Spending Limit Session for Policy Decision Latency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems for managing subscriber spending limits in communications networks often impact performance baselines by requiring synchronous waits or blocks on subscriber information, leading to delays in request response times.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a single 'spending limit session' that begins automatically upon establishment of an initial packet data connection and remains active until the last connection is terminated, allowing for immediate use of pre-received spending limits or default values for initial policy determinations, thereby avoiding the need for synchronous waits on subscriber information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the system synchronously waits for subscriber spending limit information from the SPR, then policy decisions can be made with accurate subscriber data, but request response time increases and performance baseline deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-loads and caches subscriber spending limit information from the SPR into local memory before it is actually needed for policy decisions. This preliminary action ensures that when a data service request arrives, the spending limit information is already available locally, eliminating the synchronous wait and reducing response time while maintaining decision accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a caching mechanism as an intermediary layer between the PCRF and the SPR. This cache stores subscriber spending limit information temporarily, allowing the PCRF to retrieve data quickly without directly blocking on SPR queries. The intermediary cache decouples the timing between data retrieval and actual use, resolving the contradiction between accuracy and speed.
2Loss of information
If the system blocks on requests to the SPR for subscriber profile information, then complete subscriber data is available for policy decisions, but connection time wait increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary retrieval and storage of subscriber profile information from the SPR into local cache memory before actual data service requests are processed. This advance preparation ensures that complete subscriber data is readily available when needed, without causing blocking delays during connection establishment.
Solution Approach 2:
The caching mechanism enables continuous operation by decoupling the periodic SPR data retrieval from individual service requests. The system maintains continuous availability of subscriber information in local memory, allowing multiple requests to be processed without repeated blocking on SPR, thus reducing overall connection time wait while preserving data completeness.
Data Source
AI summary
A policy and charging rules function node of a network may receive from the network an indication of an element of user equipment connecting to the network, query a subscription profile repository to receive a subscriber profile associated with the user equipment, the subscriber profile including indicators used in the selection of subscriber policies associated with the subscriber, and create a spending limit session based on the subscriber profile without waiting to receive a request from the user equipment for data services. The node may receive the request for data services from the element of user equipment, identify the spending limit session specifically corresponding to the user equipment, and respond to the request according to spending limit rules of the spending limit session associated with the element of user equipment. The node may also respond to the request according to default spending limit rules without waiting for creation of the spending limit session.