WO2014076001A1 - Method and a system for managing user's access information and configuration in 3gpp pcc architecture and a circuit management function - Google Patents

Abstract

A Method and a System for managing user's access information and configuration in 3GPP PCC architecture. The method comprising accessing a user with a user equipment (UE) through an access node of a 3GPP PCC architecture involving mainly an Application Function (AF), a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) and a Subscription Profile Repository (SPR). The method comprising following steps: - providing upon a line configuration request to a Circuit Management Function (CMF) a fixed line configuration information of a circuit including any change made in said fixed line regarding a service profile, and - transferring information about said circuit conditions to a services layer when performing said accessing of said user. The invention also provides a Circuit Management Function intended for providing user's access configuration and information in an automated and convergent way, in real time.

Description

Field of the A method and a system for managing user's access information and configuration in 3GPP PCC architecture and a Circuit Management Functionart

The present invention generally relates to network management, and more particularly to a method and a system for managing user's access information and configuration in 3GPP PCC architecture.

The invention also provides a Circuit Management Function for providing user's access configuration and information in an automated and convergent way.

By means of circuit, it has to be understood a physical or "virtual" path used only by a single user to connect to the network provider. For instance, for fixed access, the circuit is the wire that connects the User Equipment with the Access Node in the operator's central office. For mobile accesses, the circuit would be the radio channel assigned to the user's handset in the attachment phase by means of multiplexing techniques on the radio frequency.

The term management (circuit, network...) refers to the control of that element in order to configure it or its handling with a certain purpose.

Prior State of the Art

In the recent years, there have seen intentions of making network management easier in the core of Next Generation Networks (NGNs) by separating control and transport planes. Therefore, some standardization groups have been defining an interface between management systems and the underlying transport network offering a dynamic and efficient management of network resources based on a policy-based resource control engine. This engine enables the delivery of both the existing carrier grade and the next generation Quality of Service (QoS) sensitive services across operator-controlled networks using heterogeneous transport technologies.

Different international standards development organizations, such as the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) [1 ], the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) [2], the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) [3] and the Broadband Forum [4] have done their own proposals for the policy control layer concept.

Several Telco carriers are betting on this kind of architectures as a solution to achieve a better resources management and for building services in a cheaper and faster manner. But there are some gaps that needed to be filled.

Figure 1 shows an example of a release of the 3GPP Policy and charging control architecture. This architecture will be the starting point of the present invention, due to it is the best positioned and the most used amongst the Telco Operators around the world. There are other technical concepts or even written patents which could seem similar when reading their title and/or abstract, but are not the same. For instance, "system and method for fixed broadband accesses self-provisioning, autoconfiguration and auto-activation" (TID registering process), it is focused in a fixed IP network architecture, including its policy control layer, improving the fixed lines provision mechanisms doing them automatic. On the other hand, the present invention is focused in the 3GPP PCC architecture, and its main objective is to complete it in order to achieve a full-converged architecture where the management of fixed and mobile circuits is common. Furthermore, the architecture described in the present invention follows continuously the changes in the line conditions, which and are retrieved for further use by other elements in a dynamic way, meanwhile this referenced document doesn't do it.

Patent proposal WO 2009148781 "user interface for application management for a mobile device", defines technologies relating to user interfaces for mobile devices. So it is related to the administration of the application interface of mobile devices, no to the management with the user (fixed) circuit characteristics. WO 2006015537 "system and method for realizing the security management in 3G mobile communication network", put its focus in the operating maintenance domain of the 3G mobile communication network specially in the integration reference point (IRP) function, in the north interface of 3GPP SA5. So, as in the previous case, it doesn't provide the same operations neither it has the same purpose of the present invention.

Other examples are, WO 2012003473 "systems and methods for remote device management", that refers to the way to admin remotely different electronic devices, not the physical access of the user. US 201 1 128907 "method for network controlled access selection", this method is oriented to the definition of a new functional entity for the PCC architecture defined in the 3GPP technical specification TS 23.203, called ASS (Access Selection Server) and its related database. The objective of this functional entity and its method is quite different from the present invention, it intends to improve the current mechanisms for the wireless network selection in a mobile UE (User Equipment) among those available in a given moment, assigning different priorities to the different kinds of accesses (3G, LTE, WiMax, WiFi...). So it has no relationship with the management (configuration) of the user's circuit (wired lines).

US 201 1067085 "method for delivering dynamic policy rules to an end user, according on his/her account balance and service subscription level, in a telecommunication network", is focused in a method to apply the proper PCC rules to the user, depending her/his service subscription or account balance, i.e., propose a evolved OCS (called EOCS or Extended Online Charging System) with a interface between EOCS and PCRF, to control the user's balance and to perform dynamic changes of their QoS (mainly bandwidth) conditions triggered from changes identified in their account balance. Therefore, it is not related about the physical management/configuration of wired lines.

Another patent proposal is WO 2012019507 "policy control method and system for accessing fixed broadband access network", this patent is focused in methods to notify a PCC rule (e.g. QoS) application request from a mobile network PCRF to the fixed broadband policy server (e.g. BPCF) when a user tries to use its mobile services accessing through a broadband fixed access, (by means of solutions as Femtocells or Wi-Fi Access points), in order to apply his policies in the fixed access node if it's suitable and possible. So this invention is related with FMC (Fixed-Mobile convergence) hybrid scenario where there is an interconnection between both networks (and thus the policy servers), but doesn't refer to the management or configuration of the circuits in a one single targeted real converged network.

Patent CN 101730246 "policy control configuration of converged network and method for realizing policy control" tries to resolve the convergence matter by interconnecting a RACF (TISPAN fixed network architecture element responsible of policy control) in the fixed network with a PCRF (3GPP) in the mobile network, specifying the messages exchange method and the method to follow in order to know if the service request belongs to a fixed or a mobile one in the RACF (from the request received from the AF). Therefore, the convergence matter is raised in a different way, either at networks level (two networks interconnected instead of having one single network) or at control layer level (establishing a communication between the fixed and mobile policy managers instead of having a single one). So as in the case above, this invention is related with FMC (Fixed-Mobile convergence) hybrid scenario where there is an interconnection between both networks (and thus the policy servers), but doesn't refer to the management or configuration of the circuits in a one single targeted real converged network. It neither raises the idea to obtain line's status in real-time.

Finally, Patent CN 101505475 'fixed and mobile integration network and method for authenticating user in network": It creates a server that integrates the mobile and fixed accesses authentication process, with the aim of authenticate them in both networks and thus distinguishing their users avoiding in this manner intrusions from non- regulated accesses. One of the problems for Telco carriers is the mess that amount of different architectures suppose and which one to choose. Some of them are focused to NGN networks; other ones reduce their environment to mobile networks, but no one has a complete and access-agnostic convergent solution, mainly due to all of them were created when there were not necessity of having only one network for all kind of accesses (xDSL, FTTx, 2G, 3G, LTE,..) and the network resources in the fixed case were abundant.

One of them, the 3GPP solution, seems to be better positioned than the rest to be the convergent solution and finally the mostly adopted in Telco networks. Different studies, such as the ATIS (Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions) Policy Management Focus Group [5] one, support this approach.

The 3GPP standardization group has designed a very complete architecture with the goal to define how has to be the network intelligence to orchestrate and control its nodes in order to centralize the management of QoS, charging and access policies for connectivity services.

The approach of this 3GPP architecture is the management of these features during the user data session (from establishment to the end of the data session), but never when user is off from the data session point of view. But this type of approach is not conducive to the evolution to a fixed-mobile convergent environment in the policy control architecture, as in the case of fixed accesses part of the configuration of the user's access is performed on the physical circuit, previously to the session establishment. Besides this, nowadays 3GPP's PCC architecture is not prepared to be aware about the user's access conditions, information that would be very useful for a handful of possible improved services. Therefore new improvements are necessary in its specification, which will allow in fixed and mobile accesses:

• To be aware of the characteristics of user's access (current and attainable bandwidth, both upstream and downstream, delays, line errors...).

• The physical configuration of the characteristics of channel (either upstream or downstream), for all of such cases that a line is pre-configured previously user session establishment (e.g.: xDSL lines).

• To know in real-time the information regarding the access characteristics (upstream and downstream speed, delays...) in a given moment has the user. For a converged scenario, the fixed IP borders (BNG or BRAS) would have to act as a Gateway (PCEF function), and support Gx reference point. Several suppliers of this kind of nodes are working in this direction. Summary of the Invention

The object of the present invention is to provide a solution by defining a new key piece in the 3GPP's PCC architecture, essential for getting know circuit's conditions in real-time for fixed and mobiles accesses and line configuration of fixed circuits.

This new piece, called Circuit Management Function, integrates these kind of fixed accesses in 3GPP PCC architecture completely. To this end, the invention will define interfaces that will make it possible to engage the piece in the PCC machinery.

In a first aspect, the present invention proposes a method for managing user's access information and configuration in 3GPP PCC architecture, comprising accessing a user with user equipment (UE) through an access node of 3GPP PCC architecture, using an Application Function (AF), a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) and a Subscription Profile Repository (SPR).

On contrary of the known proposals, the method comprises following steps:

- providing upon a line configuration request to a Circuit Management Function

(CMF) a fixed line configuration information of a circuit including any change made in said fixed line regarding a service profile, and

- transferring information about said circuit conditions to a services layer when performing said accessing of said user.

The circuit conditions information is transferred in real time and the accessing of said user comprises at least a fixed accessing and/or a mobile accessing.

The circuit conditions information among any other information should provide information of at least a port state, speed and/or bandwidth of said fixed circuit, a delay due to the line kind of access and/or physical channel characteristics.

In a preferred embodiment, a Sp' reference point allows the CMF to update said fixed line configuration information when a change in said fixed line has occurred.

Then, the CMF further sends the updated fixed line configuration information to a network database via the Sp' reference point.

In another preferred embodiment, the CMF can translate a set of characteristics of said circuit to an identifier of said service profile.

In yet another embodiment, the CMF uses an Mx reference point for performing said transferring of said circuit conditions information to said services layer.

The line configuration request can be performed by at least any of said AF, a Service Delivery Platform (SDP) or a third party and will include at least information regarding a line service profile and an identifier of said circuit by which said user accesses.

The plurality of interfaces interworking with said plurality of elements of said 3GPP PCC architecture are defined over a Diameter protocol or any other authentication, authorization, and accounting protocol for computer networks.

A second aspect of the present invention proposes a system for managing user's access information and configuration in a 3GPP PCC architecture comprising:

- a user equipment (UE) to access through an access node (7) to a circuit; and

- an Application Function (AF) (2), a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (6), and a Subscription Profile Repository (SPR) (8).

The system in a characteristic manner comprises a Circuit Management Function (CMF) (1 ) that provides fixed line configuration information of said circuit including any change made in said fixed line regarding a service profile, and transfers said information about said circuit conditions to a services layer.

In a preferred embodiment, the system comprises three reference points adapted to interact with a plurality of elements of said 3GPP PCC architecture. A Cm reference point for providing said fixed line configuration information of said circuit. A Sp' reference point to update the line configuration information when a change occurs and an Mx reference point for transferring the information about said circuit conditions.

A third aspect of the present invention proposes a Circuit Management Function

(CMF) intended for providing a fixed line configuration information of a circuit of a 3GPP PCC architecture including any change made in said fixed line regarding a service profile and for transferring information about said circuit conditions to a services layer, in real time.

The CMF comprising in a characteristic manner:

- a plurality of interfaces to allow interworking with a plurality of elements of said 3GPP PCC architecture;

- a circuit data or service profile translator adapted to translate a set of characteristics of said circuit to an identifier of said service profile.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The previous and other advantages and features will be more fully understood from the following detailed description of embodiments, with reference to the attached, which must be considered in an illustrative and non-limiting manner, in which: Figure 1 is an illustration of the general 3GPP Policy and charging control architecture used in the present invention.

Figure 2 is an example of the "Circuit Management Function" (CMF) defined in the present invention with its three interfaces or reference points, which allow it to interact with the rest of the PCC architecture, according to an embodiment.

Figure 3 is an illustration of the interaction of CMF defined in the present invention with other 3GPP PCC elements.

Figure 4 is a flow diagram showing the fixed line configuration succeeded procedure, according to an embodiment.

Figure 5 is a representation of a possible failure points in line configuration flow, according to an embodiment.

Figure 6 and 7 represent the procedures for a fixed line status information mechanism. Figure 6 shows the line Information update and Figure 7 the line status query, according to an embodiment.

Detailed Description of Several Embodiments

Embodiments of the present invention extends the 3GPP's PCC architecture described in its technical specification TS 23.203 in order to may do an online management of user's access information and a dynamic fixed Access-Node (e.g. DSLAM for xDSL accesses) configuration in an automated and convergent way. For that, it's necessary to define a new functional entity that will be named as Circuit Management

Function (CMF) and new Reference Points in order to communicate it with the related current functional entities.

Figure 2 shows this new "Circuit Management Function" (CMF) (1 ) with its three interfaces or reference points, which allow it to interact with the rest of the PCC architecture:

• At the north border of it, appears the new Reference point with the Application Function (AF) (2), which will be named Cm (3). Through it, the AF (2) will request the changes in the fixed line characteristics.

· Also at the north border, the Sp' reference point (4) will allow the CMF (1 ) to update the information of the user's circuit characteristics when a change has been done.

• Finally, at the south border, a new reference point, Mx (5), is defined for sending the orders of management of the user's circuit in the Access Node to the PCEF (gateway, BRAS or BNG for fixed accesses) (6), that will have the role of resending the order to the access node, i.e. talking about an indirect communication between CMF (1 ) and AN (7) through the PCEF (BRAS) (6). Depending on the type of fixed access, in addition the BRAS (6), may be will have to carry out any action in its PCC rules. E.g., if the AN (7) is an FTTx node, the downstream bandwidth is controlled in the PCEF (6); in xDSL accesses case, is recommended to control the downstream bandwidth both in (6) PCEF and (7) AN (configured).

Figure 3 focuses in the new functionality defined in the present invention and in its interworking with the current 3GPP PCC architecture elements with which it will have relationship.

This new functional element will provide two main functionalities:

• Fixed lines configuration, triggered through requests launched from the Application Functions (AFs) (2) or from SDP (Service Delivery Platform, it can be seen as a kind of AF) or third parties, and configuration changes notification to the rest of elements.

• Export of the circuit's conditions information to the services layer.

- Port state (up/down). This type of information applies to fixed lines, and allows knowing if the user is or not physically connected at that moment.

- Current circuit speed (line synchronization speed in xDSL cases).

This allows know if the user's fixed line, with the current configuration, has the capacity in bandwidth terms to support the requirements of a given service, or even if it's physically capable to support it with a suitable change of configuration (via a negotiation of its access characteristics).

- Delay due to the line's kind of access. This allows know the latency a user will experiment with each service he or she contracted, due to the physical constraints of his or her access, in order to know with enough time if he or she may do use of that service (e.g. network games).

- The range of physical channel characteristics (maximum bandwidth attainable, minimum delays...).

All this information can be very useful for the services' layer, regarding to create new services that require know some of these parameters. Due to manageability questions, it may be very useful the fact that supposes to have a translation of a set of circuit characteristics to an identifier of the service profile. The CMF (1 ) shall have got internally an engine that would take the translation role when it's necessary, for which it will be supported by the (8) SPR (it will have had to define a set of tables and/or fields for all that datum). Depending on the implementation, this datum could be in other database that could be named as Service Profiles Data (SPD) (11), but always under the authority of the network Unified Data Base concept, this concept is based in the concentration of the different network databases into one single; this supposes several advantages. Amongst them, as an example, it encourages the development of convergent services, and avoids have heterogeneous data in the network. There are several approaches/methods to implement it; a meta-di rectory (or data-grid) is one of them. For the present invention it would be treated as a database functionality or module from here onwards, and it isn't part of the invention.

The different interfaces that appear in figure Error! Reference source not found.3 are recommendable to be implemented in an embodiment over DIAMETER protocol, due to compatibility and ease to implement in the rest of elements, and its widespread use in a lot of elements of 3GPP architecture. Although, any other authentication, authorization, and accounting protocol for computer networks could also be implemented.

In the following points the procedures of configuration and information reporting of fixed lines will be an example of use of this new element and its new interfaces. In the case of information reporting, for mobile lines the flow would be completely equivalent.

Fixed lines configuration procedure: The flow shown in the Figure 4 represents the procedure of a fixed line configuration finishing with success. A brief description of the flow would be the following:

1. The Application function launches a line configuration request to the (1 ) CMF via (3) Cm reference point. This request should include, among others possible parameters, the following information:

• The line service profile that requests.

• An identifier of the user's circuit which is the target of change. The Application Function may represent (but not only) a BSS contracting a new line, or changing the access service contracted by the subscriber, which implies the provision or change of the service profile configured in the access and network nodes. (1 ) CMF finds out the line characterization related with the service profile indicated by the (2) AF

Accessing to the (8) SPR (or another database, but always in a network database) via (4) Sp' reference point, the CMF (1 ) checks if the line characteristics requested (e.g. upstream and downstream bandwidth) are attainable due to the physical constraints of the circuit, that were previously stored in the SPR (8) as a result of the line information process. As in the case of the Cm (3) reference point, in the access to SPR (8) it would be needed to use an identifier of the user's circuit which is the target of change. This is the main reason why it isn't possible to use the current Sp reference point (13).

If it's physically possible the change, (1 ) CMF sends to the PCEF (6) a configuration request via the new Mx (5) reference point, including in the message data for the identification of the circuit (e.g. NAS Port), and the service profile, that should be previously provisioned in it. When the PCEF (6) receives the Configuration request, it applies its own changes in the node (if needed). If everything went well, the service profile's configuration of the PCEF (6) allows it to request to the Access Node (7) the application to the user's circuit of the service profile requested, where it would have to be pre-provisioned with the same label as well. If the change runs, in case of xDSL lines, this could suppose a resynchronization between the modem-router at client's premises and the (7) DSLAM (the Access Node), and as a part of that resynchronization, the line information process could happen. It has to be mentioned that in the case of fixed lines the interface between PCEF (6) and AN (7) is not part of the invention, since there is a protocol called ANCP defined in the Broadband Forum that can do that.

When the Access Node (7) succeeds trying the change of the user's service profile, then it sends a Configuration Acknowledge to the PCEF (6).

The Configuration Acknowledge is resent to the CMF (1 ) by the PCEF (6) with the corresponding answer message of the new Mx (5) reference point. 8. The CMF (1 ) now has to consolidate the change of the user's configuration in the SPR (8) using the Sp' (4) reference point.

9. (8) SPR confirms the update in the database

10. Finally, (1 ) CMF sends to the AF (2) the configuration acknowledge message corresponding to the configuration request of the Cm (3) reference point.

Figure 5, summarizes the possible points in the line configuration flow where might occur different types of errors. They are marked in grey colour and with discontinued lines. Each type of error would finalize the flow with that advertisement. A brief description of the flow would be the following:

3.1 The physical characteristics of the line don't make possible the change.

4.1 When it's needed a configuration change in the PCEF (6), if it fails, it has to be notified to the CMF (1 ), and also to be resent to the AF (2).

5.1 Fails the configuration of the new service profile in the access node. In this case, it would be necessary to undo the configuration changes in PCEF (6) in case of previous changes were done. After that, the configuration error received in PCEF (6) from access node (7) is resent to CMF (1 ), and in the same way,

CMF (1 ) resends the error message to the AF (2).

8.1 It could be possible a failure in the SPR (8) database update. To avoid inconsistencies, it would be needed to request the configuration of the original service profile either in the PCEF (6) as well as in the access node (7). When the restore of the previous profile is confirmed, the CMF (1 ) sends a Configuration error to the AF (2), detailing the reason. Circuit Conditions Information Procedures: The flow shown in Figures 6 and 7 represent the procedures for a fixed line status information mechanism, but a quite similar procedure can be represented for unwired lines.

1 . Several events may trigger a connection or reconnection of the user's line: the power-on of the CPE (14), a resynchronization with the (7) DSLAM (AN in xDSL or FTTB cases) due to different causes (like line's noise increase, for example), etc. It's also possible that the circuit's characteristics change without reconnection, due to slight changes in the conditions (this can happen both in wire and unwire accesses). This changes are detected by the AN, so in these cases the procedure would start in step 2. The Access Node (7), in those cases, sends to the PCEF (6) the connection information parameters. It's also possible to send the information regarding the state of all the (7) Access node's lines in certain moments, like when the PCEF (6) or the AN (7) start and begins the dialogue with its neighbour. In that case, this would be the procedure's first step. All of this can be done with any existent management protocol, (e.g. ANCP), and it's out of scope of this invention. For mobile lines, it could be done using (adapting) the functionalities of the existent Gn reference point (16) to send the information regarding the PDP contexts established between the BBERF (15) and the PCEF (6). But not all the cases make sense, because for mobile accesses, there's no information about the mobile lines before a session (PDP context) is established. In any case, the Gn reference point (16) is out of scope of this invention.

Via Mx reference point (5), the PCEF (6) will notify to the CMF (1 ) that the user's line conditions have changed. The line is identified with the circuit Id previously mentioned. Depending on the way it's implemented the mechanism, it would be possible that the IP address has already been assigned to the subscriber in the moment of sending the information. In this case, since the user has an IP address, it could be used as the user's identifier, but then, the CMF (1 ) would have to do an IP address/circuit ID correlation task before carry out the next step.

Among the parameters received from the PCEF (6), it would have to highlight the following ones:

• Port state (up/down/idle)

• Current upstream bandwidth

• Current downstream bandwidth

• Maximum attainable upstream bandwidth

• Maximum attainable downstream bandwidth

• Actual interleaving delay

• Maximum interleaving delay

Some of them don't make sense in case of FTTH accesses, due to the own line conditions, like the interleaving delay datum. Besides, there will not be difference between the current bandwidth and the contracted one. 4. The CMF (1 ) accesses to the SPR (8) in order to update the current line information received from the PCEF (6). It will use the circuit ID as the access key with the Sp' reference point (4).

5. The SPR (8) carries out the change of the subscriber's circuit information confirming the result to the CMF (1 ). If the operation succeeds, this information will be available from now on.

On the other hand, from the AFs (2) it would be very useful for a lot of different possible services know the real current line's status. This information could be requested and be returned, in the way it's shown in Figure 7.

The steps could be as follows:

1. Through the Cm (3) reference point, the CMF (1 ) receives from the AF (2) a line status query request.

2. (1 ) CMF accesses the SPR (8) using the Sp' reference point (4) in order to recover the line's current information: current upstream and downstream bandwidth and delay, maximums attainable, contracted profile, etc.

3. (8) SPR retrieves the requested information to (1 ) CMF

4. It could be very useful, or even necessary, for the AF (2) to know not only the current line parameters, but also the parameters regarding the service profile contracted by the user. For that purpose, it would be needed to recover the contracted profile information from the SPD (1 1 ).

5. SPD (1 1 ) response.

6. (1 ) CMF retrieves all the information to the AF (2) through the Mx (5) reference point.

Some embodiments of use cases supported by the present invention could be:

Bandwidth change requested by the subscriber:

Supposing an access-agnostic HSI service, this let the clients to surf the web by 2G/3G/4G radio accesses or by a fixed line ending at their homes. That HSI service has different speeds available with (obviously) different prices as well. This requires a core network unified for both kind of access, a unified charging and billing system, and a unified policy system with a UDB. This unified core network would be the 3GPP's one in its release #1 1.

A subscriber wants to contract a HSI service higher than he/she has currently. This user doesn't have to be at home at that moment, but only needs a connection to the web portal (or to make a phone call to the CRC). Once the subscriber has identified itself, this user will be able to ask for a bandwidth upgrade. This will trigger a process in provisioning systems, that, acting as an AF (1 ): it will send a Configuration request to the CMF as is described in the line configuration procedure.

In addition to the actions mentioned in that procedure, in order to get the client enjoys the new contracted bandwidth immediately in his/her current mobile data session, the following process is triggered.

As mentioned before, and shown in figure 4, through Sp' reference point the CMF will send the configuration request to the UDB/SPR (8), updating all the subscriber's data, including the new service profile for his/her fixed access and those related with the mobile one. The UDB/SPR (8) may be configured to send notifications to PCRF if changes in user's data occur.

Through Sp (13) reference point, PCRF (17) will be notified by the SPR (8) about the change in the parameters contracted by the user, and will check if he/she is connected (looking for the MSISDN) through the mobile access network, in order to apply immediately the new contracted bandwidth.

From the user point of view, he/she pressed a button on a web page and he/she immediately felt the speed of his/her line, or rather, of his/her service, will have increased in real time, regardless of the means by which was connected at that time.

Bandwith-Aware and Access-Agnostic Video-Content service:

Imagining a Video service offered by a web page. This video service offers several kinds of contents: video on demand, TV channels, some of them live contents, and, for at least some of them, it offers that content with several qualities, like SD, HD-Ready or Full-HD.

It could be quite useful for that service (included on web page) to know the bandwidth that has a client that is trying to watch certain content, in order to offer him only the qualities suitable to that bandwidth, especially in live contents case, but for all in general.

To achieve that goal, the service owner could have a service agreement with the network provider, in order to may invoke a network API asking for the bandwidth of that user, identified by its IP address. The network API, as a first step, would have to find out the circuit ID of the client, from his/her IP address; this is technically possible nowadays by different ways, depending of the network architecture.

Once that network API has the client's circuit ID, it, acting as an AF (2) via Cm reference point (3), could ask for that information to the CMF (1 ) following the steps explained in the line status query procedure.

From the user point of view, he/she knows if a service could be provided or not in its current line in each moment. There are several advantages that the invention brings:

• It can change dynamically the configuration of a given circuit in a standardized manner, this will allow:

o For Telco operators, a significant reduction of both CAPEX and OPEX costs because will be possible a reduction of investment in management systems.

o "Time to Market" reduction for new services for both Telco Operators and third parties because is made in real time. o A better user's QoE because service will know the real physical characteristics of current channel. · Allows a unique policy manager (PCRF) to control both mobile accesses as well as fixed ones, so it facilitates the creation of converged services or access-agnostics.

• The possibility that the Telco Operators' services layer or the third parties ones (with service agreement with the service provider) may know first-hand the real conditions of the client's fixed line in realtime, makes possible to create a handful of possible new services or to improve a lot of already existent ones.

The foregoing describes embodiments of the present invention and modifications, obvious to those skilled in the art can be made thereto, without departing from the scope of the present invention. ACRONYMS

3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project

ATIS Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions

AF Application Function

AN Access Node

ANCP Access Node Control Protocol

BBERF Bearer Binding and Event Reporting Function

BNG Broadband Network Gateway

BRAS Broadband Remote Access Server

BSS Business Support System

CAP EX CAPital Expenditures

CMF Circuit Management Function

CPE Customer Premises Equipment

CRC Consumer Response Center

DIAMETER Signalling protocol evolution of RADIUS

DSLAM Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer

EOCS Evolved Online Charging System

ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute

FTTB Fiber To The Building

FTTH Fiber To The Home

FTTx Refer to the different Fiber accesses like h i I B or FTTH

HSI High Speed Internet

ITU International Telecommunication Union

LTE Long Term Evolution

NGN Next Generation Network

OCS Online Charging System

OFCS Offline Charging System

OPEX Operational Expenditures

PCC Policy and Charging Control

PCEF Policy and Charging Enforcement Function

PCRF Policy and Charging Resource Function

PDP Packet Data Protocol

QoE Quality of Experience

QoS Quality of Service

RADIUS Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service SPD Service Profiles Data

SPR Subscriber Profile Repository

TDF Traffic Detection Function

TISPAN Telecommunications and Internet converged Services and Protocols for Advanced Networking

UE User Equipment

WiFi Wireless Fidelity

WiMAx Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

xDSL different DSL technologies, such as ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) or VDSL (Very high speed Digital Subscriber Line)

REFERENCES

[1 ] 3GPP, TS 23.203: "Policy and Charging Control Architecture" [PCC]

[2] ITU-T RACF proposal: Resource and Admission Control Functions in NGN (Y.21 1 1 )

[3] ETSI-TISPAN RACS (ETSI ES 282 003)

[4] Broadband Forum WT-134: Broadband Policy Control Framework (BPCF)

[5] ATIS Policy Management Focus Group - Assessment and recommendations.

Claims

Claims

1. A method for managing user's access information and configuration in a 3GPP PCC architecture, comprising a user equipment (UE) accessing through an access node of a 3GPP PCC architecture, involving mainly an Application Function (AF), a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) and a Subscription Profile Repository (SPR), the method being characterized in that it comprises following steps:

- providing upon a line configuration request to a Circuit Management Function (CMF) a fixed line configuration information of a circuit including any change made in said fixed line regarding a service profile, and

- transferring information about said circuit conditions to a services layer when performing said accessing of said user.

2. A method according to claim 1 , characterized in that said circuit conditions information is transferred in real time.

3. A method according to claim 2, characterized in that said circuit conditions information comprises information regarding at least a port state, speed and/or bandwidth of said fixed circuit, a delay due to the line kind of access and/or a physical channel characteristics.

4. A method according to claim 1 , characterized in that said CMF updates by means of a Sp' reference point said fixed line configuration information when a change in said fixed line has occurred.

5. A method according to claim 4, characterized in that said CMF further sends said updated fixed line configuration information to a network database via said Sp' reference point.

6. A method according to claim 1 , characterized in that said CMF translates a set of characteristics of said circuit to an identifier of said service profile.

7. A method according to claim 1 , characterized in that said CMF uses a Mx reference point for performing said transferring of said circuit conditions information to said services layer.

8. A method according to claim 1 , characterized in that said line configuration request is performed by at least any of said AF, a Service Delivery Platform (SDP) or a third party.

9. A method according to claim 1 or 8, characterized in that said line configuration request includes at least information regarding a line service profile and an identifier of said circuit to which said user accesses.

10. A method according to claim 1 , characterized in that it comprises defining a plurality of interfaces interworking with a plurality of elements of said 3GPP PCC architecture.

1 1. A method according to claim 1 , characterized in that said accessing of said user comprises at least a fixed accessing and/or a mobile accessing.

12. A system for managing user's access information and configuration in a 3GPP PCC architecture comprising:

- a user equipment (UE) to access through an access node (7) of a 3GPP PCC architecture to a circuit; and

- an Application Function (AF) (2), a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function

(PCEF) (6) and a Subscription Profile Repository (SPR) (8);

characterized in that comprises a Circuit Management Function (CMF) (1 ) that provides a fixed line configuration and information of said circuit including any change made in said fixed line regarding a service profile, and transfers said information about said circuit conditions to a services layer.

13. A system according to claim 12, characterized in that it comprises three reference points (3, 4, 5) adapted to interact with a plurality of elements of said 3GPP PCC architecture.

14. A system according to claim 12, characterized in that it comprises a Cm reference point (3) for providing said fixed line configuration information of said circuit.

15. A system according to claim 12, characterized in that it comprises a Sp' reference point (4) adapted to update said line configuration information when a change occurs.

16. A system according to claim 12, characterized in that it comprises a Mx reference point (5) for transferring said information about said circuit conditions.

17. A Circuit Management Function (CMF) intended for providing a fixed line configuration information of a circuit of a 3GPP PCC architecture including any change made in said fixed line regarding a service profile and for transferring information about said circuit conditions to a services layer, in real time, characterized in that it comprises:

- a plurality of interfaces to allow interworking with a plurality of elements of said

3GPP PCC architecture;

- a circuit data or service profile translator adapted to translate a set of characteristics of said circuit to an identifier of said service profile.