Managing hierarchically organized subscriber profiles

• US 7,876,683 B2
• Filed: 08/30/2008
• Issued: 01/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fortinet Inc.
• Original Assignee: Fortinet Inc.
• Inventors: Balay, Rajesh I., Desai, Sachin S., Sargor, Chandramouli, Lemarchand, Francois, Khetawat, Amit K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ryman; Daniel J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Divecha; Nishant B
• Application Number:
  US12/202,233
• Publication Number:
  US 20080317231A1
• Time in Patent Office: 878 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/233
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2425 for supporting services specification, e.g. SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

Methods are provided for managing hierarchically organized subscriber profiles. According to one embodiment, subscriber services are modified without requiring a change to the subscriber'"'"'s first-level profile identifier and without requiring the subscriber to reestablish a connection with the service provider. A database of hierarchically organized profile identifiers, including multiple lower-level profile identifiers, explicitly defining subscriber services, and multiple first-level profile identifiers, defining service contexts representing combinations of services available to subscribers by (i) explicitly defining the subscriber services or (ii) referring to one or more of the lower-level profile identifiers, are maintained within a virtual router operable within a telecommunications system of the service provider. Updated service profile information, representing a change to the subscriber'"'"'s service context, is received. Responsive the updated service profile information, lower-level profile identifiers currently associated with the subscriber'"'"'s first-level profile identifier are replaced with lower-level profile identifiers corresponding to the updated service profile information.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of modifying subscriber services comprising:

defining each of a plurality of service contexts available to a plurality of subscribers of a service provider in terms of one or more profile identifiers of a plurality of profile identifiers each of which is representative of a particular subscriber service supported by the service provider;

maintaining within a virtual router (VR) configured within a telecommunications system of the service provider a scalable subscriber profile database in which a memory requirement for the scalable subscriber profile database is dependent upon a number of available service contexts by hierarchically organizing the plurality of profile identifiers as intermediate profile identifiers and leaf profile identifier, wherein the leaf profile identifiers explicitly define subscriber services and the intermediate profile identifiers indirectly represent sets of one or more subscriber services, which are defined by way of the intermediate profile identifiers'"'"' associations with one or more lower-level identifiers including zero or more of the leaf profile identifiers and zero or more of the intermediate profile identifiers,

wherein the scalable subscriber profile database is distributed between an authentication system of the service provider and the VR, wherein a first portion of the scalable subscriber profile database is stored within the authentication system, the first portion of the scalable subscriber profile database including information indicative of associations among the subscribers and corresponding first-level profile identifiers representing a subset of the intermediate profile identifiers and a second portion of the scalable subscriber profile database is stored within a profile manager configured within the VR, the second portion including information indicative of the associations among the subset of intermediate profile identifiers and the one or more lower-level identifiers;

receiving updated service profile information for a subscriber of the plurality of subscribers of the service provider, wherein the updated service profile information represents a change to the subscriber'"'"'s service context; and

responsive to receipt of the updated service profile information, disassociating a first set of one or more lower-level profile identifiers currently associated with a first-level profile identifier of the intermediate profile identifiers corresponding to the subscriber within the second portion of the scalable profile database and associating a second set of one or more lower-level profile identifiers corresponding to the updated service profile information with the first-level profile identifier within the second portion of the scalable profile database, whereby a modification can be made to the subscriber'"'"'s service context without requiring a change to the subscriber'"'"'s first-level profile identifier within the first portion of the scalable profile database and without requiring the subscriber to reestablish an active connection with the service provider.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving updated service profile information comprises receiving the updated service profile information from a Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving updated service profile information comprises receiving the updated service profile information from a control server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving updated service profile information comprises receiving the updated service profile information from a profile manager associated with the virtual router.

5. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium embodying instructions which when executed by one or more processors of a telecommunications system perform operations comprising:

maintaining within a virtual router (VR) configured within a telecommunications system of a service provider a scalable subscriber profile database in which a memory requirement for the scalable subscriber profile database is dependent upon a number of available service contexts by (i) defining each of a plurality of service contexts available to a plurality of subscribers of the service provider in terms of one or more profile identifiers of a plurality of profile identifiers each of which is representative of a particular subscriber service supported by the service provider and (ii) hierarchically organizing the plurality of profile identifiers as intermediate profile identifiers and leaf profile identifier, wherein the leaf profile identifiers explicitly define subscriber services and the intermediate profile identifiers indirectly represent sets of one or more subscriber services, which are defined by way of the intermediate profile identifiers'"'"' associations with one or more lower-level identifiers including zero or more of the leaf profile identifiers and zero or more of the intermediate profile identifiers,

wherein the scalable subscriber profile database is distributed between an authentication system of the service provider and the VR, wherein a first portion of the scalable subscriber profile database is stored within the authentication system, the first portion of the scalable subscriber profile database including information indicative of associations among the subscribers and corresponding first-level profile identifiers representing a subset of the intermediate profile identifiers and a second portion of the scalable subscriber profile database is stored within a profile manager configured within the VR, the second portion including information indicative of the associations among the subset of intermediate profile identifiers and the one or more lower-level identifiers;

receiving updated service profile information for a subscriber of the plurality of subscribers of the service provider, wherein the updated service profile information represents a change to the subscriber'"'"'s service context; and

responsive to receipt of the updated service profile information, disassociating a first set of one or more lower-level profile identifiers currently associated with a first-level profile identifier of the intermediate profile identifiers corresponding to the subscriber within the second portion of the scalable profile database and associating a second set of one or more lower-level profile identifiers corresponding to the updated service profile information with the first-level profile identifier within the second portion of the scalable profile database, whereby a modification can be made to the subscriber'"'"'s service context without requiring a change to the subscriber'"'"'s first-level profile identifier within the first portion of the scalable profile database and without requiring the subscriber to reestablish an active connection with the service provider.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein said receiving updated service profile information comprises receiving the updated service profile information from a Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) server.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein said receiving updated service profile information comprises receiving the updated service profile information from a control server.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein said receiving updated service profile information comprises receiving the updated service profile information from a profile manager associated with the virtual router.

9. A computer-implemented method comprising:

a step for defining each of a plurality of service contexts available to a plurality of subscribers of a service provider in terms of one or more profile identifiers of a plurality of profile identifiers each of which is representative of a particular subscriber service supported by the service provider;

a step for maintaining within a virtual router (VR) configured within a telecommunications system of the service provider a scalable subscriber profile database in which a memory requirement for the scalable subscriber profile database is dependent upon a number of available service contexts by hierarchically organizing the plurality of profile identifiers as intermediate profile identifiers and leaf profile identifiers, wherein the leaf profile identifiers explicitly define subscriber services and the intermediate profile identifiers indirectly represent sets of one or more subscriber services, which are defined by way of the intermediate profile identifiers'"'"' associations with one or more lower-level identifiers including zero or more of the leaf profile identifiers and zero or more of the intermediate profile identifiers,

wherein the scalable subscriber profile database is distributed between an authentication system of the service provider and the VR, wherein a first portion of the scalable subscriber profile database is stored within the authentication system, the first portion of the scalable subscriber profile database including information indicative of associations among the subscribers and corresponding first-level profile identifiers representing a subset of the intermediate profile identifiers and a second portion of the scalable subscriber profile database is stored within a profile manager configured within the VR, the second portion including information indicative of the associations among the subset of intermediate profile identifiers and the one or more lower-level identifiers;

a step for receiving updated service profile information for a subscriber of the plurality of subscribers of the service provider, wherein the updated service profile information represents a change to the subscriber'"'"'s service context; and

a step, responsive to receipt of the updated service profile information, for disassociating a first set of one or more lower-level profile identifiers currently associated with a first-level profile identifier of the intermediate profile identifiers corresponding to the subscriber within the second portion of the scalable profile database and associating a second set of one or more lower-level profile identifiers corresponding to the updated service profile information with the first-level profile identifier within the second portion of the scalable profile database, whereby a modification can be made to the subscriber'"'"'s service context without requiring a change to the subscriber'"'"'s first-level profile identifier within the first portion of the scalable profile database and without requiring the subscriber to reestablish an active connection with the service provider.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said step for receiving updated service profile information comprises receiving the updated service profile information from a Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) server.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein said step for receiving updated service profile information comprises receiving the updated service profile information from a control server.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein said step for receiving updated service profile information comprises receiving the updated service profile information from a profile manager associated with the virtual router.