Sponsored data plan management

1. In a mobile telecommunications network, a method for managing a Sponsored Data Plan (SDP) comprising:

receiving a first request, at an Online Charging System (OCS), for an initial charging policy report in response to a detection of a user's data session with an Application Server (AS) of a content provider;

sending, in response to the first request, the requested initial charging policy report toward a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) such that said PCRF selects a first Policy Charging Control Rule (PCC-Rule) in accordance with said report for enforcement at a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF);

receiving a second request, at the OCS, to perform an online subscription of the user to the SDP;

sending, in response to the second request, information about the SDP toward the PCRF such that said PCRF selects a second PCC-Rule in accordance with said information for enforcement at the PCEF;

receiving, in response to enforcement of the first PCC-Rule at the PCEF, a first trigger prompting association of the user's data session with a first Rating-Group (RG-1); and

receiving, in response to enforcement of the second PCC-Rule at the PCEF, a second trigger prompting association of the user's data session with a second Rating-Group (RG-2).

2. The method of claim 1 , said method further comprising:

exposing an Application Programming Interface (API) through which the second request is received.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein said first request is received from the PCRF.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the first request is received over a Diameter Sy interface.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the second request is received via the API from the AS over a representational state transfer (REST) interface.

6. The method of claim 5 , said method further comprising:

building a Diameter Rx request to send information about information about the SDP toward the PCRF.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein building the Diameter Rx request is done by the API and it is sent by the API towards the PCRF.

8. The method of claim 2 , said method further comprising:

receiving a meta-model that defines one or more parameters of the SDP.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the meta-model is received from the AS via the exposed API.

10. An apparatus that executes the method of claim 1 .

11. A non-transitory machine-readable medium including a computer program which executed performs the method of claim 1 .

12. An online charging system (OCS) for use in a mobile telecommunications network, said OCS comprising:

an exposed Application Programming Interface (API) having a first interface for communicating with an Application Server (AS) of a content provider;

a second interface for communicating with a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF); and

a third interface for communicating with a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF);

wherein said OCS is operative to:

receive a first request over the second interface for an initial charging policy report in response to a detection of a user's data session with the AS of the content provider;

send a first response to the first request toward the PCRF over the second interface, including the requested initial charging policy report, such that said PCRF selects a first Policy Charging Control Rule (PCC-Rule) in accordance with said report for enforcement at the PCEF;

receive a second request via the exposed API to perform an online subscription of the user to a sponsored data plan (SDP);

send a second response to the second request toward the PCRF, including information about the SDP, such that said PCRF selects a second PCC-Rule in accordance with said information for enforcement at the PCEF;

receive, in response to enforcement of the first PCC-Rule at the PCEF, a first trigger prompting association of the user's data session with a first Rating-Group (RG-1); and

receive, in response to enforcement of the second PCC-Rule at the PCEF, a second trigger prompting association of the user's data session with a second Rating-Group (RG-2).

13. The OCS of claim 12 , said OSC further being operative to:

receive, in response to enforcement of the first PCC-Rule at the PCEF, a first trigger prompting association of the user's data session with a first Rating-Group (RG-1); and

receive, in response to enforcement of the second PCC-Rule at the PCEF, a second trigger prompting association of the user's data session with a second Rating-Group (RG-2).

14. The OCS of claim 13 , wherein the second interface is Diameter Sy interface.

15. The OCS of claim 13 , wherein the first interface is a representational state transfer (REST) interface.

16. The OCS of claim 13 , wherein the OCS is further operative to:

build a Diameter Rx request to send information about information about the SDP toward the PCRF.

17. The OCS of claim 16 , wherein building the Diameter Rx request is done by the API and it is sent by the API towards the PCRF.

18. The OCS of claim 13 , wherein said OCS is further operative to:

receiving a meta-model that defines one or more parameters of the SDP.

19. The OCS of claim 18 , wherein the meta-model is received from the AS via the exposed API.