# US 9,438,522 B2 · Service processing method and system, and policy control and charging rules function

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- Number: US 9,438,522 B2
- Document ID: US9438522B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 14/069,546
- Filed: 2013-11-01
- Published: 2014-03-06
- Granted: 2016-09-06
- Earliest claimed: 2007-03-23
- Assignees: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
- Applicants: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
- Inventors: Shibi Huang; Peng Zhao; Yuxin Mao; Shiyong Tan; Yan Li; Weihua Qiao
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US9438522B2

## CPC

- H04L 12/14: Charging, metering or billing arrangements specially adapted for data communications, e.g. authentication, authorisation and accounting [AAA] framework
- H04L 12/66: Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
- H04L 41/0894: Policy-based network configuration management
- H04L 41/5003: Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
- H04L 47/2433: {Allocation of priorities to traffic types}
- H04M 15/66: {Policy and charging system}
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)
- H04M: TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION (circuits for controlling other apparatus via a telephone cable and not involving telephone switching apparatus G08)

## Abstract

A service processing method, a service processing system, and a PCRF entity are disclosed to overcome this defect in the prior art: The prior art is unable to handle services discriminatively according to the policy context information when different services require the same QoS level. The method includes: receiving bearer priority information from a PCRF entity, where the bearer priority information includes: bearer priority information of a service data stream, bearer priority information of an IP-CAN session, and/or bearer priority information of an IP-CAN bearer; and handling services according to the bearer priority information. In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the policy context information is converted into bearer priority information so that the PCEF handles services according to the bearer priority information. In this way, different services that require the same QoS level are handled discriminatively according to the policy context information.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A service processing method, comprising:
obtaining by a Policy Control and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) entity, which includes a processor, policy context information of a service data stream, wherein the policy context information of the service data stream comprises at least one of: service type, service priority, user priority, and custom-defined priority;
generating by the PCRF entity, bearer priority information on the service data stream according to the policy context information, wherein the bearer priority information designates a priority level of the service data stream within a bearer layer at a QoS level; and
sending by the PCRF entity, the bearer priority information to a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) entity for discriminative handling the service data stream within the bearer layer along with other service data streams which are at the same QoS level; wherein the bearer priority information is set in a bearer priority information element; wherein the bearer priority information element is set into a bearer priority message directly or set into an existing information element; wherein a type of the bearer priority message is a Credit Control Answer (CCA) message, or a Re-Authentication Request (RAR) message; and wherein a type of the existing information element is a Charging-Rule-Definition Attribute Value Pair (AVP) information element, or an Authorized-Quality of Service (QoS) AVP information element;
wherein discriminatively handling the service data stream within the bearer layer along with the other service data streams comprises:
processing the data stream along with the other service data streams within the bearer layer which are at the same QoS level according to the bearer priority information, wherein precedence is given to a service data stream having a higher bearer priority level.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the bearer priority information element comprises: a bearer priority level sub-information element adapted to bear a bearer priority level, and a bearer identifier sub-information element adapted to bear a bearer identifier of a user.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising: setting the bearer priority information into the bearer priority information element in the following way:
if the bearer priority information is the bearer priority information of the service data stream, setting the bearer identifier sub-information element to be null, and setting the bearer priority level of the service data stream into the bearer priority level sub-information element.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3, wherein the setting of the bearer priority information element into the bearer priority message directly comprising:
if the bearer priority information is the bearer priority information of the service data stream, setting the bearer priority information element into the Charging-Rule-Definition AVP information element.

### Claim 5 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3, wherein when the existing information element is the Authorized QoS AVP information element, the setting of the bearer priority information element into the existing information element comprising:
if the bearer priority information is the bearer priority information of the service data stream, setting the bearer priority information element into the Authorized-QoS AVP information element, and then setting the Authorized-QoS AVP information element into the Charging-Rule-Definition AVP information element.

### Claim 6 (depends on 4)

The method of claim 4, further comprising:
receiving, by the PCEF entity, the bearer priority information from the PCRF entity through the bearer priority message.

### Claim 7 (depends on 5)

The method of claim 5, further comprising:
receiving, by the PCEF entity, the bearer priority information from the PCRF entity through the bearer priority message.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the handling of the service data streams by the PCEF entity according to the bearer priority information comprising:
mapping a bearer priority level to an Allocation/Retention Priority, ARP; or
handling the services data streams discriminatively according to bearer priority levels, and ensuring resources for a service of a higher bearer priority level preferentially when a resource conflict occurs.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining, by the PCRF entity, the policy context information comprises at least one of the following:
obtaining, by the PCRF entity, the service type and the service priority from an Application Function (AF) entity; and
obtaining, by the PCRF, the user priority from a Subscription Profile Repository (SPR).

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the bearer priority information further comprises at least one of the followings: bearer priority information denoting the priority level of an Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session, and bearer priority information denoting the priority level of an IP-CAN bearer, wherein one or more IP-CAN bearers are set up in the same IP-CAN session and each of the one or more IP-CAN bearers bear one or more service data streams.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, further comprising: wherein the bearer priority information is set in a bearer priority information element, wherein the bearer priority information element is set into a bearer priority message directly or set into an existing information element;
wherein a type of the bearer priority message is a Credit Control Answer (CCA) message, or a Re-Authentication Request, RAR, message; and
wherein a type of the existing information element is a Charging-Rule-Definition Attribute Value Pair (AVP) information element, or an Authorized-Quality of Service (QoS) AVP information element; and
the bearer priority information element comprises: a bearer priority level sub-information element adapted to bear a bearer priority level, and a bearer identifier sub-information element adapted to bear a bearer identifier of a user.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The method of claim 11, further comprising: setting the bearer priority information into the bearer priority information element in the following way:
if the bearer priority information is the bearer priority information of the IP-CAN session, setting the bearer identifier sub-information element to be null, and setting the bearer priority level of the IP-CAN session into the bearer priority level sub-information element; or
if the bearer priority information is the bearer priority information of the IP-CAN bearer, setting an IP-CAN bearer identifier into the bearer identifier sub-information element, and setting the bearer priority level of the IP-CAN bearer into the bearer priority level sub-information element.

### Claim 13

A service processing system for discriminatively handling service data streams from a plurality of service data streams, the service processing system comprising:
a Policy Control and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) entity comprising a processor and a memory, configured to:
obtain policy context information, which comprises at least one of: a service type, a service priority, a user priority, and a custom-defined priority;
generate bearer priority information according to the policy context information, wherein the bearer priority information designates a priority level of the service data stream within a bearer layer;
send the bearer priority information to a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) entity; wherein the bearer priority information is set in a bearer priority information element; wherein the bearer priority information element is set into a bearer priority message directly or set into an existing information element; wherein a type of the bearer priority message is a Credit Control Answer (CCA) message, or a Re-Authentication Request (RAR) message; and wherein a type of the existing information element is a Charging-Rule-Definition Attribute Value Pair (AVP) information element, or an Authorized-Quality of Service (QoS) AVP information element; wherein: the PCEF entity is enabled to handle the service data stream within the bearer layer along with other service data streams which are at a same QoS level according to the bearer priority information, wherein precedence is given to a service data stream having a higher bearer priority level.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The service processing system of claim 13, further comprises:
an Application Function, AF, entity, enabled to obtain the service type and the service priority, and send the service type and the service priority to the PCRF entity.

### Claim 15 (depends on 14)

The service processing system of claim 14, further comprises:
a Subscription Profile Repository (SPR) enabled to store a user's subscription profile comprising the user priority.

### Claim 16

A Policy Control and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) entity comprising a processor and a memory, comprising:
an obtaining unit, enabled to obtain policy context information, comprises at least one of: a service type, a service priority, a user priority, and a custom-defined priority;
a generating unit, enabled to generate bearer priority information according to the policy context information, wherein the bearer priority information designates a priority level of the service data stream within a bearer layer at a QoS level;
a sending unit, enabled to send the bearer priority information to a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) entity, such that the PCEF entity discriminately handles the data stream along with other service data streams within the bearer layer which are at a same QoS level according to the bearer priority information, wherein precedence is given to a service data stream having a higher bearer priority; wherein the bearer priority information is set in a bearer priority information element; wherein the bearer priority information element is set into a bearer priority message directly or set into an existing information element; wherein a type of the bearer priority message is a Credit Control Answer (CCA) message, or a Re-Authentication Request (RAR) message; and wherein a type of the existing information element is a Charging-Rule-Definition Attribute Value Pair (AVP) information element, or an Authorized-QoS AVP information element.