User interest and identity control on internet

• US 9,197,714 B2
• Filed: 10/06/2009
• Issued: 11/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Stenfelt, John, Kopplin, Dirk, Rommer, Stefan, Ronneke, Hans Bertil
• Primary Examiner(s): Lai, Michael C
• Application Number:
  US13/500,386
• Publication Number:
  US 20120198061A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,240 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1407 Policy-and-charging control [PCC] architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2514 between local and global IP addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• 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 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/66 Policy and charging system
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/10 between location register and external networks

Abstract

The present invention relates to a solution for handling customer activity when connecting to a wireless communication network and in particular for statistics of customer activity using the network. This is provided in a number of aspects such as methods, node, and system for reporting user profile statistics from deep packet inspection of data packets in a packet data network (100) to a policy and charging rules function entity (104) which in turn informs a subscriber usage profile repository (106), i.e. SUPR. The SUPR provides access to external application servers (108) to the subscriber usage profile information after access control.

Claims

1. A method in a core part of a wireless communication network that includes a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) node and a subscriber usage profile repository (SUPR), comprising the steps of:

receiving from a user equipment (UE) a request to attach to the wireless communication network and assigning at least one IP address to the UE;

updating the PCRF node with the at least one IP address assigned to the UE;

updating the SUPR with information relating to the UE;

enabling deep packet inspection of data relating to the UE and the UE'"'"'s assigned IP address and retrieving user statistics using a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) node;

reporting information about the user statistics to the PCRF node;

forwarding the information about the user statistics to the SUPR;

storing user profile information comprising the user statistics together with user identity information;

receiving a request from an application server, the request identifying an IP address and requesting user profile information;

providing user profile information deducible from said information about the user statistics information or from user identity information to the application server requesting the user profile information;

storing information identifying the application server;

determining that a new IP address has been assigned to the UE; and

in response to determining that the new IP address has been assigned to the UE, updating the PCRF node with the new IP address and storing the new IP address in the SUPR.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein user statistics comprise at least one of visited URI'"'"'s by the UE, application used by the UE, protocols used by the UE, and type of services used by the UE.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein information stored in the SUPR is related to an identifiable UE.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein user statistics comprise the type of services used by the UE.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the deducible user profile information is provided in an XML format.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of authenticating the application server before providing the user profile information to the at least one application server.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a network address translation unit providing information about a relationship between public IP addresses and private IP addresses to the SUPR.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of handling multiple IP addresses.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the user profile information comprises storing the user profile information in the SUPR such that the stored information in the SUPR is indexed by the UE'"'"'s currently assigned IP address and the UE'"'"'s international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI).

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the user statistics corresponding to the UE are received at the PCRF node from a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) node, the method further comprising the SUPR receiving the user profile information comprising the user statistics from the PCRF node.

11. The method according to claim 1, the method further comprising:

the SUPR submitting a request to a subscription profile repository (SPR) for information relating to an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI); and

the SPR responding with information related to the IMSI.

12. A system in a wireless communications network, comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more computer-readable storage media; and

one or more communication interfaces, wherein the one or more processors are arranged to execute instructions sets stored in the one or more computer-readable storage media for;

receiving from a user equipment (UE) a request to attach to the wireless communication network and assigning at least one IP address to the UE;

updating a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) node with the at least one IP address assigned to the UE;

updating a subscriber usage profile repository (SUPR) with information relating to the UE;

enabling deep packet inspection of data relating to the UE and the UE'"'"'s assigned IP address and retrieving user statistics using a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) node;

reporting information about the user statistics to the PCRF node;

forwarding the information about the user statistics to the SUPR;

providing user profile information deducible from said information about the user statistics or from user identity information to application servers requesting the user profile information;

storing information identifying the application servers;

determining that a new IP address has been assigned to the UE; and

in response to determining that the new IP address has been assigned to the UE, updating the PCRF node with the new IP address and storing the new IP address in the SUPR.

13. A method in a communications network that includes a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) node and a subscriber usage profile repository (SUPR), the method comprising:

storing user profile information relating to an identifiable user equipment (UE) and to a user usage profile;

receiving from the UE a request to attach to the communications network and assigning at least one IP address to the UE;

updating the PCRF node with the at least one IP address assigned to the UE;

updating the SUPR with information relating to the UE;

enabling deep packet inspection of data relating to the UE and the UE'"'"'s assigned IP address and retrieving user statistics using a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) node;

reporting information about the user statistics to the PCRF node;

forwarding the information about the user statistics to the SUPR;

receiving a request relating to the user profile information from an external application server, the request identifying an IP address assigned to the UE;

providing user profile information deducible from said information about the user statistics information or from user identity information to the external application server requesting the user profile information;

storing information identifying the external application server;

charging for the providing of the user profile information;

determining that a new IP address has been assigned to the UE; and

in response to determining that the new IP address has been assigned to the UE, updating the PCRF node with the new IP address and storing the new IP address in the SUPR.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising comparing a user ID connected to the IP address in the request with user IDs of recent requests.

15. A core network in a wireless communication network, comprising:

a gateway;

a subscriber usage profile repository (SUPR); and

a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) node,

wherein the gateway is arranged to;

provide communicative connection with a user equipment (UE) to provide access to a packet data network for the UE by receiving a request to attach to the wireless communication network and assigning at least one IP address to the UE,

update the PCRF node with the at least one IP address assigned to the UE;

update the SUPR with information relating to the UE;

enable deep packet inspection of data relating to the UE and the UE'"'"'s assigned IP address and retrieve user statistics using a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) node;

report information about the user statistics to the PCRF node,

forward the information about the user statistics to the SUPR,

provide subscriber usage information to application servers requesting the subscriber usage information,

provide user profile information deducible from said information about the user statistics information or from user identity information to application servers requesting the user profile information, and

store information identifying the application servers requesting the user information, wherein the core network is configured to;

determine that a new IP address has been assigned to the UE; and

in response to determining that the new IP address has been assigned to the UE, update the PCRF node with the new IP address and store the new IP address in the SUPR.

16. The network according to claim 15, wherein the gateway is one of a Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (PGW) or a Gateway General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (GGSN).

17. The network according to claim 15, further comprising at least one of a network address translation entity and a firewall.