System and method for provisioning charging and policy control in a network environment

• US 7,957,314 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2008
• Issued: 06/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Evans, John W., Hamel, Eric P., Andreasen, Flemming S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rao; Seema
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wu; Jianye
• Application Number:
  US12/333,859
• Publication Number:
  US 20100150003A1
• Time in Patent Office: 907 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes requesting real-time transfer protocol (RTP) quality metrics to be generated by a network for a specific flow in the network. The method also includes recording the RTP quality metrics and reporting the metrics as accounting data associated with the flow. In more specific embodiments, the accounting data includes a correlator with application level accounting and the accounting data is used for quality monitoring and troubleshooting on a per-subscriber basis, on a per-flow basis, or on a per-call basis. An application function can request RTP quality monitoring with a trigger that identifies if a quality parameter reaches a certain threshold.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

requesting real-time transfer protocol (RTP) quality metrics to be generated for a specific flow in a network, wherein the RTP quality metrics are generated by a policy and charging rules function (PCRF); and

recording the RTP quality metrics, wherein the metrics are reported as accounting data associated with the flow, wherein an RTP quality thresholds information element is configured to outline a trigger condition associated a selected one of the RTP quality metrics, and wherein the trigger condition includes an upper bound and a lower bound associated with a packet loss rate for the specific flow, and wherein exceeding one of the thresholds causes an application function to adjust parameters for an associated application in order to configure the packet loss rate for the specific flow to be between the thresholds.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the accounting data includes a correlator with application level accounting and the accounting data is used for quality monitoring and troubleshooting on a per-subscriber basis, a per-flow basis or on a per-call basis.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the application function, for a streaming media application, switches to a lower bandwidth codec or uses additional forward error correction.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the RTP quality metrics are RTP packet loss, RTP packet jitter, and RTP packet delay.

5. An apparatus, comprising:

a network element operable to request real-time transfer protocol (RTP) quality metrics to be generated for a specific flow in a network, wherein the RTP quality metrics are generated by a policy and charging rules function (PCRF), and wherein the RTP quality metrics are recorded by a policy and charging enforcement function (PCEF) and reported as accounting data associated with the flow, wherein an RTP quality thresholds information element is configured to outline a trigger condition associated a selected one of the RTP quality metrics, and wherein the trigger condition includes an upper bound and a lower bound associated with a packet loss rate for the specific flow, and wherein exceeding one of the thresholds causes an application function to adjust parameters for an associated application in order to configure the packet loss rate for the specific flow to be between the thresholds.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the accounting data includes a correlator with application level accounting and the accounting data is used for quality monitoring and troubleshooting on a per-subscriber basis.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the accounting data includes a correlator with application level accounting and the accounting data is used for quality monitoring and troubleshooting on a per-call basis or a per flow basis.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the application function, for a streaming media application, switches to a lower bandwidth codec or uses additional forward error correction.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the RTP quality metrics are RTP packet loss, RTP packet jitter, and RTP packet delay.

10. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein a selected one of the RTP quality metrics encompasses an RTCP Extended Report (XR).

11. A non-transitory computer medium including logic for execution and when executed by a processor operable to:

request real-time transfer protocol (RTP) quality metrics to be generated for a specific flow in a network, wherein the RTP quality metrics are generated by a policy and charging rules function (PCRF); and

record the RTP quality metrics, wherein the metrics are reported as accounting data associated with the flow, wherein an RTP quality thresholds information element is configured to outline a trigger condition associated a selected one of the RTP quality metrics, and wherein the trigger condition includes an upper bound and a lower bound associated with a packet loss rate for the specific flow, and wherein exceeding one of the thresholds causes an application function to adjust parameters for an associated application in order to configure the packet loss rate for the specific flow to be between the thresholds.

12. The logic of claim 11, wherein the accounting data includes a correlator with application level accounting and the accounting data is used for quality monitoring and troubleshooting on a per-subscriber basis, a per-flow basis, or on a per-call basis.

13. A system, comprising:

means for requesting real-time transfer protocol (RTP) quality metrics to be generated for a specific flow in a network, wherein the RTP quality metrics are generated by a policy and charging rules function (PCRF); and

means for recording the RTP quality metrics, wherein the metrics are reported as accounting data associated with the flow, wherein an RTP quality thresholds information element is configured to outline a trigger condition associated a selected one of the RTP quality metrics, and wherein the trigger condition includes an upper bound and a lower bound associated with a packet loss rate for the specific flow, and wherein exceeding one of the thresholds causes an application function to adjust parameters for an associated application in order to configure the packet loss rate for the specific flow to be between the thresholds.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the accounting data includes a correlator with application level accounting and the accounting data is used for quality monitoring and troubleshooting on a per-subscriber basis, a per-flow basis, or on a per-call basis.