USAGE CONTROL FOR SUBSCRIBER GROUP

• US 20150236891A1
• Filed: 09/07/2012
• Published: 08/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Solutions and Networks US LLC (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Solutions and Networks US LLC (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Rasanen, Juha Antero
• Granted Patent: US 10,116,490 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• 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 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

A method for use by an apparatus of a communication network comprises detecting (S22) that a user or user equipment attaching to the communication network belongs to a usage group, based on group identity information that is allocated to the user or user equipment and identifies the usage group, detecting (S24), based on the group identity information, whether or not a first rules function out of several rules functions has been allocated to another user or user equipment of the usage group, and in case it is detected that the first rules function has been allocated to another user or user equipment of the usage group, selecting (S26), for the user or user equipment, the first rules function.

Claims

1. A method for use by an apparatus of a communication network, the method comprising:

detecting that a user or user equipment attaching to the communication network belongs to a usage group, based on group identity information that is allocated to the user or user equipment and identifies the usage group;

detecting, based on the group identity information, whether or not a first rules function out of several rules functions has been allocated to another user or user equipment of the usage group; and

in case it is detected that the first rules function has been allocated to another user or user equipment of the usage group, selecting, for the user or user equipment, the first rules function.

2. The method of claim 1, the detecting comprising:

requesting the group identity information from a database based on an identifier of the user or user equipment, received with a session establishment request for the user or user equipment.

3. The method of claim 1, the detecting comprising:

selecting a rules function of the several rules functions; and

requesting the group identity information from the selected rules function based on an identifier of the user or user equipment, received with a session establishment request for the user or user equipment.

4. The method of claim 3, comprising:

in case it is detected that the first rules function has not been allocated to another user or user equipment of the usage group, using, for the user or user equipment, the selected rules function.

5. The method of claim 3, comprising:

in case it is detected that the first rules function has been allocated to another user or user equipment of the usage group, sending a cancellation message to cancel the connection towards the selected rules function.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising:

sending a redirect message to redirect the user or user equipment to the first/selected rules function, for requesting the session establishment from the first/selected rules function.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising:

sending a request message to request the session establishment from the first/selected rules function.

8. A computer program product including a program for a processing device, comprising software code portions for performing the steps of claim 1 when the program is run on the processing device.

9. The computer program product according to claim 8, wherein the computer program product comprises a computer-readable medium on which the software code portions are stored.

10. The computer program product according to claim 8, wherein the program is directly loadable into an internal memory of the processing device.

11. An apparatus of a communication network, the apparatus configured to:

detect that a user or user equipment attaching to the communication network belongs to a usage group, based on group identity information that is allocated to the user or user equipment and identifies the usage group;

detect, based on the group identity information, whether or not a first rules function out of several rules functions has been allocated to another user or user equipment of the usage group; and

in case the apparatus detects that the first rules function has been allocated to another user or user equipment of the usage group, select, for the user or user equipment, the first rules function.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the apparatus, to detect that a user or user equipment attaching to the communication network belongs to a usage group, is configured to:

request the group identity information from a database based on an identifier of the user or user equipment, received with a session establishment request for the user or user equipment.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the apparatus, to detect that a user or user equipment attaching to the communication network belongs to a usage group, is configured to:

select a rules function of the several rules functions; and

request the group identity information from the selected rules function based on an identifier of the user or user equipment, received with a session establishment request for the user or user equipment.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, configured to:

in case the apparatus detects that the first rules function has not been allocated to another user or user equipment of the usage group, use, for the user or user equipment, the selected rules function.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, configured to:

in case the apparatus detects that the first rules function has been allocated to another user or user equipment of the usage group, send a cancellation message to cancel the connection towards the selected rules function.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, configured to:

send a redirect message to redirect the user or user equipment to the first/selected rules function, for requesting the session establishment from the first/selected rules function.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, configured to:

send a request message to request the session establishment from the first/selected rules function.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the usage group manages usage of at least one of bearers common to/shared by the usage group, bit rates/bandwidth on a bearer common to/shared by the usage group, and applications/services using a bearer common to/shared by the usage group.

19. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the usage group comprises a usage monitoring group for monitoring volume or time based usage of resources shared by the usage monitoring group.