GB2551357A

GB2551357A - Network edge data monitoring

Info

Publication number: GB2551357A
Application number: GB1610380.6A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Bone Nicholas
Original assignee: Vodafone IP Licensing Ltd
Current assignee: Vodafone IP Licensing Ltd
Priority date: 2016-06-13
Filing date: 2016-06-13
Publication date: 2017-12-20
Also published as: GB201610380D0

Abstract

The amount of data communicated between a mobile terminal 20 and a cellular network node 30 is monitored by providing reports 60 from the mobile terminal. The system may be used to monitor data consumption in a Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) architecture. Reports may be sent automatically from the terminal or may be requested 50 by the core network 40. The reported amount of data may be compared with charging records, as generated either within the cellular network or by an edge component such as an eNodeB or a base station. Service may be cancelled or suspended in the event of a mismatch. The reports may further include indication of data types, and may be derived from a modem on the mobile terminal. The terminal may be roaming or on the home network.

Description

Network Edge Data Monitoring

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the monitoring of data usage and in particular, the monitoring of data usage in a cellular network that incorporates mobile edge computing architecture. The data usage may be monitored for billing assurance, edge integrity assurance or other purposes.

Background of the Invention

In conventional cellular networks, billable traffic is routed into the core network (e.g. SGSN, GGSN or PDGW). During roaming, it is usually routed into the cores of both the visited and home network. This allows both networks to keep track of how much data is being consumed (and of what billable types etc.). This helps to prevent billing errors, or deliberate fraud.

However, in Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), significant data is expected to be routed directly between the UE and a component on the network edge, without passing through the core network (and without touching the home network at all in a roaming scenario). This is an essential feature of MEC, and is needed to ensure desirable service properties like very low latency, and improved bandwidth management.

Therefore, the visited network must rely on edge components to tell it what charging records to send to the home network and the home network must also rely entirely on these components, despite having almost no control over how they are set up and secured. Since the edges of networks are more vulnerable to attack than the cores, this creates a significant risk both of billing errors (and disputed bills with the subscriber) and of deliberate billing fraud. Under-billing is an obvious risk (where the end user or MEC application tries to use more data or more valuable classes of data, than they will be billed for). Over-billing is also a risk (e.g. if a hosted MEC application has a revenue-share model, or pay-per-click model, it may try to inflate the amount of data billed for). Inter-operator roaming fraud may also be an issue.

Therefore, there is required a method and system that overcomes these problems. Summary of the Invention A mobile terminal or user equipment (UE) may keep track of the amount of data that it consumes or report this in real-time. For example, this may be the amount of data communicated between the UE and the cellular network or portions of the cellular network. A core network or core component of the cellular network may request this information from the UE. Alternatively, the report may be issued at intervals or whenever data is consumed. This request may take the form of an ad-hoc message or the core network may poll the UE at intervals. In response to this request, the UE may provide the core network with the information describing or indicating the amount of data that has been communicated between the UE and cellular network (or portions of the cellular network or only edge components, for example). This information may take the form of a report or other data format. The UE may report separately on the amount of data sent and received; it may also provide detailed reports for different types or classes of traffic sent and received. Preferably, the information disclosing the amount of data used may be encrypted, protected, authenticated or otherwise protected. The request from the core network may also be protected if required. A particular use of this technique may be where mobile edge computing (MEC) architecture is being incorporated into the cellular network. In this case, data may be communicated between the UE and edge components (e.g. a base station, node or eNodeB) rather than directed through to the core network. Therefore, the core network may not be aware of particular data volumes or some data types. This information may be important for monitoring and resourcing the overall network and external components of the network and also for billing and auditing purposes.

The edge components or nodes may provide the core network with an indication of the data as they will be aware of the data volumes as they are also party to the communications with the UE. However, this can be unreliable or unverifiable, especially when the UE is roaming and the node or edge component is operating within a visited network and the core network is within a home network. In this roaming situation, the node may report to the visited network, which may pass on the information to the core network of the home network, for example.

In accordance with a first aspect, there is provided a method for monitoring the amount of data communicated between a mobile terminal and a cellular network, as described in claim 1.

In accordance with a second aspect, there is provided a system for monitoring the amount of data communicated between a mobile terminal and a cellular network, as described in claim 18.

In accordance with a third aspect, there is provided a mobile terminal, as described in claim 22.

The mobile terminal may be a mobile phone. The mobile terminal may also include a UICC or SIM (or USIM or ISIM). The mobile terminal may have a modem that provides a data communication interface with the mobile network. The information describing the amount of data transmitted to the mobile cellular network may be generated, obtained from, recorded within, or otherwise captured by the modem. This can be an improvement over data volume information captured by other components within the mobile terminal such as applications, for example.

The methods described above may be implemented as a computer program comprising program instructions to operate a computer. The computer program may be stored on a computer-readable medium.

The computer system may include a processor such as a central processing unit (CPU). The processor may execute logic in the form of a software program. The computer system may include a memory including volatile and non-volatile storage medium. A computer-readable medium may be included to store the logic or program instructions.

The different parts of the system may be connected using a network (e.g. wireless networks and wired networks). The computer system may include one or more interfaces. The computer system may contain a suitable operating system such as UNIX, Windows (RTM) or Linux, for example.

It should be noted that any feature described above may be used with any particular aspect or embodiment of the invention.

Brief description of the Figures

The present invention may be put into practice in a number of ways and embodiments will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a system for monitoring the amount of data communicated between a mobile terminal and a cellular network; and

Fig. 2 shows a flowchart of a method for monitoring the amount of data communicated between a mobile terminal and a cellular network, given by way of example only.

It should be noted that the figures are illustrated for simplicity and are not necessarily drawn to scale. Like features are provided with the same reference numerals.

Detailed description of the preferred embodiments

Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of a system 10 for monitoring the amount of data communicated between a mobile terminal 20 and a cellular network. The data may be consumed by the mobile terminal 20 communicating with a node 30, which may be a base station or eNodeB,, or an aggregator or controller of base stations or eNodeBs, for example. In a mobile edge computing (MEC) architecture cellular network, the node 30 may be a component on the network edge, which provides services directly to the mobile terminal 20 without having to route such data to the remaining parts of the network (e.g. avoiding the network core). A core 40 of the network (or the home network, in the case of roaming) may issue a request 50 to the mobile terminal 20. In response to this request, the mobile terminal 20 provides the network core 40 with a response 60 that includes an indication of the amount of data that has been consumed by the mobile terminal 20 when communicating with the cellular network, and in particular one or more nodes 30 or other components. The report may include a breakdown or further detail including the amounts or volumes of different data types, or any other traffic types (voice, messaging etc.) or may contain a breakdown by data (or other traffic) types sent and received. This may be important if data (or other traffic) of different types is handled or billed differently.

Separately, the node 30 or nodes may provide a further report 70 to the network core 40 also indicating the amount of data that has been consumed by the mobile terminal 20, again perhaps broken down by different data types or other traffic types. Alternatively, call data records may be generated that indicate the amount of data used by the mobile terminal 20. In any case, the network core 40 may obtain an alternative source of information describing the amount of data used by the mobile terminal 20 (or mobile terminals) and compare this with the reported value from the mobile terminal 20. If there are any discrepancies, then these can be investigated further or other actions taken.

These actions may include withdrawing services from the mobile terminal, preventing the mobile terminal 20 from continuing its consumption of data or from accessing to the cellular network or other events. The core network node receiving reports from the mobile terminal could be either in the home network on the visited network, in a roaming case. If it’s in the home network, the data may be integrity protected all the way from mobile terminal to that home network node. This helps to prevent the visited network from modifying it.

Figure 2 shows a flowchart of a method 100 for monitoring the amount of data used by a mobile terminal 20. This method may be used with the system 10 shown in figure 1.

At step 110, a request is sent by the network core 40 for the amount of data used by a particular mobile terminal 20. This request may be sent in isolation or as part of other signalling. In response, the mobile terminal 20 issues a report, which is received at step 120. This information may be collated and immediately or at a later time compared with information derived from call data records at step 130. Further action may be taken at step 140 if the reported data from both sources is different or discrepancies arise.

In particular embodiments, the core network 40 periodically polls the end user equipment (UE) or mobile terminal 20 and asks it how much data (how many packets or bytes, what billable types, etc.) it has transmitted or received recently or within a particular period. This provides a cross-check on any charging records received from the edge or other network components. This helps to detect various types of billing error or fraud.

Preferably, the information from the UE needs to be communicated securely (using a security association between the UE and the core network). The information could for instance be collected by enhancing the existing 3GPP mechanism “Signalling procedure for periodic local authentication” (3GPP TS 33.102, clause 6.4.7, and 3GPP TS 33.401, clause 7.5). Information about total number of bytes or numbers of bytes of each billable type may be communicated by the UE and not just an overall count of packets, for example.

Additional secure signalling between the UE and the home network or network core 40 (using for example a device-to-home network security association, as described in EP2993931 and EP 2988538) would also allow the home network to use the same polling mechanism, and so provide cross-checks against charging records received from the visited network.

Any mismatches between billing records provided by the edge and secure reports from the UE would be detectable by both the visited core network and the home network. This mismatch could be used as the basis of a fraud investigation (and may also trigger a temporary suspension of the service). For example: □ If the reports are sent integrity protected but not encrypted, via the visited core to the home network, then indeed both could see them and use them for detecting any mismatch. □ If they are sent encrypted to the home core then the visited network won’t be able to read them. A separate report may be sent to the visited core in order to implement mismatch detection in the visited core as well.

If they are sent encrypted to the visited core then the home network won’t be able to read them. A separate report may be sent to the home core in order to implement mismatch detection in the home core as well.

As will be appreciated by the skilled person, details of the above embodiment may be varied without departing from the scope of the present invention, as defined by the appended claims.

For example, the system and method does not need to be used with MEC architecture systems. The visited network may pass on call data records to the home network. The UE may be a cell phone, smart phone, tablet, feature phone or other device.

Rather than polling (or message and response events), the mobile terminal may send out a report on its own without waiting to be asked.

Many combinations, modifications, or alterations to the features of the above embodiments will be readily apparent to the skilled person and are intended to form part of the invention. Any of the features described specifically relating to one embodiment or example may be used in any other embodiment by making the appropriate changes.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A method for monitoring the amount of data communicated between a mobile terminal and one or more nodes of a first cellular network, the method comprising the step of: providing a report from the mobile terminal including an indication of an amount of data communicated between the mobile terminal and the one or more nodes of the cellular network.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of: transmitting a message from a network core of a second cellular network; and receiving the transmitted message by a mobile terminal, wherein the report is provided in response to the received message.

3. The method claim of claim 2, wherein the message transmitted from the network core is transmitted at intervals.

4. The method according to any previous claim, wherein the data is not communicated through the network core of the second cellular network.

5. The method according to any previous claim, wherein the first cellular network is the same as the second cellular network.

6. The method according to any previous claim, wherein the amount of data communicated between the mobile terminal and the cellular network includes data used within a mobile edge computing (MEC) architecture.

7. The method according to any previous method further comprising the step of comparing the reported amount of data with one or more charging records generated within the first cellular network or generated by one or more nodes of the first cellular network.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the charging records are received from an edge component of the cellular network operating according to a MEC architecture.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the edge component is an eNodeB, a node and/or a cellular base station, or an aggregator or controller of base stations or eNodeBs.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the edge component is within a visited network and the network core of the cellular network is a network core of a home network.

11. The method according to any of claims 7 to 10 further comprising the step of suspending or cancelling a service provided to the mobile terminal if the reported amount of data does not match an amount of data indicated by the one or more charging records.

12. The method according to any previous claim, wherein the report from the mobile terminal further includes an indication of the type or types of data, or any other traffic types, communicated between the mobile terminal and the cellular network, and/or an indication of data or other traffic sent or received.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the types of data include any one or more of: number of packets or number of bytes, kB, MB, GB, TB.

14. The method according to any previous claim, wherein the mobile terminal is roaming.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more nodes is in the home network.

16. The method according to any previous claim, wherein the report from the mobile terminal is transmitted securely and/or the report is protected by a security association established between the mobile terminal and the core of the home network.

17. The method according to any previous claims, wherein the report from the mobile terminal is derived from a modem on the mobile terminal.

18. A system for monitoring the amount of data communicated between a mobile terminal and a cellular network comprising: a network core of the cellular network configured to transmit a message to a mobile terminal and in response, receive a message from the mobile terminal, the message including a report including an indication of an amount of data communicated between the mobile terminal and the cellular network.

19. The system of claim 18 further comprising a base station , or an aggregator or controller of base stations, configured to provide mobile edge computing services to the mobile terminal.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the base station, or an aggregator or controller of base stations, is further configured to provide records indicating the amount of data communicated between the base station(s) and the mobile terminal.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the network core is further configured to compare the amount of data reported within the message from the mobile terminal and the amount of data indicated in the report from the base station, or an aggregator or controller of base stations,.

22. A mobile terminal comprising a modem configured to receive a request from a network core of a cellular network and in response to the request provide an indication of an amount of data communicated between the mobile terminal and the cellular network.

23. A computer program comprising program instructions that, when executed on a computer cause the computer to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 17.

24. A computer-readable medium carrying a computer program according to claim 23.

25. A computer programmed to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 17.