Method, apparatus and computer program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10868869-B2
Application number	US-201916278817-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 19, 2019
Priority date	Feb 20, 2018
Publication date	Dec 15, 2020
Grant date	Dec 15, 2020

Abstract

There is provided a method including determining, at a functional entity of a core network, whether policy requests associated with at least one address used within a session are allowed for the session and, if so, configuring a first associated functional entity of the core network to provide at least one address used within the session for a user equipment associated with the session, receiving the at least one address from the first associated functional entity and providing the at least one address to a second associated functional entity of the core network for storage.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
determining, at a functional entity of a core network, whether policy requests associated with one or more addresses used within a session are allowed for the session;
based on a determination that the policy requests are allowed for the session, configuring a first associated functional entity of the core network to provide at least one address used within the session for a user equipment associated with the session;
receiving the at least one address from the first associated functional entity; and
providing the at least one address to a second associated functional entity of the core network for storage.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one address comprises a media access control address.

3. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the determining of whether the policy requests associated with the one or more addresses are allowed comprises:
receiving, at the functional entity, an indication when the session is established of whether policy requests associated with the one or more addresses are allowed.

4. A method according to claim 3 , wherein the indication is received from the second associated functional entity of the core network or from a third associated functional entity of the core network.

5. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the determining of whether the policy requests associated with the one or more addresses are allowed is based on the configuration of the functional entity.

6. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the session is an Ethernet protocol data unit session.

7. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one address is used for associating the policy requests with the session.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising program instructions stored thereon which, when executed with at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the steps of claim 1 .

9. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the policy requests are from an application function.

10. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more addresses comprise one or more addresses the user equipment uses within the session.

11. A method comprising:
receiving from an associated functional entity of a core network a request to provide at least one address used within a session for a user equipment associated with the session;
detecting the at least one address from traffic flow received from the user equipment; and
providing the at least one address to the associated functional entity of the core network.

12. A method according to claim 11 , wherein the traffic flow comprises Ethernet frames forwarded between the user equipment and a data network.

13. An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor and at least one non-transitory memory including a computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
determine, at a functional entity of a core network, whether policy requests associated with one or more addresses used within a session are allowed for the session;
based on a determination that the policy requests are allowed for the session, configure a first associated functional entity of the core network to provide at least one address used within the session for a user equipment associated with the session;
receive the at least one address from the first associated functional entity; and
provide the at least one address to a second associated functional entity of the core network for storage.

14. An apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein determining whether the policy requests associated with the one or more addresses are allowed is based on the configuration of the functional entity.

15. An apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein the session is an Ethernet protocol data unit session.

16. An apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein the at least one address is used for associating the policy requests with the session.

17. An apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein the policy requests are from an application function.

18. An apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein the one or more addresses comprise one or more addresses the user equipment uses within the session.

19. An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor and at least one non-transitory memory including a computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
receive from an associated functional entity of a core network a request to provide at least one address used within a session for a user equipment associated with the session;
detect the at least one address from traffic flow received from the user equipment; and
provide the at least one address to the associated functional entity of the core network.

20. An apparatus according to claim 19 , wherein the traffic flow comprises Ethernet frames forwarded between the user equipment and a data network.

Assignees

• Nokia Technologies Oy

Inventors

• Thiebaut Laurent
• Shen Yang

Classifications

• H04W76/11 Primary

  Allocation or use of connection identifiers · CPC title

• H04L2101/622

  Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses · CPC title

• H04L61/50

  Address allocation · CPC title

• H04L67/14

  Session management (for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066) · CPC title

• H04M7/00

  Arrangements for interconnection between switching centres · CPC title