CN106304195B

CN106304195B - Policy control method for third party application, SCEF (policy and charging enforcement function) and PCRF (policy and charging rules function)

Info

Publication number: CN106304195B
Application number: CN201510351035.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 吴锦花; 周晓云; 梁爽
Original assignee: ZTE Corp
Current assignee: ZTE Corp
Priority date: 2015-06-23
Filing date: 2015-06-23
Publication date: 2020-06-19
Anticipated expiration: 2035-06-23
Also published as: WO2016206354A1; CN106304195A

Abstract

The invention discloses a policy control method, a service capability open network (SCEF) and a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) of a third party application; the method comprises the following steps: the SCEF carries out authorization decision on the overall signed quality of service (QoS) of a third-party Application Server (AS); sending a QoS request to a PCRF, wherein the QoS request is used for enabling the PCRF to carry out authorization decision on the QoS of a service requested by a User Equipment (UE), and generating a policy and charging control rule.

Description

Policy control method for third party application, SCEF (policy and charging enforcement function) and PCRF (policy and charging rules function)

Technical Field

The present invention relates to communication technologies, and in particular, to a Policy control method for third-party applications, a Service Capability open network (SCEF for short), and a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF for short).

Background

Policy and Charging Control (PCC) architecture of the third Generation Partnership Project (3rd Generation Partnership Project, 3GPP for short) is a functional framework that can be applied to multiple access technologies. For example, the present invention is applied to a Terrestrial radio access Network (UMTS) of a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a Global System for mobile communications (GSM)/GSM Data Enhanced evolution (EDGE) radio access Network, an interworking wireless local area Network (I-WLAN), and an Evolved Packet System (EPS).

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a Rel-9PCC non-roaming architecture in the related art, and various logical functional entities and interface functions thereof in the PCC architecture are described below with reference to fig. 1:

an Application Function entity (AF) provides access points for service applications, and network resources used by the service applications need to be dynamically policy-controlled. When the service plane carries out parameter negotiation, the AF transmits relevant service information to a Policy and Charging Rules Function entity (PCRF for short), and if the service information is consistent with the Policy of the PCRF, the PCRF accepts the negotiation; otherwise, the PCRF refuses the negotiation and simultaneously gives out the service parameters acceptable by the PCRF in the feedback. The AF may then return these parameters to the User Equipment (UE for short). Wherein, the interface between the AF and the PCRF is an Rx interface.

The PCRF is the core of the PCC and is responsible for policy decision and charging rule making. The PCRF provides network Control rules based on traffic data flows, which include monitoring, Gating (Gating Control), Quality of Service (QoS) Control of the traffic data flows, and charging rules based on the traffic data flows. The PCRF sends the Policy and Charging rules formulated by the PCRF to a Policy and Charging enforcement function (Policy and Charging enforcement function, abbreviated as PCEF) for execution, and meanwhile, the PCRF needs to ensure that the rules are consistent with subscription information of the user. The basis for the PCRF to formulate the policy and charging rules comprises the following steps: acquiring information related to the service from the AF; acquiring user policy charging control Subscription information from a Subscription database (Subscription Profile Repository, abbreviated as SPR); information of a bearer-related network is acquired from a PCEF.

And the PCEF is used for executing the policy and charging rules formulated by the PCRF on the bearing surface. The PCEF monitors the service data flows according to the service data flow filters in the rules sent by the PCRF, and then executes the policy and charging rules formulated by the PCRF on the service data flows. When the load is established, the PCEF carries out QoS authorization according to the rule sent by the PCRF, and carries out gating control according to the execution of the AF. According to the charging rules sent by the PCRF, the PCEF performs a corresponding service data flow charging operation, and the charging may be either online charging or offline charging. In case of Online Charging, the PCEF needs to perform credit management together with an Online Charging System (OCS). During Offline Charging, relevant Charging information is exchanged between the PCEF and an Offline Charging System (OFCS). The interface between the PCEF and the PCRF is a Gx interface, the interface between the PCEF and the OCS is a Gy interface, and the interface between the PCEF and the OFCS is a Gz interface. The PCEF Function may also be enhanced to implement a flow Detection Function (TDF, referred to as Traffic Detection Function). The PCEF may perform Application Detection and policy enforcement (such as gating, redirection, and bandwidth limitation) according to a local configuration or a PCC rule including an Application Detection Control policy (ADC) issued by the PCRF. The PCEF is typically located within a Gateway (Gateway-Way, abbreviated GW) of the network, such as a GPRS Gateway Support Node (GGSN) in GPRS and a Packet Data Gateway (PDG) in I-WLAN.

The TDF may also be deployed independently, where an interface between the TDF and the PCRF is an Sd interface, and the TDF may perform application detection and policy execution according to an application detection control rule issued by the PCRF or pre-configured. The PCRF provides application detection control rules for the independent TDF whose policy control enforcement operations include gating, redirection and bandwidth limitation. The TDF reports the relevant events and information of the detected service/flow to the PCRF, sends the description of the service data flow to the PCRF, and transmits the signaling of the service detection and the policy rule for flow detection from the PCRF. TDF presence request traffic reporting and proactive traffic reporting two modes: requesting a service reporting mode, wherein the PCRF informs the TDF which services need to be detected and reported to the PCRF; the proactive traffic reporting approach, which pre-configures in the TDF which traffic needs to be detected and reported, assumes that the user agrees that no request is required and is executable.

Bearer Binding and Event reporting function entities (BBERF) include functions of Bearer Binding, verification of uplink Bearer Binding, and Event reporting. When UE is accessed through E-UTRAN and PMIPv6 protocol is adopted between S-GW and P-GW, BBERF is located at S-GW, when UE is accessed through trusted non-3 GPP access system, BBERF is located at trusted non-3 GPP access Gateway, when UE is accessed through untrusted non-3 GPP access system, BBERF is located at Evolved Packet Data Gateway (ePDG for short). At this point, the PCEF no longer performs the bearer binding function.

The subscriber subscription database (SPR) stores subscriber policy charging control subscription information relating to policy control and charging. The interface between the SPR and the PCRF is an Sp interface.

And an Online Charging System (OCS) which controls and manages the user credit in an online charging mode together with the PCEF.

And the offline charging system (OFCS) and the PCEF together complete the charging operation in the offline charging mode.

The PCC architecture realizes policy charging control over an IP Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session established by the UE for accessing a Packet Data Network (PDN) through each functional entity.

With the development of the mobile internet, an operator needs to perform interworking with a third party application provider to guarantee QoS for services provided by the third party application provider. Due to the Diameter protocol adopted by the Rx interface supported by PCC at present, most third party application providers are better at developing SOAP-based and REST protocols. The research in the industry currently supports the Rx interface based on SOAP/REST protocol with PCC architecture. A logic function called protocol converter is directly set in PCRF and AF for converting SOAP or REST protocol to Diameter. Some Access Control functions may be added to the PC to better implement Access Control of the third-party Application by the operator, and in this case, the logic function is also referred to as an Application Access Control (AAC) function. In addition, in addition to access control to external applications, mobile operators provide 3GPP service functions such as value-added services to external application providers and network-based API business partners to provide accessibility and interworking of internal and external applications and services. New subscriptions and partnerships are being developed with a wider range of external application providers offering enterprise or business solutions and network-based services and content. This is called a Service Capability open network (SCEF for short). In current PCC architectures, the SCEF may be deployed between the PCRF and the external AF (as shown in fig. 2).

In the related technology, the PCRF CAN perform QoS authorization on the IP-CAN session or the service data flow SDF of the UE according to the SPR subscription information, generate a corresponding policy or charging rule and issue the policy or charging rule to the PCEF for installation and execution. When introducing the third-party application server AS and SCEF, the operator network not only performs the corresponding QoS authorization for the service according to the subscription of the user (corresponding UE), but also needs to perform the QoS authorization for the entire service capability of the third-party AS accessing the 3GPP system and the QoS authorization for the service subscribed by the third-party AS.

At present, there is no related technical scheme how to perform overall QoS authorization on a third-party AS and perform QoS authorization on a subscription service of the third-party AS under an SCEF architecture.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a policy control method for third-party application, an SECF and a PCRF, which can realize the overall QoS authorization of a third-party AS under an SCEF architecture and also can realize the QoS authorization of a subscription service of the third-party AS.

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention is realized as follows:

the invention provides a strategy control method for third-party application, which comprises the following steps:

the SCEF carries out authorization decision on the overall signed QoS of the AS;

sending a QoS request to a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), wherein the QoS request is used for enabling the PCRF to carry out authorization decision on QoS of a service requested by a user terminal (UE) so as to generate policy and charging control rules.

Preferably, the first and second liquid crystal films are made of a polymer,

the SCEF stores the overall subscription information of the third-party AS, and the overall subscription information of the third-party AS includes at least one of:

the identifier of the third-party AS, the maximum bit rate MBR pre-signed by the third-party AS, the guaranteed bit rate GBR pre-signed by the third-party AS, the maximum number of users pre-signed by the third-party AS, the type and type of the allowed service pre-signed by the third-party AS, and the QoS level information of the third-party AS.

Preferably, the SCEF making an authorization decision on the overall subscribed QoS of the third party AS includes:

and the SCEF carries out authorization decision on the overall signed QoS of the third-party AS according to the locally stored overall signed information of the third-party AS and the QoS request of the third-party AS.

Preferably, the QoS request includes service information requested by the UE, QoS information corresponding to the service requested by the UE, and overall QoS authorization decision information for the third-party AS.

The invention also provides a policy control method for third-party application, which comprises the following steps:

a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) entity receives a QoS request from a third party AS sent by a SCEF (service capability open network);

and performing authorization decision on the overall signed QoS of the third-party AS according to the overall signing information and the user signing information of the third-party application server AS, performing authorization decision on the QoS of the UE request service, and generating a policy and charging control rule.

Preferably, the first and second liquid crystal films are made of a polymer,

and the overall subscription information of the third-party AS is stored in a user subscription database SPR or predefined in the PCRF.

Preferably, the first and second liquid crystal films are made of a polymer,

the overall subscription information of the third-party AS comprises at least one of the following information: the identifier of the third-party AS, the MBR pre-signed by the third-party AS, the GBR pre-signed by the third-party AS, the maximum number of users pre-signed by the third-party AS, the type and type of the allowed service pre-signed by the third-party AS, and QoS level information.

Preferably, the first and second liquid crystal films are made of a polymer,

the QoS request carries information of a service requested by the UE and QoS information corresponding to the service requested by the UE.

Preferably, the first and second liquid crystal films are made of a polymer,

the QoS request carries IP filtering information and application type information used for strategy control differentiated service data flow SDF, application bandwidth requirements, integral signing information of the third-party AS, and time period or flow threshold information of QoS request.

The invention also provides a service capability open network SCEF, which includes:

the first authorization decision unit is used for carrying out authorization decision on the overall signed service quality QoS of the third-party application server AS;

the system comprises a sending unit and a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), wherein the sending unit is used for sending a QoS request to the PCRF, and the QoS request is used for enabling the PCRF to carry out authorization decision on the QoS of a service requested by a user terminal (UE) so as to generate policy and charging control rules.

Preferably, the first and second liquid crystal films are made of a polymer,

the SCEF further includes a first storage unit, configured to store overall subscription information of the third-party AS, where the overall subscription information of the third-party AS includes at least one of:

Preferably, the first authorization decision unit is further configured to perform an authorization decision on the overall subscription QoS of the third-party AS according to the overall subscription information of the third-party AS and the QoS request of the third-party AS.

The invention also provides a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), which comprises:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a QoS request from a third party application server AS sent by a service capability openness network SCEF;

and the second authorization decision unit is used for carrying out authorization decision on the overall signed QoS of the third-party AS according to the overall signing information and the user signing information of the third-party AS, carrying out authorization decision on the QoS of the UE request service and generating a policy and charging control rule.

Preferably, the first and second liquid crystal films are made of a polymer,

the PCRF also comprises a second storage unit which is used for storing the overall subscription information of the third-party AS.

In the embodiment of the invention, the SCEF and the PCRF carry out the grading authorization decision, or the PCRF carries out the authorization decision in a unified way, so that the overall QoS authorization of the third-party AS and the QoS authorization of the third-party AS service of an operator are realized, the normal operation of the third-party AS service under the SCEF architecture is ensured, the network resources can be more reasonably distributed, and the problem that the use of other users or services (such AS the service owned by the operator of the user signing the service) is influenced due to the overlarge network load caused by the overlarge traffic or the overlarge number of users of the third-party AS service in the network is avoided.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a Rel-9PCC non-roaming architecture in accordance with the related art;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a PCC non-roaming architecture with SCEF deployment;

fig. 3 is a first schematic flow chart illustrating implementation of policy control under the SCEF framework according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a second implementation flow of policy control under the SCEF framework according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5a and 5b are schematic functional structure diagrams of SCEF according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6a and 6b are schematic functional structure diagrams of a PCRF in the embodiments of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a third party AS session establishment procedure for performing hierarchical authorization on SCEF and PCR respectively according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a third party AS session establishment procedure for PCRF unified authorization decision in the embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, the present invention is described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention.

The embodiment of the invention provides a policy control method under an SCEF architecture, which can realize global policy control on the AS service of a third party.

As shown in fig. 3, the policy control method for a third party application under the SCEF architecture according to the embodiment of the present invention includes the following steps:

step S101, under the PCC architecture deployed by the SCEF, the SCEF makes an authorization decision on the overall subscription QoS of the third party AS.

Referring to fig. 1 and 2, in step S101, the SCEF may perform an authorization decision on the overall subscription QoS of the third-party AS according to the overall subscription information of the third-party AS and the QoS request of the third-party AS.

The overall subscription information of the third-party AS may be stored in the SCEF, includes at least one of: the identifier of the third-party AS, a Maximum Bit Rate (MBR) pre-subscribed by the third-party AS, a Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) pre-subscribed by the third-party AS, a Maximum number of users (corresponding UEs) pre-subscribed by the third-party AS, a type and a type of an allowed service pre-subscribed by the third-party AS, and QoS class information of the third-party AS (for example, a processing latency or a delay of a pre-subscribed service of the third-party AS, and a processing priority).

Step S102, sending QoS request to PCRF, making PCRF carry out authorization decision for QoS of service requested by UE (i.e. making PCRF execute policy and charging control of IP-CAN session), and generating policy and charging control rule.

The QoS request may include at least one of service information requested by the UE, QoS information corresponding to the service requested by the UE, and overall QoS authorization decision information of a third-party AS.

In step S101, if the SCEF does not succeed in performing the authorization decision, the QoS request is not sent to the PCEF; if the authorization decision part is successful, the information about the success of the authorization decision part can be carried in the QoS request and sent to the PCRF, so that the PCEF completes the authorization decision; if the authorization decision is successful, a QoS request is sent to the PCRF.

The embodiment of the present invention further describes a policy control method for a third party application under the SCEF framework, and as shown in fig. 4, the policy control method for a third party application under the SCEF framework, which is described in the embodiment of the present invention, includes the following steps:

step S201, under the PCC architecture deployed by the SCEF, the PCRF receives the QoS request from the third party AS sent by the SCEF.

The SCEF may process the QoS request locally (to convert to a format recognizable by the PCRF) and send the QoS request to the PCRF over the Rx interface.

The QoS request (which can be sent in the form of a Diameter AAR message) carries the information of the service requested by the UE and the QoS information corresponding to the service requested by the UE; the policy and charging rule information may further include application information such AS IP filtering information and application type used for policy control differentiated Services Data Flow (SDF), application bandwidth requirements, overall predefined QoS subscription information of the third-party AS (i.e., overall subscription information of the third-party AS), time period for requesting QoS, or traffic threshold, and the like, which are referred to for the PCRF to make policy decision.

Step S202, according to the overall signing information and the user signing information of the third-party AS, authorization decision is carried out on the overall signing QoS of the third-party AS, authorization decision is carried out on the QoS of the service requested by the UE (corresponding user), and a policy and charging control rule is generated.

The overall subscription information of the third-party AS is stored in the SPR or predefined in the PCRF.

Wherein, the overall subscription information of the third-party AS comprises at least one of the following: the identifier of the third-party AS, the MBR pre-signed by the third-party AS, the GBR pre-signed by the third-party AS, the maximum number of users pre-signed by the third-party AS, the type and type of the allowed service pre-signed by the third-party AS, and QoS class information (for example, the processing latency or delay of the pre-signed service, and the processing priority).

An SCEF is further described in the embodiments of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 5a, the SCEF includes:

a first authorization decision unit 100, configured to perform an authorization decision on an overall subscribed quality of service QoS of a third-party AS;

a sending unit 200, configured to send a QoS request to the PCRF, where the QoS request is used to enable the PCRF to perform an authorization decision on QoS of a service requested by the UE to generate policy and charging control rules.

The first authorization decision unit 100 and the sending unit 200 may be regarded as entities with different functions in the SCEF, and may be specifically implemented by a server or a server cluster bearing the SCEF.

AS shown in fig. 5b, the SCEF further includes a first storage unit 300 (which may be implemented by a nonvolatile storage medium such AS a hard disk, a flash memory, or the like) configured to store the overall subscription information of the third-party AS, where the overall subscription information of the third-party AS includes at least one of the following information:

the identifier of the third-party AS, the MBR pre-signed by the third-party AS, the GBR pre-signed by the third-party AS, the maximum number of users pre-signed by the third-party AS, the type and type of the allowed service pre-signed by the third-party AS, and the QoS level information of the third-party AS.

The first authorization decision unit 200 is further configured to perform an authorization decision on the overall signed QoS of the third-party AS according to the overall subscription information of the third-party AS and the QoS request of the third-party AS.

An embodiment of the present invention further describes a PCRF, and as shown in fig. 6a, the PCRF includes:

a receiving unit 400, configured to receive a QoS request from a third party AS sent by an SCEF;

and a second authorization decision unit 500, configured to perform an authorization decision on the overall signed QoS of the third-party AS according to the overall subscription information and the user subscription information of the third-party AS, perform an authorization decision on the QoS of the UE request service, and generate a policy and charging control rule.

The PCRF further includes a second storage unit 600 (which may be implemented by a non-volatile storage medium such AS a hard disk, a flash memory, and the like) for storing the overall subscription information of the third party AS.

The embodiment of the present invention further describes a computer storage medium, where an executable instruction is stored in the computer storage medium, and the executable instruction is used to execute the policy control method of the third-party application shown in fig. 3 or fig. 4.

The following describes a policy control method for third-party application according to an embodiment of the present invention with reference to a specific example.

Example 1

This example describes that, in the SCEF deployment scenario shown in fig. 2, at the first side, the SCEF makes an authorization decision for the overall subscribed QoS of the third party AS, and at the second side, the PCRF makes an authorization decision for the IP-CAN session of the UE and the QoS of the data traffic stream in the session, that is, an application session establishment procedure for hierarchical authorization at the first side and the second side. In this embodiment, the overall subscription information of the third party AS is stored in the SCEF.

As shown in fig. 7, the policy control under the SCEF architecture includes the following steps:

step S301: the UE attaches to the network and establishes an IP-CAN session.

And in the process of establishing an IP-CAN session by UE (user equipment), a Gx session for policy and charging control is established between the PCEF and the PCRF, and if the IP-CAN session relates to the BBERF, a gateway control session for policy control is established between the BBERF and the PCRF.

Step S302: and the UE interacts with a third-party AS and initiates service access.

Step S303: a specific interaction flow is performed between the third party AS and the AF.

The third party AS sends the service request to the AF, where the service request carries the service requested by the user and the QoS corresponding to the service requested by the user, and the service request may be sent in the form of a hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or an Application Program Interface (API), and the service request may also include a usage amount (e.g., Application bandwidth, time, or traffic) for requesting QoS.

The interface for sending the service request between the third party AS and the AF is a non-standard interface, and the message and function of the interface are not limited in practical application.

Step S304: the AF sends a QoS request to the SCEF.

For example, the QoS request may be sent in the form of an HTTP POST or API message, where the QoS request carries a UE IP, service information requested by the UE, and QoS information corresponding to the service requested by the UE.

The AF sends the QoS request to the SCEF based on a standardized interface that the SCEF can recognize, and thus may format the QoS request from the third party AS, including screening and padding information in the QoS request.

The QoS request may further include an application identifier and a media stream description, and the QoS information corresponding to the service requested by the UE may include QoS class information, such as service processing latency or delay, and processing priority; preferably, the QoS information may include an amount of requested QoS (e.g., application bandwidth, time, or traffic).

Step S305: the SCEF makes an authorization decision on the overall subscribed QoS of the third party AS.

The SCEF carries out authorization decision on the overall signed QoS of the third-party AS according to locally stored overall signed information of the third-party AS, namely the overall predefined QoS (pre-defined QoS) signed information of the third-party AS and the QoS request of the third-party AS; if the authorization is successful, the subsequent steps are performed, and if the authorization decision fails, the SCEF may notify the third party AS of the authorization failure message.

AS mentioned above, the overall subscription information of the third-party AS at least includes information such AS service processing waiting time, time delay, and processing priority; the overall subscription information of the third-party AS may also be a QoS level indication agreed by the third-party application provider and the operator, and the specific manner of the agreed negotiation is executed according to the implementation requirement and the operator policy.

The overall subscription information of the third-party AS is stored in the SCEF, and comprises at least one of the following: the identifier of the third-party AS, the MBR pre-signed by the third-party AS, the GBR pre-signed by the third-party AS, the maximum number of users pre-signed by the third-party AS, the type and type of the allowed service pre-signed by the third-party AS, and the QoS level information (including the processing priority and the processing delay of the pre-signed service) of the third-party AS.

Preferably, when the actual network deployment is performed, the SCEF performs an authorization decision for the overall subscribed QoS of the third-party AS, which may be specifically selected according to an operator policy of the actual network deployment may be implemented in the following manner.

1) For static parameter authorization (for example, whether the third-party AS is signed or not accessible) related to the third-party AS network element, the number of users, the bandwidth usage and the like and unrelated to the dynamic information, the authorization decision of the overall signed QoS of the third-party AS can be completed in the first interaction after the SCEF is powered on, and the authorization decision of the overall signed QoS of the third-party AS is updated according to the authorization period, so that the authorization decision of the parameters is prevented from being repeatedly executed in the service request processing of the UE every time.

2) For subscription parameter authorization (such AS the maximum number of users allowed by a third-party AS, the allowed access user level and the like) aiming at a single (Per) UE rather than a specific service, the authorization decision of the overall subscription QoS of the third-party AS can be completed in the process of establishing the AF session between the UE and the third-party AS for the first time, and the authorization decision of the overall subscription QoS of the third-party AS is updated according to an authorization period, so that the authorization decision of the parameters is prevented from being repeatedly executed in the service request processing of the UE every time.

3) The authorization decision of the overall signed QoS of the third-party AS can be completed in the first session establishment process of the third-party AS and the SCEF, and the authorization decision of the overall signed QoS of the third-party AS can be updated according to the authorization period, so that the authorization decision of the parameters can be prevented from being repeatedly executed in each processing of the service request of the UE.

Step S306: the SCEF sends a QoS request (for example, in the form of a Diameter AAR message) to the PCRF, where the QoS request carries service information requested by the UE, QoS information corresponding to the service requested by the UE, and overall QoS authorization decision information of the third-party AS.

The QoS request may further include application information such AS Internet Protocol (IP) filtering information and application types used for policy control to distinguish SDFs, application bandwidth requirements, overall subscription information of a third party AS, a time period or a traffic threshold for requesting QoS, and the like, which are referred to for further authorization decision of the PCRF.

Step S307: the PCRF returns an AAA acknowledgement message to the SCEF.

Step S308: the SCEF returns an acknowledgement message (e.g. HTTP or API message) to the AF/AS.

Step S309: and the PCRF carries out authorization decision on the service requested by the UE based on the received QoS request.

Service information requested by the UE provided by the third-party AS transmitted by the SCEF, QoS information corresponding to the service requested by the UE, and overall QoS authorization decision information of the third-party AS, and based on information such AS network policy, load state information of the current network, user subscription and the like, authorization decision is performed on QoS of the service requested by the UE.

When the QoS of the IP-CAN session and the gateway control session of the UE is authorized and decided, a PCC rule is generated for the service requested to be transmitted in the IP-CAN session based on the requested QoS, and if the BBERF exists, the PCRF also makes the QoS rule according to the PCC rule.

Step S310: the PCRF provides QoS rules to the BBERF.

Step S311: the PCRF provides PCC rules to the PCEF.

And after the policy is installed and executed by the PCEF, an acknowledgement message is returned to the PCRF.

Step S312: the PCRF sends (RAR, Re-Auth-Request) message to the SCEF, and notifies the SCEF of the authorization decision result of the UE Request service QoS generated in step S309.

Step S313: the SCEF sends an API or HTTP PUT message to the AF to inform the UE of an authorization decision result of requesting the service QoS.

Step S314: the AF returns an acknowledgement message to the SCEF.

Step S315: the SCEF returns an acknowledgement message to the PCRF.

Step S316: the AF reports application related information with third party specific messages, such as reporting accumulated usage to an application server.

This example applies to conventional third party services, as well as third party sponsored data services. When the data service is sponsored by a third party, the AF message received by the SCEF includes various information related to the sponsored data, such as a sponsored service indication, a sponsor identifier, an application provider identifier, and the like, and preferably may include information related to a usage threshold, a charging tariff body, and the like. The message provided by the PCRF received by the SCEF will include information related to the sponsorship data and an optional service usage report, and a specific sponsorship data service flow can be implemented with reference to a related technical flow, and since there is no influence on the QoS authorization decision flow described in this embodiment, a detailed description thereof is omitted here.

Example two

The example describes that under the SCEF deployment scene, SCEF forwards a QoS request of a third party AS to PCRF, and PCRF uniformly completes authorization decision-making on the overall signed QoS of the third party, the IP-CAN session of UE and the QoS of data service flow in session so AS to complete the process of establishing application session; the overall subscription information of the third-party AS is stored in the SPR or predefined locally in the PCRF.

As shown in fig. 8, the method comprises the following steps:

step S401: the UE attaches to the network and establishes an IP-CAN session.

In this procedure, a Gx session for policy and charging control is established between the PCEF and the PCRF. And if the IP-CAN session relates to the BBERF, establishing a gateway control session for policy control between the BBERF and the PCRF.

Step S402: and the UE interacts with a third-party AS and initiates service access.

Step S403: a specific interaction flow is performed between the third party AS and the AF.

The third party AS provides service information requested by the UE and QoS information corresponding to the requested service to the AF, and sends a request to the AF, wherein the request carries the information of the service requested by the UE and the QoS information corresponding to the requested service, and can send the request in the form of HTTP or API; preferably, the request may further include the usage of bandwidth, time, and traffic of the application requesting QoS.

Step S404: the AF sends a QoS request (e.g., HTTP POST or API message) to the SCEF, where the QoS request carries the UE ip, the UE ID, information of the service requested by the UE, and QoS information corresponding to the service requested by the UE.

The QoS request may also include an application identification and a media stream description; the QoS information may include service processing latency or delay, processing priority, and the like, and preferably may also include usage such as bandwidth, time, and traffic of an application requesting QoS.

Step S405: the SCEF processes the QoS request locally (to convert to a format recognizable by the PCRF) and sends the QoS request to the PCRF over the Rx interface.

The QoS request (which can be sent in the form of a Diameter AAR message) carries the information of the service requested by the UE and the QoS information corresponding to the service requested by the UE; the policy control system can also comprise application information such AS IP filtering information and application types used for differentiating the SDF by the policy control, application bandwidth requirements, integral predefined QoS subscription information of a third-party AS (namely the integral subscription information of the third-party AS), time period or flow threshold value of QoS request and the like, and the information is used for making reference for further policy decision of the PCRF.

The SCEF may have a mapping function of the overall predefined QoS subscription information of the third-party AS, AS described above, the overall predefined QoS subscription information of the third-party AS at least includes QoS class information, such AS service processing latency or delay, and processing priority information; the overall predefined QoS subscription information of the third-party AS can be mapped into the current Rx interface QoS parameter; or QoS level indication (e.g., QoS level defined by the operator or agreed by the operator and a third party agreement) after mapping for the SCEF, the specific manner is performed according to the implementation requirement and the operator policy.

Step S406: the PCRF returns an AAA acknowledgement message to the SCEF.

Step S407: the SCEF returns a confirmation message (which may be sent in the form of an HTTP or API message) to the AF/AS.

Step S408: at this time, if the PCRF has not interacted with the SPR yet, the PCRF needs to interact with the SPR at this time.

And the PCRF judges that if the subscription information of the UE does not exist according to the UE identification, sends a subscription document request to the SPR, and carries the UE identification and the PDN identification in the subscription document request.

Step S409: the SPR returns the user subscription information (i.e. subscription document answer) according to the user identity and the PDN identity.

The overall subscription information of the third-party AS may be stored in the SPR, and includes an identifier of the third-party AS, an MBR pre-subscribed to the third-party AS, a GBR pre-subscribed to the third-party AS, a maximum number of users pre-subscribed to the third-party AS, a type and an allowed service type pre-subscribed to the third-party AS, and QoS level information (e.g., processing latency or delay, and processing priority) of a service pre-subscribed to the third-party AS.

If the service is the sponsorship data service, the SPR can provide the sponsorship data connection document and the overall contract information of the sponsor to the PCRF at the moment. The sponsorship data connection document comprises information such as a sponsorship service indication, a sponsor identification, an application provider identification and the like; preferably, the information comprises related usage threshold, charging tariff main body and the like; the items included in the overall contract information of the sponsor may refer to the overall contract information of the third party AS described above.

Step S410: after the PCRF successfully makes an authorization decision for the overall subscription OoS of the third-party AS, based on the received subscription information of the SPR, the information of the service requested by the UE, the QoS information corresponding to the service requested by the UE, and the overall subscription information of the third-party AS, which are transmitted by the SCEF, in combination with information such AS a network policy and a current network load state, and information such AS a user subscription, the authorization decision is made for the QoS of the service requested by the UE.

Carrying out authorization decision on QoS of an IP-CAN session and a gateway control session of the UE, and generating a PCC rule for the service based on the QoS of the UE request service; and if the BBERF exists, the PCRF also formulates a QoS rule according to the PCC rule.

In this example, the overall subscription information of the third-party AS may be stored in the SPR, or may be locally defined in the PCRF according to an operator policy, where the specific content may include a third-party AS identifier, MBR pre-subscribed to the third-party AS, GBR pre-subscribed to the third-party AS, the maximum number of users pre-subscribed to the third-party AS, the type and type of the allowed service pre-subscribed to the third-party AS, and QoS level information such AS processing priority and processing delay of the service pre-subscribed to the third-party AS.

It should be noted that, the authorization decision is made for the QoS of the service requested by the UE, on the premise that the authorization for the overall subscribed QoS of the third party AS is successful; that is, in this step, the authorization decision for the third party AS overall signed QoS and the authorization decision for OoS requesting the service by the UE are both substantially included.

Step S411: the PCRF provides QoS rules to the BBERF.

Step S412: the PCRF provides the PCC rules to the PCEF, and after the PCEF installs and executes the policy, a confirmation message is returned to the PCRF.

Step S413: the PCRF sends an RAR message to the SCEF and notifies the SCEF of a decision result of the UE request service QoS authorization.

Step S414: the SCEF sends an API or HTTP PUT message to the AF to inform the UE of a decision result of requesting the QoS authorization.

Step S415: the AF returns an acknowledgement message to the SCEF.

Step S416: the SCEF returns an acknowledgement message to the PCRF.

Step S416: the AF reports application related information with third party specific messages, such as reporting accumulated usage to an application server.

This example applies to conventional third party services, as well as third party sponsored data services. When the data service is sponsored by a third party, the AF message received by the SCEF includes various information related to the sponsored data, such as a sponsored service indication, a sponsor identifier, an application provider identifier, and the like, and preferably includes information related to a usage threshold, a charging tariff body, and the like. The message provided by the PCRF, which is received by the SCEF, will contain information about the sponsorship data and optionally a traffic volume report. The specific sponsorship data service process can be realized by referring to the related technical process, and the invention is not described in detail because the QoS authorization mode of the invention is not necessarily influenced.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the SCEF may include an application access control logic function, but the SCEF and the application access control function entity are not identical and include; the content of the overall subscription information of the third-party AS is listed by way of example, and actual network deployment can be expanded and combined according to the strategy of an operator; for the storage of the overall subscription information of the three-party application AS, the storage may be deployed to the network element suggested in the above embodiment, or deployed to other data centers or platforms of the operator network according to the operation policy.

In the first example, the SCEF and the PCRF make a hierarchical authorization decision, and in the second example, the PCRF uniformly authorizes two scenarios; in practical application, an operator can perform combined deployment according to an operation strategy, can simultaneously support two authorization modes, and starts a corresponding mode to execute according to requirements.

In the embodiment of the invention, the overall QoS authorization of the third-party AS and the QoS authorization of the AS service by an operator are reasonably realized, so that the normal operation of the third-party AS service under the SCEF architecture is ensured, the network resources can be more reasonably distributed, and the problem that the use of other users or services (such AS the service owned by the operator of a user signing the service) is influenced due to the overlarge AS service flow or the overlarge number of users at the moment of the network is avoided; meanwhile, the operator can provide services for the third-party AS service without interfering with normal operation of the operator's own service, and the problems that if a large number of users sign the third-party AS service and initiate the service in a large amount in busy hours in the related art, the operator cannot perform overall resource policy control on the service according to the current signing mechanism, and the network performance is seriously reduced due to the impact of the overall occupied resources or the number of users of the service are solved.

The above architectures and embodiments, PCC architecture deployed for SCEF; in actual network deployment, when AAC with simpler functions is adopted AS a connecting network element between a third party AS and PCRF, the method of the invention can also be adopted to carry out AS overall QoS authorization and QoS authorization of users and services; when the deployment is the AAC, the main scheme can be realized by replacing the SCEF in the two embodiments with the AAC function, and the specific detailed flow is adjusted and implemented according to the actual network deployment requirement and the operation policy.

The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention, and various modifications and changes may be made by those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement and the like made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be understood to be included in the scope of the present invention by those skilled in the art: all or part of the steps for implementing the method embodiments may be implemented by hardware related to program instructions, and the program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, and when executed, the program performs the steps including the method embodiments; and the aforementioned storage medium includes: a mobile storage device, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and other various media capable of storing program codes.

Alternatively, the integrated unit of the present invention may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium if it is implemented in the form of a software functional module and sold or used as a separate product. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the methods described in the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a removable storage device, a RAM, a ROM, a magnetic or optical disk, or various other media that can store program code.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present invention, and all the changes or substitutions should be covered within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the protection scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A policy control method for a third party application, the method comprising:

the SCEF carries out authorization decision on the overall subscription service quality QoS of the AS, wherein the SCEF stores the overall subscription information of the AS, and the overall subscription information of the AS comprises at least one of the following information: the identifier of the third-party AS, the MBR (maximum bit rate) pre-signed by the third-party AS, the GBR (guaranteed bit rate) pre-signed by the third-party AS, the type and type of the allowed service pre-signed by the third-party AS, and the QoS (quality of service) level information of the third-party AS;

2. The method of claim 1,

the overall subscription information of the third-party AS comprises the maximum number of users subscribed by the third-party AS in advance.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the SCEF making an authorization decision for an overall contracted QoS for a third party AS comprises:

4. The method of any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the QoS request comprises UE requested service information, QoS information corresponding to the UE requested service, and overall QoS authorization decision information for the third-party AS.

5. A policy control method for a third party application, the method comprising:

according to the overall subscription information and the user subscription information of the third-party application server AS, performing authorization decision on the overall subscription QoS of the third-party AS, performing authorization decision on the QoS of the UE request service, and generating a policy and charging control rule, wherein the overall subscription information of the third-party AS comprises at least one of the following information: the identifier of the third-party AS, the MBR pre-signed by the third-party AS, the GBR pre-signed by the third-party AS, the allowed service type and type pre-signed by the third-party AS, and QoS level information.

6. The method of claim 5,

7. The method of claim 5,

8. The method of claim 5,

9. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 8,

10. A service capability exposure network, SCEF, comprising:

a sending unit, configured to send a QoS request to a policy and charging rules function entity PCRF, where the QoS request is used to enable the PCRF to perform an authorization decision on QoS of a service requested by a user equipment UE to generate policy and charging control rules;

a first storage unit, configured to store overall subscription information of the third-party AS, where the overall subscription information of the third-party AS includes at least one of the following: the identifier of the third-party AS, the MBR (maximum bit rate) pre-signed by the third-party AS, the GBR (guaranteed bit rate) pre-signed by the third-party AS, the type and type of the allowed service pre-signed by the third-party AS, and the QoS (quality of service) level information of the third-party AS.

11. The SCEF of claim 10 wherein,

12. The SCEF according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the first authorization decision unit is further configured to perform an authorization decision on the overall subscribed QoS of the third-party AS according to the overall subscription information of the third-party AS and the QoS request of the third-party AS.

13. A policy and charging rules function, PCRF, comprising:

a second authorization decision unit, configured to perform an authorization decision on the overall subscription QoS of the third-party AS according to the overall subscription information and the user subscription information of the third-party AS, perform an authorization decision on the QoS of the UE request service, and generate a policy and charging control rule, where the overall subscription information of the third-party AS includes at least one of the following: the identifier of the third-party AS, the MBR (maximum bit rate) pre-signed by the third-party AS, the GBR (guaranteed bit rate) pre-signed by the third-party AS, the type and type of the allowed service pre-signed by the third-party AS, and the QoS (quality of service) level information of the third-party AS.

14. The PCRF of claim 13,