Managing hierarchically organized subscriber profiles

Abstract

Methods are provided for managing hierarchically organized subscriber profiles. According to one embodiment, a connection for a subscriber is created based on a service context of the subscriber. A connection request is received from a subscriber of a network service delivery environment. The subscriber is associated with a first-level profile identifier indicative of a service context for the subscriber. One or more other subscribers can be associated with the first-level profile identifier. Lower-level profile identifiers are determined using the first-level profile identifier. The lower-level profile identifiers indicate a set of services that is available to the subscriber during the connection. Creating a connection for the subscriber that enables forwarding of packets based on the lower-level profile identifiers.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 defining each of a plurality of service contexts available to a plurality of subscribers of a broadband service provider in terms of one or more profile identifiers of a plurality of profile identifiers each of which is representative of a particular subscriber service context supported by a broadband subscriber access environment provided by the broadband service provider;   maintaining, within a virtual router (VR) configured within a telecommunications system of the broadband service provider, a scalable subscriber profile database in which a memory requirement for the scalable subscriber profile database is dependent upon a number of available service contexts by hierarchically organizing the plurality of profile identifiers as intermediate profile identifiers and leaf profile identifiers, wherein the leaf profile identifiers explicitly define subscriber services that are available during a connection to the broadband service provider and the intermediate profile identifiers indirectly represent sets of one or more subscriber services, which are defined by way of the intermediate profile identifiers' associations with one or more lower-level identifiers including zero or more of the leaf profile identifiers and zero or more of the intermediate profile identifiers;   receiving a connection request from a subscriber of the broadband service provider, wherein the connection request contains therein a profile identifier of the plurality of profile identifiers;   determining one or more subscriber services available to the subscriber while the subscriber is connected to the broadband service provider by querying the scalable subscriber profile database to identify one or more of the leaf profile identifiers associated with the profile identifier; and   creating a connection for the subscriber that enables processing of packets received from the subscriber in accordance with the one or more subscriber services.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein two or more subscribers of the plurality of subscribers are associated with the profile identifier and wherein a total number of the plurality of profile identifiers within the scalable subscriber profile database is less than a total number of the plurality of subscribers. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein a leaf profile identifier of the one or more leaf profile identifiers define one or more filters to be applied to the packets received from the subscriber. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the one or more filters include a quality of service filter. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the one or more filters include a bandwidth filter. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the one or more filters include a firewall. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein a leaf profile identifier of the one or more leaf profile identifiers define a maximum bandwidth available to the subscriber. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein a leaf profile identifier of the one or more leaf profile identifiers is associated with a maximum bandwidth available to the subscriber. 
     
     
         9 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium tangibly embodying a set of instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of a telecommunications system of the broadband service provider, cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:
 defining each of a plurality of service contexts available to a plurality of subscribers of the broadband service provider in terms of one or more profile identifiers of a plurality of profile identifiers each of which is representative of a particular subscriber service context supported by a broadband subscriber access environment provided by the broadband service provider;   maintaining, within a virtual router (VR) configured within the telecommunications system of the broadband service provider, a scalable subscriber profile database in which a memory requirement for the scalable subscriber profile database is dependent upon a number of available service contexts by hierarchically organizing the plurality of profile identifiers as intermediate profile identifiers and leaf profile identifiers, wherein the leaf profile identifiers explicitly define subscriber services that are available during a connection to the broadband service provider and the intermediate profile identifiers indirectly represent sets of one or more subscriber services, which are defined by way of the intermediate profile identifiers' associations with one or more lower-level identifiers including zero or more of the leaf profile identifiers and zero or more of the intermediate profile identifiers;   receiving a connection request from a subscriber of the broadband service provider, wherein the connection request contains therein a profile identifier of the plurality of profile identifiers;   determining one or more subscriber services available to the subscriber while the subscriber is connected to the broadband service provider by querying the scalable subscriber profile database to identify one or more of the leaf profile identifiers associated with the profile identifier; and   creating a connection for the subscriber that enables processing of packets received from the subscriber in accordance with the one or more subscriber services.   
     
     
         10 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 9 , wherein two or more subscribers of the plurality of subscribers are associated with the profile identifier and wherein a total number of the plurality of profile identifiers within the scalable subscriber profile database is less than a total number of the plurality of subscribers. 
     
     
         11 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 10 , wherein a leaf profile identifier of the one or more leaf profile identifiers define one or more filters to be applied to the packets received from the subscriber. 
     
     
         12 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11 , wherein the one or more filters include a quality of service filter. 
     
     
         13 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11 , wherein the one or more filters include a bandwidth filter. 
     
     
         14 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11 , wherein the one or more filters include a firewall. 
     
     
         15 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 10 , wherein a leaf profile identifier of the one or more leaf profile identifiers define a maximum bandwidth available to the subscriber. 
     
     
         16 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 10 , wherein a leaf profile identifier of the one or more leaf profile identifiers is associated with a maximum bandwidth available to the subscriber.