Patent ID: 8917600

Claim:
A method for introducing a real-time congestion status in a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) policy decision in a cellular network, the method performed in the PCRF and comprising: obtaining at least one cell identifier from a Policy Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF); sending a request for checking congestion status to a Performance Manager network element, the request comprising the at least one cell identifier; receiving a retrieved congestion status for the at least one cell identifier from the Performance Manager network element; generating at least one of a Quality of Service (QoS) Class identifier (QCI) and a QoS profile based on the at least one cell identifier and the received congestion status; sending a message to the PCEF, the message comprising the at least one of the QCI and the QoS profile; wherein the obtaining the at least one cell identifier comprises obtaining the least one cell identifier from the PCEF upon at least one of: network bearer establishment; network bearer update; subscriber profile modification; and the PCRF receiving a service report.