Mobility Policy Validation Using Test Traffic and Record Correlation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing mobile network systems face challenges in accurately aligning policy configurations across core network elements, leading to incorrect subscriber treatments, billing issues, and platform instability due to the complexity of rulebases containing thousands of entries, which can result in catastrophic failures.
Innovation Solution
A mobility policy certification engine (MPCE) analyzes policy rules, generates corresponding traffic, and performs downstream verification to ensure accurate billing and treatment, capable of monitoring incremental changes dynamically and performing automated validation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual testing and validation of policy rulebase changes is performed, then policy alignment accuracy can be improved, but testing time and operational complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary validation of policy rulebase changes before they are deployed to production. The MPCE analyzes and validates policy configurations in advance, generating test traffic and verifying downstream elements beforehand, thus preventing incorrect policies from being deployed and eliminating the need for extensive manual testing after deployment.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements automated self-validation where the MPCE automatically generates test traffic, analyzes policy configurations, validates downstream elements, and reports results without requiring manual intervention. This self-service approach continuously monitors and validates policy changes, replacing manual testing processes with autonomous validation mechanisms.
2Reliability
If comprehensive policy validation is performed across all network elements, then policy enforcement reliability is improved, but system complexity and resource requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The MPCE serves as an intermediary validation layer between policy configuration and deployment. It automatically generates test traffic and analyzes the interactions between PCRF/PCF, PCEF, and downstream network elements, simplifying the validation process by centralizing the coordination and analysis functions in a single dedicated component.
Solution Approach 2:
The MPCE is designed as a multi-functional validation system that can validate policies across different network technologies (LTE, 5G), different policy types (billing, QoS, subscriber treatment), and multiple downstream network elements simultaneously, reducing the need for separate validation systems for each function.
3Productivity
If incremental changes to policy rulebase are deployed quickly, then service introduction speed is improved, but risk of incorrect policy application increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs rapid automated validation of incremental policy changes before deployment, allowing quick service introduction while maintaining accuracy. The MPCE can quickly analyze small changes to the rulebase, generate appropriate test traffic, and validate downstream elements, enabling fast iteration without sacrificing reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous feedback loops where the MPCE monitors policy application in real-time, detects incorrect treatments or billing issues, and provides immediate feedback for correction. This enables rapid deployment with confidence, as any issues are quickly identified and resolved through automated feedback mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, identifying one or more rules in a policy rulebase, wherein the one or more rules correspond to a subscriber associated with a network, instructing a test agent to derive one or more scripts that, when executed by a client, cause the client to generate test traffic and send the test traffic to the network, after the instructing and after the test traffic is sent to the network, accessing data records that are outputted by the network based on the test traffic, based on the accessing, correlating at least one record of the data records to the test traffic, and analyzing the at least one record to validate conformance with the one or more rules. Other embodiments are disclosed.