Quality of service adjustments to improve network utilization
Devices of a telecommunication network described herein are configured to reduce a service level associated with a quality of service offered by the telecommunication network to a user. The devices may reduce the service level responsive to data consumption by the user exceeding a threshold or responsive to data consumption associated with an application or data type. Also, the devices may be configured to increase a video-conversation-specific service level responsive to determining that a client device of the user is establishing a video conversation.
1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a service provider device of a service provider operating a telecommunication network, an indication that a user's consumption of data over the telecommunication network has exceeded a threshold, the threshold being one of a plurality of thresholds associated with increasingly larger amounts of data consumption;
in response to receiving the indication, reducing, by the service provider device, a service level specific to the user, the service level being associated with a quality of service provided by the telecommunication network to one or more devices of the user;
determining that the user's consumption of data over the telecommunication network has exceeded a second threshold;
in response to determining that the user's data consumption has exceeded the second threshold, reducing a maximum bit rate at which at least one of the one or more devices of the user is able to communicate with the telecommunication network; and
increasing the reduced service level while reducing the maximum bit rate.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising resetting the service level at an end of a billing cycle or maintaining the service level for multiple billing cycles.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the service level is one of a priority level or a content-quality level.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the content-quality level is associated with one of higher compression or lower quality video, lower quality images, lower quality graphics, lower quality text, or lower quality audio.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing the reduced service level to one or more other nodes of the telecommunication network for the one or more other nodes apply the reduced service level.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing the receiving and the reducing at a time of day associated with a larger amount of network traffic than other times of day.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing the receiving and the reducing for a third threshold of the plurality of thresholds, the third threshold being greater than a first threshold and less than the second threshold.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication is received from another node of the telecommunication network, the other node of the telecommunication network determining whether the user's consumption of data exceeds the threshold.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein reducing the service level comprises modifying a traffic class associated with a packet data protocol (PDP) context for the user, creating a secondary PDP context for the user, or creating a service data flow for the user.
10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising notifying the user when the threshold is reached and offering the user an opportunity to purchase a maintained or increased service level.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the threshold is set by a learning server based on machine learning techniques.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein different thresholds and data consumption measures are associated with different ones of the one or more devices of the user.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the service provider device is a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) node of the telecommunication network.
14. One or more non-transitory computer storage media comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon and configured to program one or more service provider devices of a service provider operating a telecommunication network to perform operations including:
receiving an indication that a user's consumption of data over the telecommunication network has exceeded a threshold; and
in response to receiving the indication, reducing an application-specific or data-type-specific service level specific to the user, the application-specific or data-type-specific service level being associated with a quality of service offered by the telecommunication network to one or more devices of the user, the reducing performed conditionally based on telecommunication network conditions;
determining that the user's consumption of data over the telecommunication network has exceeded a second threshold;
in response to determining that the user's data consumption has exceeded the second threshold, reducing a maximum bit rate at which at least one of the one or more devices of the user is able to communicate with the telecommunication network; and
increasing the reduced service level while reducing the maximum bit rate.
15. The one or more non-transitory computer storage media of claim 14 , wherein the application or data type is one of peer-to-peer, web, audio, video, platform updates, application updates, real-time gaming, or file transfers.
16. The one or more non-transitory computer storage media of claim 15 , wherein the operations further include offering different price plans for different applications or data types to enable the user to purchase a maintained or elevated service level for data communication associated with an application or a data type.
17. The one or more non-transitory computer storage media of claim 14 , wherein the operations further include receiving indications of applications and data types to associate with service levels.
18. A system associated with a telecommunication network, comprising:
one or more processors; and
a memory coupled to the one or more processors and including instructions configured to be executed on the one or more processors to program one or more service provider devices of a service provider operating the telecommunication network to perform operations including:
determining that a user's consumption of data over the telecommunication network has exceeded a first threshold;
in response to determining that the user's data consumption has exceeded the first threshold, reducing a service level associated with a quality of service provided by the telecommunication network to the user;
determining that the user's consumption of data over the telecommunication network has exceeded a second threshold, the second threshold being greater than the first threshold;
in response to determining that the user's data consumption has exceeded the second threshold, reducing a maximum bit rate at which a device of the user is able to communicate with the telecommunication network; and
in response to determining that the user's data consumption has exceeded the second threshold, increasing the service level while reducing the maximum bit rate.
19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the service level is one of a priority level or a content-quality level.