MXPA06008884A - Method and communication system to allow barring a call of a roaming user after pdp context activation - Google Patents

Abstract

A system for deactivating an established communication channel (e.g. Radio Access Bearer) between a user station and an access point, which provides a service to the user station. The system transfers user data (e.g. subscriber profile) stored in a database entity (e.g. HLR) to a serving controller (e.g. SGSN) connected between the user station and the access point (e.g. GGSN) and defines at the serving controller that that user is not permitted to access that service (i.e. must be barred for that service), allowing for deactivation of the established communication channel based on the transferred user data. Conventional techniques, however, allow barring a certain service (through a PDP context activation) only at the activation phase (i.e. when the PDP context does not exist), but the invention allows to bar a service even after an activation of a PDP context (e.g. when a user roams between his/her home and visiting network).

Description

METHOD AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEM TO ALLOW TO EXCLUDE A CALLING A TRAVELING USER AFTER AN ACTIVATION OF A CONTEXT OF PACKAGE DATA PROTOCOL DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the control of communication sessions in a communication system, and in particular, but not exclusively, to control "a communication session established through a packet data network between a station. The communication system can be seen as an installation that allows communication sessions between two or more entities such as the user's equipment, controllers and / or other nodes associated with the system, communication can include, for example, communication of voice, video, data, multimedia, etc. A communication session can, for example, comprise a two-way telephone call or a conference session or multi-way connection between a user's computer and an application server (AS , for its acronym in English), such as a server service provider or proxy. erally allows several services to be provided to a user. Typically, signaling of several entities associated with a communication session is required in order to control the communication session. The control is required Ref .: 174930 typically for the establishment of the communication session and also later during communication in the established communication session. The signaling may be based on a protocol or on appropriate communication protocols. Communication can be provided through fixed line and / or wireless communication interfaces. An example of the fixed line system is a public switched telephone network (PSTN). Wireless communication can be provided by means of a mobile communication system. Mobile communication systems generally refer to any telecommunication system that allows wireless communication when users are moving within the service area of the system. An example of a typical mobile communication system is a Land Mobile Public Network (PLMN). The mobile communications network can provide an access network that provides a user with wireless access to external networks, guests, or services offered by specific service providers. The user may need to have a subscription with the mobile communications system in order to be able to use the services of the mobile system. Subscriber's mobile subscription information may indicate parameters such as parameters that relate to the quality of service (QoS) that the subscriber is entitled to receive, priorities, service restrictions, security, authentication, etc. An access point or gateway node of the mobile communications network provides additional access to an external network or to an external host. For example, if the requested service is provided by a service provider located in another network, the service requester is directed through a gateway node or access point to the other network and to the service provider. The address ^ can be passed in definitions in the mobile subscription information stored in the mobile network. A more detailed example will now be described with reference to a general radio packet service (GPRS). The operational environment of the GPRS comprises one or more subnetwork service areas, which are interconnected by means of a GPRS structure network. A subnetwork may comprise a number of service nodes (SNs) of packet data. In this specification the service nodes will be referred to as in-service controller entities or specifically in-service GPRS support nodes (SGSN, for its acronym in English) . Each of the SGSNs is connected to radio networks, typically to base station systems and / or radio access networks of base station controllers (BSC) and / or radio network controllers (RNC). , for its acronym in English) so that they can provide a packet service for mobile user equipment through several base stations, controlling cells of a cellular network. The intermediate mobile communications network provides packet switching data transmission between a support node and a mobile user equipment. The subnets are in turn connected to an external data network, for example, a packet data network (PDN), via GPRS gateway support nodes (GGSN). Therefore, GPRS allows the transmission of packet data between the mobile user equipment and external data networks A context of packet data protocol (PDP) can be established to carry traffic through the communication system A PDP context typically includes a radio access bearer provided between the user equipment, the radio network controller and the SGSN, and packet switched data channels provided between the service node of GPRS in service and the gateway GPRS service node A session between the user's equipment and another party would then take place in the context of PDP A PDP context can carry more than one traffic flow, but all Traffic flows in a particular PDP context are treated in the same way with respect to their transmission through the network. This requirement with respect to the similar treatment is based on the treatment attributes of the PDP context associated with the traffic flows. These attributes may include, for example, quality of service and / or load attributes. In GPRS networks, the mobile user's equipment may optionally indicate, in a message requesting to activate a packet data protocol (PDP) context in the network, an access point name (APN, for its acronym in English) for selection from a reference point to a certain external network. A serving GPRS support node (SGSN) can authenticate the mobile user and send a PDP context creation request to a selected gateway node (GGSN), for example, according to an access point name given by the user's equipment, or the default GGSN known to the SGSN. Various features can be controlled by the controlling entity in service, such as the SGSN, during a communication session. This control can be based on information associated with the subscription stored in a dedicated subscriber information database. A well-known example of subscriber information database is a general subscriber record (HLR). Another example is a base subscriber server (HSS). Various user equipment (UEs) such as computers (fixed or portable), mobile phones and other mobile stations, personal data assistants and organizers, etc., are known to the person with experience. All of these - can be used to access packet data networks, for example, corporate intranets or the Internet, to obtain services. The mobile user's equipment, typically referred to as a mobile station (MS), can be defined as a means that is capable of communication via a wireless interface with another device such as a base station of a telecommunications network mobile phones or any other station. The increasing popularity of Third Generation (3G) communication systems will, in all likelihood, significantly increase the possibilities for accessing services in data packet networks through the user's equipment (UE, for its acronym in English) as well as other types of UE. The term "service" used in lines above and hereinafter in general shall be understood to broadly cover any service or good a user may desire, require or be provided to him / her. The term will also be understood in general to cover the provision of complementary services. In particular, but not exclusively, the term "service" shall be understood to include, scan, download, email, continuous flow services, Internet Protocol (IM) multimedia services, conference, telephony, games, enriched call, presence, e-commerce and messaging, for example, instant messaging. The modalities of the present invention are related to the so-called "operator-determined exclusion" (ODB), where at least one of the operators or service providers decides to exclude a user from a service. This can be initiated either by the MS or the -red, but it is the operator who decides whether or not a user should be excluded from a service. In general, in order to activate a PDP context, there is a two-stage process. First, an initialization process is experienced between the HLR and the SGSN in order to establish that the user is in fact a subscriber of the service and that a PDP context can be activated for that user. In summary, this is accomplished by examining the contents of the HLR which contains subscriber data and will indicate whether a PDP context is allowed to activate for a particular user. Second, if a PDP context is allowed to be established, the SGSN will establish a radio bearer channel with the user's station, or if a PDP context is not allowed to be established, the SGSN invokes an exclusion function and The PDP context will not be established. The European Institute of Telecommunications Standards (ETSI, for its acronym in English) has a standard specification to implement an ODB. "This is currently the Version 5 specification entitled" 3GPP TS 23.015"V5.0.0 (2002-06) "and is available on the Internet site of the ETSI. Therefore, the current ETSI specification only describes the possibility of excluding a PDP context during the first stage, that is, during the initialization process and before the PDP context is established. Also, this specification is an operator who wishes to exclude a PDP context for a user, completely excluding the user. A previously filed patent application WO 02/093689 published on November 21, 2002 recognizes that deletion of a PDP context is not optimal when it is necessary to cease subsequently excluding that PDP connection (i.e., reactivating a service for a PDP). user) . In this case, the operator will need to recreate the PDP context, which is often difficult and unreliable since the operator needs to make sure that the recreated PDP context is the same as it was before being deleted. This is achieved by adding a functional status indicator (ie, setting bits) to user data stored in the HLR, where the aggregate status indication defined for each user will determine whether each user's PDP context is activated or deactivated. This allows a PDP context to be deactivated without being removed from the HLR. However, the system described in WO 02/093689 also relates to the activation / deactivation of a PDP context only in the first stage. At least one objective of the embodiments of the present invention mitigates these drawbacks. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for deactivating a communication channel established between a user station and an access point which provides a service to the user's station, the method comprising the steps of: transferring data of the user stored in a database entity to an in-service controller connected between the user's station and the access point; define in the in-service controller that this user is not allowed access to that service and deactivate the communication channel established based on the user data transferred. In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a communication system comprising: an access point for providing a service to a user station of the network; a database entity for storing user data corresponding to the user; a controller in service ready to establish a communication channel between the user station and the access point to supply the service; and wherein the database entity is operable to transfer user data to the in-service controller whereby the in-service controller determines that that user is not allowed to access that service and deactivates the communication channel established based on the data of the user transferred. In accordance with still another aspect of the present invention there is provided a wireless communication network A comprising: an access point for providing a service to a user station of the network; a database entity for storing user data corresponding to the user; a service controller arranged to establish a communication channel between the user station and the access point to provide the service; and wherein the database entity is operable to transfer the user's data to the in-service controller whereby the in-service controller determines that that user is not allowed to access that service and deactivates the communication channel established based on the user data transferred. Therefore, the present invention provides the advantage that an existing PDP context can be excluded, even though the radio bearer channel for the PDP context has already been established. For a better understanding of the present invention and to show how it can be carried out, reference will be made by way of example to the appended figures, in which: Figure 1 shows a communication system in accordance with modalities of the present invention; Figure 2 shows a known logical architecture of the GPRS system; Figure 3a shows a known method of updating the SGSN to modify ODB data in the SGSN during an initialization phase; Figure 3b shows an example of PDP context-initiated exclusion of an MS during the initialization phase of Figure 3a; Figure 4 shows a dynamic signaling in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention for an already established PDP context; Figure 5 shows an internal structure of the SGSN for carrying out an embodiment of the present invention; and Figure 6 shows an example of a detachment procedure which is initiated by the HLR to deactivate a PDP context. Figure 1 shows a communication system in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. More particularly, one embodiment of the present invention will be described by way of example, with reference to the architecture of a third generation (3G) mobile communication system. However, it will be understood that certain modalities can be applied to any other suitable form of network. The mobile communication system 2 is typically arranged to serve a plurality of user stations 4. In a mobile communication system, the user station preferably takes the form of a mobile telephone. Each "user" station is typically provided with a wireless interface (Um interface) between the user equipment and the base station 5 of the communication system '2. A user station is normally configured for wireless communication with other stations, typically with the base stations of a mobile communication system to allow mobility thereof A user station may include an antenna element to receive and / or wirelessly transmit signals to and from the base stations of the mobile communication system A user station may also be provided with a screen for displaying images and / or other graphic information for the user of the user's station, and speaker means is typically provided.The operation of the user's station may be controlled by the user's station. means of an appropriate user interface, such as control buttons, voice commands, etc. s, a user station is typically provided - with a processor entity and / or memory medium. The communication between the user equipment and the entities of the communication network can be based on any appropriate communication protocol. A user can use a user station for tasks such as, but without: limiting, for example making and receiving "telephone calls, for receiving and sending-" data to and from the network and for experiencing, for example, multimedia content through PDP contexts. For example, a user can access -the network through a Personal Computer (PC), a Personal Data Assistant (PDA), a mobile station (MS, for its acronyms in English), etc. Figure 1 shows two networks, first an HPLM (Domestic Public Land Mobile Network) 16 and a VPLM (Public Visible Land Mobile Network) 18. The HPLM 16 is the user's home network. The user station 4 indicates a situation when the user is within the coverage area of a base station 5 of the user's home network. In contrast, the user station 4 'indicates a situation when the user has roamed and instead is rather within the coverage area of a base station 5' of a visited network which is not the user's home network. It will be appreciated that although a user station 4, 4 'has been shown in Figure 1 (despite being in two different situations), typically a number of user equipment could be simultaneously in communication with each of the stations base 5, 5' . A mobile communication system can be logically divided between a radio access network (RAN) and a central network (CN). In the simplified presentation of Figure 1, the base station 5 belongs to the radio access network. It will be appreciated that although Figure 1 shows the base station of only one radio access network, a typical communication network system usually includes a number of radio access networks. The radio access network (RAJST) 3G is typically controlled by means of an appropriate radio network controller (RNC, for its acronym in English). This is not shown in order to improve the quality. The radio network controller RNC is typically connected to an appropriate core network entity or entities such as, but not limited to, a general packet radio service support node in service (SGSN) 6. A base entity of Subscriber information data in the form of a general subscriber record (HLR) 10 is provided to store information associated with the user of the user station 4 belonging to the home network 16_. The HLR 10 may contain several records associated with the user, such as subscription details of the user's PDP context. The home and visited networks are also shown with their own set of access point name elements (APN l ... n) 12, 14. An APN is a unique identifier of a particular service that is offered by a network operator. network or an external service provider. In order to avoid confusion, the terminology "subscriber" has been used in relation to a user who is subscribed to a particular service offered by an APN, and not a user belonging to a particular network. Although it will be appreciated that the user station user is more generally subscribed to the home network 16. A user station within the radio access network can communicate with a radio network controller through radio network channels which are typically referred to as radio bearers (RBs). These radio network channels can be established in a mobile communication system in a known manner. Each user station 4 may have one or more radio network channels open at any time with the radio network controller. The radio access network controller is in communication with the serving GPRS support node (SGSN) 6 via an appropriate interface. The GGSN 8, 8 'is a gateway GPRS node which provides either one gateway to another PLMN network (i.e., VPLMN) or to some other external network. A generality of the GPRS logical architecture is provided in Figure 2, which shows the various elements and the established interfaces defined between them, although this is well known to those with experience in the art. The SGSN 6 typically communicates with a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) 8 through a GPRS structure network through the Gn. This interface is commonly a packet switched data network. The SGSN 6 and / or the GGSN 8 provides support for GPRS services in the network. The global communication between the user station 4 and the particular services that are offered by one of the APNs 12, 14 is generally provided by a packet data protocol (PDP) context. Once established, a PDP context can typically carry multiple flows. Each flow normally represents, for example, a particular service and / or a component of a particular service. Therefore the PDP context often represents a logical communication path for one or more flows through the network. To implement the PDP context between the user station 4 and the SGSN 6, radio access bearers (RABs) are usually established which commonly allow the transfer of data to and from the user's equipment. The implementation of these logical and physical channels is known to those with experience in the art and therefore will not be discussed further in the present. The user's computer can connect, through the GPRS network, to servers that are generally connected to an external packet data network such as, but not limited to, an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Figures 3a and 3b show the two-step process for the MS that initiated the exclusion of a PDP context in accordance with the current ETSI specification. In particular, Figure 3a shows a first step when the operator decides whether to apply, modify or remove the ODB exclusion for a particular user. In this case, the initial signaling performed between the HLR and the SGSN is done using messages from parts of mobile applications (MAP, for its acronym in English), that is, "insert subscriber data." Thus, the exclusion of packet-oriented services is applied to a subscription per administrative action in the HLR, where the HLR will update the corresponding subscription information and will transfer this updated subscription information to the SGSN. All this takes place before a PDP context has been established. Then at a subsequent time, the second step is performed as shown by means of FIG. 3b, where the exclusion of the PDP context is invoked in the SGSN. That is, if the SGSN receives a request from a user of an MS for PDP context activation which is prohibited by ODB (ie, excluded in the first phase), then the SGSN will return a "negative" response. the PDP request and context will not be established for that user, that is, in the current ETSI specification the exclusion of a PDP context activation initiated in the MS is done before a PDP context is established.

The decision to exclude it is made by the operator or service provider in the SGSN that refers to the relevant APN 12 or GGSN (to access an APN 14 in the visited network 18), where a part of the APN is used to decide whether a particular user should be excluded or not and this information is provided to the HLR which in turn updates the SGSN. One embodiment of the present invention is shown in Figure 4 which shows that the signaling between the HLR and SGSN can also be used during the second stage. That is, by using the standard MAP messages it is possible to exclude a subscriber after a PDP context has been established for the subscriber. Figure 5 shows an embodiment of an SGSN of the present invention to exclude an established PDP context. The SGSN includes or has access to a mobility management database (MM) 20 and a context database of PDP 22. Where the SGSN 6 receives the message "insert subscriber data". "of the HLR 10 with" the associated ODB parameters to exclude an existing PDP context, these parameters are stored in the mobility management (MM) 20 and PDP 22 databases. The comparison circuits 24 in the SGSN verify then if there is an existing PDP context for the subscriber, if there is then the SGSN will perform a different handling using the processor 30 depending on one of the following scenarios: 1. Excluding a user completely from all package oriented services provided by the APN 12, 14, when the user is in the home network indicated by the user's station 4. In this scenario the SGSN will check if there are existing PDP contexts for the user and if so excludes all services by deactivating the existing PDP contexts. 2. Exclude a user from a packet-oriented service by at least one of the APNs 12 offered by the home network 16, when the user is roaming in the visited network 18 indicated by the user's station 4 '. In this scenario, if the user is roaming in the visited network, then the SGSN 6 'will verify through the service that. to be excluded provided by an APN in the domestic network lß. If the APN is in the home network then the context "the existing PDP is deactivated. If the APN is not in the home network nothing is done and the existing PDP context including the bearer channel established between the user station 4 'in the visited network and one of the APNs 14 in the visited network is not affected 3. Exclude a user from a user-oriented service provided by at least one of the APNs 14 offered by the visited network 18, wherein the In this scenario, the SGSN 6 checks if the user is located in the home network If the user is a subscriber of the home network then the SGSN will verify that the service provided by the relevant APN is in the home network. HPLM If the APN is not in the HPLMN (ie it is an APN 14 in the visited network 18) then the PDP context is disabled., if the APN is in the HPLMN (that is, there is a PDP context established between a user station 4 in the home network 16 and an APN 12 in the home network) then nothing needs to be done and the context of PDP established. Figure 6 shows an example of a detachment procedure which is initiated by the HLR to deactivate a PDP context. The HLR uses this procedure for purposes determined by the operator to request the removal of an MM from the subscriber and the PDP context in the SGSN. The detachment procedure initiated by HLR is as follows: 1) If the HLR wants to request the immediate deletion of an MM from the subscriber and the PDP context of the SGSN, the HLR will send a message of "Cancel Position - (IMSI [International Mobile Subscriber Identity], Type of Cancellation) to the SGSN with a Cancellation Type placed on the Withdrawal of Subscription. 2) The SGSN informs the MS that it has been detached by sending a Request for Detachment (Type of Detachment) to the MS. The Type of Detachment will indicate that the MS is not requested to make a new detachment and activation of PDP context. 3) The PDP contexts active in the GGSNs related to this particular MS are deactivated by the SGSN by sending Clear Request Messages Context of PDP (TEID) to the GGSN. GGSNs are recognized with Response to Clear PDP Context messages. 4) If the MS was linked by 1MSI and GPRS, the SGSN sends a GPRS Disconnect Indication Message (IMSI) to the Visitor Location Register (VLR). 9. The VLR removes the associated with the SGSN and manages the paging and location update without going through the SGSN. 5) The MS sends an Accept Release message to the SGSN at any time after step 2. 6) The SGSN confirms the deletion of the MM and the PDP contexts with a message of Cancel Recognition of Location (IMSI). 7) After receiving the Accept message Detachment, if the Release Type did not request the MS to make a new join, then the 3G-SGSN releases the switched packet signaling (PS) connection. Therefore, the embodiments of the present invention allow the SGSN to receive exclusion information at any time in the form of dynamic signaling to the SGSN which can be performed in an already established PDP context to deactivate a PDP context already established under certain conditions. . The dynamic signaling is carried out between the HLR and the SGSN using standard MAP messages. This is advantageous with respect to conventional techniques that only deal with the exclusion of the PDP context during activation and not with "established PDP contexts." Another advantage is that an operator can disable a PDP context of the user without completely excluding the user. It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known by the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention, is that which is clear from the present description of the invention.

Claims (25)

1. CLAIMS Having described -the invention as above, the content of the following claims is claimed as property: 1. A method for deactivating a communication channel established between a user station and an access point which provides a service to the station of the user, characterized in that the method comprises the steps of: transferring subscriber data stored in a subscriber information database to an in-service controller connected between the user station and the access point; decide in the in-service controller that that user is not allowed to access that service and deactivate the communication channel established based on the subscriber's data transferred. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises the step of establishing a communication channel that includes an initialization step carried out before said transfer step to determine whether a communication channel should be established. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that the initialization stage is performed in the service controller which determines whether the communication channel should be established based on the subscriber data transferred to it from the base information of subscriber data in a previous initialization transfer stage prior to that transfer stage. The method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that a packet data protocol context is established to define the established communication channel. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that the packet data protocol context comprises a logical channel and a radio bearer channel. The method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the deactivation method is performed in a wireless communication network. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that the wireless communication network is a cellular communication network. The method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the subscriber information database is located in a home network to which a user of the user's station subscribes, the user station being also capable of roam in a visited network, and where the user station connects to a first-in-service controller - While in the first network and to a second controller in service while in the visited network, the. First and second controllers in service are connected to each other through a gateway node. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that the home and visited networks each have a plurality of access points arranged to provide services corresponding to the user's station through the established communication channels. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that while in the home network the first controller in service deactivates all established communication channels for services provided by the access points in both the home and visited networks. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that while it is in the home network the first service controller deactivates the communication channel established between the user station and the services provided by the access points in the visited network. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that while it is in the visited network -the second service controller deactivates -the communication channel established between the user station and the services provided by the access points in the home network . 13. A communication system, characterized in that it comprises: an access point to provide a service to a user station of the network; a database of subscriber information to store user data corresponding to the user; an in-service controller arranged to establish a communication channel between the user's station and the access point to provide the service, and wherein the subscriber information database is operable to transfer subscriber data to the controlling entity in service whereby the controlling entity in service is willing to determine that the user is not allowed to access that service and deactivates the communication channel established based on the subscriber data transferred 14. The system according to claim 13, characterized in that a packet data protocol context is established to define the established communication channel 15. The system according to claim 14, characterized in that the packet data protocol context comprises a logical channel and a bearer channel. radio 16. The system according to any of claims 13 to 15, characterized in that the system is a wireless communication system. 17. The system according to claim 16, characterized in that "the wireless communication system is a cellular communication system 18. The system according to any of claims" 13 to 17, characterized in that the database of Subscriber information is located on a home network to which a user subscribes to the user's station, the user's station being also able to roam on a visited network, and where the user's station is connected to a first controller at service while in the first network and a second controller in service while in the visited network, the first and second controllers in service are connected to each other through a gateway node. 19. The system according to claim 18, characterized in that the home and visited networks each have a plurality of access points arranged to provide services corresponding to the user's station through the established communication channels. 20. The system according to claim 19, characterized in that - while in the home network the first controller in service is arranged to deactivate all established communication channels-s for services provided- "by the access points in Both the home and the visited networks 21. The system according to claim 19, characterized in that while it is in the home network the first service controller is arranged to deactivate the communication channel established between the user's station and the services provided by the user. access points in the visited network 22. The system according to claim 19, characterized in that while it is in the visited network the second service controller is arranged to deactivate the communication channel established between the user's station and the services. provided by the access points in the home network. subject of wireless communication, characterized in that it comprises: an access point for providing a service to a user station of the network; a database of subscriber information to store subscriber data that corresponds to the user; "an in-service controller arranged to establish a communication channel between the user's station and the access point to provide the service, and wherein the subscriber information database is operable to transfer subscriber data to the in-service controller." whereby the in-service controller determines that that user is not allowed to access that service and deactivates the communication channel established based on the subscriber data transferred 24. A database of subscriber information for use in a network of wireless communication, the database arranged to store stored subscriber data corresponding to the user of the network, characterized in that the subscriber information database is operable to transfer subscriber data to an in-service controller, with the controller in service arranged to establish a communication channel between a user station and an access point to provide a service to that user. 25. A controller in service for use in a wireless communication network, characterized in that the in-service controller arranged to establish a communication channel between a user station and an access point to provide service to the user's station; the in-service controller arranged to receive subscriber data corresponding to the user from a subscriber information database, the in-service controller arranged to determine that that user is not allowed access to that service and to deactivate the established communication channel based on in the subscriber data transferred.