System and method for policy-enabled mobile service gateway

• US 8,607,304 B2
• Filed: 05/07/2008
• Issued: 12/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Eng, Douglas, Figurelle, Terry, Britt, Michael, Hu, Q James
• Primary Examiner(s): Pearson, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jeudy, Josnel
• Application Number:
  US12/116,630
• Publication Number:
  US 20090228954A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,043 Days
• Field of Search: 726 1- 8, 726 25- 30, 709227-231
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/43 Billing software details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/66 Policy and charging system
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/204 UMTS; GPRS
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/088 using filters or firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements

Abstract

A policy-enabled service gateway contains a gateway function and a local policy engine containing policies related to the functionality of the associated gateway function. New or updated policies may be provided to the local policy engine from a centralized policy server. The policies within the local policy engine are functionally related to the gateway function and provide for policy and/or charging enforcement associated with the gateway function. If the local policy engine does not contain a particular policy, it may request the policy from the centralized policy server. The local policy engine may choose to store the requested policy for future use.

Claims

1. A communication network comprising:

an access gateway for receiving user equipment traffic and to control user equipment access to the communication network;

a policy enforcement engine associated with the access gateway for enforcing a policy rule for the user equipment traffic;

a policy server that serves as a centralized repository of policies, wherein the policy server is communicatively coupled to the policy enforcement engine; and

a service gateway having a first gateway function and a local policy engine, wherein the service gateway and the access gateway are different gateways and the policy enforcement engine and the local policy engine are different engines, wherein the first gateway function is communicatively coupled to the access gateway and for providing a selected service to a user equipment when the user equipment traffic includes a request for the selected service associated with the first gateway function and the local policy engine associated with the first gateway function enforces a policy rule associated with the selected service when the policy rule is stored in the local policy engine, wherein the service gateway is for permitting user equipment access to the first gateway function based on an enforcement of the policy rule associated with the selected service and enforced by the local policy engine, wherein the policy rule is received from the policy server if the policy rule is not stored in the local policy engine, and the policy rule is stored in the local policy engine if the policy rule has been requested before, wherein a plurality of policy rules is stored in the local policy engine that is related to services provided by the service gateway and does not contain extraneous policies that are unrelated to the services provided by the service gateway, wherein the service gateway has two logical links to the policy server, a first one of the two logical links for providing a charging policy to the service gateway and a second one of the two logical links for sending policy information to and from the policy server to the local policy engine.

2. The communication network of claim 1 wherein the policy server is for downloading policy rules to the policy enforcement engine.

3. The communication network of claim 1 wherein the policy server is for downloading policy rules, related to the selected service provided by the service gateway, to the local policy engine.

4. The communication network of claim 1, further comprising a second gateway function associated with the service gateway to permit user equipment access to a user equipment-requested service having an enforcement policy related to an enforcement policy associated with the first gateway function.

5. The communication network of claim 4 wherein the second gateway function associated with the service gateway is for permitting user equipment access to the user equipment-requested service provided by the second gateway function based on an enforcement of the policy rule associated with the selected service provided by the second gateway function and enforced by the local policy engine.

6. The communication network of claim 1 wherein the service gateway receives a user equipment request for a selected function and the local policy engine does not have an applicable rule for the user equipment service request, the local policy engine for sending a request for the applicable rule to a remote source of policy rules.

7. The communication network of claim 1 wherein the local policy engine discards the applicable rule from the remote source of policy rules after applying the applicable rule to the user equipment service request.

8. A communication network comprising:

an access gateway for receiving user equipment traffic and for controlling user equipment access to the communication network;

a policy enforcement engine associated with the access gateway for enforcing a policy rule for the user equipment traffic;

a policy server that serves as a centralized repository of policies, wherein the policy server is communicatively coupled to the policy enforcement engine; and

a plurality of service gateways having a respective one of a plurality of gateway functions and a respective one of a plurality of local policy engines, wherein the plurality of service gateways and the access gateway are different gateways and the policy enforcement engine and the plurality of local policy engines are different engines, wherein the respective one of the plurality of gateway functions is communicatively coupled to the access gateway, each of the plurality of gateway functions for providing a selected service to a user equipment when the equipment traffic includes a request for the selected service associated with the respective one of the plurality of gateway functions when the policy rule is stored in the local policy engine and the respective one of the plurality of local policy engines associated with the respective one of the plurality of gateway functions enforces a policy rule associated with the selected service, wherein the plurality of service gateways is for permitting user equipment access to the respective one of the plurality of gateway functions based on an enforcement of the policy rule associated with the selected service and enforced by the respective one of the plurality of local policy engines, wherein the policy rule is received from the policy server if the policy rule is not stored in the respective one of the plurality of local policy engines, and the policy rule is stored in the respective one of the plurality of local policy engines if the policy rule has been requested before, wherein a plurality of policy rules is stored in the respective one of the plurality of local policy engines that is related to services provided by the respective one of the plurality of service gateways and does not contain extraneous policies that are unrelated to the services provided by the respective one of the plurality of service gateways, wherein each one of the plurality of service gateways has two logical links to the policy server, a first one of the two logical links for providing a charging policy to the service gateway and a second one of the two logical links for sending policy information to and from the policy server to the local policy engine.

9. The communication network of claim 8 wherein the policy server is for downloading policy rules to the policy enforcement engine.

10. The communication network of claim 8 wherein the policy server is for downloading policy rules, related to the selected service provided by ones of the plurality of service gateways, to respective ones of the plurality of local policy engines.

11. The communication network of claim 8, further comprising a second gateway function associated with a selected one of the plurality of service gateways to permit user equipment access to a user equipment-requested service having an enforcement policy related to an enforcement policy associated with the gateway function associated with the selected one of the plurality of service gateways.

12. The communication network of claim 11 wherein the second gateway function associated with the selected service gateway is for permitting user equipment access to the user equipment-requested service provided by the second gateway function based on an enforcement of the policy rule associated with the selected service provided by the second gateway function and enforced by the local policy engine.

13. The communication network of claim 8 wherein a selected one of the plurality of service gateways receives a user equipment request for a selected function and the local policy engine associated with the selected one of the plurality of service gateways does not have an applicable rule for the user equipment service request, the local policy engine selected one of the plurality of service gateways for sending a request for the applicable rule to a remote source of policy rules.

14. The communication network of claim 8 wherein the local policy engine associated with the selected one of the plurality of service gateways discards the applicable rule from the remote source of policy rules after applying the applicable rule to the user equipment service request.

15. A method for operating a communication network comprising:

receiving a service request in user equipment traffic from a user equipment in the communication network at an access gateway;

determining which one of a plurality of service gateways the service request corresponds to, wherein each one of the plurality of service gateways comprises a first gateway function and a local policy engine, wherein each one of the plurality of service gateways has two logical links to the policy server, a first one of the two logical links for providing a charging policy to the service gateway and a second one of the two logical links for sending policy information to and from a policy server to the local policy engine, wherein a plurality of policy rules is stored in each local policy engine of a respective one of the plurality of service gateways that is related to services provided by the respective one of the plurality of service gateways and does not contain extraneous policies that are unrelated to the services provided by the respective one of the plurality of service gateways;

forwarding the service request to a selected one of the plurality of service gateways;

determining if a policy rule associated with the service request is stored in the local policy engine of the selected one of the plurality of service gateways, and if the policy rule is not stored in the local policy engine, requesting the policy rule from the policy server;

when the policy rule is stored in the local policy engine, providing a selected service to the user equipment at the service gateway via the first gateway function in accordance with the policy rule;

enforcing the policy rule using the local policy engine associated with the first gateway function at the selected gateway of the plurality of service gateways;

controlling user equipment interaction with the first gateway function for the requested selected service based on enforcement of the policy rule associated with the selected service and enforced by the local policy engine at the selected gateway of the plurality of service gateways;

discarding the policy rule if the service request is the one-time request; and

storing the policy rule in the local policy engine if the service request has been requested before.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the local policy engine associated with the first gateway function contains policies associated with the selected service.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising downloading a policy rule to the access gateway from a centralized source of policy rules to permit enforcing the policy rule for the user equipment traffic at the access gateway.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising downloading a policy rule to the local policy engine from a centralized source of policy rules to permit enforcing the policy rule by the local policy engine associated with the first gateway function.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising providing a selected service to a user equipment at a second gateway function when the user equipment traffic includes a request for the selected service associated with the second gateway function.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein controlling user equipment interaction with the second gateway function for the requested selected service is based on an enforcement of the policy rule associated with the selected service and enforced by the local policy engine.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein controlling user equipment interaction with the second gateway function for the requested selected service is based on an enforcement of the policy rule associated with the selected service and enforced by a local policy engine associated with the second gateway function and different from the local policy engine associated with the first gateway function.