Limiting data service for a home terminal roaming near home coverage

• US 9,344,873 B1
• Filed: 06/15/2015
• Issued: 05/17/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sprint Spectrum LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Pavanasam, Chidambaram C., Xue, Wen, Zhu, Lei, Velusamy, Saravana, Swaminathan, Ramkumar, Wells, Anthony C.
• Primary Examiner(s): SIVJI, NIZAR N
• Application Number:
  US14/739,700
• Time in Patent Office: 337 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5061 Pools of addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0892 by using authentication-authorization-accounting [AAA] servers or protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/64 using geofenced areas
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0011 for data sessions of end-to-end connection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support

Abstract

Disclosed is a method and system to help better manage resources when a mobile terminal is roaming while within a home-carrier coverage hole or while otherwise threshold close to home carrier coverage. In accordance with the disclosure, a mobile terminal'"'"'s home carrier will determine that the mobile terminal is being served by a roaming carrier'"'"'s cell site that is threshold close to a home carrier'"'"'s cell site, and the home carrier will responsively assign to the mobile terminal an IP address that the home carrier is configured to block.

Claims

1. A method of limiting data service for a mobile terminal that subscribes to service of a home carrier but that is served by a roaming carrier while near coverage provided the home carrier, the method comprising:

making a determination by the home carrier of whether the mobile terminal that subscribes to service of the home carrier is being served by a cell site of the roaming carrier and the cell site of the roaming carrier is located within a threshold distance of a cell site of the home carrier;

if the determination is affirmative, then assigning by the home carrier to the mobile terminal an Internet Protocol (IP) address that the home carrier is configured to block, whereby assignment of the IP address to the mobile terminal facilitates the mobile terminal being served by the roaming carrier, while assignment to the mobile terminal of the IP address that the home carrier is configured to block enables the home carrier to prevent IP communication to and from the mobile terminal while the mobile terminal is served by the roaming carrier; and

if the determination is negative, then the assigning by the home carrier to the mobile terminal an IP address that the home carrier is not configured to block.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving into a home carrier server a signaling message indicative of attachment by the mobile terminal with the roaming carrier'"'"'s cell site, wherein the determining occurs in response to receiving the signaling message.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the signaling message includes an identifier of the roaming carrier, and wherein determining that the mobile terminal is being served by the roaming carrier'"'"'s cell site is based on the included identifier of the roaming carrier.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the signaling message includes an identifier of the roaming carrier'"'"'s cell site, and wherein determining that the roaming carrier'"'"'s cell site is located within the threshold distance of a cell site of the home carrier is based on the included identifier of the roaming carrier'"'"'s cell site.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the home carrier server has access to data that indicates respectively for each of a plurality of roaming carrier cell sites whether the roaming carrier cell site is within the threshold distance of an access network of the home carrier, and wherein determining that the roaming carrier'"'"'s cell site is located within the threshold distance of a cell site of the home carrier is based on reference to the data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the threshold distance is between 1 mile and 5 miles.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the data indicates respectively for each of a plurality of roaming carrier cell sites whether the roaming carrier cell site is within the threshold distance of a cell site of the home carrier by specifying (i) geographic location respectively of each of the roaming carrier cell sites and (ii) geographic location of one or more home carrier cell sites, and wherein determining that the roaming carrier cell site is located within the threshold distance of a cell site of the home carrier comprises:

determining based on the data whether the geographic location of the roaming carrier cell site identified in the signaling message is within the threshold distance of the geographic location of the one or more home carrier cell sites.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the home carrier server is a policy and charging rules function (PCRF), and wherein the signaling message is a create_session request provided to the PCRF from a packet data network gateway (PGW) of the home carrier in response to a create_session request that the PGW receives from a serving gateway (SGW) of the roaming carrier when the mobile terminal seeks to attach with the roaming carrier'"'"'s cell site.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein assigning to the mobile terminal the IP address that the home carrier is configured to block comprises the PCRF directing the PGW to assign to the mobile terminal an IP address that the PGW is configured to block, wherein the PGW responds to the directing by assigning to the mobile terminal an IP address that the PGW is configured to block,

the method further comprising the PGW then blocking communication to or from the assigned IP address.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the PGW has access to a pool of IP addresses that the PGW is configured to block, wherein directing the PGW to assign to the mobile terminal the IP address that the PGW is configured to block comprises directing the PGW to assign to the mobile terminal an IP address selected from the pool, and wherein assigning to the mobile terminal the IP address that the PGW is configured to block comprises (i) selecting an IP address from the pool, and (ii) assigning the selected IP address to the mobile terminal.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein the home carrier server is an authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) server, and wherein the signaling message is received from a packet data serving node (PDSN) when the mobile terminal seeks to attach with the roaming carrier'"'"'s cell site.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the AAA server is an AAA server specifically in place to serve one or more roaming carrier networks, wherein determining that the mobile terminal is being served by a cell site of the roaming carrier is based on the AAA server being the home carrier server that receives the signaling message.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein assigning to the mobile terminal the IP address that the home carrier is configured to block comprises the AAA server directing a Mobile-IP home agent to assign to the mobile terminal an IP address that the home agent is configured to block, wherein the home agent responds to the directing by assigning to the mobile terminal an IP address that the home agent is configured to block,

the method further comprising the home agent then blocking communication to or from the assigned IP address.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving into the home agent a Mobile-IP registration request from the mobile terminal, wherein assigning to the mobile terminal the IP address that the home agent is configured to block comprises specifying to the mobile terminal, in a response to the Mobile IP registration request, the assigned IP address that the home agent is configured to block.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the home agent has access to a pool of IP addresses that the home agent is configured to block, wherein directing the home agent to assign to the mobile terminal the IP address that the home agent is configured to block comprises directing the home agent to assign to the mobile terminal an IP address selected from the pool, and wherein assigning to the mobile terminal the IP address that the home agent is configured to block comprises (i) selecting an IP address from the pool, and (ii) assigning the selected IP address to the mobile terminal.

16. A method of controlling data service for mobile terminals that subscribe to service of a home carrier, the method comprising:

receiving into a home carrier server a signaling message indicative of attachment of one of the mobile terminals with a cell site;

responsive to the signaling message, making a determination by the home carrier server of whether (i) the cell site is of a roaming carrier rather than of the home carrier and (ii) the cell site is located within a threshold distance of a cell site of the home carrier;

based on the determination, the home carrier selecting and assigning to the mobile terminal an Internet Protocol (IP) address, wherein if the determination is affirmative, then the home carrier selects and assigns to the mobile terminal an IP address from a pool of IP addresses that the home carrier is configured to block, but if the determination is negative, then the home carrier selects and assigns to the mobile terminal an IP address from a default pool of IP addresses rather than from the pool of IP addresses that the home carrier is configured to block.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the home carrier server is a policy and charging rules function (PCRF), and wherein assigning to the mobile terminal the IP address that the home carrier is configured to block comprises the PCRF directing a home carrier packet data network gateway (PGW) to assign to the mobile terminal an IP address that the PGW is configured to block, wherein the PGW responds to the directing by assigning to the mobile terminal an IP address that the PGW is configured to block,

the method further comprising the PGW then blocking communication to or from the assigned IP address.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the home carrier server an authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) server, and wherein assigning to the mobile terminal the IP address that the home carrier is configured to block comprises the AAA server directing a Mobile-IP home agent to assign to the mobile terminal an IP address that the home agent is configured to block, wherein the home agent responds to the directing by assigning to the mobile terminal an IP address that the home agent is configured to block,

the method further comprising the home agent then blocking communication to or from the assigned IP address.

19. A policy server configured to control data service for mobile terminals that subscribe to service of a home carrier, the policy server comprising:

a network communication interface;

a processing unit;

data storage; and

program instructions stored in the data storage and executable by the processing unit to carry out operations comprising;

receiving via the network communication interface a signaling message indicative of attachment of one of the mobile terminals with a cell site,

responsive to the signaling message, making a determination of whether (i) the cell site is of a roaming carrier rather than of the home carrier and (ii) the cell site is located within a threshold distance of a cell site of the home carrier, and

based on the determination, causing the home carrier to select and assign to the mobile terminal an Internet Protocol (IP) address, wherein if the determination is affirmative, then the IP address is selected from a pool of IP addresses that the home carrier is configured to block, but if the determination is negative, then the IP address is selected from a default pool of IP addresses rather than from the pool of IP addresses that the home carrier is configured to block.

20. The policy server of claim 19, wherein the policy server is selected from the group consisting of a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) and an authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) server.