WO2004080092A1

WO2004080092A1 - Device and method for allowing or barring provision of a service and for generating a restriction rule for the same

Info

Publication number: WO2004080092A1
Application number: PCT/EP2003/010424
Authority: WO
Inventors: Alessandra Pandolfi; Mirko Naumann
Original assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
Priority date: 2003-09-18
Filing date: 2003-09-18
Publication date: 2004-09-16
Also published as: AU2003271622A1

Abstract

A method for allowing or barring provision of a service (131) to a terminal (101) in a communications network (12. 14), comprises the steps of: receiving a service request (C1, D1, E1) from the terminal (101) including: a service identifier (505) and a subscriber identifier (507) of a subscriber; reading a restriction rule (501) relating to said service identifier (505), the restriction rule (501) having been defined by the subscriber and comprising a predefined condition (503) on an allowed or a forbidden geographical location for allowing or barring the provision of the service (131), the allowed or a forbidden geographical location being expressed in units of a coordinate system (CS); retrieving (C7, C9; D5, D7; E9, E11) a current geographical location (509) of the terminal (101) from a location server (116), the current geographical location (509) being expressed in units of a coordinate system (190); evaluating (I3; J3; H1) the restriction rule (501) by comparing the current geographical location (509) with said predefined condition (503) thus producing an evaluation result (511); and in response to the evaluation result (511), allowing or barring the provision of the service (131) to the terminal (101).

Description

DEVICE AND METHOD FOR ALLOWING OR BARRING PROVISION OF A SERVICE AND FOR GENERATING A RESTRICTION RULE FOR THE SAME

The invention relates to allowing or barring provision of a service in a communications network and to generating a restriction rule for allowing or barring provision of a service .

Owing to recent developments in communications technology, the spectrum of different services available in a modern communications network has become overwhelming. Most of the services are not offered for free but usually a small service fee is charged. As a consequence, for many subscribers it has become a financial burden to pay their bills in time.

In order to better manage and to eventually reduce the cost of using services offered via a communications network, different service 3restrictions have been developed. At the time of writing, the most common service restrictions are set by network operator, and, in a GSM network, the restriction table is usually directly located at the Home Location Register HLR. For GSM networks, some of the available restrictions have been specified by ETSI and include, for example, barring of all mobile originating calls or barring of all calls while roaming. Further, in many countries, the regulating authorities have enforced limitations for some supplementary services, such as premium rate (0700) numbers. In some countries the regulators require the first turn-on of the barring service to be free for the subscriber. In practice the removal or changing of the barring service will then often be rather costly. Further examples of existing barring services include setting a bar if a monthly upper limit for total cost of service has been exceeded.

A specific problem arises when using a service would be allowable in some occasions, whereas in some others it would be totally unacceptable. An example of such a situation is the use of different entertaining services. It might be desirable that a child is not allowed to download music to his terminal device at school, but at home instead that would be fine - as long as the service is used within the monthly limit.

Some prior solutions known in the art, especially those as defined in US 6,230,017 Bl, EP 1 130 933 Al, and WO 2002/062091, have been proposed either in order to solve the above mentioned problem or to provide means for providing a geographically limited service.

In the '017 patent, the operator defines geographical restriction information for a mobile subscriber and stores it in the subscriber's record in a database at a node of the network, such as the HLR. The geographical restriction information consists of cell identifiers. Although being very efficient, this solution suffers from the problem that it is the network operator who has to define the geographical restrictions. Because of the dawn of new mobile communications services, especially UMTS and GPRS services, the number of services available is expected to rise sharply. This makes the administration of different service barring settings even more cumbersome.

Another practical drawback of the solution presented in the '017 patent is that the cell identifiers are normally not available for an ordinary subscriber, and even if they were, it would be extremely tedious for him or her to define the exact cell coverage in an densely built urban environment including a plurality of cells and location area identifiers. Further, the radio network is changing constantly, and especially in urban areas, the operators tend to provide more radio network capacity in form of extra base stations also for short periods such as for mass events. If, in such an occasion, the cell identities change or if there will be further available base stations not listed in the barring sequence, a geographical restriction as described in '017 would not be applicable.

In EP 1 130 933 Al Location Dependent Services LDS are provided only to service users within a particular location or area. The mobile device is first located, location information sources comprising electronic systems for determining location. Especially GPS, Time of Arrival TOA, and Estimated Observed Time Difference E-OTD have been proposed for obtaining the location information. Then the services are advertised to the subscribers by the network, or the mobile equipment performs a discovery procedure via its network discovery agent. The problem behind the present invention cannot, however, be solved by using this sort of approach, because now the geographical availability of a service is defined by the service provider and not by the .subscriber. Because the geographical location where a service is provided is hereby fixed and known, there is no need not possibility for the user to define the area wherein the service would be allowed.

WO 2002/062091 concentrates, like '017 patent, to providing a so-called Home Zone feature. Even though it alleviates many of the drawbacks of the '017 solution, it still remains a problem how to allow or bar provision of a service to a terminal in a communications network in such a manner that the subscriber would have any control over the restrictions.

Therefore, it remains as an objective of the invention to bring about a method and a device for allowing or barring provision of a service to a terminal in a communications network in such a manner that the geographical restrictions have been defined by the subscriber. An advantage of the invention is that in this manner the allowing or barring provision of a service can better be tailored according to one's needs. Thus it increases the subscriber's control over services for which he or she probably will have to pay.

A further object of the invention is to bring about a method and a device for generating a restriction rule for allowing or barring provision of a service to a terminal in such a manner that the subscriber can define the restrictions by him- or herself. An advantage of the invention is that now the restrictions can be defined in an easier manner and thus be completely left to the subscriber, in this way saving the involvement of the customer service of the operator or service provider.

Both objectives of the invention can be achieved as described in the independent patent claims. The independent patent claims describe various preferred embodiments.

In the following, the invention together with its preferred embodiments is described in more detail with reference to examples in Figure 1 to 5c of the accompanying drawings, of which:

Figure 1 shows the simplified structure of a communications network;

Figure 2 shows a user interface for defining a restriction rule;

Figure 3 illustrates signaling used for defining a restriction rule;

Figure 4 shows a further possibility for defining a restriction rule; and

Figures 5a to 5c are signaling diagrams showing how a service can be allowed or barred by using user-defined restrictions. Same reference numbers refer to same elements throughout Figures 1 to 5c.

Even though the invention will in the following be described by using UMTS Release 5 IP Multimedia Subsystem, it is to be understood that the description serves as an enabling description and that the invention is not to be limited by this but by the patent claims. Any coming Release resulting from the UMTS standardization work, or any other communication system, especially GPRS and GSM, can be used for carrying out the invention as well. Some variance in the terminology used on the market, such as using "Base Transceiver Station" (in 2G or 2.5G networks) or "NodeB" (in 3G networks such as UMTS) for "Base Station" is obvious for the skilled person. In this description the usage of more general terminology is intended.

Figure 1 shows a terminal 101 within a Radio Access Network RAN 11 of a mobile network 12. The RAN 11 comprises a plurality of Base Stations BS 102A controlled by a Radio Network Controller RNC 102B, the terminal 101 communicating with the mobile network 12 wirelessly via the BS 102A. Typically one mobile network 12 comprises a plurality of Radio Network Controller units 102B, but for simplicity Figure 1 shows only one such RNC 102B. A terminal 101 has communication means 165, such as those commonly used for radio communications, and all related means, for enabling a successful communication with the mobile network 12. In the following examples it is also supposed that a terminal 191 which has a wired connection to the Internet can be used.

For packet traffic, the mobile network 12 has a Serving GPRS Support Node SGSN 103 and Gateway GPRS Support Node GGSN 105, Specification 3GPP TS 24.008 defines GPRS attach mechanisms and the creation of a PDP context. The terminal 101 becomes an IP address which is reserved up to the GGSN 105. The traffic between the terminal 101 and the GGSN 105 goes then on the GPRS Tunneling Protocol GTP protocol layer through the SGSN and the RAN 11, wherein there are further specific radio interface layer protocols facilitating resource-efficient data transport over the air interface. As the skilled person appreciates, a more detailed description of the related protocols can be found in the above mentioned reference, and discussing them here in further detail would be immaterial for understanding the invention.

Other users of the mobile network 12, and users of other networks 13, 14, and 15, can communicate with the terminal 101 by using the IP address of the terminal 101. Same applies for different servers providing services 131, typically by running service applications.

If the terminal 101 is moving within the area of the mobile network 12, it may happen that the terminal 101 moves outside the service area of one SGSN 103. In this case another SGSN 103 would be allocated to the terminal 101, but the GGSN 105 would still continue serving the terminal in order to avoid the need of notifying a possible IP address change of the terminal 101 to the sessions it has open.

The terminal 101 may be roaming under mobile network 12 even though its home network 14 were elsewhere. The home network 14 comprises a Home Service Server HSS 115 which includes subscriber data and knows under which mobile network 12 the terminal 101 is roaming. A Serving Call State Control Function S-CSCF 113 is located in the home network 14 of the terminal 101. If the terminal 101 is roaming under another mobile network 12, then the S-CSCF 113 of home network 14 is used via a Proxy Call State Control Function P-CSCF 111. The P-CSCF 111 includes data about applications subscribed for the terminal 101; this data has been transmitted from the S- CSCF 113 to the P-CSCF 111 as a response to a query sent by the P-CSCF 111. Communication between different networks 12, 13, 14, and 15 is normally carried out by using Border Gateways 121 located at both sides of the different networks.

A terminal 191 in the Internet 13 may be a PC having a network connection. Further, the terminal 191 may have a web browser or a downloaded application program for defining service restrictions. In this example, a scenario wherein the former is used is described in more detail. However, for carrying out the invention, the latter possibility can be selected as well.

Figure 2 shows a first screen shot 21 of the terminal 191. The user on the terminal 191 has selected a "restrictions" link from the web page of his own network 14 operator. Then he or she has authenticated himself such as by filling a user identification and password of a valid subscriber identity.

The restriction application 172 in the S-CSCF 113 sends HTML content to the terminal 191 describing in a window 201 all services ordered to the subscriber. When the user selects or highlights a service 203 from the window 201, in another window 205 the existing rules for the selected service 203 are shown. In the same window 205, next to each rule there is a "Delete" -button 206 which allows an easy deletion of a rule associated.

As can be readily seen from window 205, there may one, two, three, or more rules associated for each service. It is also possible that there are no rules associated for a particular service. Preferably such services are either not listed in the window 201 at all, or are identified as services for which no rules have been defined yet. Such an identification may be performed by changing the font of the services for which there is a rule existing to bold whereas the other services are listed in normal font. Alternatively or in addition to this, different picture objects or button colors (red/green) showing the status of restrictions may be defined. For understanding the invention different aesthetic or visual aspects are immaterial even though, if good usability is desired, they cannot be neglected.

By pressing a further button 209 "Define New Rule" a new rule can be defined for the selected service 203. In response to pressing the button 209, a new window 23 shows a map 213 which can be zoomed in/out and relocated by pushing a zoom button 217. The user may also select an area 215 in the map either by selecting a rectangular area, by drawing a free curve defining a closed area, or by selecting a point and giving a desired radius.

Further restrictions can be added via an interface "Enter Time/Date" button 221. Selecting the button 221 the application 172 may open a calendar or show a clock where the user can visually enter suitable restrictions. For example, a restriction can have not only the geographical part but also a calendar (day or date) and time restrictions: for example, if a service is to be barred from a child only close to school and on school days, then the user may enter the beginning and ending of a school day and the school holidays.

After the user has selected the geographical restriction by selecting an area 215 in the map 213 and possibly time and/or date restrictions by pushing "Enter Time/Date" button 221, he proceeds with a "Set" button 219 and may be further requested to confirm the restrictions made.

Even though the defining of restrictions was described as the user sitting by a terminal 191, it is clear that the restrictions could be defined by using a terminal 101 in a communications network, such as in a mobile network. Figure 3 shows signaling used for defining a restriction rule such as in Figure 2. The terminal 101 or terminal 191 sends first a request Al for defining restrictions. Sending the request Al may from the user's side include sending a HTML or WAP request such as selecting a link. Then the application 165 of the terminal 101 (or the terminal 191) create the request Al and the communication means 163 send it to the network 12 to be forwarded to the S-CSCF 113. As can be seen, Figure 3 shows a simplified example from which the invention can be better understood than what would be the case where a completed signaling diagram would be shown, because of the relative complexity of a real communications network.

In response to receiving the request Al, the S-CSCF 113 requests from HSS 115 knowledge about existing restrictions by sending a request A3 and receiving a response A5. Then the S-CSCF 113 sends a request A7 to a Geographic Information System GIS 190. The GIS 190 comprises digitized map data in image or text format and some coordinate data. The GIS 190 forwards a relevant portion of the digitized map data to the terminal 191 by sending a message A9. The message A9 can be routed via the S-CSCF 113 but this is not necessary in all cases. The initial portion of the relevant digitized map data can correspond to the user's home town, for example, or a predefined location defined in the HSS 115 and included in the respond A5 and request A7.

The response A5 further includes a list of services for which there are restrictions defined, and possibly a list of services for which there are no restrictions defined so far. This list from the response A5 is forwarded to the terminal 101 or to the terminal 191 in a separate message All. The message All can be a HTML page, for example. Then the map 213 showing the digitized map data can be displayed in window 23 simply by embedding the message A9 contents into the message All. The processing of the messages All and/or A9 is performed in step 31. Further, the definition of the restrictions as shown in Figure 2 is done. Depending on the implementation selected, this may include exchanging one or more messages between the terminal 101 or terminal 191 and the S-CSCF 113. After defining the restrictions in the manner shown in Figure 2, they are sent to the S-CSCF in a restriction message A13. The restriction message Al 3 comprises a list of services for which restrictions were set, the time/date information on each service and a reference to the geographical data.

The geographical data is sent separately. The terminal 101 or terminal 191 sends a message A15 to the GIS 190 with information on the selections, such as a rectangular area, by free curve defining a closed area, or a point with a desired radius. For example, if a free curve is defined, then it is parameterized in step 31 by means of numeric analysis, such as by defining a Bezier curve or spline representation of the curve. An advantage of using such representations for an area is that the number of coordinate points needed can be significantly reduced. For a circle, the center point and the radius are sent, and for a rectangular area the coordinates of the two opposite corners are sent. The GIS computes in step 33 a representation in a general coordinate system and transmits the thus computed restriction coordinates in message A17 to the S-CSCF 113.

Messages A13, A15, and A17 preferably comprise a session or client identifier. In this manner the S-CSCF 113 can correctly interpret the message A17 to belong to the restrictions information received within the restrictions message A13.

Then the S-CSCF 113 converts in step 35 the restriction message A13 together with the restriction coordinates from message A17 to a restriction rule 501, which is in correct format showing the predefined condition 503 and identifying the services which are to be restricted or allowed. Then the newly set-up restriction rule 501 is sent to the HSS 115 in message A19 which stores then the restriction rule 501 comprising the predefined condition 503 into the restriction table 171.

The restriction table 171 is located in such a place that it is readily available to the S-CSCF. Within the IMS the S-CSCF 113 offers to the terminal 101 session control for end user services. During each session, the S-CSCF 113 is responsible for application level registration, charging and resource utilization, and session flow handling. In general, the S- CSCF 113 can accept requests and, if necessary, even modify them before forwarding them. In some cases, the S-CSCF 113 can itself provide a service. Requests and responses are based on the SIP protocol, and the S-CSCF acts as a SIP proxy and SIP user agent.

The S-CSCF 113 interacts with services 131 running on application servers or service platforms in order to make a service available to users. Service relevant information, such as billing notifications, location information, sound data and so forth can be made available to the users via the S-CSCF 113.

Instead of storing the restriction information in a restriction table 171 in the S-CSCF 113 by sending messages A13, A17, A19, and A21, the restriction information can be stored locally in a local restriction table 161 in the terminal 101. Then the message A15 would be sent to the GIS 190 which would respond directly to the terminal with restriction coordinates.

Further, instead of storing the restriction information either in a restriction table 171 in the S-CSCF 113, or a local restriction table 161, it can be stored in a restriction table 181 within each service 131 concerned. These latter two examples will be discussed with reference to Figures 5B and 5C, respectively, whereas the first example will be discussed in more detail with reference to Figure 5A.

Figure 4 shows another novel way to define a geographical restrictions for a service. The user of a terminal 101 generates in step 41 a message Bl such by typing "NO LOGO HERE" in the SMS entering mode of the terminal 101. In this particular case the message Bl would have a textual format, but it is to be understood, that especially if the step 41 is application-assisted, then the message Bl more probably will have a binary format. For understanding the invention an SMS or an ordinary data packet will nevertheless do.

The terminal 101 sends the message Bl to the S-CSCF 113. If the message Bl is a message of the short message then the SMSC would forward it to the S-CSCF 113 based on the code word "NO" in the beginning of the message Bl . "HERE" would mean that the current geographical location 509 of the terminal 101 has to be found out.

The S-CSCF 113 sends a locationing request B3 to a Location Services Center LCS 116. The LCS performs the locationing in step 43 by sending and receiving one or more messages, possibly with the network 12 and RAN 11. The locationing response is delivered in locationing response message B7, including the current geographical location 509 of the terminal, to the S-CSCF 113. The S-CSCF evaluates the locationing response message B7 and generates in step 45 a restriction message B19 which comprises a restriction rule 501 including a predefined condition 503.

The predefined condition 503 may comprise a specific location, corresponding to the current geographical location 509 of the terminal 101 at the moment when the locationing was performed for it at the time of defining the restriction, i.e. when the step 43 was performed. Further, the predefined condition 503 may define an area around that current gegraphical location 509, such as by giving a diameter. The geographical location and the diameter, or other parameters, defining an area where a service 131 is to be allowed or barred, is preferably expressed in units of a coordinate system CS . For example, the diameter may be 500 m, 1 km, 2 km, or a freely defined by the subscriber. Then the message Bl may furth2er comprise the desired diameter.

In step 45, the contents of the message Bl are analyzed. The setting or removal of a restriction targeted for the service, the identifier of w3hich is present in the message Bl . The word "LOGO" would thus correspond a service request, i.e. a logo representing a dog could be ordered by sending a message "LOGO DOG" to a predetermined service address. In this manner, i.e. when a service restriction or allowing (YES instead of NO, for example) is associated to a locationing result, the subscriber can him- or herself define a service which will be barred in a specific location. In other words, this aspect of the present invention enables the user to restrict use of a service 131 in future at the current geographical location 509 of the terminal 101.

If the removing of a restriction defined requires a password or is performed only after a delay of a fixed period, say 24 hours, many advantages can be obtained. In this manner it will be easier to bring up a child by reducing the number of temptations attempting to reduce his or her concentration at the school. As a second example, a person tempted to drink (an alcoholic, for example) or to make too much purchasing can be helped to gain more control over his or her own life. A bar street or a shopping street can be defined to be a barred location for an electric commerce service in specific times. Especially in but not limited to this case a more detailed restriction type, such as defining the maximum allowed amount and possibly product kinds can be defined. For example, it would be allowable for a subscriber to purchase warm clothing (TYPE = CLOTHING) for a child in the winter, whereas extremely costly (PRICE > PRICE_LIMIT) cosmetic products (TYPE = COSMETICS) would not be allowable.

In the dashed box Jl the S-CSCF 113 sends the restriction message B19 to the terminal 101 which forwards (message B19') it into restriction table 161.

If the restriction would be stored within the S-CSCF 113, then the S-CSCF 113 would in the dashed box J2 just send the restriction message B29' into the restriction table 171.

If the restriction would be stored within a service 131, then the S-CSCF 113 would in the dashed box J3 just send the restriction message B39 into the service 131 which would then store it into restriction table 181 by sending a message B39' .

Figure 5A shows an example on summoning of a service. The terminal 101 sends service request CI to S-CSCF 113. The service request CI includes a service identifier 505 and a subscriber identifier 507. The S-CSCF parses the request CI and after detecting, responsive to the service identifier 505, which service 131 is to be summoned, sends a restriction request C3 to restriction table 171 for reading a restriction rule 501 relating to said service identifier 505.

The restriction table 171 provides the S-CSCF 113 with a restriction response C5. The restriction response C5 comprises a restriction rule 501 comprising a predefined condition 503 on an allowed or forbidden geographical location for allowing or barring the provision of the service 131, and possibly also for time, day, and service class definitions. The predefined condition 503 on an allowed or forbidden geographical location is expressed in units of a coordinate system CS . Preferably, in order to avoid complexity, the coordinate system CS is the same as used in the GIS 190 and LCS 116. A good overview of suitable coordinate systems CS can be found in the Internet from address http : //www. Colorado . edu/geography/gcraf t/ notes /coordsys/ 'coord sys f. html , for example .

After receiving restriction response C5 from the restriction table 171, it sends a locationing request C7 to LCS 171. The LCS performs the locationing in step II in any manner known in state of the art, and sends locationing response C9 to the S-CSCF 113. The locationing response C9 includes the current geographical location 509 of the terminal 101.

In step 13 it is analyzed whether the restriction rule 501 allows the provisioning of the service 131, in regard to time, day, date, or current geographical location 509 of the terminal 101, and to any other parameters relating to the service identifier 505. In step 13, the relevant part of the restriction rule 501 is compared with the current geographical location 509 of the terminal 101.

A part of the comparison in step 13 comprises checking whether or not the current geographical location 509 of the terminal 101 is within a closed geographical area defined by the predefined condition 503 defined in the restriction rule 501. For this purpose, different possibilities or combinations thereof are possible.

For example, if the predefined condition 503 includes a representation of a rectangular area defined in units of a coordinate system CS, then it is checked whether or not the current geographical location 509 lies within the boundaries of the rectangular area. This checking produces an evaluation result 511. If the predefined condition 503 includes the boundary of an area, the boundary being defined as a Bezier or spline representation, for example, then the boundary is extrapolated by using at least some points within the representation. Typically, at least the closest point to the current geographical location 509 would be selected. Then using some algorithm known in the state of the art the unit performing the determination of the evaluation result 511, i.e. in this case the S-CSCF 113, would calculate whether or not the current geographical location 509 is within the boundaries of the predefined geographical area. Also any method of distributed computing, such as using CORBA etc. can be used to distribute at least part of performing the step 13 to remote units, thereby reducing the load in the S-CSCF 113.

If the evaluation result 511 shows that the predefined condition 511 for allowing the service 131 is met, then in step 15 shown in the dashed box Kl, the S-CSCF 113 modifies the original request CI to a modified request Cll and sends it to service 131. The service 131 requests by sending a response C13 to which the terminal 101 responds by sending an acknowledgement C15. Thus a session has been established.

In step 15 in modifying the request CI to a modified request Cll, a key 513 for modifying the request CI may be used. This key 513 has preferably been obtained within the message C5. The modification key 513 may include a mapping to be performed to at least a part of request CI. A simple example is a pairwise modification of the letters in the request. For example, if the original request CI was "LOGO TRAIN", the modified request CI would become "OLOG RTIAN" . Of course also more sophisticated methods can be created, even including decryption of the request CI and ciphering of the modified request Cll.

In the opposite case, i.e. the service 131 is to be barred, in the dashed box K2 the S-CSCF 113 sends a negative acknowledgment C21 to the terminal 101. The terminal 101 then may in step 17 display it to the user. The negative acknowledgment C21 may include a reason code, such as that the restriction is in force, and possibly the relevant part of the restriction, such as the locationing result.

As an alternative, the method steps from sending C3 to making a decision in step 13 can be performed in a application server providing a service 131. This application server within the network 14 collects the restriction rule 171 of all subscribers. When a service request CI is received at the S-CSCF 113, the S-CSCF 113 sends an evaluation request to the concerned server provisioning the application 131, in order to see whether the subscriber's restriction rule 171 is fulfilled or not.

The application server providing the service 131 sends a request for location service to the S-CSCF 113 in order to find out the current geographical location 509 of the terminal 101. The S-CSCF 113 then requests the current geographical location 509 from the LCS 116. When the current geographical location 509 is known, said application server compares it with the restriction rule 171. Additionally, the concerned application server also performs a similar check of time information. As a result of these comparisons, an evaluation result 511 is produced, showing whether or not the predefined condition 503 is fulfilled or not. Finally, a permission response is sent to the S-CSCF 113 which, responsively to the fulfillment of the predefined condition 503, makes the service 131 available or disables the service 131 from the terminal 101.

Figure 5B is a similar example as Figure 5A. Now, instead of having the restriction table 171 in the S-CSCF 113, a restriction table 161 is stored in the terminal 101. The terminal sends a service request DI to the restriction table 161, the service request DI including a service identifiers 505 and subscriber identifier 507. The restriction table 161 in step Jl reads a stored restriction rule 501, generates a locationing request D3 and sends it to S-CSCF 113. The S-CSCF 113 forwards the locationing request D3 to LCS 116 which in step J3 performs the locationing. The locationing result is returned to the S-CSCF 113 in message D7, comprising the current geographical location 509 of the terminal 101. The S- CSCF 113 forwards it as message D9 to the terminal 101.

The terminal 101 passes the current geographical location 509 as message Dll to the restriction table 161 which in step J5 checks whether or not the service is to be allowed, i.e. whether or not the predefined condition 503 in the restriction rule 501 is fulfilled. An evaluation result 511 is generated.

In response to the evaluation result, if the service is to be allowed, then the service table 161 in dashed box K3 forwards the service request DI as service request D13 to the service 131. The service responds by sending an acknowledgement D15 and the terminal responds as well by sending an acknowledgement D17. A session has thus been established between the server providing the service 131 and the terminal 101.

If the service 131 is not to be allowed, then the restriction table 161 sends a negative acknowledgment D19 to the terminal 101. In step J7 this is communicated to the user.

Figure 5C shows one more example quite similar to those in

Figures 5A and 5B. Terminal 101 sends a service request El to a S-CSCF 113. The service request El includes a service identifier 505 and subscriber identifier 507. In response to the service identifier 505, the S-CSCF 113 forwards this request as service request E3 to the service 131 corresponding the service identifier 505. The service 131 requests restriction rule 501 from restriction table 181 by sending a restriction request E5; the service obtains the answer from the restriction table in the restriction message E7. Because the restriction rule 501 is defined by the subscriber, the restriction request E5 includes a subscriber identifier 507.

Then the service 131 sends a locationing request E9 to S-CSCF 113. The S-CSCF forwards the locationing request E9 as locationing request E9' to the LCS 116 which responds with a locationing response Ell' comprising the current geographical location 509 of the terminal 101. The S-CSCF 113 forwards the locationing response Ell' to the service' 131 as locationing response Ell. The service 131 evaluates in step HI whether the service 131 is allowed for the user, i.e. does the current geographical location in 509 in the restriction rule 501, together with other possible limitations in the restriction rule 501, satisfy the predefined condition 503, thus generating an evaluation result 511.

Based on the evaluation result 511, if the service 131 is allowed for the user, then in dashed box K6 the service sends an acknowledgement to the terminal 101 and receives an acknowledgement from the terminal 101. Thus a session has been established.

If the service 131 is not allowed for the user, then in dashed box K5 the service sends a negative acknowledgment to the terminal 101. In step H3 the terminal 101 communicates the receipt of the negative acknowledgement to the user.

Similar steps in regard to using a key 513 for modifying of a request in step in step 15 shown in Figure 5A may be performed also for the cases shown in Figures 5B and 5C. Then the message DI would me modified to a modified message D13.

The step HI would include modifying an identifier included in message El with an identifier received in message E7; depending on the evaluation result 511 then it would be selected between messages in dashed boxes K5 and K6.

Similar considerations relating to checking current geographical location 509 of the terminal 101 to satisfy the predefined condition 503 in order to obtain the evaluation result 511 step 13 in Figure 5A can be performed also in steps J5 (Figure 5B) and HI (Figure 5C) .

List of used reference numbers

11 Radio Access Network RAN

12 mobile network 13 the Internet

14 home network

15 network 101 terminal

102A Base Station BS 102B Radio Network Controller RNC

103 Serving GPRS Support Node SGSN

105 Gateway GPRS Support Node GGSN

111 Proxy Call State Control Function P-CSCF

113 Serving Call State Control Function S-CSCF 115 Home Service Server HSS

116 Location Services Center LCS

121 Border Gateway BG

131 service

161 restriction rule (in terminal 101) 165 communication means

171 restriction rule (in S-CSCF 111)

181 restriction rule (in service 131)

191 terminal

501 restriction rule 503 predefined condition

505 service identifier

507 subscriber identifier

509 current geographical location of the terminal 101

511 evaluation result 513 key

Claims

Claims :

1. A method for allowing or barring provision of a service (131) to a terminal (101) in a communications network (12. 14), comprising the steps of:

- receiving a service request (CI, DI, El) from the terminal (101) including: a service identifier (505) and a subscriber identifier (507) of a subscriber;

- reading a restriction rule (501) relating to said service identifier (505) , the restriction rule (501) having been defined by the subscriber and comprising a predefined condition (503) on an allowed or a forbidden geographical location for allowing or barring the provision of the service (131), the allowed or a forbidden geographical location being expressed in units of a coordinate system (CS) ;

- retrieving (C7, C9; D5, D7; E9, Ell) a current geographical location (509) of the terminal (101) from a location server (116), the current geographical location9 (509) being expressed in units of a coordinate system (190) ;

- evaluating (13; J3; HI) the restriction rule (501) by comparing the current geographical location (509) with said predefined condition (503) thus producing an evaluation result (511) ; and - in response to the evaluation result (511) , allowing or barring the provision of the service (131) to the terminal (101) .

2. A method of claim 1, wherein: the restriction rule (501) further comprises a predefined time, date, or day schedule for allowing or barring the provision of the service (131) .

3. A method of claim 1 or 2, wherein: the allowing the provision of the service (131) to the terminal (101) is performed by modifying (step 15) a service request (Cll) to be sent to an application server producing the service (131) to an allowable format by using a key (513) in a restriction rule (501) .

4. A method of claim 3, wherein: the modifying is performed in a terminal (101) .

5. A method of claim 3, wherein: the modifying is performed in a serving Call State Control Function (113) .

6. A method of claim 3, wherein: the modifying is performed in a server providing the service (131) .

7. A method for generating a restriction rule (501) for allowing or barring provision of a service (131) to a terminal (101), comprising the steps of:

- selecting a service (131) for which the restriction rule (501) is to be defined;

- defining a condition (503) on an allowed or a forbidden geographical location for allowing or barring the provision of the service (131), the allowed or a forbidden geographical location being expressed in units of a coordinate system (CS) ;

- defining a restriction rule (501) comprising said predefined condition (503) ; and - storing said restriction rule (501) with a user identifier (507) , the user identifier (507) identifying a party performing the definition of the restriction rule (501) .

8. A method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of: - generating a key (513) to be used for modifying (in step

15) a service request (CI) into an allowable format (Cll) to be sent to a server providing the service (131) ; and

- storing the key (513) within the restriction rule (501) .

9. A device (101, 113, 131) for allowing or barring provision of a service (131) to a terminal (101), characterized in that: said device (101, 113, 131) comprises means adapted to carry out the method steps of any one of the preceding claims 1 to 6.

10. A device (101, 113, 131) for generating a restriction rule (501) for allowing or barring provision of a service (131) to a terminal (101) , characterised in that: said device (101, 113, 131) comprises means adapted to carry out the method steps of any one of the preceding claims 7 to 8.