Service offer set publishing to device agent with on-device service selection

• US 10,834,577 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2018
• Issued: 11/10/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Headwater Research LLC (Greg Raleigh)
• Original Assignee: Headwater Research LLC (Greg Raleigh)
• Inventors: Raleigh, Gregory G., Lavine, James, Raissinia, Alireza
• Primary Examiner(s): Rudy, Andrew Joseph
• Application Number:
  US16/236,134
• Publication Number:
  US 20190274033A1
• Time in Patent Office: 683 Days
• Field of Search: 4554141, 455419, 4554321, 4554561, 705 28, 705 30, 709209, 709217-223
• 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 15/41 Billing record details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure of call data record [CDR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/42 Dynamic individual rates per user
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/43 Billing software details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/44 Augmented, consolidated or itemized billing statement or bill presentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/53 using mediation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/61 based on the service used
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/80 Rating or billing plans; Tariff determination aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/183 Processing at user equipment or user record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/22 Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/245 from a network towards a terminal

Abstract

Disclosed herein are various embodiments for publishing a service offer set to a device agent on an end-user device and for on-device selection of a service. In some embodiments, a network system publishes a service offer set to an end-user device over a wireless access network, receives an offer set user selection from the end-user device, and provisions one or more network functions based on the offer set user selection.

Claims

1. A network system, comprising:

a service design center database to store a service offer set comprising a plurality of wireless service plans and a corresponding plurality of service plan selection options for display to an end-user device user; and

one or more network elements comprising a notification and offer set gateway to;

obtain the service offer set, and

for each of a plurality of wireless end-user devices,

authenticate a secure credential for the wireless end-user device in a process to verify the presence and configuration of a service processor on the device, and for each given one of the plurality of wireless end-user devices for which the presence and configuration of a service processor on the given wireless end-user device is verified,

publish the service plan selection options from the service offer set to the given wireless end-user device over a wireless access network, and upon receipt and acceptance of a device-selected one of the service plan selection options from the given wireless end-user device, provision one or more network functions in real-time or near-real-time based on the device-selected service plan selection option to provide wireless network access for the service plan corresponding to the device-selected service plan selection option.

2. The network system of claim 1, wherein the one or more network elements further comprise a device message queue to receive the service offer set from the service design center database, the notification and offer set gateway configured to retrieve the service plan selection options for the service offer set from the device message queue and push the retrieved service plan selection options to the given wireless end-user device to publish the service plan selection options to the given end-user device.

3. The network system of claim 2, wherein the notification and offer set gateway is configured to retrieve the service plan selection options from the device message queue in real-time prior to pushing the retrieved service plan selection options to the given wireless end-user device.

4. The network system of claim 1, wherein to provision one or more network functions in real-time or near-real-time comprises to communicate one or more service plan policy enforcement settings for the corresponding service plan to the service processor on the given wireless end-user device, for enforcement by service processor policy enforcement agents on the given wireless end-user device.

5. The network system of claim 1, wherein to provision one or more network functions in real-time or near-real-time comprises to create a temporary service lease for the given wireless end-user device to allow the given wireless end-user access to the wireless access network pending further provisioning of one or more network functions.

6. The network system of claim 5, wherein the one or more network elements further comprise a usage reporting gateway to receive data usage records from the given wireless end-user device, the one or more network elements to account for service usage by the given wireless end-user device during the temporary service lease based on the received data usage records.

7. The network system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of wireless end-user devices is a first device group and the service offer set is a first service offer set corresponding to the first device group, the service design center database also storing a second service offer set corresponding to a second device group.

8. The network system of claim 7, wherein the one or more network elements are further configured to select the first offer set for a wireless end-user device in the first device group and to select the second offer set to publish to a wireless end-user device in the second device group.

9. The network system of claim 1, wherein the one or more network elements are further configured to determine a time for the given wireless end-user device to display one or more of the published service plan selection options to a user of the given wireless end-user device.

10. The network system of claim 9, wherein the one or more network elements are further configured to determine a time to display based on what the user is doing with the given wireless end-user device.

11. The network system of claim 10, wherein based on what the user is doing with the given wireless end-user device comprises an attempt to access the wireless network.

12. The network system of claim 10, wherein based on what the user is doing with the device comprises a particular application on the given wireless end-user device attempting to access the wireless network.

13. The network system of claim 10, wherein based on what the user is doing with the device comprises the user attempting to use a particular application on the given wireless end-user device.

14. The network system of claim 10, wherein based on what the user is doing with the device comprises the given wireless end-user device entering a roaming state.

15. The network system of claim 10, wherein based on what the user is doing with the device comprises to observe an access pattern of the device from data records reported to the network system by the given wireless end-user device.

16. The network system of claim 10, wherein based on what the user is doing with the device comprises detecting that an access service attempt from the given wireless end-user device was denied.