CN102550056B

CN102550056B - Method, device and system of strategy control

Info

Publication number: CN102550056B
Application number: CN201180003843.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王旭; 王玉婷; 胡玉胜
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2011-12-31
Filing date: 2011-12-31
Publication date: 2015-01-07
Anticipated expiration: 2031-12-31
Also published as: CN102550056A; WO2013097230A1

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention relating to the field of communication provide a method, a device and a system of strategy control for a user. In the invention, an assignment location register (HLR) is used to judge if an assignment PCRF is needed to do the strategy control to the user when the user switches in. When the assignment PCRF corresponding to the user is obliged to be need so that the strategy control can be done to the user, the strategy control is done to the assignment PCRF after searching a special business which is sure to sign a contract for the user. Through the method, the complexity of the network is reduced, so that the need of data synchronism under the condition of more PCRF of deploy can be satisfied.

Description

Method, equipment and system for policy control

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a method, device, and system for policy control.

Background

The 3GPP (The 3rd Generation Partnership Project, third Generation Partnership Project) protocol introduces a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) which is a network element responsible for Policy and Charging control based on The original network architecture, so as to perform Charging control on services such as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) of a user.

The user subscription information stored in the PCRF is more biased to the dynamic service of the user and the policy information related to charging, and some variable policies can be dynamically generated according to various information such as the service, the network state and the like, so as to perform user access control and charging adjustment. For example, FUP (Fair use Policy) which is common in MBB (Mobile Broadband) networks is a typical application of PCRF. By reporting the traffic used by the user in the MBB network to the PCRF for summarization, the PCRF can judge whether the user uses excessive network resources. If the traffic used by the user exceeds the threshold set by the operator, the PCRF may notify the network device to make some adjustment to the user's access, such as limiting the user's access bandwidth or adjusting the user's billing rate.

However, due to the characteristics of the PCRF, the PCRF is required to be able to collect data of the user and the network at any time to adjust the policy stored locally. When the network capacity is small, the capacity and the coverage range of the PCRF can meet the requirements; when the network capacity is continuously increased, the PCRF is difficult to meet the requirement, and a plurality of PCRFs need to be deployed so as to meet the requirement of the network capacity. However, since the service subscribed by the user has a certain randomness (for example, a group package, the subscribed user is actually random), and not every PCRF can perform policy control on any service subscribed by the user. For example, when a user subscribes to a special service, the policy control of the user needs to be performed through the home PCRF of the user. Such a PCRF handling a particular service of a user may be referred to as a home PCRF of the user, and different services may need to be handled by different home PCRFs. Due to the deployment of multiple PCRFs and the randomness of the service signed by the user, the determination of the affiliation relationship between the user and the PCRF is difficult to complete through the pre-configuration.

At present, a method mainly adopted is that one PCRF is set in a plurality of deployed PCRFs for determining an affiliation relationship between a user and the PCRF, when the user signs a special service, the PCRF determines to obtain an affiliation PCRF (another PCRF) of the user, and then the affiliation PCRF of the user performs policy control on the user.

In the process of implementing the invention, the inventor finds that the prior art has at least the following problems:

in the way of deploying multiple PCRFs, when a user signs a special service, two PCRFs are required to jointly complete policy judgment, network complexity is increased, and data synchronization between the multiple PCRFs is difficult due to the fact that the complexity is too high.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the problem that the network complexity is increased due to the existing PCRF determination method, embodiments of the present invention provide a method, a device, and a system for policy control. The technical scheme is as follows:

a method of policy control, the method comprising:

an HLR (Home Location Register) receives a subscription inquiry request sent by an SGSN (Serving GPRS support node);

the HLR judges whether the home PCRF is required to carry out policy control on the user according to the signing query request;

when policy control is required to be performed on the user by the home PCRF, the HLR searches and determines the home PCRF of the user, and sends a response message containing the identifier of the home PCRF to the SGSN, so that the SGSN sends the message containing the identifier of the home PCRF to a GGSN (gateway GPRS Support Node), and the GGSN requests the policy control for the user from the home PCRF;

the method for judging whether the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user by the HLR according to the subscription request comprises the following steps:

the HLR searches the attribute information or the subscription information of the user according to the identification information of the user contained in the subscription request;

and the HLR judges whether the home PCRF is required to carry out policy control on the user according to the attribute information or the subscription information of the user.

A method of policy control, the method comprising:

GGSN receives the message sent by SGSN;

when the message contains the identification of the home PCRF of the user, sending a message for requesting the policy for the user to the home PCRF so as to facilitate the home PCRF to perform policy control on the user;

and when the information contains information which does not need to belong to the PCRF, distributing the PCRF for the user, and sending a message for requesting the policy for the user to the distributed PCRF so that the distributed PCRF can conveniently perform policy control on the user.

A home location register, HLR, the HLR comprising:

a first receiving module, configured to receive a subscription query request sent by an SGSN;

the judging module is used for judging whether the home PCRF is required to carry out policy control on the user according to the subscription inquiry request received by the first receiving module;

the first control module is used for searching and determining the home PCRF of the user when the judging module determines that the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user, and sending a response message containing the identifier of the home PCRF to the SGSN, so that the SGSN sends a message containing the identifier of the home PCRF to the GGSN, and the GGSN requests the policy for the user from the home PCRF;

wherein, the judging module comprises:

a first searching unit, configured to search attribute information or subscription information of the user according to the identification information of the user included in the subscription request;

and the judging unit is used for judging whether policy control is required to be carried out on the user by the home PCRF according to the attribute information or the subscription information of the user searched and determined by the first searching unit.

A gateway general packet radio service support node, GGSN, said GGSN comprising:

a second receiving module, configured to receive a message sent by an SGSN;

a second sending module, configured to send, to the home PCRF, a message requesting policy for the user when the message received by the second receiving module includes an identifier of a home PCRF of the user, so that the home PCRF performs policy control on the user;

and the third sending module is used for distributing the PCRF for the user and sending a message for requesting the policy for the user to the distributed PCRF when the message received by the second receiving module contains the information which does not need to belong to the PCRF, so that the distributed PCRF carries out policy control on the user.

A policy-controlled system, the system comprising: the HLR as described above and the GGSN as described above.

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention has the beneficial effects that: when a user accesses, the home location register HLR is used for judging whether the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user, and when the home PCRF corresponding to the user is required to perform policy control on the user, the home PCRF capable of performing policy control on special services signed by the user is searched, so that the network complexity is reduced, and the requirement of data synchronization in the scene of deploying multiple PCRFs can be met.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings based on these drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a first flowchart of a policy control method according to embodiment 1 of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a second flowchart of a policy control method according to embodiment 1 of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic flowchart of a policy control method according to embodiment 2 of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a first structural diagram of a home location register according to embodiment 3 of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a second structural diagram of a home location register according to embodiment 3 of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a determining module of a home location register according to embodiment 3 of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a first control module of a home location register according to embodiment 3 of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a gateway gprs support node according to embodiment 4 of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a second structure of a gateway gprs support node according to embodiment 4 of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Example 1

The embodiment provides a policy control method, in which the executing bodies are an HLR and a GGSN, respectively.

Wherein,

as shown in fig. 1, with the HLR as the executing agent, a policy control method includes the following steps:

101a, receiving a subscription inquiry request sent by an SGSN;

102a, judging whether the home PCRF is required to carry out policy control on the user according to the subscription inquiry request;

103a, when policy control is required to be performed on the user by the home PCRF, the home PCRF of the user is searched, and a response message containing the identifier of the home PCRF of the user is sent to the SGSN, so that the SGSN sends a connection request containing the identifier of the home PCRF of the user to the GGSN, and the GGSN requests a policy for the user from the home PCRF of the user.

As shown in fig. 2, with the GGSN as the executing agent, a policy control method includes the following steps:

101b, receiving a connection request sent by SGSN;

102b, when the connection request includes the home PCRF of the user, sending a request for requesting policy control for the user to the home PCRF of the user, so that the home PCRF of the user performs policy control on the user.

The method for policy control of the user provided by the embodiment of the invention judges whether the home PCRF is needed to perform policy control on the user by using the home location register HLR when the user accesses, and searches for the home PCRF which can perform policy control on the special service signed by the user when the home PCRF corresponding to the user is needed to perform policy control on the user, thereby reducing the network complexity and meeting the requirement of data synchronization in the scene of deploying multiple PCRFs.

Example 2

The embodiment provides a method for policy control, which performs function extension on an HLR, an SGSN, and a GGSN, and performs cell extension on an original interface by using an existing Gr interface between the HLR and the SGSN and an existing Gn interface between the SGSN and the GGSN, so that an assignment PCRF can be automatically allocated to a user according to a subscription condition of the user for a special service (e.g., a family package, an enterprise package, etc.) when multiple PCRFs are deployed in a network.

In this embodiment, 2 PCRFs are arranged in a network as an example.

As shown in fig. 3, a method of policy control includes the following steps:

201. the SGSN receives an access Request Act Rep (Active Request) sent by a user.

The access request Act Rep includes identification information of the user, such as an IMSI (International mobile subscriber identity Number) and the like.

202. SGSN sends a subscription inquiry request Query description to HLR.

The Query subscription request may include the identifier of the user, so that the HLR may search the attribute information or subscription information of the user according to the identifier of the user.

The attribute information of the user may specifically refer to subscription data of the user, such as QoS information, prepaid, postpaid, and the like;

the subscription information (subscription characteristic) of the user may specifically refer to a special service package, such as a family package, a group package, etc., which the user subscribes to the operator.

203. The HLR judges whether the policy control of the user is required by the home PCRF according to the subscription request, if not, the steps 204 and 208 and 214 and 215 are executed, and if so, the step 209 and 215 are executed.

The HLR determines whether policy control needs to be performed on the user by the home PCRF according to the subscription request, which may specifically be:

searching attribute information or subscription information of the user, which is locally stored, according to the identification information of the user contained in the subscription request;

and judging whether the home PCRF is required to carry out policy control on the user according to the attribute information or the subscription service information of the user.

It should be noted that the difference from the conventional HLR is that the HLR provided in this embodiment stores attribute information or subscription information of a user, and stores a mapping relationship between the attribute information or subscription information of the user and the home PCRF.

Further, the home PCRF refers to a PCRF having policy control for a specific subscription service, and when a user subscribes to the specific subscription service, the policy control can be performed only through the home PCRF. If an operator wants to distinguish the PCRF corresponding to a user (i.e., the home PCRF of the user) according to the situation that the user signs a package, or the package signed by the user causes that the user must correspond to the home PCRF, the current user needs to designate the PCRF for policy control, instead of any PCRF performing policy control on the user.

For example, in this embodiment, the service provider includes a PCRF _1 and a PCRF _2, where both the PCRF _1 and the PCRF _2 can perform policy control on a service a, and only the PCRF _2 can perform policy control on a service B, and when a user is enjoying the service B, the PCRF _2 is a home PCRF of the user, and the user only performs policy control through the PCRF _2, and the user and the PCRF _2 have a home relationship.

Further, when the attribute information or the subscription information of the user is changed, the method further includes:

and updating the attribute information or the subscription information of the locally stored user.

204. The HLR sends a reply message to the SSGN that does not require a home PCRF.

Specifically, the response message that does not need to be homed to the PCRF may be a No Specific PCRF (which does not need to be homed to the PCRF), where the message may be obtained by performing cell extension through an existing Gr interface between the HLR and the SGSN.

205. The SSGN sends a message to the GGSN containing an indication that the home PCRF is not needed.

Specifically, the message including the indication that the PCRF is not required to be homed may be Act Req-PCRF No Specific (connection request-PCRF not required to be homed), and the message may be obtained by performing cell extension on an existing Gn interface between the SGSN and the GGSN, for example, using a GTP-C message. The message may include a field indicating that the home PCRF is not needed, or the message may not include identification information of the home PCRF to indicate that the home PCRF is not needed.

206. And the GGSN distributes PCRF for the user according to the information.

In this embodiment, the GGSN, according to the rule that the PCRF is allocated to the user, may allocate the PCRF to the user according to the existing rule, such as the principle of polling, minimum load, longest waiting, and the like, for example, the PCRF allocated to the user by the GGSN is taken as PCRF _1 for example.

207. The GGSN requests a policy for the user from PCRF _ 1.

In this embodiment, the Request for requesting the policy for the user may specifically be CCR-I (Credit Control Request-Initial, Initial charging Control Request), CCR-U (Credit Control Request-Update, modified charging Control Request), CCR-T (Credit Control Request-Termination, terminated charging Control Request), and the like, which are existing Request messages and are not described herein again.

208. And the PCRF _1 returns a response of policy control to the GGSN.

The response of policy Control returned by PCRF _1 to GGSN corresponding to CCR-I, CCR-U or CCR-T in step 207 is specifically CCA-I (Credit Control Answer-Initial), CCA-U (Credit Control Answer-Update, modified charging Control Answer), or CCA-T (Credit Control Answer-Termination, terminated charging Control Answer).

209. And the HLR searches and determines the home PCRF of the user according to the attribute information or the subscription information of the user.

In this embodiment, an example of determining that the home PCRF of the user is the PCRF _2 is taken as an example for explanation;

210. and the HLR sends a response message containing the home PCRF identifier to the SSGN.

Specifically, the response message including the identifier of the home PCRF is a home PCRF = PCRF _2 (home PCRF = PCRF _2 of the user), where the message may be obtained by performing cell extension through an existing Gr interface between the HLR and the SGSN.

211. And the SSGN sends a message containing the home PCRF identifier to the GGSN.

Specifically, the message including the home PCRF identifier may include multiple types, for example, specifically: act Req-home PCRF = PCRF _2 (connection request-home PCRF of subscriber = PCRF _ 2), which may be obtained by cell extension over the existing Gn interface between SGSN and GGSN, for example using GTP-C messages.

Further, the home PCRF identifier may also be carried in another message sent to the GGSN through the SSGN, for example:

create PDP Context Request, Update PDP Context Request, modify PDP Context Request, Delete PDP Context Request, etc.

The pdp (packet Data protocol) is a packet Data protocol.

Further, when SSGN sends a connection request including the home PCRF identification to GGSN, authentication information may also be included.

212. The GGSN requests policy for the user from PCRF _ 2.

In this embodiment, the request for the user request policy is specifically CCR-I, CCR-U or CCR-T, which are existing request messages and are not described herein again.

213. And the PCRF _2 returns a response of policy control to the GGSN.

Wherein, the response of policy control returned by PCRF _2 to GGSN corresponding to CCR-I, CCR-U or CCR-T in step 212 is specifically CCA-I, CCA-U or CCA-T.

214. The GGSN returns an access response to the SGSN.

Specifically, the access Response is Act Resp (Active Response).

215. The SSGN returns an access response to the user.

Example 3

As shown in fig. 4, the present embodiment provides a home location register HLR, which includes:

a first receiving module 301, configured to receive a subscription query request sent by an SGSN;

a determining module 302, configured to determine whether to need to perform policy control on a user by the home PCRF according to the subscription query request received by the first receiving module 301;

a first control module 303, configured to, when the determining module 302 determines that policy control needs to be performed on the user by the home PCRF, determine the home PCRF of the user, and send a response message including an identifier of the home PCRF of the user to the SGSN, so that the SGSN sends a message including the identifier of the home PCRF to the GGSN, so that the GGSN requests a policy for the user from the home PCRF.

Further, as shown in fig. 5, the HLR further includes:

a first sending module 304, configured to send, to the SGSN, a response message that the home PCRF is not needed when the determining module 302 determines that the home PCRF is not needed to perform policy control on the user.

As shown in fig. 6, the determining module 302 includes:

a first searching unit 3021, configured to search attribute information or subscription information of a user according to the identification information of the user included in the subscription request;

a judging unit 3022, configured to judge whether policy control needs to be performed on the user by the home PCRF according to the attribute information or the subscription information of the user, which is searched and determined by the first searching unit 3021.

Further, as shown in fig. 7, the first control module 303 includes:

a second searching unit 3031, configured to search and determine the PCRF to which the user belongs according to the attribute information or the subscription information of the user when the determining module 302 determines that the PCRF to which the user belongs is required to perform policy control on the user;

a first sending unit 3032, configured to send a response message including the identifier of the home PCRF to the SGSN, so that the SGSN sends the message including the identifier of the home PCRF to the GGSN, so that the GGSN requests the policy for the user from the home PCRF.

The home location register provided by the embodiment of the invention judges whether the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user by using the home location register HLR when the user accesses, and searches and obtains the home PCRF capable of performing policy control on the special service signed by the user when the home PCRF corresponding to the user is required to perform policy control on the user, thereby reducing the network complexity and meeting the requirement of data synchronization in the scene of deploying multiple PCRFs.

Example 4

As shown in fig. 8, the present embodiment provides a gateway gprs support node GGSN, including:

a second receiving module 401, configured to receive a message sent by an SGSN;

a second sending module 402, configured to send a message requesting policy for the user to the home PCRF when the message received by the second receiving module 401 includes the identifier of the home PCRF of the user, so that the home PCRF performs policy control on the user.

Further, as shown in fig. 9, the GGSN further includes:

a third sending module 403, configured to, when the connection request received by the second receiving module 401 includes an instruction that the PCRF does not need to be affiliated, allocate the PCRF for the user, and send a message for requesting the policy for the user to the allocated PCRF, so that the allocated PCRF performs policy control on the user.

The gateway general packet radio service support node provided by the embodiment of the invention can reduce the network complexity, so that the requirement of data synchronization in the scene of deploying multiple PCRFs can be met.

Further, the present invention also provides a policy control system, which includes the HLR described in embodiment 3 and the GGSN described in embodiment 4.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or part of the steps for implementing the above embodiments may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by a program instructing relevant hardware, where the program may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and the above-mentioned storage medium may be a read-only memory, a magnetic disk or an optical disk, etc.

The above description is only exemplary of the present invention and should not be taken as limiting, as any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method of policy control, the method comprising:

a home location register HLR receives a signing inquiry request sent by a general packet radio service support node SGSN;

the HLR judges whether the home policy and charging rule function PCRF is needed to carry out policy control on the user according to the signing inquiry request;

when policy control is required to be performed on the user by a home PCRF, the HLR searches and determines the home PCRF of the user, and sends a response message containing the identifier of the home PCRF to the SGSN, so that the SGSN sends the message containing the identifier of the home PCRF to a gateway general packet radio service support node (GGSN), and the GGSN requests a policy for the user from the home PCRF;

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

and when the policy control of the user is not required to be carried out by the home PCRF, sending a response message which does not need to be homed to the PCRF to the SGSN.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the lookup to determine the home PCRF for the user comprises:

and searching and determining the home PCRF of the user according to the attribute information or the subscription information of the user.

4. A method of policy control, comprising:

receiving a message sent by a general packet radio service support node (SGSN);

when the message contains the identification of the home Policy and Charging Rule Function (PCRF) of the user, sending a message for requesting the policy for the user to the home PCRF so that the home PCRF can conveniently perform policy control on the user;

5. A home location register, HLR, comprising:

a first receiving module, configured to receive a subscription query request sent by a serving general packet radio service support node SGSN;

the judging module is used for judging whether policy control is required to be carried out on the user by the home policy and charging rule function PCRF according to the signing inquiry request received by the first receiving module;

a first control module, configured to, when the determination module determines that policy control needs to be performed on the user by a home PCRF, search for and determine the home PCRF of the user, and send a response message including an identifier of the home PCRF to the SGSN, so that the SGSN sends a message including the identifier of the home PCRF to a gateway gprs support node GGSN, so that the GGSN requests a policy for the user from the home PCRF;

wherein, the judging module comprises:

6. The HLR as claimed in claim 5, further comprising:

and the first sending module is used for sending a response message of the PCRF not needing to be homed to the SGSN when the judging module determines that the PCRF not needing to be homed carries out policy control on the user.

7. The HLR as claimed in claim 5, wherein said first control module comprises:

the second searching unit is used for searching and determining the PCRF to which the user belongs according to the attribute information or the subscription information of the user when the judging module judges that the PCRF to which the user belongs needs to carry out policy control on the user;

and the first sending unit is used for sending a response message containing the identifier of the home PCRF to the SGSN so as to facilitate the SGSN sending a message containing the identifier of the home PCRF to the GGSN, so that the GGSN requests the policy for the user for the home PCRF.

8. A gateway general packet radio service support node, GGSN, comprising:

a second receiving module, configured to receive a message sent by a gprs support node SGSN;

a second sending module, configured to send, to the home PCRF, a message requesting policy for the user when the message received by the second receiving module includes an identifier of a home policy and charging rules function PCRF of the user, so that the home PCRF performs policy control on the user;

9. A policy-controlled system, comprising: a home location register HLR according to any of claims 5-7 and a gateway general packet radio service support node GGSN according to any of claims 8.