Methods, systems, and computer program products for managing admission control in a regional/access network based on user preferences

A system for controlling admission to a network that facilitates differentiated end-to-end data transport between at least one of a network service provider and an application service provider and a customer premises network that includes customer premises equipment, comprising:

• means for obtaining from a user of the network policy information associated with services accessed through the network, the policy information comprising relative priority information among the services;
• means for establishing communication between a node in the network and at least one of the network service provider and the application service provider and between the node in the network and the customer premises network using a resource reservation protocol to request resources for a flow having one of the services associated therewith between at least one of the network service provider and the application service provider and the customer premises network;
• and
• means for obtaining at the node in the network a determination of whether to grant or deny access to the network to the flow based on the policy information associated with the one of the services;
• wherein the means for obtaining at the node in the network the determination of whether to grant or deny access to the network comprises:
• means for establishing a common open policy service protocol session to communicate the request for resources from the node in the network to a data processing system;
• means for determining at the data processing system whether to grant or deny access to the network to the flow based on the policy information associated with the one of the services;
• and
• means for establishing a common open policy service protocol session to communicate the determination of whether to grant or deny access to the network to the flow from the data processing system to the node in the network.

An article of manufacture for controlling admission to a network that facilitates differentiated end-to-end data transport between at least one of a network service provider and an application service provider and a customer premises network that includes customer premises equipment, comprising:

• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer executable program code embodied therein, the tangible computer executable program code comprising:
• computer executable program code configured to obtain from a user of the network policy information associated with services accessed through the network, the policy information comprising relative priority information among the services;
• computer executable program code configured to establish communication between a node in the network and at least one of the network service provider and the application service provider and between the node in the network and the customer premises network using a resource reservation protocol to request resources for a flow having one of the services associated therewith between at least one of the network service provider and the application service provider and the customer premises network;
• and
• computer executable program code configured to obtain at the node in the network a determination of whether to grant or deny access to the network to the flow based on the policy information associated with the one of the services;
• wherein the computer executable program code configured to obtain at the node in the network the determination of whether to grant or deny admission to the network comprises:
• computer executable program code configured to establish a common open policy service protocol session to communicate the request for resources from the node in the network to the data processing system;
• computer executable program code configured to determine at a data processing system whether to grant or deny access to the network to the flow based on the policy information associated with the one of the services;
• and
• computer executable program code configured to establish a common open policy service protocol session to communicate the determination of whether to grant or deny access to the network to the flow from the data processing system to the node in the network.