Method and system for mobility policy validation/certification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12495280-B2
Application number	US-202318180250-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 8, 2023
Priority date	Mar 8, 2023
Publication date	Dec 9, 2025
Grant date	Dec 9, 2025

Abstract

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, identifying one or more rules in a policy rulebase, wherein the one or more rules correspond to a subscriber associated with a network, instructing a test agent to derive one or more scripts that, when executed by a client, cause the client to generate test traffic and send the test traffic to the network, after the instructing and after the test traffic is sent to the network, accessing data records that are outputted by the network based on the test traffic, based on the accessing, correlating at least one record of the data records to the test traffic, and analyzing the at least one record to validate conformance with the one or more rules. Other embodiments are disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A device, comprising:
a processing system including a processor; and a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising: identifying one or more rules in a policy rulebase, wherein the one or more rules correspond to a subscriber associated with a network; instructing a test agent to derive one or more scripts that, when executed by a client, cause the client to generate test traffic and send the test traffic to the network; after the instructing and after the test traffic is sent to the network, accessing data records that are outputted by the network based on the test traffic; based on the accessing, correlating at least one record of the data records to the test traffic; and analyzing the at least one record to validate conformance with the one or more rules.

2 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more rules specify a particular billing scheme for traffic associated with the subscriber, a particular treatment for the traffic associated with the subscriber, or a combination thereof, and wherein validating conformance comprises determining whether the particular billing scheme, the particular treatment, or the combination thereof are applied to the test traffic.

3 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the policy rulebase includes rules for differentiated billing or service per subscriber, and wherein attributes for the differentiated billing or service are based on upon data associated with one or more of Layer 3, Layer 4, Layer 5, Layer 6, and Layer 7 of an open systems interconnection (OSI) model.

4 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise detecting an incremental change to the policy rulebase, and wherein the identifying is responsive to the detecting.

5 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the identifying is performed via a policy-related function.

6 . The device of claim 5 , wherein the policy-related function comprises a policy and charging enforcement function (PCEF).

7 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the test agent is equipped with one or more test generation suites for deriving the one or more scripts.

8 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the client comprises a client device or a simulated device.

9 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the data records comprise event data records (EDRs).

10 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the data records comprise call detail records (CDRs).

11 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:
receiving, from a policy certification engine, a command to generate test traffic, wherein the command is provided based on the policy certification engine identifying one or more rules in a policy rulebase that correspond to a subscriber associated with a core network; deriving one or more scripts based on the receiving; executing the one or more scripts to generate the test traffic; and causing the test traffic to be transmitted over a mobility network to the core network, wherein the causing enables the policy certification engine to access data records that are outputted by the core network based upon traversal of the test traffic through the core network, correlate at least one record of the data records to the test traffic, and analyze the at least one record to validate conformance with the one or more rules.

12 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the one or more rules specify a particular billing scheme for traffic associated with the subscriber, a particular treatment for the traffic associated with the subscriber, or a combination thereof, and wherein validating conformance comprises determining whether the particular billing scheme, the particular treatment, or the combination thereof are applied to the test traffic.

13 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the policy rulebase includes rules for differentiated billing or service per subscriber, and wherein attributes for the differentiated billing or service are based on upon data associated with one or more of Layer 3, Layer 4, Layer 5, Layer 6, and Layer 7 of an open systems interconnection (OSI) model.

14 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the receiving is based upon the policy certification engine detecting an incremental change to the policy rulebase.

15 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the data records comprise event data records (EDRs), call detail records (CDRs), or a combination thereof.

16 . A method, comprising:
detecting, by a processing system including a processor, an incremental change to a rule in a policy rulebase, wherein rule is associated with a user of a network, and wherein the incremental change specifies a particular treatment that the network is to apply to traffic relating to the user; based on the detecting, causing, by the processing system, a test agent of a client device of the user to derive a test script that, when executed by the client device, outputs test traffic to the network; responsive to the causing, obtaining, by the processing system, data records that are outputted by the network after the test traffic traverses at least a portion of the network; based on the obtaining, correlating, by the processing system, at least one record of the data records to the test traffic; and analyzing, by the processing system, the at least one record to verify that the particular treatment has been applied to the test traffic.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the network comprises a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, a 5G network, a higher generation network, a Fixed Wireless network, Wi-Fi network, or a combination thereof.

18 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the particular treatment comprises zero rating the traffic, rate limiting the traffic, or a combination thereof.

19 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising, based on identifying that the particular treatment has not been applied to the test traffic, performing, by the processing system, one or more actions that include:
outputting an alarm to a network administrator regarding failure of the incremental change; causing a rolling back of the incremental change; causing a rolling forward of a different change to the rule; or a combination thereof.

20 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the policy rulebase includes rules for differentiated billing or service per user, and wherein attributes for the differentiated billing or service are based on upon data associated with one or more of Layer 3, Layer 4, Layer 5, Layer 6, and Layer 7 of an open systems interconnection (OSI) model.

Assignees

• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Simon Sean
• Haislip Kim

Classifications

• H04W8/18

  Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data · CPC title

• H04L12/14

  Charging, metering or billing arrangements specially adapted for data communications, e.g. authentication, authorisation and accounting [AAA] framework · CPC title

• H04M15/73

  Validating charges · CPC title

• H04M15/41

  Billing record details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure of call data record [CDR] · CPC title

• H04M15/58

  based on statistics of usage or network monitoring · CPC title