Policy Control Method And System For Converged Network

• US 20140378131A1
• Filed: 12/17/2012
• Published: 12/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Original Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Inventors: Rui, Tong, Zhou, Xiaoyun
• Granted Patent: US 9,351,325 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/433
• 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: H04M 15/66 Policy and charging system
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8038 Roaming or handoff
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/2033 WLAN
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 Setup of transport tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A policy control method for a converged network comprises: in a roaming scenario, after learning that a user equipment (UE) accesses a mobile network through a wireless local area network (WLAN) access, a visited policy and charging rules function (V-PCRF) establishing a subsession serving WLAN Offload when establishing an S9 session to a home policy and charging rules function (H-PCRF), and carrying a WLAN Offload instruction. With the present document, the WLAN offload data can be distinguished from data routed back to an EPC network in the roaming scenario, thereby delivering policy control for the WLAN offload data.

Claims

1. A policy control method for a converged network, comprising:

in a roaming scenario, after learning that a user equipment (UE) accesses a mobile network through a wireless local area network (WLAN) access, a visited Policy and Charging Rules Function (V-PCRF) establishing a subsession serving WLAN Offload when establishing an S9 session to a home policy and charging rules function (H-PCRF), and carrying a WLAN Offload instruction.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein,

said carrying WLAN Offload instruction comprises:

carrying a WLAN Offload identifier;

carrying a specific subsession ID;

or

not carrying information of an access point name (APN).

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

the H-PCRF sending the V-PCRF a developed policy and charging control (PCC) policy and/or quality of service (QoS) policy over the subsession established for serving the WLAN Offload.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the V-PCRF learns that the UE accesses the mobile network via a WLAN access by means of:

receiving a session establishment request sent by an authentication authorization accounting (AAA) server;

receiving a session establishment request sent by a broadband access server or a broadband gateway;

receiving a gateway control session establishment request sent by an Evolved packet data gateway (ePDG);

receiving an IP connectivity access network (IP-CAN) session request sent by a packet data network gateway (P-GW);

or

receiving an establishment request for triggering to establish the S9 session sent by the H-PCRF.

5. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

after the H-PCRF is triggered, sending the developed PCC policy to the V-PCRF;

wherein, a triggering condition for the H-PCRF to be triggered comprises;

needing to develop PCC for the data of the WLAN Offload connection after receiving traffic information of an Application Function (AF).

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein, the H-PCRF sends the establishment request for triggering to establish the S9 session by means of:

the H-PCRF receiving an IP-CAN session establishment request sent by the P-GW, learning that the the UE accesses the mobile network through the WLAN access, and sending the establishment request for triggering to establish the S9 session to the V-PCRF.

7. A policy control system for a converged network, comprising a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) comprising a user equipment (UE) access sensing module and a subsession establishment module, wherein:

the UE access sensing module is configured to notify the subsession establishment module after learning that a UE accesses a mobile network through a wireless local area network (WLAN) access;

the subsession establishment module is configured to establish a subsession serving WLAN Offload and carry a WLAN Offload instruction when establishing an S9 session.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein the PCRF also comprises a policy development and distribution module,

the policy development and distribution module is configured to, when triggered, distribute developed policy and charging control (PCC) policy and/or quality of service (QoS) policy over the subsession serving the WLAN Offload.

9. The system according to claim 7, wherein,

carrying the WLAN Offload instruction comprises:

carrying a WLAN Offload identifier;

carrying a specific subsession ID;

or

not carrying information of an access point name (APN).

10. The system according to claim 7, wherein,

the UE access sensing module is configured to learn that the UE accesses the mobile network via the WLAN access by means of:

receiving a session establishment request sent by an authentication authorization accounting (AAA) server;

receiving a session establishment request sent by a broadband access server or a broadband gateway;

receiving a gateway control session establishment request sent by an ePDG;

receiving an IP-CAN session request from a packet data network gateway (P-GW);

or receiving an establishment request for triggering to establish the S9 session sent by a home policy and charging rules function (H-PCRF).