System and method for providing toll-free application data access

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017006451-A1
Application number	US-201415107393-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 15, 2014
Priority date	Dec 23, 2013
Publication date	Jan 5, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

Toll-free application data network access is disclosed. A device for providing data connectivity includes a connection detector configured to receive a data connectivity request from an application installed on the device, a configuration manager for retrieving a configuration file for the application identified from the data connectivity request, the configuration file defining conditions to allow connectivity for the application under operator specific billing, and an authorization module configured to access the configuration file, tag the data connectivity request with a first tag if the data connectivity request matches the conditions of the configuration file, the tag being indicative of operator specific billing for the application, and leave the data connectivity request unchanged otherwise.

First claim

1 . A device for providing data connectivity, the device comprising:
a connection detector configured to receive a data connectivity request from an application installed on the device, a configuration manager for retrieving a configuration file for the application identified from the data connectivity request, the configuration file defining conditions to allow connectivity for the application under billing plan specific to the application, an authorization module configured to:
access the configuration file for the identified application,
tag the data connectivity request with a tag if the data connectivity request matches the conditions of the configuration file, the tag being indicative of the billing plan specific to the application,
leave the data connectivity request unchanged otherwise.

2 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the data connectivity request includes a packet data network destination address.

3 . The device of claim 1 , the authorization module being further configured to leave the data connectivity request unchanged when the configuration manager cannot retrieve a configuration file for the identified application.

4 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the application is associated to a content source, the configuration file defining a list of authorized content sources for the billing plan specific to the application.

5 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the conditions of the configuration file includes at least one of a data transmission amount, a received data amount, a data connection duration, a policy expiration time and the proximity to a given location.

6 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the authorization module is inactive, the device being further configured to activate the authorization module following the detection of a triggering event.

7 . A method for providing data connectivity, the method being carried out by a communication device and comprising:
receiving a data connectivity request from an application installed on the device, retrieving a configuration file for the application identified from the data connectivity request, the configuration file defining conditions to allow connectivity for the application under a billing plan specific to the application, tagging the data connectivity request with a tag if the data connectivity request matches the conditions of the configuration file, the tag being indicative of the billing plan specific to the application, leaving the data connectivity request unchanged otherwise.

8 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions executable by a processor of an apparatus, the instructions causing the apparatus to:
receive a data connectivity request from an application installed on the device, retrieve a configuration file for the application identified from the data connectivity request, the configuration file defining conditions to allow connectivity for the application under a billing plan specific to the application, tag the data connectivity request with a first tag if the data connectivity request matches the conditions of the configuration file, the tag being indicative of the billing plan specific to the application, leave the data connectivity request unchanged otherwise.

Assignees

• Orange

Inventors

• Mandanapu Subash

Classifications

• H04W4/24 Primary

  Accounting or billing · CPC title

• H04L12/1435

  volume-based · CPC title

• H04L12/1407

  Policy-and-charging control [PCC] architecture · CPC title

• H04L12/1425

  involving dedicated fields in the data packet for billing purposes · CPC title

• H04L41/0894

  Policy-based network configuration management · CPC title