Patent Description:
This section is intended to provide a background to the various embodiments of the technology described in this disclosure. The description in this section may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and/or claims of this disclosure and is not admitted to be prior art by the mere inclusion in this section.

These chapters describes the error happens in rule or policy decision. However, since the policy decision and condition data are referred by rule, the reference may be wrongly provisioned or updated by the PCF. Or, the error may happen in attributes in SmPolicyDecision other than sessRules, pccRules, qosDecs, chgDecs, traffContDecs, umDecs, qosMonDecs and conds, such as the attributes reflectiveQoSTimer, policyCtrlReqTriggers, lastReqUsageData, pralnfos etc..

The current 3GPP specifications don't have the option for the Session Management Function (SMF) to report the policy decision and condition data with session rule/PCC rule reference error and error in attributes in SmPolicyDecision other than sessRules, pccRules, qosDecs, chgDecs, traffContDecs, umDecs, qosMonDecs and conds.

There are generally three types of error cases:.

When such an error happens, there is no description about how to handle it.

For case <NUM> and case <NUM>, currently, if the error information is provisioned from a UpdateNotify message (e.g., the Npcf_SMPolicyControl_UpdateNotify Request message), the SMF may reject the message with error status code. If the error applies to one or more PCC/session rule, it may also be with a rule error report. However, there is no appropriate FailureCode/SessionRuleFailureCode with current specification. Using incorrect failure code may lead to wrong decision on the PCF for the existing session; and.

For case <NUM> and case <NUM>, if the error information is provisioned from a Create/Update Response message (e.g., the Npcf_SMPolicyControl_Create/UpdateResponse message), there is no mechanism to report the error back to the PCF. The SMF may ignore the error which leads to unspecified behaviors and inconsistent interactions between the SMF and the PCF. The SMF may terminate user session, which leads bad end user experience;.

For case <NUM>, if the error happens in attributes in SmPolicyDecision other than sessRules, pccRules, qosDecs, chgDecs, traffContDecs, umDecs, qosMonDecs and conds, e.g., pralnfos validation/enforcement error, or the PCF removing the "US_RE" policy control request trigger while usage monitoring is still active in the SMF, the current 3GPP specifications don't have the option for the SMF to report such errors.

In view of the foregoing, in the current 3GPP specifications, if the error information is provisioned from the UpdateNotify message (e.g., the Npcf_SMPolicyControl_UpdateNotify Request message), the SMF may reject the message with error status code; and if the error information is provisioned from the Create/Update Response message (e.g., the Npcf_SMPolicyControl_Create/UpdateResponse message), there is no mechanism for the SMF to report the error to the PCF. In addition, if the error happens in attributes in SmPolicyDecision other than sessRules, pccRules, qosDecs, chgDecs, traffContDecs, umDecs, qosMonDecs and conds, e.g., pralnfos validation/enforcement error, policyCtrlReqTriggers, there is also no mechanism for the SMF to report the error.

Therefore, an effective error handling mechanism is thus desired.

In order to achieve at least the above purpose, the present disclosure introduces an option for the SMF to notify the PCF about:.

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, a method at a first entity is provided. The method includes: determining, based on a policy decision provisioned by a second entity, an error in at least one of: a reference of a session rule and/or a Policy and Charging Control, PCC, rule to the policy decision, wherein the error in reference of the session rule and/or the PCC rule to the policy decision further includes at least one of: the session rule and/or the PCC rule referring to an empty policy decision, or inconsistency of the policy decision with the session rule and/or the PCC rule, or an attribute in the policy decision; and transmitting, to the second entity, a notification of the error.

In an exemplary embodiment, the method further includes: receiving, from the second entity, an updated policy decision.

In an exemplary embodiment, the inconsistency of the policy decision with the session rule and the PCC rule further includes at least one of: inconsistency of the policy decision that is provisioned by the second entity with both the session rule and the PCC rule in the same policy decision, or inconsistency of the policy decision that is provisioned by the second entity with both a session rule and a PCC rule in an updated policy decision.

In an exemplary embodiment, the notification of the error is carried in a first request message for policy control update.

In an exemplary embodiment, the updated policy decision is carried in a first response message corresponding to the first request message for policy control update.

In an exemplary embodiment, the method further includes: transmitting, to the second entity, a second request message for policy control create/update; and receiving, from the second entity, a second response message corresponding to the second request message for policy control create/update, which includes the policy decision provisioned by the second entity.

In an exemplary embodiment, the notification of the error is carried in a first response message for policy control update notification.

In an exemplary embodiment, the method further includes: receiving, from the second entity, a first request message corresponding to the first response message for policy control update notification, which includes the policy decision provisioned by the second entity.

In an exemplary embodiment, the updated policy decision is carried in a second request message for policy control update notification.

In an exemplary embodiment, the first entity is an SMF, entity, and the second entity is a PCF entity.

In an exemplary embodiment, the policy decision includes a Session Management (SM) policy decision represented by SmPolicyDecision.

In an exemplary embodiment, the error in the attribute in the policy decision includes an error in at least one attribute in SmPolicyDecision other than sessRules, pccRules, qosDecs, chgDecs, traffContDecs, umDecs, qosMonDecs and conds.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, a method at a second entity is provided. The method includes: receiving, from a first entity, a notification of an error in at least one of: reference of a session rule and/or a PCC rule to a policy decision, wherein the error in reference of the session rule and/or the PCC rule to the policy decision further includes at least one of: the session rule and/or the PCC rule referring to an empty policy decision, or inconsistency of the policy decision with the session rule and/or the PCC rule, or an attribute in a policy decision; and updating the policy decision.

In an exemplary embodiment, the method further includes: transmitting, to the first entity, the updated policy decision.

In an exemplary embodiment, the method further includes: receiving, from the first entity, a second request message for policy control create/update; and transmitting, to the first entity, a second response message corresponding to the second request message for policy control create/update, which includes the Policy decision provisioned by the second entity.

In an exemplary embodiment, the method further includes: transmitting, to the first entity, a first request message corresponding to the first response message for policy control update notification, which includes the policy decision provisioned by the second entity.

In an exemplary embodiment, the first entity is an SMF entity, and the second entity is a PCF entity.

In an exemplary embodiment, the policy decision includes an SM policy decision represented by SmPolicyDecision.

According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, a first entity configured to perform any of the methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure is provided.

According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, a second entity configured to perform any of the methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure is provided.

According to a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, a computer readable storage medium is provided. The computer readable storage medium has computer program instructions stored thereon, the computer program instructions, when executed by at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to perform the method according to any of the first and second aspects of the present disclosure.

According to the above technical solutions of the present disclosure, for the scenarios when the policy decision with session rule/PCC rule reference error happens; or the error in at least one attribute in SmPolicyDecision other than sessRules, pccRules, qosDecs, chgDecs, traffContDecs, umDecs, qosMonDecs and conds happens, e.g., the Presence Reporting Area (PRA) information validation/enforcement error happens, the SMF may notify the PCF about the error for the PCF decision of updating the provision according to valid information. Otherwise, the SMF may ignore the error which may cause the information inconsistency between the SMF and the PCF, or the SMF may terminate the PDU session which may lower the user experience.

The objects, advantages and characteristics of the present disclosure will be more apparent, according to descriptions of preferred embodiments in connection with the drawings, in which:.

It should be noted that throughout the drawings, same or similar reference numbers are used for indicating same or similar elements; various parts in the drawings are not drawn to scale, but only for an illustrative purpose, and thus should not be understood as any limitations and constraints on the scope of the present disclosure.

Hereinafter, the principle of the present disclosure will be described with reference to illustrative embodiments.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the term "exemplary" is used herein to mean "illustrative," or "serving as an example," and is not intended to imply that a particular embodiment is preferred over another or that a particular feature is essential. Likewise, the terms "first", "second", "third", and similar terms, are used simply to distinguish one particular instance of an item or feature from another, and do not indicate a particular order or arrangement, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Further, the term "step," as used herein, is meant to be synonymous with "operation" or "action. " Any description herein of a sequence of steps does not imply that these operations must be carried out in a particular order, or even that these operations are carried out in any order at all, unless the context or the details of the described operation clearly indicates otherwise.

References in the specification to "one embodiment," "an embodiment," "an example embodiment," etc. indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be liming of exemplary embodiments. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises", "comprising", "has", "having", "includes" and/or "including", when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and/or components etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and/or combinations thereof.

As used herein, the term "network" refers to a network following any suitable (wireless or wired) communication standards. For example, the wireless communication standards may comprise new radio (NR), long term evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced, wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), high-speed packet access (HSPA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Address (TDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) and other wireless networks. A CDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), etc. UTRA includes WCDMA and other variants of CDMA. An OFDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE <NUM> (Wi-Fi), IEEE <NUM> (WiMAX), IEEE <NUM>, Flash-OFDMA, Ad-hoc network, wireless sensor network, etc. In the following description, the terms "network" and "system" can be used interchangeably.

Furthermore, the communications between two devices in the network may be performed according to any suitable communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the wireless communication protocols as defined by a standard organization such as 3GPP or the wired communication protocols. For example, the wireless communication protocols may comprise the first generation (<NUM>), <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> communication protocols, and/or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future.

The term "entity" or "network entity" used herein refers to a network device or network node or network function in a communication network, and may also refer to a virtualized entity that may be implemented on cloud. For example, in a wireless communication network such as a 3GPP-type cellular network, a core network device may offer numerous services to customers who are interconnected by an access network device. Each access network device is connectable to the core network device over a wired or wireless connection.

The basic ideas of the present disclosure mainly consist in that an NRF may obtain aggregated routing related information according to registration of domain information and/or update of the registration from SCPs to the NRF and possibly, other NRF(s); and an SCP requesting routing path discovery may retrieve the aggregated routing related information from the NRF, and subscribe to the NRF for change of the aggregated routing related information. Therefore, a routing path may be found by the SCP based on the retrieved aggregated routing related information without the need of finding the interconnected SCP domain(s) and the intermediate SCP(s) from the NRF hop by hop.

Hereinafter, a method <NUM> at a first entity for error handling according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to <FIG>.

In an exemplary embodiment, the first entity may be an SMF entity, also called SMF for simplicity, and the second entity may be a PCF entity also called PCF for simplicity. However, it should be understood that the first entity may be any node that can be configured to perform the method <NUM> as described below, including a virtualized entity that may be implemented on cloud. It should also be understood that the method <NUM> may be appropriately applied in 5GS, or other future developments.

In step S101, the first entity may determine, based on a policy decision provisioned by a second entity, that an error in at least one of: reference of a session rule and/or a PCC rule to the policy decision, or an attribute in the policy decision.

In an exemplary embodiment, the error in reference of the session rule and/or the PCC rule to the policy decision may include at least one of: the session rule and/or the PCC rule referring to an empty policy decision, or inconsistency of the policy decision with the session rule and/or the PCC rule.

In an exemplary embodiment, the inconsistency of the policy decision with the session rule and the PCC rule may include at least one of: inconsistency of the policy decision that is provisioned by the second entity with both the session rule and the PCC rule in the same policy decision, or inconsistency of the policy decision that is provisioned by the second entity with both a session rule and a PCC rule in an updated policy decision.

In an exemplary embodiment, the policy decision may include an SM policy decision represented by SmPolicyDecision.

Preferably, the error in the attribute in the policy decision may include an error in at least one attribute in SmPolicyDecision other than sessRules, pccRules, qosDecs, chgDecs, traffContDecs, umDecs, qosMonDecs and conds, such as the attribute reflectiveQoSTimer, policyCtrlReqTriggers, lastReqUsageData, pralnfos etc. For example, an error in pralnfos may be pralnfos validation/enforcement error, an error in policyCtrlReqTriggers may be e.g., the PCF removing the "US_RE" policy control request trigger while usage monitoring is still active in the SMF.

In Step S103, the first entity may transmit, to the second entity, a notification of the error.

In an exemplary embodiment, the notification of the error may be carried in a first request message for policy control update, e.g., Npcf_SMPolicyControl_Update Request message including ruleReports/sessRuleReports/policyDecFailureReports.

In an exemplary embodiment, regarding the policy decision with session rule/PCC rule reference error, the FailureCode for PCC rule error report may be extended:.

In Chapter <NUM>. <NUM> of 3GPP TS <NUM> v17. <NUM>, Data Types in Table <NUM>. <NUM>-<NUM> (shown as Table <NUM> below): Enumeration FailureCode may be added.

In an exemplary embodiment, regarding the policy decision with session rule reference error, the SessionRuleFailureCode for session rule error report may be extended:.

In Chapter <NUM>. <NUM> of 3GPP TS <NUM> v17. <NUM>, data types in Table <NUM>. <NUM>-<NUM> (shown as Table <NUM> below): Enumeration SessionRuleFailureCode may be added.

In an exemplary embodiment, regarding e.g., the pralnfos and policyCtrlReqTriggers error, the PolicyDecisionFailureCode for PolicyDecisionErrorHandling may be extended.

In Chapter Table <NUM>. <NUM>-<NUM>, and Table <NUM>. <NUM>-<NUM> (shown as Table <NUM> below), the following may be added:.

In Chapter <NUM>. <NUM> of 3GPP TS <NUM> v17. <NUM>, data types in Table <NUM>. <NUM>-<NUM> (shown as Table <NUM> below): PolicyDecisionFailureCode may be added.

After the second entity receives the notification of the error, the second entity updates the policy decision, and transmits the updated policy decision to the first entity.

Thus, the method <NUM> further includes: the first entity receiving, from the second entity, the updated policy decision.

In an exemplary embodiment, the updated policy decision is carried in a first response message corresponding to the first request message for policy control update, e.g., an Npcf_SMPolicyControl_Update Response message.

In an exemplary embodiment, the method may further include: the first entity transmitting, to the second entity, a second request message for policy control create/update, e.g., an Npcf_SMPolicyControl_Create/Update Request message; and receiving, from the second entity, a second response message corresponding to the second request message for policy control create/update, which comprises the policy decision provisioned by the second entity, e.g., an Npcf_SMPolicyControl_Create/Update Response message.

In another exemplary embodiment, the notification of the error may be carried in a first response message for policy control update notification, e.g., an Npcf_SMPolicyControl_ UpdateNotify Response message including ruleReports/sessRuleReports/policyDecFailureReports.

In this exemplary embodiment, the method <NUM> may further include: receiving, from the second entity, a first request message corresponding to the first response message for policy control update notification, e.g., an Npcf_SMPolicyControl_ UpdateNotify Request message which comprises the policy decision provisioned by the second entity.

In this exemplary embodiment, the updated policy decision is carried in a second request message for policy control update notification, e.g., an Npcf_SMPolicyControl_ UpdateNotify Response message.

The first entity may be an SMF entity, and the second entity may be a PCF entity.

Hereinafter, a method <NUM> at a second entity for error handling according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to <FIG>. It should be understood that the method <NUM> at the second entity is corresponding to the method <NUM> at the first entity. Thus, some description thereof may refer to those of the method <NUM> and will be omitted for simplicity.

In an exemplary embodiment, the first entity may be an SMF entity, also called SMF for simplicity, and the second entity may be a PCF entity also called PCF for simplicity. However, it should be understood that the second entity may be any node that can be configured to perform the method <NUM> as described below, including a virtualized entity that may be implemented on cloud. It should also be understood that the method <NUM> may be appropriately applied in 5GS, or other future developments.

In step S201, the second entity may receive, from the first entity, a notification of an error in at least one of: reference of a session rule and/or a PCC rule to the policy decision, or an attribute in the policy decision.

In step S203, the second entity may update the policy decision based on the received notification of the error.

The method further include: the second entity transmitting, to the first entity, the updated policy decision.

In an exemplary embodiment, the method <NUM> may further include: the second entity receiving, from the first entity, a second request message for policy control create/update, e.g., an Npcf_SMPolicyControl_Create/Update Request message; and transmitting, to the first entity, a second response message corresponding to the second request message for policy control create/update, which comprises the policy decision provisioned by the second entity, e.g., an Npcf_SMPolicyControl_Create/Update Response message.

In this exemplary embodiment, the method <NUM> may further include: transmitting, to the first entity, a first request message corresponding to the first response message for policy control update notification, e.g., an Npcf_SMPolicyControl_ UpdateNotify Request message which comprises the policy decision provisioned by the second entity.

Hereinafter, an exemplary signaling sequence diagrams related to error handling according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described respectively with reference to <FIG> and <FIG>, in which the method <NUM> at the first entity and the method <NUM> at the second entity for error handling according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied.

In the exemplary signaling sequence diagrams of <FIG> and <FIG>, an SMF is shown as an example of the first entity, an PCF is shown as an example of the second entity.

It should be noted that the description below mainly focuses on signaling related to the methods <NUM> and <NUM>, and some other signaling is not described in detail to avoid obscuring the principle of the present disclosure.

In the scenario of <FIG>, signaling shown in Italics is novel, wherein Signaling S3A_3~S3A_4 are involved.

In S3A_1, the SMF sends e.g., SmPolicyControl_Create/Update Request to the PCF;.

In S3A_2, the PCF provisions, to the SMF, new policy decision and/or condition data, as well as session rules and PCC rules with reference to policy decision and/or condition data if applicable via e.g., SmPolicyControl_Create/Update Response;.

The SMF validates the PCF provisioned SM policy decisions/condition data as well as session and PCC rules, and finds errors as described previously.

Then, in S3A_3, the SMF reports the error to the PCF using e.g., SmPolicyControl_Update Request including error reports to indicate the error;.

In S3A_4, the PCF provisions updated new decision to the SMF via e.g., SmPolicyControl_Update Response based on the report error.

In the scenario of <FIG>, signaling shown in Italics is novel, wherein Signaling S3B_2~S3B_4 are involved.

In S3B_1: the PCF provisions policy decision and/or condition data, as well as session rules and PCC rules with reference to policy decision and/or condition data using e.g., SmPolicyControl_UpdateNotify Request;
The SMF validates the PCF provisioned SM policy decisions/condition data as well as session and PCC rules.

Then, in S3B_2, the SMF reports the error to PCF using e.g., SmPolicyControl_UpdateNotify Response including error reports to indicate the error;
In S3B_3, the PCF provisions updated new decision to the SMF via e.g., SmPolicyControl_UpdateNotify Request based on the report error.

In S3B_4, the SMF responds with e.g., SmPolicyControl_UpdateNotify Response.

Hereinafter, a structure of a first entity according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to <FIG> schematically shows a block diagram of a first entity <NUM> according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The first entity <NUM> in <FIG> may perform the method <NUM> as described previously with reference to <FIG>. Accordingly, some detailed description on the first entity <NUM> may refer to the corresponding description of the method <NUM> in <FIG> and the signaling sequence diagrams of <FIG> and <FIG> as previously discussed, and thus will be omitted here for simplicity.

As shown in <FIG>, the first entity <NUM> may include a determination unit <NUM> and a transmitting unit <NUM>.

The determination unit <NUM> may determine, based on a policy decision provisioned by a second entity, that an error in at least one of: reference of a session rule and/or a PCC rule to the policy decision, or an attribute in the policy decision.

The transmitting unit <NUM> may transmit, to the second entity, a notification of the error.

In an exemplary embodiment, the first entity <NUM> may also include a receiving unit (not shown), which may be configured to receive, from the second entity, an updated policy decision.

In an exemplary embodiment, the transmitting unit <NUM> may be further configured to transmit, to the second entity, a second request message for policy control create/update.

In an exemplary embodiment, the receiving unit may be further configured to receive, from the second entity, a second response message corresponding to the second request message for policy control create/update, which comprises the policy decision provisioned by the second entity.

In an exemplary embodiment, the receiving unit may be further configured to receive, from the second entity, a first request message corresponding to the first response message for policy control update notification, which comprises the policy decision provisioned by the second entity.

Hereinafter, a structure of a first entity according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to <FIG> schematically shows a block diagram of a first entity <NUM> according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The first entity <NUM> in <FIG> may perform the method <NUM> as described previously with reference to <FIG>. Accordingly, some detailed description on the first entity <NUM> may refer to the corresponding description of the method <NUM> in <FIG> and the signaling sequence diagrams of <FIG> and <FIG> as previously discussed, and thus will be omitted here for simplicity.

As shown in <FIG>, the first entity <NUM> includes at least one processor <NUM> and at least one memory <NUM>. The at least one processor <NUM> includes e.g., any suitable CPU (Central Processing Unit), microcontroller, DSP (Digital Signal Processor), etc., capable of executing computer program instructions. The at least one memory <NUM> may be any combination of a RAM (Random Access Memory) and a ROM (Read Only Memory). The at least one processor memory <NUM> may also include persistent storage, which, for example, can be any single one or combination of magnetic memory, optical memory, or solid state memory or even remotely mounted memory.

The at least one memory <NUM> stores instructions executable by the at least one processor <NUM>. The instructions, when loaded from the at least one memory <NUM> and executed on the at least one processor <NUM>, may cause the first entity <NUM> to perform the actions, e.g., of the procedures as described earlier respectively in conjunction with <FIG> with reference to the signaling sequence diagrams of <FIG> and <FIG> as previously discussed, and thus will be omitted here for simplicity.

Hereinafter, a structure of a second entity according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to <FIG> schematically shows a block diagram of a second entity <NUM> according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The second entity <NUM> in <FIG> may perform the method <NUM> as described previously with reference to <FIG>. Accordingly, some detailed description on the second entity <NUM> may refer to the corresponding description of the method <NUM> in <FIG> and the signaling sequence diagrams of <FIG> and <FIG> as previously discussed, and thus will be omitted here for simplicity.

As shown in <FIG>, the second entity <NUM> may include a receiving unit <NUM> and an updating unit <NUM>.

The receiving unit <NUM> may receive, from a first entity, a notification of an error in at least one of: reference of a session rule and/or a Policy and Charging Control, PCC, rule to the policy decision, or an attribute in the policy decision.

The updating unit <NUM> may update the policy decision based on the received notification of the error.

In an exemplary embodiment, the second entity <NUM> may further include a transmitting unit, which may be configured to transmit, to the first entity, the updated policy decision.

In an exemplary embodiment, the receiving unit <NUM> may be further configured to receive, from the first entity, a second request message for policy control create/update, and the transmitting unit may be further configured to transmit, to the first entity, a second response message corresponding to the second request message for policy control create/update, which comprises the Policy decision provisioned by the second entity.

In an exemplary embodiment, the transmitting unit may be further configured to transmit, to the first entity, a first request message corresponding to the first response message for policy control update notification, which comprises the policy decision provisioned by the second entity.

Hereinafter, a structure of a second entity according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to <FIG> schematically shows a block diagram of a second entity <NUM> according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The second entity <NUM> in <FIG> may perform the method <NUM> as described previously with reference to <FIG>. Accordingly, some detailed description on the second entity <NUM> may refer to the corresponding description of the method <NUM> in <FIG> and the signaling sequence diagrams of <FIG> and <FIG> as previously discussed, and thus will be omitted here for simplicity.

As shown in <FIG>, the second entity <NUM> includes at least one processor <NUM> and at least one memory <NUM>. The at least one processor <NUM> includes e.g., any suitable CPU (Central Processing Unit), microcontroller, DSP (Digital Signal Processor), etc., capable of executing computer program instructions. The at least one memory <NUM> may be any combination of a RAM (Random Access Memory) and a ROM (Read Only Memory). The at least one processor memory <NUM> may also include persistent storage, which, for example, can be any single one or combination of magnetic memory, optical memory, or solid state memory or even remotely mounted memory.

The at least one memory <NUM> stores instructions executable by the at least one processor <NUM>. The instructions, when loaded from the at least one memory <NUM> and executed on the at least one processor <NUM>, may cause the executing entity <NUM> to perform the actions, e.g., of the procedures as described earlier respectively in conjunction with <FIG> with reference to the signaling sequence diagrams of <FIG> and <FIG> as previously discussed, and thus will be omitted here for simplicity.

The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product in the form of a non-volatile or volatile memory, e.g., a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, an Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), a flash memory and a hard drive. The computer program product includes a computer program.

The computer program includes: code/computer readable instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor <NUM> causes the first entity <NUM> to perform the actions, e.g., of the procedure described earlier in conjunction with <FIG>; or code/computer readable instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor <NUM> causes the second entity <NUM> to perform the actions, e.g., of the procedures described earlier respectively in conjunction with <FIG>.

The computer program product may be configured as a computer program code structured in computer program modules. The computer program modules could essentially perform the actions of the flow illustrated in any of <FIG>.

The processor may be a single CPU (Central processing unit), but could also include two or more processing units. For example, the processor may include general purpose microprocessors; instruction set processors and/or related chips sets and/or special purpose microprocessors such as Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASICs). The processor may also include board memory for caching purposes. The computer program may be carried by a computer program product connected to the processor. The computer program product may include a non-transitory computer readable storage medium on which the computer program is stored. For example, the computer program product may be a flash memory, a Random-access memory (RAM), a Read-Only Memory (ROM), or an EEPROM, and the computer program modules described above could in alternative embodiments be distributed on different computer program products in the form of memories.

The present disclosure has been described above with reference to embodiments thereof. It should be understood that various modifications, alternations and additions can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the above particular embodiments but only defined by the claims as attached.

The present disclosure further comprises the following embodiments based on the 3GPP TS <NUM> v17.

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If the "PolicyDecisionErrorHandling" feature is supported and if the SMF receives one or more policy decision types (as defined in subclause <NUM>. <NUM>) and/or condition data (as defined in subclause <NUM>. <NUM>) which are not referred by any PCC rules or session rules as defined in subclause <NUM>. <NUM> but the storage of the policy decision types and/or condition data was unsuccessful (e.g. the policy decision could not be successfully stored due to a limitation of resources at the SMF), or because there are semantical inconsistencies in the provided data, the SMF shall behave as follows:.

When the PCF receives the above reports, the PCF shall consider all the instances of the policy decsions and/or condition data which are provisioned in the request message and indicated by the PolicyDecisionFailureCode data type are removed from the SMF. When the PCF receives the response with HTTP "<NUM> Bad Request" status code but the "policyDecFailureReports" attribute is not included, the PCF shall consider all the provisioned instances of the policy decsions and/or condition data in the request message are removed from the SMF.

The removal of a policy decision type and/or condition data shall not fail.

If the "ExtPolicyDecisionErrorHandling" feature is supported and if the SMF receives other SM policy decisions than PCC rules, session rules, policy decision types or condition data (e.g. the SMF receives policy control request triggers and applicable additional information), and the SMF detects the received policy decision cannot be enforced (e.g., because semantical inconsistencies in the provided data):
If the SMF does not need to reject the request (e.g. none, or only some but not all of the PCC rules and/or session rules provisioned by the PCF in the same message are not installed/activated successfully), the SMF shall include an HTTP "<NUM> OK" status code and the "policyDecFailureReports" attribute within the PartialSuccessReport data structure in the response message to indicate a failure in the provided policy decision parameters. The SMF may also encode within the "invalidPolicyDecs" attribute the failed policy decisions.

When the PCF receives the above reports, the PCF shall consider:.

NOTE: The removal of a policy decision does not fail. Even if there is an inconsistency e.g. between the deletion of a policy control request trigger and the deletion of the applicable additional information, the whole related policy decision is removed.

If the "PolicyDecisionErrorHandling" feature is supported and one or more policy decision types (as defined in subclause <NUM>. <NUM>) and/or condition data (as defined in subclause <NUM>. <NUM>) which are not referred by any PCC rules or session rules is provisioned using the procedure as defined in subclauses <NUM>. <NUM>, <NUM>. <NUM> or <NUM>. <NUM> but the storage was unsuccessful (e.g. the policy decision could not be successfully stored due to a limitation of resources at the SMF), or because there are semantical inconsistencies in the provided data, the SMF shall include the "policyDecFailureReports" attribute to indicate the type(s) of the failed policy decisions and/or condition data within the SmPolicyUpdateContextData data structure. When the PCF receives the above reports, the PCF shall consider all the instances of the policy decsions and/or condition data which are not referred by any PCC rule and/or session stored at the SMF and indicated by the PolicyDecisionFailureCode data type are removed from the SMF. If the "ExtPolicyDecisionErrorHandling" feature is supported, the SMF may also encode within the "invalidPolicyDecs" attribute the failed policy decisions.

If the "ExtPolicyDecisionErrorHandling" feature is supported and one or more SM Policy decisions other than PCC rules, session rules policy decision types or condition data are provisioned using the procedure as defined in subclauses <NUM>. <NUM>, <NUM>. <NUM> or <NUM>. <NUM> but the SMF detects the received policy decision cannot be enforced (e.g. because semantical inconsistencies in the provided data), and the SMF determines that the PDU session can be kept, the SMF shall include the "policyDecFailureReports" attribute within the SmPolicyUpdateContextData data structure to indicate a failure in the provided policy decision parameters. The SMF may also encode within the "invalidPolicyDecs" attribute the failed policy decisions.

When the PCF receives the above report, the PCF shall consider:.

This subclause specifies the application data model supported by the API.

The Npcf_SMPolicyControl API allows the SMF to retrieve the session management related policy from the PCF as defined in 3GPP TS <NUM> [<NUM>].

Table <NUM>. <NUM>-<NUM> specifies the data types defined for the Npcf_SMPolicyControl service based interface protocol.

Table <NUM>. <NUM>-<NUM> specifies data types re-used by the Npcf_SMPolicyControl service based interface protocol from other specifications, including a reference to their respective specifications and when needed, a short description of their use within the Npcf_SMPolicyControl service based interface.

The optional features in table <NUM>-<NUM> are defined for the Npcf_SMPolicyControl API. They shall be negotiated using the extensibility mechanism defined in subclause <NUM> of 3GPP TS <NUM> [<NUM>].

Claim 1:
A method (<NUM>) at a first entity, comprising:
determining (S101), based on a policy decision provisioned by a second entity, an error in at least one of:
a reference of a session rule and/or a Policy and Charging Control, PCC, rule to the policy decision, the error in the reference of the session rule and/or the PCC rule comprising at least one of:
the session rule and/or the PCC rule referring to an empty policy decision, or inconsistency of the policy decision with the session rule and/or the PCC rule; or
an attribute in the policy decision; and
transmitting (S103), to the second entity, a notification of the error.