Method for the interception of GTP-C messages

摘要

Disclosed is a species of control-message intercept method which includes a passive monitoring approach whereby the relevant control packets are inspected for the purpose of providing additional information for the purpose of facilitating the operation of some primary or `master' Internet Protocol (EP) charging/rating middleware platform / gateway system (intended to equip network operators with the ability to rate and bill IP traffic), and secondly, an invasive technique whereby control (GTP-C) messages are injected for the purpose of altering the state of a given data session in an more aggressive fashion (e.g. to drop a data session when the subscriber runs out of money in his/her prepaid account).