Policy formulating method, policy server, and gateway

• US 9,954,737 B2
• Filed: 06/02/2016
• Issued: 04/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Hu, Yusheng, Hu, Xiang
• Primary Examiner(s): Thieu, Benjamin M
• Application Number:
  US15/171,996
• Publication Number:
  US 20160285688A1
• Time in Patent Office: 691 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1407 Policy-and-charging control [PCC] architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/50 Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5006 Creating or negotiating SLA contracts, guarantees or penalties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5029 Service quality level-based billing, e.g. dependent on measured service level customer is charged more or less
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/30 Profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/66 Policy and charging system
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/752 Terminal based account
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8016 based on quality of service [QoS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

Embodiments provide a policy formulating method. The method includes: receiving, by a policy server, User-Agent information sent by a gateway, where the User-Agent information carries type information of a terminal or type information of a browser used by a terminal; determining, by the policy server, a type of the terminal according to the User-Agent information; and formulating, by the policy server, a charging policy and/or a QoS quality of service policy according to the type of the terminal. Type information of a user terminal or type information a browser used by a terminal is reported to a policy server. The policy server is capable of correctly distinguishing a terminal type, for example a mobile phone or a PC is surfing the Internet, and then the policy server formulates a corresponding policy to implement Internet access charging and QoS guarantee.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

transmitting, by a gateway, user agent information, wherein the user agent information carries a terminal type information or a browser type information used by a terminal accessing a wireless network;

receiving, by a policy server, the user agent information from the gateway;

distinguishing, by the policy server, between a mobile phone directly accessing the wireless network and a personal computer using a mobile phone as a modem to indirectly access the wireless network according to the user agent information based on different locations of Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP)-based protocol stacks;

formulating, by the policy server, a first charging or quality of service (QoS) policy when the terminal is a mobile phone directly accessing the wireless network and a second charging or QoS policy when the terminal is a personal computer using a mobile phone as a modem to indirectly access the wireless network;

delivering, by the policy server, the first charging or QoS policy or the second charging or QoS policy to the gateway according to the type of terminal; and

applying, by the gateway, the first charging or QoS policy or the second charging or QoS policy to the terminal.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

registering, by the policy server, a user agent information reporting event on the gateway.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein after receiving, by the policy server, the user agent information, the method further comprises:

canceling, by the policy server, the user agent information reporting event on the gateway.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein transmitting, by the gateway, the user agent information comprises:

transmitting, by the gateway, the user agent information in response to the user agent information reporting event.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second charging or QoS policy prohibits the terminal from accessing the Internet when the terminal is a personal computer using a mobile phone as a modem to indirectly access the wireless network, and the first charging or QoS policy permits the terminal to access the Internet when the terminal is a mobile phone directly accessing the Internet.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first charging or QoS policy provides a different QoS guarantee for the terminal when the terminal is a mobile phone directly accessing the wireless network than the second charging or QoS policy when the terminal is a personal computer using a mobile phone as a modem to indirectly access the wireless network.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first charging or QoS policy specifies a different Internet access charge for the terminal when the terminal is a mobile phone directly accessing the wireless network than the second charging or QoS policy when the terminal is a personal computer using a mobile phone as a modem to indirectly access the wireless network.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the policy server is a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) entity.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the gateway is a gateway general packet radio service (GPRS) support node (GGSN).

10. A system, comprising:

a gateway, configured to;

transmit user agent information, wherein the user agent information carries a terminal type information or a browser type information used by a terminal accessing a wireless network;

receive a charging or a quality of service (QoS) policy; and

apply the policy to the terminal; and

a policy server, configured to;

receive the user agent information from the gateway, wherein the user agent information carries a terminal type information or a browser type information associated with a terminal accessing a wireless network;

distinguish between a mobile phone directly accessing the wireless network and a personal computer using a mobile phone as a modem to indirectly access the wireless network according to the user agent information based on different locations of Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP)-based protocol stacks;

formulate a first charging or quality of service (QoS) policy when the terminal is a mobile phone directly accessing the wireless network and a second charging or QoS policy when the terminal is a personal computer using a mobile phone as a modem to indirectly access the wireless network; and

deliver the first charging or QoS policy or the second charging or QoS policy to the gateway.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the policy server is further configured to register a user agent information reporting event on the gateway.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the policy server is further configured to cancel the user agent information reporting event on the gateway after the user agent information sent by the gateway is received.

13. The system according to claim 11, wherein the gateway is configured to transmit the user agent information in response to the user agent information reporting event.

14. The system according to claim 10, wherein the second charging or QoS policy prohibits the terminal from accessing the Internet when the terminal is a personal computer using a mobile phone as a modem to indirectly access the wireless network, and first the charging or QoS policy permits the terminal to access the Internet when the terminal is a mobile phone directly accessing the Internet.

15. The system according to claim 10, wherein the first charging or QoS policy provides a different QoS guarantee for the terminal when the terminal is a mobile phone directly accessing the wireless network than the second charging or QoS policy when the terminal is a personal computer using a mobile phone as a modem to indirectly access the wireless network.

16. The system according to claim 10, wherein the first charging or QoS policy specifies a different Internet access charge for the terminal when the terminal is a mobile phone directly accessing the wireless network than the second charging or QoS policy when the terminal is a personal computer using a mobile phone as a modem to indirectly access the wireless network.

17. The system according to claim 10, wherein the policy server is a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) entity.

18. The system according to claim 10, wherein the gateway is a gateway general packet radio service (GPRS) support node (GGSN).