CN105682017B - Determine the method and system of user terminal location - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and system for determining the location of a user terminal, which relates to the field of policy and charging control, and can determine the specific location of the user terminal in the PCC District. The process includes: when establishing an IP-CAN session for the UE, the PCRF sends PCC Area information to the MME, where the PCC Area information is the identification information of the PCC Area applicable to the IP-CAN session; the MME receives the PCC Area information, and determines in real time that the UE has entered Or leave the PCC Area; when the UE enters or leaves the PCC Area, the MME reports the location information of the UE after entering or leaving the PCC Area to the PCRF; the PCRF receives the location information and determines the PCC Area or PCC District where the UE is currently located according to the location information, where , PCC District is a special area in PCC Area, and PCC Area includes at least one PCC District. The present invention is used to report the location information of the UE reported in the PCC framework.

Description

Method and system for determining the location of a user terminal

technical field

The present invention relates to the field of policy and charging control, in particular to a method and system for determining the location of a user terminal.

Background technique

Data between various points in the network (eg, a user terminal UE and an access device) is transmitted in the form of streams (ie, network streams). A flow is a series of packets of data from one point in the network to another over a period of time. In order to perform charging control and policy control on the flow, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 3GPP proposes a PCC (Policy and Charging Control, Policy and Charging Control) architecture (see FIG. 5 ). Based on the PCC architecture, operators can establish corresponding IP-CAN bearers for different PCC areas (PCC Areas). The PCC Area corresponds to the PCC Area list (PCC area list). ID of the TA/RA, the IP-CAN bearer in the PCC Area is established based on these cells/eNB/TA/RA, and the operator formulates corresponding PCC rules for charging control and policy control. The cell is a cell, the eNB is an evolved base station (Evolved Node B), the RA is a routing area (Routing Area), and the TA is a tracking area (Tracking Area).

In the prior art, an IP-CAN session (IP-CAN session) is associated with only one PCC Area. When the UE conducts an IP-CAN session, the PCEF identifies the PCC Area corresponding to the IP-CAN bearer used by the session, and uses it according to the The PCC rule corresponding to the PCCArea performs charging control and policy control for the session.

In the process of implementing the above-mentioned charging control and policy control, the inventor found that there are at least the following problems in the prior art: the physical coverage of a PCC Area is generally large, such as a city, and a "one-size-fits-all" accounting is performed for the entire PCC Area. There are many unreasonable points in the cost control and policy control, such as the inability to guarantee the quality of service (QoS) in crowded places. However, there is no solution for how to determine the specific location of the user terminal in the PCC Area in the prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and system for determining the location of a user terminal, which are used to determine the specific location of the user terminal in the PCC area.

To achieve the above object, the embodiments of the present invention adopt the following technical solutions:

A method for determining the location of a user terminal, which is applied to the policy and charging control PCC architecture proposed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 3GPP, wherein the policy and charging rules functional unit PCRF creates an IP connection access network IP-CAN session for the user terminal , the method includes:

When establishing an IP-CAN session for the user terminal, the PCRF sends PCC Area information to the mobility management entity MME, where the PCC Area information is the identification information of the PCC Area applicable to the IP-CAN session;

The MME receives the PCC Area information, and determines in real time that the user terminal enters or leaves the PCCArea;

When the user terminal enters or leaves the PCC Area, the MME reports the location information of the user terminal after entering or leaving the PCC Area to the PCRF;

The PCRF receives the location information, and determines the PCC Area or PCC District where the user terminal is currently located according to the location information, where the PCC District is a special area in the PCC Area, and the PCC Area is at least Includes one of the PCC Districts.

A system for determining the location of a user terminal, which is applied to the policy and charging control PCC architecture proposed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 3GPP, wherein the policy and charging rules functional unit PCRF creates an IP connection access network IP-CAN session for the user terminal ,

Including PCRF, mobility management entity MME, gateway GW; wherein,

The PCRF is configured to send PCCArea information to the MME via the GW when establishing an IP-CAN session for a user terminal, where the PCC Area information is identification information of a PCC Area applicable to the IP-CAN session;

The MME is configured to receive the PCC Area information, and determine in real time that the user terminal enters or leaves the PCC Area;

The MME is further configured to: when the user terminal enters or leaves the PCC Area, report the location information of the user terminal after entering or leaving the PCC Area to the PCRF via the GW;

The PCRF is further configured to: receive the location information, and determine the PCC Area or PCC District where the user terminal is currently located according to the location information, where the PCC District is a special area in the PCC Area, and the The PCC Area includes at least one of the PCC Districts.

In the method and system for determining the location of the user terminal provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the MME receives the identification information of the PCC Area to which the IP-CAN session is applicable sent by the PCRF, and determines in real time that the user terminal enters or leaves the PCCArea accordingly; and Only when the user terminal enters or leaves the PCC Area, does the MME report the location information of the user terminal after entering or leaving the PCC Area to the PCRF, so that the PCRF determines the PCC Area or PCC where the user terminal is currently located according to the location information District. The PCC District is at least one special area included in the PCC Area. According to the method and system provided by the embodiments of the present invention, it is possible to determine whether the user terminal is in the PCC Area or a specific PCC District, which is important for how to differentiate the specific location of the user terminal in the PCC Area associated with it. significance.

Description of drawings

1 is a flowchart of a method for determining the location of a user terminal provided by Embodiment 1;

2 is a schematic diagram of the PCC Area and the PCC District involved in Embodiment 1;

FIG. 3 is another flowchart of the method for determining the location of a user terminal provided by Embodiment 1;

4 is a signaling diagram of a method for determining the location of a user terminal provided by Embodiment 2;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an existing PCC architecture.

Detailed ways

The method and system for determining the location of a user terminal provided by the embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Before that, the existing PCC architecture and PCC Area reporting mechanism are described.

As shown in Figure 5, the existing PCC architecture mainly includes PCEF (Policy and Charging Enforcement Function, policy and charging execution function), GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node, gateway GPRS support node, namely gateway GW), PCRF (Policy and Charging) Rules Function, policy and charging rules functional unit), SPR (Subscription Profile Repository, user subscription database), AF (Application Function, application function), OCS/OFCS (Online Charging System/Offline Charging System, online charging system/offline charging system) billing system) and other network entities.

Among them, the PCEF is located in the GGSN and is used to identify the service flow and report the service characteristics to the PCRF, as well as obtain and execute the control and charging policy based on the service flow from the PCRF; more specifically, execute the PCC rules formulated by the PCRF. The service data flow is detected and measured, the QoS of the service is guaranteed, the user plane traffic is established, and the session management of the control plane is triggered; further, in order to ensure the service QoS and charge the service data flow, all IP data sent by the UE Packets or all IP data packets to be received need to go through PCEF, which uses the IP data packet filtering rules in the PCC rules to filter the service data flow of each IP data packet, allowing the IP data packets that meet the requirements to pass, and the IP data packets are filtered. The rules specify the source and destination addresses, service data traffic and other information of IP data packets that are allowed to pass through PCEF;

GGSN mainly plays the role of gateway GW, which can be connected with a variety of different data networks, such as ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network, Integrated Services Digital Network), PSPDN (Packet Switched Public Data Network, packet-switched Public Data Network) and LAN (Local). Area Network, local area network), etc. GGSN can perform protocol conversion on GPRS packet data packets in GSM network, so that these packet data packets can be transmitted to remote TCP/IP network or X.25 network;

PCRF is the policy and charging control policy decision point for service data flow and IP bearer resources. PCRF formulates PCC rules based on service characteristics and related user attributes, and dynamically delivers them to PCEF;

SPR manages and stores all user/subscription-related information required by PCRF, which can be used for PCRF construction policy decision, and can be independent or integrated with other databases on the existing network;

AF provides service information to PCRF, and dynamically provides application layer service information to it, and PCRF can dynamically generate or modify corresponding PCC rules according to the service information;

OCS/OFCS refers to a charging system that participates in communication process control, which can solve problems such as real-time credit control of users, real-time charging of prepaid data services and value-added services.

In the existing PCC Area reporting mechanism, whenever the IP-CAN bearer is established or modified, for example, the ID of the cell/eNB/TA/RA in the PCC Area list is changed, resulting in the change of the PCC Area and the need to modify the IP-CAN bearer. , the MME will update the PCC Area list and start the PCC Area reporting mechanism according to the latest PCC Area list. When the IP-CAN session based on the IP-CAN bearer is carried out, the MME, which is the mobility management network element, can sense in real time that the UE enters or leaves the PCC Area associated with the IP-CAN session. Since an IP-CAN session can only be associated with one PCC Area, the PPCC Area that the MME perceives that the UE enters or leaves in real time is the only PCC Area associated with the IP-CAN session. For example, the MME can judge whether the UE enters or leaves the PCC Area by judging the connection state between the UE and the eNB in the PCC Area list, and reports the sensed event to the PCRF. The PCRF can adjust the PCC rules for the UE entering the PCC Area according to the event, for example, when the UE enters the PCC Area A (the only PCC Area associated with the IP-CAN session), the PCRF will apply the PCC rules for the IP-CAN session Adjusted to the PCC rule corresponding to PCC Area A.

In order to ensure QoS, operators have the need to divide a large PCC Area into multiple PCC districts (PCCDistrict), or select multiple PCC districts from a large PCC Area for key management. The coverage is generally set to be smaller than the PCC Area, such as a densely populated station in a city (corresponding to PCCArea), a commercial area (corresponding to PCC District), etc. However, since each IP-CAN session can only be associated with one PCC Area, when the UE moves between different PCC Districts in the same PCC Area, the PCRF will not be able to identify the specific PCC District where the UE is located, and will still associate the PCC Area with the corresponding PCC Area. The PCC rules applied to the UE. The consequence is that it is impossible to apply different PCC rules to UEs according to different PCC Districts, that is, only one PCC Area can be associated with one IP-CAN session. The operator associates one IP-CAN session with multiple PCC Districts. conflict between needs.

Example 1

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, this embodiment provides a method for determining the location of a user terminal, which is applied to such a scenario: in the PCC architecture proposed by 3GPP, the PCRF creates an IP-CAN session for the UE, and the session is connected with a certain PCCArea is associated, and the PCC Area includes at least one PCC District, and the PCC District is a special area in the PCC Area; the UE can move from the PCC Area into the PCC District, or leave the PCC District and enter the PCC Area. FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a method for determining the location of a user terminal provided by Embodiment 1. As shown in FIG. 1 , the method includes:

S11. When establishing an IP-CAN session for the UE, the PCRF sends PCC Area information to the MME.

In this embodiment, the PCRF can establish an IP-CAN session for the UE according to the existing method. Generally, after the IP-CAN bearer is established, the UE sends a request to the PCRF to establish the IP-CAN session, and the PCRF establishes the IP-CAN session for the UE in response to the request sent by the UE. For example, the UE accesses a certain website according to the link clicked by the user, and the PCRF can use the IP-CAN bearer established for the UE and the network in advance according to the IP address (source address) of the UE and the IP address (destination address) corresponding to the website. Establish an IP-CAN session between the source address and the destination address.

When establishing an IP-CAN session for the UE, in order to enable the MME to determine whether the UE enters or leaves the PCC Area, the PCRF sends PCC Area information to the MME. The PCC Area information is identification information of the PCC Area to which the IP-CAN session applies. The IP-CAN session is based on the pre-established IP-CAN bearer. When the IP-CAN bearer is established, the PCRF also determines the identification information of the PCC Area corresponding to the IP-CAN bearer. Some cells are covered by cell, eNB, TA and RA. The identification information of these cells, eNB, TA and RA is the identification information of the PCC Area to which the IP-CAN session established based on the IP-CAN bearer is applicable.

S12. The MME receives the PCC Area information, and determines in real time that the UE enters or leaves the PCC Area.

The MME receives the PCC Area information sent by the PCRF; during the IP-CAN session, in order to report the location information of the UE to the PCRF according to the fact that the UE enters or leaves the PCC Area, the MME determines whether the UE enters or leaves according to the PCC Area information. the PCC Area.

For example, when the PCC Area information is specifically the identity information of the cell/eNB/TA/RA, the MME detects the cell/eNB/TA/RA where the UE is currently located in real time, and determines the identity of the cell/eNB/TA/RA where the UE is currently located. Whether it exists in the PCCArea information: if the identity of the cell/eNB/TA/RA where the UE is located at the previous moment does not exist in the PCC Area information, but the identity of the cell/eNB/TA/RA where the UE is currently located exists In the PCC Area information, it is judged that the UE has entered the PCCArea; if the identity of the cell/eNB/TA/RA where the UE is located at the previous moment exists in the PCC Area information, and the cell/eNB/TA where the UE is currently located is If the identifier of /RA does not exist in the PCC Area information, it is judged that the UE leaves the PCCArea.

S13. When the UE enters or leaves the PCC Area, the MME reports the location information of the UE after entering or leaving the PCC Area to the PCRF.

When the MME determines that the UE enters or leaves the PCC Area according to the PCC Area information, in order to enable the PCRF to determine the PCC Area or PCCDistrict where the UE is currently located according to the location information after the UE enters or leaves the PCC Area, the MME reports the UE to the PCRF. Location information after entering or leaving the PCC Area. It should be noted that the MME determines that the PCC Area where the UE is currently specifically located is the PCC Area associated with the IP-CAN session.

Taking the location information as the identifier of the cell/eNB/TA/RA as an example, when the UE enters the PCC Area, the MME can report the identifier of the first cell/eNB/TA/RA that the UE is connected to in the entered PCC Area; When the UE leaves the PCC Area, similarly, the MME can report the identity of the first cell/eNB/TA/RA to which the UE is connected after leaving the PCC Area.

Referring to Figure 2, the user terminal leaves the PCC Area and enters PCCDistrict A in the direction indicated by arrow a, leaves PCC District A in the direction indicated by arrow b and enters PCC Area again, and leaves PCC again in the direction indicated by arrow c. Area and into PCC District B etc.

S14. The PCRF receives the location information, and determines the PCC Area or PCCDistrict where the UE is currently located according to the location information.

The PCRF receives the location information reported by the MME after the UE enters or leaves the PCC Area. The PCRF determines the PCC Area or PCC District where the UE is currently located according to the location information, including:

Obtain PCC District information, the PCC District information is the identification information of the PCCDistrict applicable to the IP-CAN session; when the location information exists in the PCC Area information but does not exist in the PCC District information, determine that the UE is currently in the In the PCC Area; when the location information exists in the PCC Area information and in the PCC District information, determine the PCC District where the UE is currently located.

For example, the location information reported by the MME after the UE enters or leaves the PCC Area is the identifier of the first cell/eNB/TA/RA to which the UE is connected after entering or leaving the PCC Area; the PCC Area, when the identity of the first cell/eNB/TA/RA exists in the PCC Area information but not in the PCCDistrict information, it is determined that the UE is currently in the PCC Area; corresponding to the UE Leaving the PCC Area, when the identity of the first cell/eNB/TA/RA exists in the PCC Area information and in the PCC District information, it is determined that the UE is currently in the PCC District, and When a PCC Area includes multiple non-adjacent PCCDistricts, the PCC District where the UE is currently located is the PCC District corresponding to the PCC District information where the identifier of the first cell/eNB/TA/RA specifically exists.

It can be seen from the above that in the method for determining the location of the user terminal provided in this embodiment, the MME receives the identification information of the PCC Area to which the IP-CAN session is applicable sent by the PCRF, and determines in real time based on this that the user terminal enters or leaves the PCC Area; and only when the user terminal enters or leaves the PCC Area, the MME reports the location information of the user terminal after entering or leaving the PCC area to the PCRF, so that the PCRF determines the current location of the user terminal according to the location information. PCC Area or PCC District. According to the method provided in this embodiment, it can be determined whether the user terminal is in the PCC Area or a specific PCC District, which is of great significance for how to differentiate the specific location of the user terminal in the PCC Area associated with it.

In addition, the method provided in this embodiment adopts the mechanism of hierarchically dividing the PCC action area, that is, dividing the PCCArea into smaller PCC Districts, and further dividing the PCC District into smaller PCC action areas, such as PCC sub -District. In contrast, in the prior art, on the one hand, the control based only on the PCC area has the defect that the granularity (the size of the PCC action area) is too large; In this mechanism, the change of the cell/eNB/TA/RA to which the UE is connected does not mean the handover of the PCC area (such as PCC Area or PCCDistrict can include multiple cells/eNB/TA/RA) for handover. Therefore, this "unscrupulous" reporting method will cause excessive air interface resources when the UE frequently switches the connected cell/eNB/TA/RA. Occupation, there is a problem of too fine granularity. According to the reporting mechanism provided by this embodiment, the granularity of controlling the IP-CAN session can be set according to actual requirements, which not only can meet the operator's requirements for various control granularities, but also can be used only when the UE enters or leaves the PCC Area. , the MME reports the location information of the UE after entering or leaving the PCC Area to the PCRF, so it can avoid excessive occupation of air interface resources caused by "unscrupulous" reporting and save air interface resources.

On the basis of Embodiment 1, the method for determining the location of the user terminal may further include various methods for differentiating based on the specific location of the UE in the PCC Area to which it is associated. For example, PCRF determines the PCCArea where the UE is currently located. The PCC rules corresponding to the /PCC District are executed by the PCEF to perform differentiated control on the UE. The present invention does not limit the specific manner of differential control, and any manner of performing differential control based on the specific position of the UE in the PCC area is within the protection scope of the present invention. The following description will be based on the differentiated control performed according to the PCC rules.

In a specific embodiment of the first embodiment, after step S14, as shown in FIG. 3, the method may further include:

S15. The PCRF determines the PCC rule corresponding to the PCC Area or PCC District where the UE is currently located.

When the UE is currently in the PCC Area, the PCRF determines the PCC rule corresponding to the PCC Area where the UE is currently located; or, when the UE is currently in the PCC District, the PCRF determines the PCC rule corresponding to the PCC District where the UE is currently located. In this way, the PCEF can perform differential control on the IP-CAN session performed by the UE according to the PCC rules corresponding to the PCC Area or the PCC District.

According to this specific embodiment, for each IP-CAN session, not only can the IP-CAN session be generally controlled in the PCC Area with a relatively large coverage, but also when the PCRF recognizes that the UE moves to the PCC When there is a specific PCC District with a relatively small coverage in the area, individualized control is performed on the IP-CAN session, therefore, the differentiated control of the IP-CAN session for the UE can be realized.

Embodiment 2

This embodiment is used to specifically illustrate the process of how the PCRF creates an IP-CAN session (IP-CAN Session) for the UE and defines the PCC Area for the UE in the method for determining the location of the user terminal, and how the MME based on the delivered PCC Area Monitoring is performed and reported to the PCRF in time so that the PCRF can determine which area the UE is in.

FIG. 4 is a signaling diagram of a method for determining the location of a user terminal provided in Embodiment 2. As shown in FIG. 4 , the method specifically includes:

S401. The UE initiates an IP-CAN Session establishment request to the MME.

S402: The MME sends an IP-CAN Session establishment request to a P-GW (Packet Gateway, packet gateway) via an S-GW (Signaling Gateway, signaling gateway).

S403, the P-GW sends an IP-CAN Session establishment request to the PCRF.

S404. The PCRF determines the parameters required for establishing the IP-CAN Session and the correspondence between the PCC Area and the cell/eNB/TA/RA.

The PCRF maintains the correspondence between PCC Area<->cell/eNB/TA/RA.

S405. The PCRF replies to the establishment request, and the reply message carries the correspondence between the PCC area and the cell/eNB/TA/RA.

S406, the P-GW forwards the PCRF reply message to the MME.

S407 , the MME judges in real time whether the UE enters or leaves the PCC area according to the obtained correspondence between the PCC Area and the cell/eNB/TA/RA.

The MME needs to maintain the correspondence between PCC area<->cell/eNB/TA/RA. Whether the UE enters or leaves the PCC Area is used as a trigger event to trigger the PCRF to determine whether the UE is in the PCC Area or the PCC District.

S408. When the UE enters or leaves the PCC Area, the MME reports the trigger event to the P-GW in the report message, and at the same time, the MME also reports the first cell/eNB/cell/eNB/cell perceived by the MME after the UE enters or leaves the PCC Area. TA/RA.

After the UE enters or leaves the PCC Area, the first cell/eNB/TA/RA perceived by the MME corresponds to a serving district.

S409, the P-GW forwards the report message to the PCRF.

S410. The PCRF receives the report message, and determines that the UE has entered the PCC Area or a specific District area according to the first cell/eNB/TA/RA.

PCRF also needs to maintain the correspondence between different PCC Districts and cell/eNB/TA/RA (District1<->List1of cell/eNB/TA/RA;District2<->List2of cell/eNB/TA/RA;District3<- >List3of cell/eNB/TA/RA).

In this step, the PCRF receives the message reported by the MME, and at the same time obtains the first cell/eNB/TA/RA where the UE enters the PCC Area. When the UE leaves the PCC Area, the PCRF can compare the cell/eNB/TA/RA with the District<->List of cell/eNB/TA/RA stored in the local network element, so as to know which one the UE entered. within the District.

S411, the PCRF modifies the PCC strategy.

According to the method provided in this embodiment, it can be determined whether the user terminal is in the PCC Area or a specific PCC District, which is of great significance for how to differentiate the specific location of the user terminal in the PCC Area associated with it.

Embodiment 3

Corresponding to the first embodiment, this embodiment describes a system for determining the location of a user terminal, which is applied to the existing PCC architecture proposed by 3GPP, wherein the policy and charging rules functional unit PCRF creates an IP connection for the user terminal to access the network IP- CAN session. As shown in FIG. 5 , the system 50 (the part shown by the dotted line) at least includes: a PCRF 51, a mobility management entity MME52, and a gateway GW 53; wherein,

The PCRF 51 is configured to send PCC Area information to the MME 52 via the GW 53 when establishing an IP-CAN session for the user terminal, where the PCC Area information is the identification information of the PCC Area applicable to the IP-CAN session;

The MME 52 is configured to receive PCC Area information, and determine in real time that the user terminal enters or leaves the PCC Area;

The MME 52 is further configured to: when the user terminal enters or leaves the PCC Area, report the location information of the user terminal after entering or leaving the PCC Area to the PCRF 51 via the GW 53;

The PCRF 51 is further configured to: receive the location information, and determine the PCC Area or PCC District where the user terminal is currently located according to the location information, wherein the PCC District is a special area in the PCC Area, and the PCC Area At least one of the PCC Districts is included.

In the system provided by this embodiment, the MME receives the identification information of the PCC area to which the IP-CAN session is applicable sent by the PCRF, and determines in real time that the user terminal enters or leaves the PCC area accordingly; and only when the user terminal enters or leaves the PCC area. In the PCC area, the MME reports the location information of the user terminal after entering or leaving the PCC area to the PCRF, so that the PCRF determines whether the user terminal is currently in the PCC area or a specific PCC district according to the location information. It is of great significance for how to differentiate the specific position of the user terminal in its associated PCC area.

In addition, the system provided by this embodiment adopts the mechanism of hierarchical division of the PCC function area, and can set the granularity of controlling the IP-CAN session according to actual requirements, which can not only meet the operator's requirements for various control granularities, but also Since the MME reports the location information of the UE after entering or leaving the PCC Area to the PCRF only when the UE enters or leaves the PCC Area, it can avoid excessive occupation of air interface resources caused by "unscrupulous" reporting and save air interface resources .

Corresponding to the first embodiment above, in a more specific embodiment of the third embodiment, in order to perform differential control on the IP-CAN session performed by the UE according to the PCC rule corresponding to the PCC area or the PCCdistrict, the PCRF 51 can also be used for: when When the user terminal is currently in the PCC Area, the PCC rule corresponding to the PCC Area where the user terminal is currently located is determined; or, when the user terminal is currently in the PCC District, the PCC rule corresponding to the PCC District where the user terminal is currently located is determined.

In order to determine the PCC Area or PCC District where the user terminal is currently specifically located, the PCRF 51 can be used to: obtain PCC District information, where the PCC District information is the identification information of the PCC District to which the IP-CAN session is applicable; when the location information exists in When the PCC Area information does not exist in the PCC District information, determine that the user terminal is currently in the PCC Area; or, when the location information exists in the PCC Area information and in the PCC District information, determine The PCC District where the user terminal is currently located.

In the above embodiment, the PCC Area and the PCC District include but are not limited to the coverage of cells, eNBs, TAs, and RAs. Also, when the PCC Area includes a plurality of the PCC Districts, the plurality of PCC Districts are not adjacent to each other.

The various embodiments in this specification have been described with emphasis, and the same and similar parts between the various embodiments may be referred to each other, and each embodiment focuses on the differences from other embodiments. In particular, for the system embodiments, since they are basically similar to the method embodiments, the description is relatively simple, and for related parts, please refer to the partial descriptions of the method embodiments.

Claims (10)

1. A method for determining the position of a user terminal is applied to a Policy and Charging Control (PCC) framework proposed by the third generation partnership project (3 GPP), wherein a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) unit creates an IP connection for the user terminal to access a network IP-CAN session, and is characterized by comprising the following steps:

when an IP-CAN session is established for a user terminal, PCRF sends PCC Area information to a mobile management entity MME, wherein the PCC Area information is identification information of a PCC Area applicable to the IP-CAN session;

the MME receives the PCC Area information and determines that the user terminal enters or leaves the PCC Area in real time;

when the user terminal enters or leaves the PCC Area, the MME reports the position information of the user terminal after entering or leaving the PCC Area to the PCRF;

and the PCRF receives the location information and determines a PCCArea or PCC District Area where the user terminal is located currently according to the location information, wherein the PCC District is a special Area in the PCC Area, and the PCC Area at least comprises one PCC District.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when the user terminal is currently in the PCC Area, the PCRF determines a PCC rule corresponding to the PCCArea where the user terminal is currently located; or,

and when the user terminal is currently in the PCC District, the PCRF determines a PCC rule corresponding to the PCC District in which the user terminal is currently located.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2,

the determining the PCC Area or the PCC disconnect where the user terminal is currently located according to the location information includes:

acquiring PCC District information, wherein the PCC District information is identification information of the PCCDistrict applicable to the IP-CAN session;

determining that the user terminal is currently in the PCC Area when the location information exists in the PCC Area information but does not exist in the PCC District information;

and when the position information exists in the PCC Area information and the PCC District information, determining the PCC District where the user terminal is located currently.

4. The method of claim 3,

the PCC Area and the PCC District include but are not limited to coverage of a cell, eNB, TA and RA.

5. The method of claim 3,

when the PCC Area comprises a plurality of PCC discrets, the PCC discrets are not contiguous with each other.

6. A system for determining the location of a user terminal for use in a policy and charging control, PCC, architecture proposed by the third Generation partnership project, 3GPP, wherein a policy and charging rules function, PCRF, creates an IP connection for the user terminal to access a network IP-CAN session,

the system is characterized by comprising a PCRF, a mobile management entity MME and a gateway GW; wherein,

the PCRF is used for sending PCC Area information to the MME through the GW when an IP-CAN session is established for a user terminal, wherein the PCC Area information is identification information of the PCC Area applicable to the IP-CAN session;

the MME is used for receiving the PCC Area information and determining that the user terminal enters or leaves the PCCArea in real time;

the MME is further configured to: when the user terminal enters or leaves the PCC Area, reporting the position information of the user terminal after entering or leaving the PCC Area to the PCRF through the GW;

the PCRF is further configured to: receiving the location information, and determining a PCC Area or a PCC District in which the user terminal is currently located according to the location information, wherein the PCC District is a special Area in the PCC Area, and the PCC Area at least comprises one PCC District.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the PCRF is further configured to:

when the user terminal is currently in the PCC Area, determining a PCC rule corresponding to the PCC Area where the user terminal is currently located; or,

and when the user terminal is currently in the PCC District, determining a PCC rule corresponding to the PCCDistrict where the user terminal is currently located.

8. The system according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the PCRF is specifically configured to:

acquiring PCC District information, wherein the PCC District information is identification information of the PCCDistrict applicable to the IP-CAN session;

determining that the user terminal is currently in the PCC Area when the location information exists in the PCC Area information but does not exist in the PCC District information;

and when the position information exists in the PCC Area information and the PCC District information, determining the PCC District where the user terminal is located currently.

9. The system of claim 8,

the PCC Area and the PCC District include but are not limited to coverage of a cell, eNB, TA and RA.

10. The system of claim 8,

when the PCC Area comprises a plurality of PCC discrets, the PCC discrets are not contiguous with each other.