WO2013097230A1

WO2013097230A1 - Policy control method, device and system

Info

Publication number: WO2013097230A1
Application number: PCT/CN2011/085168
Authority: WO
Inventors: 王旭; 王玉婷; 胡玉胜
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2011-12-31
Filing date: 2011-12-31
Publication date: 2013-07-04
Also published as: CN102550056A; CN102550056B

Abstract

Provided are a policy control method, device and system for a user, relating to the field of communications. In the present invention, when a user performs access, a home location register (HLR) is applied to judge whether a home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user, when policy control can not be performed on the user until a home PCRF corresponding to the user is applied, a home PCRF which can perform policy control for a special service to which the user subscribes is searched and determined, which reduces the network complexity and makes it possible to meet the data synchronization requirements in a scenario of deploying multi-PCRF.

Description

Method, device and system for strategy control

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

The 3GPP (The 3rd Generat ion Pa said rtnership Project, 3rd Generation Partnership Project) protocol introduces the network element PCRF (Poly icy and Charging Rules Functation) for policy and charging control based on the original network architecture. The charging rule function) performs charging control for services such as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) of the user.

Book

The user subscription information stored in the PCRF is more focused on the dynamic service and accounting related policy information of the user, and can dynamically generate some variable policies based on various information such as service and network status, and perform user access control and accounting. Adjustment. For example, FUP (Fair Usage Policy), which is commonly used in MBB (Mobi le Broadband) networks, is a typical application of PCRF. By reporting the traffic used by the user on the MBB network to the PCRF for aggregation, the PCRF can determine whether the user has used too many network resources. If the traffic used by the user exceeds the threshold set by the operator, the PCRF notifies the network device to make some adjustments to the user access, such as limiting the user's access bandwidth or adjusting the user's rate.

However, due to the characteristics of the PCRF, the PCRF is required to collect user and network data at any time to adjust the local storage strategy. When the network capacity is small, the capacity and coverage of the PCRF can meet the requirements; when the network capacity is increasing, the PCRF is difficult to meet this requirement, and multiple PCRFs need to be deployed to meet the network capacity requirements. However, because the user has a certain randomness in signing the business (such as the group package, the signing user is actually random), and not every PCRF can control the policy of any business contracted by the user. For example, when a user signs a special service, the user's home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user. The PCRF that handles the user's special service can be referred to as the user's home PCRF, and different services may require different home PCRF processing. Due to the randomness of the deployment of multiple PCRFs and user subscription services, it is difficult to determine the relationship between the user and the PCRF through pre-configuration.

The method currently used is to set a PCRF to determine the affiliation between the user and the PCRF in the deployed multiple PCRFs. When the user signs a special service, the PCRF determines the The user's home PCRF (another PCRF) is then controlled by the user's home PCRF.

In the process of implementing the present invention, the inventors have found that the prior art has at least the following problems: In the mode of deploying multiple PCRFs, when users subscribe to special services, they need to rely on two PCRFs to complete the policy judgment, which increases the network complexity, and the data synchronization between multiple PCRFs is difficult due to excessive complexity. . Summary of the invention

In order to solve the problem that the existing PCRF judgment mode leads to an increase in network complexity, the embodiment of the present invention provides a method, a device, and a system for policy control. The technical solution is as follows:

A method of policy control, the method comprising:

The HLR (Homing Locat Dependent Location Register) receives a subscription inquiry request sent by the SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node);

The HLR determines, according to the subscription query request, whether the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user. When the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user, the HLR searches for the home PCRF of the user, and sends the PCRIF to the SGSN. Sending a response message including the identifier of the home PCRF, so that the SGSN sends a message including the identifier of the home PCRF to a GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node, Gateway General Packet Radio Service Support Node), so that the GGSN The home PCRF requests policy control for the user. A method of policy control, the method comprising:

The GGSN receives the message sent by the SGSN;

When the identifier of the user's home PCRF is included in the message, a message for the user request policy is sent to the home PCRF, so that the home PCRF performs policy control on the user. A home location register HLR, the HLR includes:

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

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

a first control module, configured to: when the determining module determines that the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user, determine, to determine, the home PCRF of the user, and send a response message that includes the identifier of the home PCRF to the SGSN, where So that the SGSN sends a message including the identifier of the home PCRF to the GGSN, so that the GGSN requests a policy for the user to the home PCRF. A gateway general packet radio service support node GGSN, the GGSN includes: a second receiving module, configured to receive a message sent by the SGSN;

a second sending module, configured to: when the message received by the second receiving module includes the identifier of the user's home PCRF, send a message for the user request policy to the home PCRF, to facilitate the attribution The PCRF performs policy control on the user. A policy controlled system, the system comprising: an HLR as described above and a GGSN as described above. The technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention has the following beneficial effects: when the user accesses, the home location register HLR is used to determine whether the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user, and the home PCRF corresponding to the user must be used. When the user performs policy control, the home PCRF that can be used for policy control of the special service that is subscribed to by the user is searched, which reduces the complexity of the network and ensures the data synchronization in the scenario of deploying multiple PCRFs. DRAWINGS

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly described. It is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention. Other drawings may also be obtained from those of ordinary skill in the art in view of the drawings.

1 is a first schematic flowchart of a method for policy control according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

2 is a second schematic flowchart of a method for policy control according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

3 is a schematic flowchart of a method for policy control according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;

4 is a first schematic structural diagram of a home location register according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a second schematic structural diagram of a home location register according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention; FIG.

6 is a schematic structural diagram of a determining module of a home location register according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention; FIG. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a first control module of a home location register according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention; A schematic diagram of a structure of a gateway general packet radio service support node provided by the fourth embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a second structure of a gateway general packet radio service support node according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention. detailed description

The embodiments of the present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Example 1

This embodiment provides a method for policy control, in which the execution entities are HLR and GGSN, respectively. among them,

As shown in Figure 1, the HLR is the execution subject, and a method of policy control includes the following steps:

101a, receiving a subscription query request sent by the SGSN;

102a. Determine, according to the subscription query request, whether the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user.

103a, when the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user, the home PCRF of the user is obtained, and a response message including the identifier of the home PCRF of the user is sent to the SGSN, so that the SGSN sends the identifier of the home PCRF that includes the user to the GGSN. The connection request causes the GGSN to request a policy for the user to the home PCRF of the user. As shown in FIG. 2, the GGSN is used as an execution subject, and a method for policy control includes the following steps:

101b. Receive a connection request sent by the SGSN.

102b. When the connection request includes the user's home PCRF, send a request for the user to request policy control to the user's home PCRF, so that the user's home PCRF performs policy control on the user. A method for performing policy control on a user according to an embodiment of the present invention, when the user accesses, using the home location register HLR to determine whether the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user, and the home PCRF corresponding to the user must be used. When the policy is controlled by the user, the home PCRF that can be used for policy control of the special service that is subscribed to the user is searched, and the network complexity is reduced, so that the data synchronization in the scenario of deploying multiple PCRFs can be met. Example 2

The embodiment provides a policy control method, and performs function expansion in the HLR, the SGSN, and the GGSN, by borrowing the existing Gr interface between the HLR and the SGSN, and the existing Gn interface between the SGSN and the GGSN. The cell extension is performed on the interface. In the case where multiple PCRFs are deployed on the network, the user is automatically assigned a home PCRF according to the subscription status of the special service (such as a family package, enterprise package, etc.).

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, two PCRFs are arranged in the network as an example for description.

As shown in FIG. 3, a method for policy control includes the following steps:

201. The SGSN receives an access request (Rep (Active Request)) sent by the user.

The access request Act Rep should include the user's identification information, such as IMSI (International Mobile Subscriberdentification Number).

202. The SGSN sends a subscription query request to the HLR. Query Subscrition ₀ The Query Subscrition of the subscription query may include the identification information of the user, so that the HLR can find the new academic year or subscription information of the attribute of the user according to the identification information of the user.

The user's attribute information may specifically refer to the user's subscription data, such as QoS information, pre-paid, post-paid, etc.; the user's subscription information (contracting feature) may specifically refer to a special service package that the user signs to the operator, such as a family package, Group packages, etc.

203. The HLR determines, according to the subscription request, whether the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user. If not, steps 204-208, 214-215 are performed, and if yes, steps 209-215 are performed.

The HLR determines, according to the subscription request, whether the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user, and may specifically: search for the attribute information or subscription information of the user locally saved according to the identification information of the user included in the subscription request; according to the attribute information of the user or The contracted service information determines whether the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user.

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

Further, the home PCRF refers to a PCRF that has policy control over a specific subscription service. When the user subscribes to the specific subscription service, the home PCRF must be used for policy control. If the operator wants to distinguish the PCRF corresponding to the user (that is, the home PCRF of the user) according to the situation of the user subscription package, or the subscription package of the user causes it to correspond to its home PCRF, the current user needs to specify the PCRF for policy control. Not any PCRF can policy control the user.

For example, in this embodiment, PCRF-1 and PCRF-2 are included, wherein both PCRF-1 and PCRF-2 can perform policy control on service A, and only PCRF-2 can perform policy control on service B, then When enjoying service B, PCRF-2 is the home PCRF of the user, and the user only performs policy control through PCRF-2, and the user and the PCRF-2 have a affiliation relationship.

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

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

Specifically, the response message without the home PCRF may be a No Specific PCRF (no need to belong to the PCRF), wherein the message may be obtained by cell expansion through an existing Gr interface between the HLR and the SGSN.

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

Specifically, the message including the indication that the home PCRF is not required may be Act Req - PCRF No Specific, and the message may be obtained by performing cell expansion through an existing Gn interface between the SGSN and the GGSN, for example, utilizing GTP-C message. The message may include a field indicating that the home PCRF is not required, or the message is not included. The identification information of the home PCRF is included to indicate that the home PCRF is not required.

206. The GGSN allocates a PCRF according to the user.

The GGSN allocates the PCRF to the user according to the existing rules for allocating the PCRF to the user, such as the polling, the minimum load, and the longest waiting. In this embodiment, the PCRF allocated by the GGSN is the PCRF. 1 is an example for explanation.

207. The GGSN requests a policy for the user to the PCRF-1.

In this embodiment, the request for requesting the policy for the user may specifically be CCR-I (Credit Control Request- Initial), CCR-U (Credit Control Request-Update), and modify the charging control request. Or CCR-T (Credit Control Request-Termination), etc., are all existing request messages, and are not described here.

208. PCRF-1 returns a policy control response to the GGSN.

Wherein, corresponding to the CCR_I, CCR-U or CCR_T in step 207, the response of the policy control returned by the PCRF-1 to the GGSN is specifically CCA-I (Credit Control Answer-Initial), CCA-U (Credit Control Answer - Update, modify the charging control response) or CCA-T (Credit Control Answer- Termination).

209. The HLR determines, according to the attribute information of the user or the subscription information, the home PCRF of the user.

In this embodiment, the determination is made by determining, as an example, that the user's home PCRF is PCRF-2;

210. The HLR sends a response message including the foregoing home PCRF identifier to the SSGN.

Specifically, the response message including the identifier of the home PCRF is Homing PCRF = PCRF-2 (the user's home PCRF=PCRF-2), wherein the message can be sent through the existing Gr interface between the HLR and the SGSN. The meta extension is obtained.

211. The SSGN sends a message including the foregoing home PCRF identifier to the GGSN.

Specifically, the message including the foregoing home PCRF identifier may include multiple types, for example, the following may be: Act Req - Homing PCRF = PCRF - 2 (connection request - user's home PCRF = PCRF - 2), the message may be through the SGSN and The existing Gn interface between the GGSNs is obtained by cell extension, for example, by using GTP-C messages.

Further, the foregoing home PCRF identifier may also be carried in other messages sent by the SSGN to the GGSN, for example: Create PDP Context Request, Update PDP Context Request, Delete PDP Context Request, PDP context request) and so on.

Among them, PDP (Packet Data Protocol) is a packet data protocol.

Further, when the SSGN sends a connection request including the home PCRF identifier to the GGSN, the authentication information may also be included. 212. The GGSN requests a policy for the user to the PCRF-2.

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

213. PCRF-2 returns a policy control response to the GGSN.

Wherein, corresponding to the CCR_I, CCR-U or CCR_T in step 212, the response of the policy control returned by the PCRF-2 to the GGSN is specifically CCA-I, CCA-U or CCA-T.

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

Specifically, the access response is an Act Resp (Act ive Response).

215. The SSGN returns an access response to the user. A method for performing policy control on a user according to an embodiment of the present invention, when the user accesses, using the home location register HLR to determine whether the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user, and the home PCRF corresponding to the user must be used. When the policy is controlled by the user, the home PCRF that can be used for policy control of the special service that is subscribed to the user is searched, and the network complexity is reduced, so that the data synchronization in the scenario of deploying multiple PCRFs can be met. Example 3

As shown in FIG. 4, this embodiment provides a home location register HLR, and the HLR includes:

The first receiving module 301 is configured to receive a subscription query request sent by the SGSN.

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

The first control module 303 is configured to: when the determining module 302 determines that the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user, determine the home PCRF of the user, and send a response message including the identifier of the home PCRF to the SGSN, so that the SGSN sends the response message to the GGSN. The message containing the identity of the home PCRF causes the GGSN to request a policy for the user from the home PCRF.

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

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

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

The first searching unit 3021 is configured to search for attribute information or subscription information of the user according to the identification information of the user included in the subscription request.

The determining unit 3022 is configured to determine, according to the attribute information or the subscription information of the determined user by the first searching unit 3021, whether the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user. Further, as shown in FIG. 7, the first control module 303 includes a second searching unit 3031, configured to: when the determining module 302 determines that the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user, according to the attribute information or the subscription information of the user. Find a home PCRF that determines the user;

The first sending unit 3032 is configured to send a response message including the identifier of the home PCRF to the SGSN, so that the SGSN sends a message including the identifier of the home PCRF to the GGSN, so that the GGSN requests the user for the policy from the home PCRF. The home location register provided by the embodiment of the present invention uses the home location register HLR to determine whether the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user when the user accesses, and the user PCR is required to use the home PCRF corresponding to the user. When the policy is controlled, the home PCRF that obtains the policy control for the special service that is subscribed to by the user is searched, which reduces the complexity of the network and ensures the data synchronization in the scenario of deploying multiple PCRFs. Example 4

As shown in FIG. 8, the embodiment provides a gateway general packet radio service support node GGSN, where the GGSN includes:

The second receiving module 401 is configured to receive a message sent by the SGSN.

The second sending module 402 is configured to: when the message received by the second receiving module 401 includes the identifier of the user's home PCRF, send a message to the home PCRF as a user request policy, so that the home PCRF performs policy control on the user. Further, as shown in FIG. 9, the foregoing GGSN further includes:

The third sending module 403 is configured to: when the connection request received by the second receiving module 401 includes an indication that the home PCRF is unnecessary, allocate a PCRF to the user, and send a message for the user request policy to the allocated PCRF, so as to facilitate the foregoing allocation. The PCRF controls the user policy. The gateway general packet radio service support node provided by the embodiment of the present invention can reduce the network complexity, so that the data synchronization requirement in the scenario of deploying multiple PCRFs can be met. Further, the present invention also provides a policy control system comprising the HLR described in Embodiment 3 and the GGSN described in Embodiment 4. A person skilled in the art can understand that all or part of the steps of implementing the above embodiments may be completed by hardware, or may be instructed by a program to execute related hardware, and the program may be stored in a computer readable storage. In the medium, the above-mentioned storage medium may be a read only memory, a magnetic disk or an optical disk or the like. The above are only the preferred embodiments of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the present invention. Any modifications, equivalents, improvements, etc., which are included in the present invention, should be included in the present invention. Within the scope.

Claims

Claim

A method for policy control, characterized in that it comprises:

Receiving a subscription query request sent by the general packet radio service support node SGSN;

Determining, according to the subscription query request, whether a home policy and a charging rule function are required, and the PCRF controls the user;

When the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user, the search determines the home PCRF of the user, and sends a response message including the identifier of the home PCRF to the SGSN, so that the SGSN provides a general packet wireless service to the gateway. The support node GGSN sends a message containing the identity of the home PCRF, such that the GGSN requests a policy for the user from the home PCRF.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

When the home PCRF is not required to perform policy control on the user, a response message without the home PCRF is sent to the SGSN.

The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the determining, according to the subscription request, whether the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user, includes:

Searching for the attribute information or the subscription information of the user according to the identification information of the user included in the subscription request; determining whether the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user according to the attribute information or the subscription information of the user.

The method according to claim 3, wherein the searching determines the home PCRF of the user, including: determining, according to the attribute information or subscription information of the user, the home PCRF of the user.

5. A method of policy control, characterized in that it comprises:

Receiving a message sent by the general packet radio service support node SGSN;

When the message includes the user's home policy and the identifier of the charging rule function PCRF, a message for the user request policy is sent to the home PCRF, so that the home PCRF performs policy control on the user.

The method according to claim 5, further comprising: When the message includes information that does not need to be a home PCRF, the PCRF is allocated to the user, and a message requesting the user is sent to the allocated PCRF, so that the allocated PCRF performs policy control on the user. .

7. A home location register HLR, comprising:

a first receiving module, configured to receive a subscription query request sent by the general packet radio service support node SGSN, and a determining module, configured to determine, according to the subscription query request received by the first receiving module, whether a attribution policy and a charging rule are required The function PCRF controls the user's policies;

a first control module, configured to: when the determining module determines that the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user, determine, to determine, the home PCRF of the user, and send a response message that includes the identifier of the home PCRF to the SGSN, where The SGSN is configured to send a message including the identifier of the home PCRF to the gateway general packet radio service support node GGSN, so that the GGSN requests a policy for the user from the home PCRF.

8. The HLR according to claim 7, further comprising:

And a first sending module, configured to: when the determining module determines that the home PCRF is not required to perform policy control on the user, send a response message to the SGSN that does not need to be a home PCRF.

The HLR according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the determining module comprises:

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

The determining unit is configured to determine, according to the attribute information or the subscription information of the user that is determined by the first searching unit, whether the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user.

The HLR according to claim 9, wherein the first control module comprises:

a second search unit, configured to: when the determining module determines that the home PCRF is required to perform policy control on the user, determining, according to the attribute information or subscription information of the user, the home PCRF of the user;

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

A gateway general packet radio service support node GGSN, comprising: a second receiving module, configured to receive a message sent by the general packet radio service support node SGSN, and a second sending module, configured to: when the message received by the second receiving module includes a user's home policy and charging rule When the identifier of the function PCRF is sent, a message for the user requesting a policy is sent to the home PCRF, so that the home PCRF performs policy control on the user.

The GGSN according to claim 11, further comprising:

a third sending module, configured to: when the message received by the second receiving module includes information that does not need to be a home PCRF, allocate a PCRF to the user, and send a message for the user requesting a policy to the allocated PCRF. In order to facilitate the policy control of the user by the allocated PCRF.

13. A policy-controlled system, comprising: a home location register HLR according to any of claims 7-10 and a gateway universally as claimed in any of claims 11-12 The packet radio service service supports the node GGSN.