Network service plan design

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9858559-B2
Application number	US-201313842172-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 15, 2013
Priority date	Jan 28, 2009
Publication date	Jan 2, 2018
Grant date	Jan 2, 2018

Abstract

A technique involves modular storage of network service plan components and provisioning of same. A subset of the capabilities of a service design system can be granted to a sandbox system to enable customization of service plan offerings or other controls.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of operating a network computer system to provision a plurality of data services to be delivered to a wireless end-user device via one or more wireless networks, the method comprising:
maintaining a hierarchical service plan database of database objects including reusable service plan filters, service policy components, service policies, and service plans,
each service plan filter specifying an attempted or actual wireless network service access event for an end-user device,
each service policy component comprising a collection of one or more of the service plan filters and, for each such filter, an end-user device policy state associated with the filter,
each service policy comprising a collection of one or more of the service policy components and, for each such component, one or more actions to be triggered when the component matches an end-user device policy state and an end-user device attempted or actual service access event, and
each service plan comprising a collection of one or more service policies that are provisioned together for the delivery of one or more wireless data services to an end-user device;

operating a design center graphical user interface (GUI) to allow manipulation of the database, the GUI to allow one or more service designers to
define service plans as hierarchies of service policies, service policy components, and reusable service plan filters,
define service plan priorities for two or more overlapping service plans, each overlapping service plan having at least one respective multi-match service policy component that can match the same combination of an end-user device policy state and an end-user device attempted or actual service access event as a service policy component of at least one other overlapping service plan,
specify, for at least one of the multi-match service policy components, a multi-match entry that indicates whether or not that service policy component allows a re-match condition, and
commit the defined service plans and service plan priorities to the service plan database;

automatically generating a plurality of prioritized policy instructions based at least in part on first and second ones of the overlapping service plans and their respective service plan priorities, and the specified at least one multi-match entry, the prioritized policy instructions defining dynamic applicable policy selection criteria that allow concurrent application of service policies from both the first and second ones of the overlapping service plans, associated with the delivery of a particular data service to a wireless end-user device; and
outputting the plurality of prioritized policy instructions to one or more processing elements to configure the one or more processing elements to apply, in connection with one or more data services and at least one given wireless end-user device, the first and second ones of the overlapping service plans.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein outputting the plurality of prioritized policy instructions to one or more processing elements comprises outputting at least one of the prioritized policy instructions to a service processor within the given wireless end-user device.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein outputting the plurality of prioritized policy instructions to one or more processing elements comprises outputting at least one of the prioritized policy instructions to a network element that performs access control functions or access accounting functions for a plurality of wireless end-user devices, the plurality of wireless end-user devices including the given wireless end-user device to which the service is to be delivered.

4. A network computer system for provisioning a plurality of data services to be delivered to a wireless end-user device via one or more wireless networks, the system comprising
computing circuitry, including one or more processors and non-transitory memory to store program code which, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:
maintain a hierarchical service plan database of database objects including reusable service plan filters, service policy components, service policies, and service plans,
each service plan filter specifying an attempted or actual wireless network service access event for an end-user device,
each service policy component comprising a collection of one or more of the service plan filters and, for each such filter, an end-user device policy state associated with the filter,
each service policy comprising a collection of one or more of the service policy components and, for each such component, one or more actions to be triggered when the component matches an end-user device policy state and an end-user device attempted or actual service access event, and
each service plan comprising a collection of one or more service policies that are provisioned together for the delivery of one or more wireless data services to an end-user device;

operate a design center graphical user interface (GUI) on a user interface to allow manipulation of the database, the GUI to allow one or more service designers to
define service plans as hierarchies of service policies, service policy components, and reusable service plan filters,
define service plan priorities for two or more overlapping service plans, each overlapping service plan having at least one respective multi-match service policy component that can match the same combination of an end-user device policy state and an end-user device attempted or actual service access event as a service policy component of at least one other overlapping service plan,
specify, for at least one of the multi-match service policy components, a multi-match entry that indicates whether or not that service policy component allows a re-match condition, and
commit the defined service plans and service plan priorities to the service plan database;

automatically generate a plurality of prioritized policy instructions based at least in part on first and second ones of the overlapping service plans and their respective service plan priorities, and the specified at least one multi-match entry, the prioritized policy instructions defining dynamic applicable policy selection criteria that allow concurrent application of service policies from both the first and second ones of the overlapping service plans, associated with the delivery of a particular data service to a wireless end-user device; and
output the plurality of prioritized policy instructions to one or more processing elements to configure the one or more processing elements to apply, in connection with one or more data services and at least one given wireless end-user device, the first and second ones of the overlapping service plans.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the program code which, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to output the plurality of prioritized policy instructions to one or more processing elements comprises instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to output at least one of the prioritized policy instructions to a service processor within the given wireless end-user device.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein the program code which, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to output the plurality of prioritized policy instructions to one or more processing elements comprises instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to output at least one of the prioritized policy instructions to a network element that performs access control functions or access accounting functions for a plurality of wireless end-user devices, the plurality

Assignees

• Headwater Partners I Llc
• Headwater Res Llc

Inventors

• Raleigh Gregory G
• Green Jeffrey
• Lavine James
• James Justin

Classifications

• H04M15/80

  Rating or billing plans; Tariff determination aspects · CPC title

• H04L12/1435

  volume-based · CPC title

• H04L12/1417

  Advice of charge with threshold, e.g. user indicating maximum cost · CPC title

• H04M15/66

  Policy and charging system · CPC title

• G06Q40/12

  Accounting · CPC title