15 Relationship between subscription and service delivery

22.1013GPPRelease 17Service aspectsService principlesTS

Tools: ARFCN - Frequency Conversion for 5G NR/LTE/UMTS/GSM

15.1 Subscription

A subscription describes the commercial relationship between the subscriber and the service provider.

Figure 4: Subscriber, subscription and services relationship

A subscription to a network operator may provide the user with access to one or more domains. A Subscription shall identify the set of services, within particular domains, to which the user has access (see figure 3); each subscription may specify a different set of services. These services may be provided by the CS CN Domain and/or a PS CN Domain and/or an IM CN subsystem. Subscriptions relate to services such as Basic Services (e.g. Teleservices, Bearer services), PS services and IM-Services (IP-based multimedia services), which are typically provided by network operators, and to value added services which typically are provided by network operators and/or other entities that provide services to a subscriber

The subscription identifies:

– the services and related services information that are made available to the subscriber by the service provider ;

In addition a subscription to a network operator may identify:

– the domains to which the user has been granted access by the network operator. In particular, the PS service profile and information on the allowed QoS parameter ranges shall be contained in the subscription.

– the identity of the subscriber within these domains.
Note: The identity of a subscriber in the CS CN domain and PS CN domain (e.g. her IMSI) may potentially be different to her identity in the IM CN subsystem

– the radio access systems over which the subscriber may access their services e.g. UTRAN, GERAN, EUTRAN, I-WLAN.

15.2 Other concepts associated with services

Provision of services:
An action to make a service available to a subscriber. The provision may be:

general: where the service is made available to all subscribers (subject to compatibility restrictions enforced) without prior arrangements being made with the service provider;
pre‑arranged: where the service is made available to an individual subscriber only after the necessary arrangements have been made with the service provider.

Withdrawal:
An action taken by the service provider to remove an available service from a subscriber’s access. The withdrawal may be:

general: where the service is removed from all subscribers provided with the service;
specific: where the service is removed on an individual basis from subscribers provided with the service.

Note: Access to the IM subsystem requires IP connectivity provided, for example, through provision of the PS CN domain.

15.3 Requirements concerning service delivery

In general it is a requirement to allow the use of independent services simultaneously (i.e. Basic, PS, IP multimedia and operator specific).

1) The network usage shall be based on the services identified within the subscription, the terminal capabilities and, where applicable, roaming agreements between operators.

2) The Home environment shall be able to decide on the service delivery in a roaming scenario. I.e. it shall control how services are delivered in line with the subscription.

3) If an offered or required service (e.g. voice) could be provided with different technologies within the serving network, the decision on service delivery shall be based on preferences identified in the user profile and serving network capabilities and conditions (e.g. load).

4) If the user profile does not allow an alternative service delivery method and the requested delivery method is not available in the serving network the service shall not be provided to the subscriber. This applies also to data bearer services with defined QoS parameters (or parameter ranges).

Examples:

– A terminating voice call for a subscriber with a dual/multi mode terminal (e.g. UTRAN/GERAN) could be delivered in a hybrid network as IM service or CS voice call (TS11). The delivery decision is based on the preferences of service delivery within the user profile and the network conditions. If there is no preference information of the Home environment available the decision is made only on the network conditions from the serving network.

– A terminating data service (e.g. PS with QoS for real time audio) where the network cannot provide the QoS at call setup. Both the originating and terminating application shall be informed about the possible QoS configuration for that call. The further handling (setup continuation, termination) depends on the decisions of the applications.

15.3.1 Mobile Originated Voice calls

When a ME capable of offering voice service both on CS and IMS is CS attached and IMS registered MO CS Voice calls (TS11) and MO IMS voice services shall be originated on the domain specified by the Home operator policy or users preferences. The Home Operator policy shall have precedence to user preferences.

15.3.2 Mobile Terminated Voice calls

When a ME capable of offering voice service both on CS and IMS, MT CS Voice calls (TS11) and MT IMS voice services shall be delivered over the domain specified by the Home operator policy or users preferences. The Home Operator policy shall have precedence to user preferences. If the call delivery attempt fails in one domain, if specified by operator policy, it should be possible to attempt the delivery in the other domain or the call/communication forwarding supplementary services [41, 40] may be invoked if provisioned.

NOTE 1: The delivery decision will take into account aspects such as IMS registration and CS attachment status.

NOTE 2: When the terminating network knows that the UE is either IMS registered or CS attached in non-3GPP access (e.g. CDMA), the delivery decision will take this into account in order to select the correct domain.