KR20100086105A - Method and system for changing information of policy and charging control rule at mobile telecommunication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: By getting the information in which PCRF uses the extensible markup language and which is created the new parameter in the PCC regulation and in which PCEF parses the new parameter and which is changed it directly can parse the new parameter and the change method and system of the PCC regulation easily can get the changed information of the PCC regulation. CONSTITUTION: By using the extensible markup language, it is created the new parameter of the PCC regulation and the PCRF(230) varies the PCC regulation. If it receives a message the changed PCC regulation request, PCRF transmits the changed PCC regulation. The PCEF(240) receives a message the changed PCC regulation which is transmitted from PCRF. PCEF gets the PCC rule information parsing the new parameter and is changed. The new parameter is made to the string form.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CHANGING INFORMATION OF POLICY AND CHARGING CONTROL RULE AT MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEM}

The present invention relates to a method and system for changing information in a PCC rule. More specifically, the present invention provides a method and system for changing the information of the PCC rule when the PCRF adds a new parameter to the PCC rule using the Extensibility Generation Language (XML), the PCEF parses the new parameter to obtain the changed information It is about.

With the rapid development of communication technology, the mobile terminal has reached a stage of providing a high-speed data service capable of providing multimedia services such as e-mail, still images, and moving images to mobile terminals as well as general voice services.

The so-called third generation (3G) mobile communication systems supporting both general voice service and packet service include a synchronous CDMA 2000 system and an asynchronous Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). The third generation mobile communication system as described above provides a multimedia service to a mobile terminal through interworking with a specific network.

On the other hand, the mobile communication system sets the policy on the quality of service and the charging rule for the service use, and provides services to the terminals according to the set policy and charging rule. To this end, the Policy and Charging Rules Function (hereinafter referred to as 'PCRF') receives service information from an Application Function (or 'AF') and receives a Policy and Charging Control Rule, Hereafter, the 'PCC rule' is generated. The PCRF provides the generated PCC rule to a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (hereinafter, referred to as 'PCEF'). The PCEF then provides the terminal with a Quality of Service (QoS) service according to the service flow to the terminal based on the PCC rule.

However, when a configuration information or a parameter of a PCC rule needs to be changed or added in the related art, there is a problem that a new parser for parsing the added parameter should be added and thus the package of the PCC rule should also be changed. It was.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, when the PCC rule needs to create a new parameter, PCRF generates a new parameter in the PCC rule using Extensibility Generation Language (XML), PCEF parses the new parameter It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for changing information of a PCC rule to obtain changed information.

PCC rule changing method of the present invention for solving the above problems is that the PCRF generates a new parameter of the PCC rule using a scalable generation language to change the PCC rule, the PCRF from the PCEF the PCC rule And upon receiving the request, transmitting the changed PCC rule to the PCEF and acquiring the changed PCC rule information by receiving the changed PCC rule and parsing the new parameter.

In addition, the PCC rule change system of the present invention for solving the above problems is to create a new parameter of the PCC rule using an extensibility generation language to change the PCC rule, when receiving the changed PCC rule request And a PCEF receiving the modified PCC rule transmitted from the PCRF and receiving the modified PCC rule transmitted from the PCRF, and parsing the new parameter to obtain changed PCC rule information.

Since the present invention generates a new parameter in a PCC rule using Extensibility Generation Language (XML), when adding a new parameter to a PCC rule, the new parameter can be directly parsed without having to change a package or add a parser. Therefore, the changed information of the PCC rule can be easily obtained.

The PCC rule provision system of the present invention described below is assumed to be implemented on an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) domain based on a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) network, but is not limited thereto. It doesn't have to be.

A PCC rule (Policy and Charging Control Rule) described below means a control rule including quality of service and charging rules information.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Note that, in the drawings, the same components are denoted by the same reference symbols as possible. Further, the detailed description of well-known functions and constructions that may obscure the gist of the present invention will be omitted.

1 is a diagram illustrating a process of changing a PCC rule and transmitting a changed PCC rule in a conventional PCC rule providing system.

In general, the PCEF 120 receives a PCC rule from the PCRF 110 for providing a service to the terminals and granting the charge. To this end, the PCEF 120 transmits a charging credit request message (hereinafter, referred to as a 'CCR message') to the PCRF 110 in step S110. The PCRF 110 then sends a Charging Credit Request Answer (“CCA message”) including the PCC rule to the PCEF 120. The PCEF 120 then provides services to the terminals according to the received PCC rules.

Herein, it is assumed that a need for changing a PCC rule is generated by an operator in operation S130, and accordingly, it is assumed that a new parameter is added to the PCC rule in operation S140. Then, the PCRF 110 and the PCEF 120 must add a new parser capable of interpreting the new parameter changed in step S140, and at the same time change the package of the PCC rule.

Thereafter, when the PCEF 120 requests the changed PCC rule by transmitting the CCR message to the PCRF 110 again in step S150, the PCRF 110 transmits the changed PCC rule through the CCA message in step S160.

As shown in FIG. 1, in the related art, when a new parameter is added to a PCC rule or a configuration information of a PCC rule is changed, a parser for interpreting a new parameter should be added. At the same time, the package of the PCC rules used by the PCRF 110 and the PCEF 120 should also be changed. Therefore, the present invention proposes a method for more flexibly changing the configuration information of the PCC rule.

2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration entity of a PCC rule provision system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The PCC rule providing system may include a subscription profile store 210, an application function 220, a PCRF 230, and a PCEF 240.

First, the subscription profile store 210 stores subscriber profile information, which is subscription information of subscribers, for example, types of services authorized to subscribers, service quality information permitted to subscribers, billing information of subscribers, information about subscriber categories, and the like. do. When the subscription profile store 210 receives the subscriber profile information request from the PCRF 230, the subscription profile store 210 transmits the requested subscriber profile information to the PCRF 230 in response thereto.

The application function 220, when the subscriber station negotiates the quality of service information request using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) or the like, the subscriber terminal sends and receives a Session Description Protocol (SESSION DESCRIPTION PROTOCOL); Or 'SDP' to generate service information. The service information generated by the application function 220 includes an Internet protocol (or 'IP'), a port, a media type, a bandwidth, application information of an application function, and recording information of an application function. It may include. When the application function 220 receives the service information request from the PCRF 230, the application function 220 transmits the service information to the PCRF 230 in response thereto.

PCRF 230 generally resides in a wireless data network and works with subscription profile storage 210 and application function 220 to generate PCC rules for QoS and billing. In other words, the PCRF 230 generates a PCC rule based on the subscriber profile information received from the subscription profile store 210 and the service information received from the application function 220. The PCRF 230 transmits the PCC rule generated at the request of the PCEF 240 to the PCEF 240.

The PCRF 230 according to an embodiment of the present invention uses the extensible generation language (eXtensible Markup Language, or 'XML') when the PCC rule changes, for example, when a new parameter needs to be added to the PCC rule. To form a string. Here, the extensibility generation language is a multi-purpose markup language, which can be applied to describe a large number of types of data, and is mainly designed to overcome the limitations of HTML by allowing data to be easily transmitted and received between other systems, especially those connected to the Internet. It means language. The string refers to a sequence of symbols or values, such as a string or a string of bits.

Here, the new parameter configured in the form of a string using the extensibility generation language is negotiated with each other so that the PCRF 230 and the PCEF 240 can encode and decode the same. That is, the PCRF 230 and the PCEF 240 basically include a parser capable of encoding and decoding (or parsing) the scalable generation language. Accordingly, when the PCRF 230 encodes and transmits a PCC rule including a new parameter, the PCEF 240 may receive and decode the PCC rule and parse the new parameter to obtain changed PCC rule information. .

PCEF 240 requests PCC rules from PCRF 230 to receive PCC rules. In addition, the PCEF 240 provides a QoS service according to a service flow to the terminal based on the PCC rule.

The PCEF 240 according to an embodiment of the present invention may receive the modified PCC rule from the PCRF 230 and decode it, and parse the new parameter included in the PCC rule to obtain the changed PCC rule information.

Conventionally, when a new parameter is to be added to a PCC rule, there is a problem in that a parser capable of parsing the added new parameter must be added and a PCC rule package must be changed at the same time. However, in the present invention, a new parameter is generated using an extensible generation language negotiated to encode and decode between the PCRF 230 and the PCEF 240. Therefore, there is no need to add a parser to parse new parameters, so there is no need to change the PCC rules package. According to the embodiment of the present invention as described above it is possible to change the PCC rules more dynamically.

Meanwhile, the interface between the PCRF 230 and the PCEF 240 is defined as a Gx interface. The Gx interface uses the Diameter Protocol.

In general, the Diameter protocol is provided based on TCP or SCTP and provides an authentication, authorization, and charging framework for performing network access control, network quality assurance, and service policy assignment functions. Here, since the details of the diameter protocol are disclosed in 'RFC 3588', the present invention will be described only for necessary parts and detailed descriptions for other parts will be omitted.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating header and attribute value pairs (AVP) of a diameter protocol message used in a Gx interface. Here, the header of the diameter protocol message may include a version 310, a command flag 320, a message length 330, a command code 340, an application ID 360, a hop-to-hop ID 360, and an end-to-end ID 370. Contains a field.

The Version 310 field indicates the version of the Diameter Protocol message.

The Command Flags 320 field indicates whether the diameter protocol message is for a request or for a response.

The Message Length 330 field indicates the length of the Diameter Protocol message.

The Command Code 340 field indicates the type of Diameter Protocol message. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the command code 340 field may indicate whether the diameter protocol message is a CCR message or a CCA message.

The Application ID 350 field is an identifier determined according to the interface type. In an embodiment of the present invention, the application ID may have an identifier according to a Gx interface.

The hop-by-hop ID 360 field indicates whether a hop is a diameter protocol message corresponding to a hop in the case of a multi-hop. For example, in a multi-hop system including a base station, a relay, and a terminal, a hop formed between a base station and a relay is called a first hop, and a hop formed between a relay and a terminal is called a second hop. In this case, the hop-to-hop ID indicates which hop among the first hop and the second hop the diameter protocol message corresponds to.

The End-to-End ID field indicates the starting entity and the ending entity of the diameter protocol message. For example, the originating entity of the CCA message containing the PCC rule is PCRF 230 and the terminating entity is PCEF 240.

The diameter protocol message includes an attribute value pairs (AVP) field which is actual data information. The specific format of the AVP 380 is shown in FIG. 4 below.

4 is a diagram illustrating a specific format of an AVP included in a diameter protocol message. The format of the AVP shown in FIG. 4 includes an AVP code 410, a VMP 420, an AVP length 430, a vendor ID 440, and a data 450 field.

In the AVP code 410 field, a preset code is displayed according to the diameter protocol message.

In the VMP 420 field, information on a vendor, a mandatory or optional configuration, a proxy, and the like of the AVP is displayed.

The length of the AVP is displayed in the AVP length 430 field.

The vendor ID 440 field indicates an ID of a corresponding vendor when the VMP 420 field indicates a vendor.

In the data 450 field, information of an actual AVP is recorded.

Here, the PCC rule transmitted from the PCRF 230 to the PCEF 240 is set through an AVP called charging rule definition. The format of the charging rule definition AVP is shown in FIG. 5 below.

5 is a diagram illustrating the format of the charging rule definition AVP included in the PCC rule transferred from the PCRF 230 to the PCEF 240.

As shown in FIG. 5, the charging rule definition AVP is composed of grouped AVPs such as 'Service-Identifier' and 'Rating-Group'. The charging rule definition AVP may define and use a new parameter under the agreement of the PCRF 230 and the PCEF 240, in addition to the parameters predefined in the standard (or 'AVP', hereinafter same). The newly defined parameter is shown 510 in FIG. 5.

In this case, according to the prior art, the PCRF 230 and the PCEF 240 should have separate parsers for parsing new parameters, and at the same time, generate new packages for PCC rules.

In the present invention, in order to solve the above problem, the new parameter 510 is written in a string format using an extensible generation language. An example of a new parameter written in this format is shown in FIG. 6.

6 is a diagram illustrating an example in which a new parameter of a PCC rule is written in a string format using an extensibility generation language.

An identifier such as 'A10' or 'A20' indicates a data field. In addition, integers such as '50' and '10' described in the above data fields represent data for defining a new parameter in a string format.

The parser for extensible generating language is already provided by default with PCRF 230 and PCEF 240. Therefore, even if a new parameter written in the extensibility generation language is generated, a parser for parsing it does not need to be added separately, and thus a package of PCC rules can also maintain the conventional package.

FIG. 7 illustrates a process in which the PCRF 230 transmits a PCC rule including the new parameter to the PCEF 240 and parses the new parameter included in the PCC rule received by the PCEF 240 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Is a flow chart showing.

First, it is assumed that a business operator or the like needs to change a conventional PCC rule in step S710, for example, it is necessary to generate a new parameter in the PCC rule. Then, the PCRF 230 receives a new parameter in the form of a string of an extensibility generation language through a user interface (UI) in operation S720. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the operator may input data for a new parameter through a command window of the PCRF 230. Here, a specific example of the string format for the new parameter has been shown in FIG. 6.

The PCEF 240 then sends a CCR message to the PCRF 230 when it is determined that the PCC rule is necessary. Then PCRF 230 generates a CCA message in step S740. Here, the CCA message is encoded in the state including the PCC rule including the new parameter, characterized in that the new parameter is written in the form of a string of the extensible generation language. In addition, the PCRF 230 transmits the generated CCA message to the PCEF 240 in step S750.

The PCEF 240 receives the CCA message generated and transmitted from the PCRF 230, and decodes the CCA message in step S760. PCEF 240 may then obtain the PCC rule. In operation S770, the PCEF 240 parses the new parameter included in the PCC rule to obtain changed information.

In this case, since the PCEF 240 basically includes a parser capable of parsing the extensible generating language, a separate parser does not need to be added.

As described above, since the present invention generates a new parameter in the PCC rule using the extensibility generation language, when the new parameter is added to the PCC rule, the new parameter can be directly parsed without changing the package or adding a parser. The changed information of the PCC rule can be easily obtained.

The embodiments of the present invention disclosed in the present specification and drawings are merely illustrative of specific embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention in order to facilitate understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that other modifications based on the technical idea of the present invention can be carried out in addition to the embodiments disclosed herein.

1 is a diagram illustrating a process of changing a PCC rule and transmitting a changed PCC rule in a conventional PCC rule providing system.

2 illustrates a configuration entity of a PCC rule provision system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a diagram illustrating a header and an AVP of a diameter protocol message used in a Gx interface.

4 illustrates a specific format of an AVP included in a diameter protocol message.

5 shows the format of the charging rule definition AVP included in the PCC rule passed from the PCRF 230 to the PCEF 240.

6 illustrates an example in which a new parameter of a PCC rule is written in a string format using an extensibility generation language.

FIG. 7 illustrates a process in which the PCRF 230 transmits a PCC rule including the new parameter to the PCEF 240 and parses the new parameter included in the PCC rule received by the PCEF 240 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Flowchart showing the.

Claims (6)

In the PCC rule change method in IP multimedia subsystem including PCRF and PCEF, The PCRF generating a new parameter of the PCC rule using an extensible generation language to change the PCC rule; When the PCRF receives the PCC rule request from the PCEF, transmitting the changed PCC rule to the PCEF; And Receiving, by the PCEF, the changed PCC rule and parsing the new parameter to obtain changed PCC rule information. The method of claim 1, And the new parameter is written in a string format. The method of claim 1, And the new parameter is input through a user interface of the PCEF. In PCC rule change system in IP multimedia subsystem including PCRF and PCEF, A PCRF for generating a new parameter of the PCC rule using an extensible generation language to change the PCC rule, and transmitting the changed PCC rule upon receiving the changed PCC rule request; And And a PCEF for receiving the changed PCC rule transmitted from the PCRF, and for parsing the new parameter to obtain changed PCC rule information. The method of claim 4, wherein And the new parameter is written in a string format. The method of claim 4, wherein And the new parameter is input via a user interface of the PCEF.

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