Patent ID: 6621793
Filing Date: 2003-09-16
Classification: H04L,H04M,H04W

Abstract:
A method of filtering and gating data flow in a QoS connection between a remote host and user equipment in a packet data network using policy control mechanisms, the method comprising the steps of:initiating, by one of the remote host and the user equipment, an application, supported by an application server within the network, and a corresponding session between the remote host and the user equipment via the application server; requesting, to a gateway support node of the network by the user equipment, establishment of a network bearer service between the user equipment and the remote host, said network bearer service being differentiated by allowing different degrees of QoS; receiving, by a corresponding policy control function in a policy server, from the application server, filtering data derived from session data received by the application server from the user equipment and remote host during the session, said filtering data being processed by the policy control function to derive corresponding policy control filtering data; interrogating, by the gateway support node, the corresponding policy control function in the policy server to determine whether the establishment of the network bearer service is permitted; and if the establishment of the network bearer service is permitted, then establishing a gate at the gateway support node, said gate being initialized with the policy control filtering data received either as a result of the gateway support node's interrogation of the policy control function or as a result of the policy control filtering data being pushed by the policy server to the gateway support node, wherein said gate is initialized to filter the data flow in the QoS connection.