold.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said authorized QoS is determined by a Policy and Charging Control (PCC) rule set.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said authorized QoS is communicated to a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF).

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said determining step determines that a session must be reauthorized based on a change in current time period, wherein the PCRF reauthorizes the session by determining a new QoS based on the current time period.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said authorization message comprises a Re-Authorization Request (RAR) message.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising steps of:

monitoring a monitoring key, the monitoring key corresponding to a type of subscriber usage, at least one threshold amount of usage, and a policy to be applied if the subscriber'"'"'s usage exceeds the threshold;

updating and storing in a subscriber record, the subscriber'"'"'s accumulated usage based on the monitoring key corresponding to the subscriber usage, wherein the subscriber'"'"'s record includes a set of monitoring keys; and

applying the policy of a monitoring key if the subscriber'"'"'s usage has exceeded the at least one threshold of the monitoring key.

15. A machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions for a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) node, the machine-readable storage medium comprising:

instructions for receiving from a PCEF, a subscriber usage level;

instructions for monitoring the usage of the subscriber by adding the amount of usage to a record of an accumulated usage of the subscriber;

instructions for determining a current time period;

instructions for authorizing a Quality of Service (QoS) for the subscriber based at least on the usage of the subscriber and the current time period; and

instructions for transmitting an authorization message indicating the QoS that the network should provide to the subscriber.