Patent ID: 7876683
Filing Date: 2011-01-25
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method of modifying subscriber services comprising: defining each of a plurality of service contexts available to a plurality of subscribers of a service provider in terms of one or more profile identifiers of a plurality of profile identifiers each of which is representative of a particular subscriber service supported by the service provider; maintaining within a virtual router (VR) configured within a telecommunications system of the service provider a scalable subscriber profile database in which a memory requirement for the scalable subscriber profile database is dependent upon a number of available service contexts by hierarchically organizing the plurality of profile identifiers as intermediate profile identifiers and leaf profile identifier, wherein the leaf profile identifiers explicitly define subscriber services and the intermediate profile identifiers indirectly represent sets of one or more subscriber services, which are defined by way of the intermediate profile identifiers' associations with one or more lower-level identifiers including zero or more of the leaf profile identifiers and zero or more of the intermediate profile identifiers, wherein the scalable subscriber profile database is distributed between an authentication system of the service provider and the VR, wherein a first portion of the scalable subscriber profile database is stored within the authentication system, the first portion of the scalable subscriber profile database including information indicative of associations among the subscribers and corresponding first-level profile identifiers representing a subset of the intermediate profile identifiers and a second portion of the scalable subscriber profile database is stored within a profile manager configured within the VR, the second portion including information indicative of the associations among the subset of intermediate profile identifiers and the one or more lower-level identifiers; receiving updated service profile information for a subscriber of the plurality of subscribers of the service provider, wherein the updated service profile information represents a change to the subscriber's service context; and responsive to receipt of the updated service profile information, disassociating a first set of one or more lower-level profile identifiers currently associated with a first-level profile identifier of the intermediate profile identifiers corresponding to the subscriber within the second portion of the scalable profile database and associating a second set of one or more lower-level profile identifiers corresponding to the updated service profile information with the first-level profile identifier within the second portion of the scalable profile database, whereby a modification can be made to the subscriber's service context without requiring a change to the subscriber's first-level profile identifier within the first portion of the scalable profile database and without requiring the subscriber to reestablish an active connection with the service provider.