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EP-4420327-B1 - POLICY NODE, RADIO DEVICE AND METHODS IN A COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

EP4420327B1EP 4420327 B1EP4420327 B1EP 4420327B1EP-4420327-B1

Inventors

  • MUÑOZ DE LA TORRE ALONSO, Miguel Angel
  • IHLAR, Marcus
  • MIHÁLY, Attila
  • KUEHLEWIND, Mirja

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20211021

Claims (17)

  1. A method performed by a policy node (110) for handling policies related to a radio device (120) in a communications network (100), the radio device (120) supporting proxy server functionality, the method comprising: during a session establishment of the radio device (120), determining (602) that obtained policies related to the radio device (120) comprises one or more rules, wherein the respective one or more rules comprises any one or more out of: - an application descriptor related to the one or more rules, and - a domain descriptor related to the one or more rules, characterized in that the method further comprises: determining (605), based on received capability information, that the radio device (120) is not aware of any or more one out of an application and a domain, and that the radio device (120) supports proxy server functionality, handling the policies related to the radio device (120) by activating (606) a proxy server (121) in the radio device (120) by sending a message to the radio device (120), the message comprises: - an indication requesting the radio device (120) to activate the proxy server (121), - the one or more rules, and - a configuration related to the proxy server (121), which proxy server (121) enables the radio device (120), even though not being application aware or domain aware, to apply the one or more rules comprised in the policies related to the radio device (120).
  2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving (601) during the session establishment, a request message requesting the session to be established, the request message comprising the capability information.
  3. The method according to any of the claims 1-2, further comprising: triggering (603) towards the radio device (120), a discovery procedure by establishing a connection to the radio device (120) and sending a discovery request message to the radio device (120) using the established connection, receiving (604) from the radio device (120), a discovery response message, which discovery response message comprises the capability information, and wherein the message requesting the radio device (120) to activate the proxy server (121) is sent using the established connection.
  4. The method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the capability information indicates any one or more out of: - that the radio device (120) does supports application awareness, - that the radio device (120) does not support domain awareness, and - that the radio device (120) supports proxy server functionality.
  5. The method according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the configuration related to the proxy server (121) comprises any one or more out of: - certificates, and - encryption keys, to be used by the proxy server (121).
  6. The method according to any of claims 1-5, wherein the request message to activate the proxy server (121) is any one out of: - a configuration request sent directly to the radio device 120, or - a policy control request message sent to the radio device 120 via an access and mobility node (130).
  7. The method according to any of claims 1-6, wherein the proxy server (121) is a MASQUE server.
  8. A computer program (1270) comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor (1250), causes the processor (1250) to perform actions according to any of the claims 1-7.
  9. A method performed by a radio device (120) for handling policies related to the radio device (120) in a communications network (100), the radio device (120) supporting proxy server functionality, the method being characterized by comprising: receiving (704), from a policy node (110), a message, the message comprises: - an indication requesting the radio device (120) to activate the proxy server (121), - one or more rules comprised in the polices, and - a configuration related to the proxy server (121), handling policies related to the radio device (120) by activating (705) the proxy server (121) in the radio device (120) based on the received message, which proxy server (121) enables the radio device (120), even though not being application aware or domain aware, to apply the one or more rules comprised in the policies related to the radio device (120).
  10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising: during the session establishment, sending (701) a request message requesting the session to be established, the request message comprising capability information related to the radio device (120).
  11. The method according to any of claims 9-10, further comprising: performing (702) a discovery procedure triggered by the policy node (110) by establishing a connection to the policy node (110) and receiving a discovery request message from the policy node (110) using the established connection, and sending (703) to the policy node (110), a discovery response message, which discovery response message comprises the capability information related to the radio device (120).
  12. The method according to any of claims 9-11, wherein the capability information related to the radio device (120) indicates any one or more out of: - that the radio device (120) does supports application awareness, - that the radio device (120) does not support domain awareness, and - that the radio device (120) supports proxy server functionality.
  13. The method according to any of claims 9-12, wherein the configuration related to the proxy server (121) comprises any one or more out of: - certificates, and - encryption keys, to be used by the proxy server (121).
  14. The method according to any of claims 9-13, wherein the message requesting the radio device (120) to activate the proxy server (121) is any one out of: - a configuration request received directly from the policy node (110), or - a policy control request message received from policy node (110) via an access and mobility node (130).
  15. A computer program (1370) comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor (1350), causes the processor (1350) to perform actions according to any of the claims 10-16.
  16. A policy node (110) configured to handle policies related to a radio device (120) in a communications network (100), the radio device (120) being adapted to support proxy server functionality, the policy node (110) further being configured to: during a session establishment of the radio device (120), determine that obtained policies adapted to be related to the radio device (120) comprises one or more rules, wherein the respective one or more rules are adapted to comprise any one or more out of: - an application descriptor adapted to be related to the one or more rules, and - a domain descriptor adapted to be related to the one or more rules, characterized by the policy node being further configured to: determine, based on received capability information, that the radio device (120) is not aware of any or more one out of an application and a domain, and that the radio device (120) supports proxy server functionality, handle the policies adapted to be related to the radio device (120) by activating a proxy server (121) in the radio device (120) by sending a message to the radio device (120), the message being adapted to comprise: - an indication adapted to request the radio device (120) to activate the proxy server (121), - the one or more rules, and - a configuration adapted to related to the proxy server (121), which proxy server (121) is adapted to enable the radio device (120), even though not being application aware or domain aware, to apply the one or more rules comprised in the policies adapted to be related to the radio device (120).
  17. A radio device (120) configured to handle policies adapted to be related to the radio device (120) in a communications network (100), the radio device (120) being adapted to support proxy server functionality, the radio device (120) further being characterized by being configured to: receive, from a policy node (110), a message, the message being adapted to comprising: - an indication adapted to request the radio device (120) to activate the proxy server (121), - one or more rules comprised in the policies, and - a configuration adapted to be related to the proxy server (121), handle policies related to the radio device (120) by activating the proxy server (121) in the radio device (120) based on the received message, which proxy server (121) is adapted to enable the radio device (120), even though not being application aware or domain aware, to apply the one or more rules comprised in the policies adapted to be related to the radio device (120).

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD Embodiments herein relate to a policy node, a radio device and methods therein. In some aspects, they relate to handling policies related to the radio device in a communications network. BACKGROUND In a typical wireless communication network, wireless devices, also known as wireless communication devices, mobile stations, stations (STA) and/or User Equipments (UE), communicate via a Wide Area Network or a Local Area Network such as a Wi-Fi network or a cellular network comprising a Radio Access Network (RAN) part and a Core Network (CN) part. The RAN covers a geographical area which is divided into service areas or cell areas, which may also be referred to as a beam or a beam group, with each service area or cell area being served by a radio network node such as a radio access node e.g., a Wi-Fi access point or a radio base station (RBS), which in some networks may also be denoted, for example, a NodeB, eNodeB (eNB), or gNB as denoted in Fifth Generation (5G) telecommunications. A service area or cell area is a geographical area where radio coverage is provided by the radio network node. The radio network node communicates over an air interface operating on radio frequencies with the wireless device within range of the radio network node. 3GPP is the standardization body for specify the standards for the cellular system evolution, e.g., including 3G, 4G, 5G and the future evolutions. Specifications for the Evolved Packet System (EPS), also called a Fourth Generation (4G) network, have been completed within the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). As a continued network evolution, the new releases of 3GPP specifies a 5G network also referred to as 5G New Radio (NR). Multi-antenna techniques can significantly increase the data rates and reliability of a wireless communication system. The performance is in particular improved if both the transmitter and the receiver are equipped with multiple antennas, which results in a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) communication channel. Such systems and/or related techniques are commonly referred to as MIMO. In addition to faster peak Internet connection speeds, 5G planning aims at higher capacity than current 4G, allowing higher number of mobile broadband users per area unit, and allowing consumption of higher or unlimited data quantities in gigabyte per month and user. This would make it feasible for a large portion of the population to stream high-definition media many hours per day with their mobile devices, when out of reach of Wi-Fi hotspots. 5G research and development also aims at improved support of machine to machine communication, also known as the Internet of things, aiming at lower cost, lower battery consumption and lower latency than 4G equipment. Fixed Mobile Convergance (FMC) and 5G Residential Gateway (RG) 3GPP and Broadband Forum (BBF) have standardized a 5G FMC network solution which allows legacy Fixed Network RGs (FN-RG) and 5G capable RG (5G-RG) to access broadband services by means of a 5G Core (5GC), without the need of deploying a broadband network gateway (BNG) and specific fixed policy controllers. In such solution a 5G-RG behaves as a UE device, supporting 5GC N1 procedures towards the 5G core to register and establish PDU session connectivity in a given network slice. As in a UEs case, the 5G-RG supports N1 procedures to receive UE Route Selection Policy (URSP) and Access Traffic Steering Switch and Splitting (ATSSS) rules to route fixed broadband traffic, as explained in following sections. The fixed access network integrates with existing 5GC network interfaces by means of a new network function called Access Gateway Function (AGF). Figure 1 depicts a 5G Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) integration reference architecture. The network functions shown in Figure 1 is described below. Policy Control Function (PCF) The PCF supports unified policy framework to govern the network behavior. The PCF installs URSP and/or ATSSS rules in a 5G Residential Gateway (RG). Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) The AMF manages UE access, e.g. when a UE is connected through different access networks, and UE mobility aspects. Session Management Function (SMF) The SMF supports different functionality, e.g. the SMF configures a User plane Function (UPF) to handle user plane traffic. User Plane Function (UPF) The UPF supports handling of user plane traffic based on rules received from SMF. 5G-RG The 5G-RG receives URSP and/or ATSSS rules from the PCF, through the AMF, which allows RG to apply the requested policies to the user plane traffic. The 5G-RG supports N1 interface procedures towards the 5GC. FN-RG The FN-RG is legacy RG that is not 5G aware. It does not support N1 interface procedures towards the 5GC. Access Gateway Function (AGW) The AGW supports handling of N1 procedures for FN-RGs towards the 5GC. Network Exposure Function (NEF) The NEF supports a framework for internal and external network exposure. Application Funct