Managing hierarchically organized subscriber profiles
First Claim
1. A method of creating a subscriber connection comprising:
- defining each of a plurality of service contexts available to 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;
providing 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;
receiving from a subscriber of a plurality of subscribers of a service provider a connection request at a subscriber manager of a virtual router (VR) of a plurality of VRs operable within a VR-based telecommunications system of the service provider; and
if the subscriber is successfully authenticated, then creating, by the subscriber manager, a subscriber connection corresponding to the connection request by creating and configuring a virtual interface within the VR for the subscriber connection based on a first-level profile identifier associated with the subscriber and the scalable subscriber profile database.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods are provided for managing hierarchically organized subscriber profiles. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a subscriber connection is created with a virtual router operable within a telecommunications system of a service provider. A connection request is received from a subscriber of multiple subscribers of the service provider at a subscriber manager of the virtual router. The virtual router maintains a database of hierarchically organized profile identifiers, including multiple lower-level profile identifiers, which explicitly define subscriber services, and multiple first-level profile identifiers, which define service contexts representing combinations of services available to subscribers when connected by (i) explicitly defining the subscriber services or (ii) referring to one or more of the multiple lower-level profile identifiers. If the subscriber is successfully authenticated, a connection is created by creating and configuring a virtual interface within the virtual router for the subscriber connection based on the subscriber'"'"'s first-level profile identifier.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method of creating a subscriber connection comprising:
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defining each of a plurality of service contexts available to 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; providing 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; receiving from a subscriber of a plurality of subscribers of a service provider a connection request at a subscriber manager of a virtual router (VR) of a plurality of VRs operable within a VR-based telecommunications system of the service provider; and if the subscriber is successfully authenticated, then creating, by the subscriber manager, a subscriber connection corresponding to the connection request by creating and configuring a virtual interface within the VR for the subscriber connection based on a first-level profile identifier associated with the subscriber and the scalable subscriber profile database. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A machine-readable storage medium tangibly embodying instructions which when executed by one or more processors of a virtual router-(VR) based telecommunications system of a service provider perform operations comprising:
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receiving from a subscriber of a plurality of subscribers of a service provider a connection request at a subscriber manager of a VR of a plurality of VRs operable within the telecommunications system; if the subscriber is successfully authenticated, then determining the subscriber'"'"'s service context based on a first-level profile identifier associated with the subscriber and a scalable subscriber profile database, wherein each of a plurality of service contexts available to subscribers of the service provider are defined 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 wherein 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; and creating a subscriber connection corresponding to the connection request by creating and configuring a virtual interface within the VR for the subscriber connection based on the subscriber'"'"'s service context. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification