System and method of maintaining communications policy settings in a wireless network
View Patent ↗In a network having a plurality of subscriber devices, a plurality of base stations and a server, a system and method of modifying policy settings are provided. Each base station transmits wirelessly across a geographic region. A subscriber device, capable of roaming between regions, establishes a wireless link with the server via the base stations. The network contains a communication policy determining from which other communication devices a subscriber device can receive voice calls. The server updates the policy based on requests from subscriber devices. The determination of whether to update the policy can be based on a record of rejections respective to the caller requested to be blocked. Alternatively, the policy can be updated according to a trust policy maintained on the server respective to the subscriber device making the request; the trust policy represents the procedure to follow when a request is received from that subscriber device.
1. A method of maintaining a communication policy in a voice telephony network having a policy server and a plurality of subscriber devices, comprising:
maintaining, in a memory of the policy server, a communication policy comprising at least one identifier representing whether reception of a voice call having the at least one identifier is permissible at the subscriber devices;
maintaining, in the memory, a trust policy comprising an indicator expressed as a percentage representing one of at least three levels of trust respective to each one of the subscriber devices; each of the levels of trust representing a different allowability of modifying the communication policy;
receiving, at a network interface associated with the policy server, a request to modify the communication policy from one of the subscriber devices;
retrieving, at the policy server, the indicator respective to the one of the subscriber devices from the trust policy maintained in the memory;
maintaining, in the memory, a plurality of modification-procedures including: an alert for a system administrator including a report of the request; a vote to modify the communication policy such that if a predetermined number of the votes are received from a plurality of the subscriber devices then the communication policy is automatically modified in accordance with the request; and an automatic modification to the communication policy according to the request; and
at the policy server, selecting the automatic modification-procedure for the communication policy when the indicator has a value of greater than eighty percent.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: performing the selected modification-procedure.
3. The method of further comprising:
determining whether the communication policy is subject to modification upon performance of the modification-procedure; and,
performing an operation to update the indicator according to results of the determining.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the operation to update the indicator comprises replacing the indicator with a new indicator when the determination is affirmative.
5. The method of claim 4 , comprising generating the new indicator based on the indicator and an adjustment factor having a value greater than one.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein the new indicator has a value greater than the value of the indicator.
7. A policy server comprising:
a network interface for communicating with a plurality of subscriber devices via a network interconnecting the subscriber devices and the interface;
a memory for maintaining a communication policy comprising at least one identifier representing whether reception of a voice call having the at least one identifier is permissible at the subscriber devices in the network;
the memory additionally for maintaining a trust policy comprising an indicator expressed as a percentage representing one of at least three levels of trust respective to each one of the subscriber devices; each of the levels of trust representing a different allowability of modifying the communication policy;
the memory additionally for maintaining a plurality of modification-procedures including: an alert for a system administrator including a report of the request; a vote to modify the communication policy such that if a predetermined number of the votes are received from a plurality of the subscriber devices then the communication policy is automatically modified in accordance with the request; and an automatic modification to the communication policy according to the request;
a processor interconnecting the interface and the memory; the processor for receiving a request to modify the communication policy from one of the subscriber devices via the interface;
the processor operable to retrieve the indicator for the one of the subscriber devices from the trust policy maintained in the memory; and,
the processor operable to select the automatic modification-procedure for the communication policy when the indicator has a value of greater than eighty percent.
8. The policy server of claim 7 , the processor further operable to perform the modification-procedure.
9. The policy server of claim 7 , the processor further operable to:
determine whether the communication policy is subject to modification upon performance of the modification-procedure; and,
perform an operation to update the indicator according to results of the determining.
10. The method of claim 9 , the processor operable to update the indicator by replacing the indicator with a new indicator when the determination is affirmative.
11. The method of claim 10 , the processor operable to generate the new indicator based on the indicator and an adjustment factor having a value greater than one.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein the new indicator has a value greater than the value of the indicator.
13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a plurality of programming instructions; the programming instructions, when executed by a processor of a policy server, implementing a method of maintaining a communication policy in a voice telephony network including the policy server and a plurality of subscriber devices, the method comprising:
maintaining, in a memory of the policy server, a communication policy comprising at least one identifier representing whether reception of a voice call having the at least one identifier is permissible at the subscriber devices;
maintaining, in the memory, a trust policy comprising an indicator expressed as a percentage representing one of at least three levels of trust respective to each one of the subscriber devices; each of the levels of trust representing a different allowability of modifying the communication policy;
receiving, at a network interface associated with the policy server, a request to modify the communication policy from one of the subscriber devices;
retrieving, at the policy server, the indicator respective to the one of the subscriber devices from the trust policy maintained in the memory;
maintaining, in the memory, a plurality of modification-procedures including: an alert for a system administrator including a report of the request; a vote to modify the communication policy such that if a predetermined number of the votes are received from a plurality of the subscriber devices then the communication policy is automatically modified in accordance with the request; and an automatic modification to the communication policy according to the request; and
at the policy server, selecting the automatic modification-procedure for the communication policy when the indicator has a value of greater than eighty percent.
14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , the method further comprising:
performing the selected modification-procedure.
15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , the method further comprising:
determining whether the communication policy is subject to modification upon performance of the modification-procedure; and,
performing an operation to update the indicator according to results of the determining.
16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 wherein the operation to update the indicator comprises replacing the indicator with a new indicator when the determination is affirmative.
17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 , the method further comprising generating the new indicator based on the indicator and an adjustment factor having a value greater than one.
18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the new indicator has a value greater than the value of the indicator.