IP Library › Granted Patent US 9,445,259

Granted Patent B2

US 9,445,259 · App. 14/034,924 · Granted Sep 13, 2016

Service provider certified device policy management

Inventors: Tiru K. Sheth (Ottawa, CA); Ramaswamy Subramanian (Ottawa, CA)

Assignee: Alcatel Lucent

H04W8/205 H04W8/22 H04W48/02 H04W48/14

View Patent ↗

Loading inventors, assignments & file history…

Monitor This Case

Get email alerts when status or documents change.

Order Certified Copies

Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.

Order via The Patent Place →

Pre-filled with this patent's details

Quick Facts

Patent No.: US 9,445,259
App. No.: 14/034,924
Granted: Sep 13, 2016
Kind: B2

External Links

USPTO Patent Center↗ Full Patent PDF↗

Abstract

Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method performed by a policy server. The method includes: receiving a request for service, the request including an identification of user equipment; determining a user equipment type (TAC); evaluating a policy rule based on the user equipment type, the policy rule including a condition referencing at least one user equipment type; and responding to the request for service based on evaluation of the policy rule.

Claims (56)

1. A method performed by a policy server, the method comprising:

receiving a request for service, the request including an identification of user equipment;

determining a user equipment type;

evaluating a policy rule based on the user equipment type, the policy rule including a condition referencing at least one user equipment type;

responding to the request for service based on evaluation of the policy rule;

authorizing a default session configured to provide access to a service portal;

storing the identification of user equipment in association with the default session;

receiving, from the portal, a request for identification of user equipment associated with the session;

sending the stored identification of user equipment to the portal;

receiving new subscriber information including the identification of user equipment; and

updating the session based on the new subscriber information.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a marketing name for the user equipment, wherein the condition references the at least one user equipment type according to the marketing name.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the marketing name corresponds to a plurality of user equipment types.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user equipment type is a type allocation code (TAC) extracted from a user-equipment-info attribute value pair (AVP) received in the request for service.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the condition references a plurality of user equipment types.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining that the request for service is not related to a known subscriber; and

authorizing default services based on the user equipment type.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the default services include a limit on at least one of an available time period and a data volume.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining that the request for service is not related to a known subscriber, wherein the default session is based on an unknown subscriber identifier and certified user equipment type.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: storing an IP address for the default session, wherein the request for identification of user equipment associated with the session includes the IP address.

10. A policy server comprising:

an interface configured to receive a service request initiated by a user equipment attaching to a mobile network, the service request including a user equipment identification;

a device mapper configured to determine a marketing name of the device based on the user equipment identification;

a rules engine processor configured to evaluate conditions of policy rules and execute actions corresponding to when conditions are true, at least one policy rule including a condition based on the marketing name of the device;

respond to the request for service based on evaluation of the policy rule;

authorize a default session configured to provide access to a service portal;

store the identification of user equipment in association with the default session;

receive, from the portal, a request for identification of user equipment associated with the session;

send the stored identification of user equipment to the portal;

receive new subscriber information including the identification of user equipment; and

update the session based on the new subscriber information.

11. The policy server of claim 10 , wherein the device mapper comprises a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing a plurality of type allocation codes, each type allocation code mapped to a marketing name.

12. The policy server of claim 10 , wherein the condition of the at least one rule includes a certified device marketing name and the action of the at least one rule instructs the rules engine to allow a session providing service to the user equipment.

13. The policy server of claim 12 , further comprising:

a session information storage configured to store information regarding the session including the marketing name of the user equipment; and

an application programming interface configured to provide an external service portal access to the session information and configured to receive subscriber information from the service portal.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a processor of a policy server, the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions for:

receiving a request for service, the request including an identification of user equipment; determining a user equipment type;