Policy and charging control rule programming and lookup in connectivity access networks

• US 9,838,904 B1
• Filed: 06/08/2015
• Issued: 12/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Bayar, Roopa, Chigurupati, Prasad, Sahai, Gazal, Grandhi, Jagadish, Bakiaraj, Dinesh, Krishna, Gopi
• Primary Examiner(s): Karikari, Kwasi
• Application Number:
  US14/733,460
• Time in Patent Office: 911 Days
• Field of Search: 370230
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/50 Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/41 Billing record details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure of call data record [CDR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/43 Billing software details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/62 based on trigger specification
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/66 Policy and charging system
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/765 Linked or grouped accounts, e.g. of users or devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8228 Session based
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0263 involving mapping traffic to individual bearers or channels, e.g. traffic flow template [TFT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0268 using specific QoS parameters for wireless networks, e.g. QoS class identifier [QCI] or guaranteed bit rate [GBR] negotiating SLA or negotiating QoS H04W28/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 Setup of transport tunnels

Abstract

In general, techniques are described for programming a set of one or more pre-defined rules within the forwarding plane of a packet gateway of a mobile service provider network and caching, within control plane, a group identifier that identifies the set of programmed, pre-defined rules. The control plane may match quality of service (QoS) information of incoming subscriber service requests with the group identifier and respective subsets of the set of programmed, pre-defined rules to rapidly associate service requests with already-programmed PCC rules and thereafter install, to the forwarding plane, subscriber service-specific actions for the PCC rules.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

installing, with a service unit within a gateway of a connectivity access network that provides connectivity to an access point name of a packet data network, a rule set to a forwarding unit within the gateway, wherein the rule set comprises a set of one or more pre-defined policy and charging control (PCC) rules for the access point name;

receiving, with the service unit in response to installing the rule set, a group identifier for the rule set from the forwarding unit;

receiving, with the service unit after installing the rule set to the forwarding unit and receiving the group identifier from the forwarding unit, a service request issued by a computing device associated with a subscriber, wherein the service request specifies a requested service for a connectivity access network session for the subscriber; and

installing, with the service unit to a session context of the forwarding unit, the group identifier and a rule map that together identify a subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules for the requested service, wherein the session context is associated with the connectivity access network session for the subscriber.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

mapping, with the service unit, the requested service to the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules; and

determining, with the service unit, the rule set includes every PCC rule in the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules.

3. The method of claim 2,

wherein the service request specifies a quality of service (QoS) profile for the requested service, and

wherein mapping the requested service to a subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules comprises querying a QoS profile rule map to map the QoS profile to the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing, with the service unit, a group rule map for the rule set and the group identifier to a pre-defined rule cache, wherein the group rule map identifies PCC rules of the rule set within a set of rules associated by the forwarding unit with the group identifier; and

generating, with the service unit, the rule map to identify the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules within the group rule map.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

mapping, with the service unit, the requested service to the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules; and

determining, with the service unit, the rule set includes every PCC rule in the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules by querying the pre-defined rule cache to determine the group rule map identifies every PCC rule in the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving subscriber data traffic associated with the connectivity access network session with the forwarding unit; and

applying, with the forwarding unit, the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules identified by the group identifier and the rule map to the subscriber data traffic and forwarding the subscriber data traffic on one or more bearers mapped to the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

installing a plurality of rule sets to the forwarding unit, wherein the each of the plurality of rule sets comprises a different subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules for the access point name, and wherein the rule set is a first rule set in the plurality of rule sets; and

receiving, with the service unit, a plurality of group identifiers for the respective rule sets from the forwarding unit, wherein the group identifier is a first group identifier in the plurality of group identifiers.

8. The method of claim 7,

wherein the service request specifies one or more requested services for the connectivity access network session for the subscriber, wherein the one or more requested services comprises the requested service, the method further comprising:

mapping, with the service unit, the requested services to the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules;

identifying, with the service unit, the first rule set that includes every PCC rule in the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules; and

installing, with the service unit, the first group identifier for the first rule set and a rule map that together identify the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules within the first rule set to the session context of the forwarding unit.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

generating, with the service unit, a radix lookup tree comprising one or more nodes, wherein the nodes comprise one or more leaf nodes, wherein each the leaf nodes specifies a key that is a concatenation of PCC rule identifiers and a value that is one of the plurality of group identifiers,

wherein identifying the first one of the rule sets that includes every PCC rule in the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules comprises traversing the radix lookup tree using a concatenation of the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules to match a key of a first one of the leaf nodes and obtaining the first group identifier that is a value specified by the first leaf node.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a create rule set message that include the rule set from the service unit to the forwarding unit; and

receiving a create rule set response message issued by the forwarding unit with the service unit, wherein the create rule set response message includes the group identifier for the rule set and a group rule map for the rule set, wherein the group rule map identifies PCC rules of the rule set within a set of rules associated by the forwarding unit with the group identifier.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein installing the group identifier and the rule map comprises installing, with the service unit to the session context of the forwarding unit and after determining the group identifier based at least on a pre-defined rule cache stored to the service unit, the group identifier and the rule map.

22. The gateway of claim 11, wherein to install the group identifier and a rule map the subscriber management daemon of the service unit installs, to the session context of the forwarding unit and after determining the group identifier based at least on a pre-defined rule cache stored to the service unit, the group identifier and the rule map.

12. A connectivity access network gateway that provides connectivity to an access point name of a packet data network, the gateway comprising:

a forwarding unit;

a session context stored by the forwarding unit and associated with a connectivity access network session for a subscriber; and

a service unit that stores a local quality of service (QoS) policy comprising a set of one or more pre-defined policy and charging control (PCC) rules for the access point name,

wherein the service unit installs, to the forwarding unit, a rule set comprising the set of pre-defined PCC rules,

wherein the service unit receives, in response to installing the rule set, a group identifier for the rule set from the forwarding unit; and

a subscriber management daemon of the service unit that receives, after the service unit installs the rule set to the forwarding unit and receives the group identifier from the forwarding unit, a service request issued by a computing device associated with the subscriber and specifying a requested service for the connectivity access network session,

wherein the subscriber management daemon of the service unit installs, to the session context, the group identifier and a rule map that together identify a subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules for the requested service.

13. The gateway of claim 12,

wherein the subscriber management daemon maps the requested service to the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules, and

wherein the subscriber management daemon determines the rule set includes every PCC rule in the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules.

14. The gateway of claim 12, further comprising:

a QoS profile rule map of the local QoS policy that maps a QoS profile to the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules,

wherein the service request specifies a QoS profile for the requested service, and

wherein the subscriber management daemon queries the QoS profile rule map to map the QoS profile to the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules.

15. The gateway of claim 12, further comprising:

a pre-defined rule cache, stored by the service unit, that comprises a group rule map for the rule set and the group identifier, wherein the group rule map identifies PCC rules of the rule set within a set of rules associated by the forwarding unit with the group identifier,

wherein the subscriber management daemon generates the rule map to identify the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules within the group rule map.

16. The gateway of claim 15,

wherein the subscriber management daemon maps the requested service to the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules, and

wherein the subscriber management daemon determines the rule set includes every PCC rule in the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules by querying the pre-defined rule cache to determine the group rule map identifies every PCC rule in the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules.

17. The gateway of claim 12,

wherein the forwarding unit receives subscriber data traffic associated with the connectivity access network session;

a packet processor of the forwarding unit that applies the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules identified by the group identifier and the rule map to the subscriber data traffic and forwards the subscriber data traffic on one or more bearers mapped to the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules.

18. The gateway of claim 12,

wherein the service unit installs a plurality of rule sets to the forwarding unit, wherein the each of the plurality of rule sets comprises a different subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules for the access point name, and wherein the rule set is a first rule set in the plurality of rule sets,

wherein the service unit receives a plurality of group identifiers for the respective rule sets from the forwarding unit, wherein the group identifier is a first group identifier in the plurality of group identifiers.

19. The gateway of claim 18,

wherein the service request specifies one or more requested services for the connectivity access network session for the subscriber, wherein the one or more requested services comprises the requested service,

wherein the subscriber management daemon maps the requested services to the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules,

wherein the subscriber management daemon identifies the first rule set that includes every PCC rule in the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules and installs the first group identifier for the first rule set and a rule map that together identify the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules within the first rule set to the session context of the forwarding unit.

20. The gateway of claim 19, further comprising:

a radix lookup tree comprising one or more nodes, wherein the nodes comprise one or more leaf nodes, wherein each the leaf nodes specifies a key that is a concatenation of PCC rule identifiers and a value that is one of the plurality of group identifiers,

wherein the subscriber management daemon identifies the first rule set that includes every PCC rule in the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules by traversing the radix lookup tree using a concatenation of the subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules to match a key of a first one of the leaf nodes and obtaining the first group identifier that is a value specified by the first leaf node.

21. The gateway of claim 12,

wherein the service unit sends a create rule set message that include the rule set to the forwarding unit, and

wherein the service unit receives a create rule set response message issued by the forwarding unit, wherein the create rule set response message includes the group identifier for the rule set and a group rule map for the rule set, wherein the group rule map identifies PCC rules of the rule set within a set of rules associated by the forwarding unit with the group identifier.

23. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions for causing one or more programmable processors to:

install, with a service unit within a gateway of a connectivity access network that provides connectivity to an access point name of a packet data network, a rule set to a forwarding unit within the gateway, wherein the rule set comprises a set of one or more pre-defined policy and charging control (PCC) rules for the access point name;

receive, with the service unit in response to installing the rule set, a group identifier for the rule set from the forwarding unit;

receive, with the service unit after installing the rule set to the forwarding unit and receiving the group identifier from the forwarding unit, a service request issued by a computing device associated with a subscriber, wherein the service request specifies a requested service for a connectivity access network session for the subscriber; and

install, with the service unit to a session context of the forwarding unit, the group identifier and a rule map that together identify a subset of the set of pre-defined PCC rules for the requested service, wherein the session context is associated with the connectivity access network session for the subscriber.