Rule-driven policy creation by an ANDSF server

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9414307-B2
Application number	US-201414162147-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 23, 2014
Priority date	Jan 23, 2014
Publication date	Aug 9, 2016
Grant date	Aug 9, 2016

Abstract

Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method, network node, and non-transitory machine-readable storage medium including one or more of the following: identifying a location associated with a user equipment device (UE) in communication with an ANDSF server via an S14 session established over a first access network; retrieving a policy rule that includes a first portion and a second portion; determining, based on evaluating the first portion using the location associated with the UE, that the policy rule is applicable to the S14 session; generating, in response to determining that the policy rule is applicable to the S14 session, a policy based on the second portion, wherein the policy includes an identification of an access point for use by the UE to access a second access network; and transmitting the policy including the identification of the access point to the UE via the S14 session over the first access network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed by an access network discovery and selection function (ANDSF) server for provisioning policies, the method comprising:
identifying, by an ANDSF server, a location associated with a user equipment device (UE) in communication with the ANDSF server via an S14 session established over a first access network;
retrieving a policy rule from a plurality of policy rules, wherein the policy rule includes a first portion for determining applicability of the policy rule and a second portion for determining a policy to be provisioned when the policy rule is applicable;
determining, based on evaluating the first portion of the policy rule using the location associated with the UE, that the policy rule is applicable to the S14 session;
generating, in response to determining that the policy rule is applicable to the S14 session, a policy based on the second portion of the policy rule, wherein the policy includes an identification of an access point for use by the UE to access a second access network other than the first access network; and
transmitting the policy including the identification of the access point to the UE via the S14 session over the first access network.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the location comprises receiving, from the UE, a request for a policy, wherein the request identifies the location as a current location of the UE.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, based on evaluating respective first portions of the plurality of policy rules, that the policy rules are inapplicable to an additional S14 session;
retrieving a default policy rule based on determining that the policy rules are inapplicable to a second S14 session;
generating an additional policy based on the default policy rule; and
transmitting the additional policy via the additional S14 session.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second portion includes a reference to a policy profile and generating the policy based on the second portion of the policy rule comprises:
retrieving a policy profile based on the reference to the policy profile; and
evaluating the policy profile to generate at least a portion of the policy.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein evaluating the policy profile comprises generating at least one of an inter-system mobility policy (ISMP) and an inter-system routing policy (ISRP) to be included in the policy.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second portion includes an ordered list of policy profile references, and generating the policy based on the second portion of the policy rule comprises:
evaluating a first policy profile associated with a first policy profile reference from the ordered list to generate the first portion of the policy;
evaluating a second policy profile associated with a second policy profile reference from the ordered list to generate the second portion of the policy; and
providing the first portion of the policy with a higher priority than the second portion of the policy based on the relative locations of the first policy profile reference and the second policy profile reference in the ordered list.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein evaluating the first portion of the policy rule using the location associated with the UE comprises evaluating the first portion of the policy rule using the location and subscriber information associated with the UE.

8. An access network discovery and selection function (ANDSF) server for provisioning policies, the ANDSF server comprising:
a network interface in communication with a first access network;
a storage device configured to store a plurality of policy rules, wherein a policy rule of the plurality of policy rules includes a first portion for determining applicability of the policy rule and a second portion for determining a policy to be provisioned when the policy rule is applicable; and
a processor in communication with the network interface and the storage device, wherein the processor is configured to:
identify a location associated with a user equipment device (UE) in communication with the ANDSF server via an S14 session established over the network interface;
retrieve the policy rule from a plurality of policy rules;
determine, based on evaluating the first portion of the policy rule using the location associated with the UE, that the policy rule is applicable to the S14 session;
generate, in response to determining that the policy rule is applicable to the S14 session, a policy based on the second portion of the policy rule, wherein the policy includes an identification of an access point for use by the UE to access a second access network other than the first access network; and
transmit the policy including the identification of the access point to the UE via the S14 session over the network interface.

9. The ANDSF server of claim 8 , wherein, in identifying the location, the processor is configured to receive, from the UE, a request for a policy, wherein the request identifies the location as a current location of the UE.

10. The ANDSF server of claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
determine, based on evaluating respective first portions of the plurality of policy rules, that the policy rules are inapplicable to an additional S14 session;
retrieve a default policy rule from the storage device based on determining that the policy rules are inapplicable to a second S14 session;
generate an additional policy based on the default policy rule; and
transmit the additional policy via the additional S14 session over the network interface.

11. The ANDSF server of claim 8 , wherein the storage device is configured to store a policy profile, the second portion includes a reference to the policy profile, and, in generating the policy based on the second portion of the policy rule, the processor is configured to:
retrieve the policy profile based on the reference to the policy profile; and
evaluate the policy profile to generate at least a portion of the policy.

12. The ANDSF server of claim 11 , wherein, in evaluating the policy profile, the processor is configured to generate at least one of an inter-system mobility policy (ISMP) and an inter-system routing policy (ISRP) to be included in the policy.

13. The ANDSF server of claim 8 , wherein the storage device is configured to store a first policy profile and a second policy profile, the second portion includes an ordered list of policy profile references, and, in generating the policy based on the second portion of the policy rule, the processor is configured to:
evaluate the first policy profile based on a first policy profile reference from the ordered list to generate the first portion of the policy; and
evaluating the second policy profile based on a second policy profile reference from the ordered list to generate the second portion of the policy; and
provide the first portion of the policy with a higher priority than the second portion of the policy based on relative locations of the first policy profile reference and the second policy profile reference in the ordered list.

14. The ANDSF server of claim 8 , wherein, in evaluating the first portion of the policy rule using the location associated with the UE, the processor is configured to evaluate the first portion of the policy rule using the location and subscriber information associated with the UE.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instruction for execution by an access network discovery and selection function (ANDSF) server for provisioning policies, the non-transitory machine

Assignees

• Alcatel Lucent
• Alcatel Lucent

Inventors

• Vrbaski Mira
• Siddam Kalyan Premchand
• Ackerman Susan
• Sun Jun
• Spido Nadia
• Sabaratnam Kugendran
• Paalarjee Basil

Classifications

• H04W48/18 Primary

  Selecting a network or a communication service · CPC title

• H04W48/04

  based on user or terminal location or mobility data, e.g. moving direction, speed · CPC title

• H04W48/14

  using user query {or user detection} · CPC title