WO2009030135A1 - Method, device and system for assigning license - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for assigning license is disclosed. Said method is used in the technical field of computer and communication. Said method includes: receiving the request message, which is sent by user device, for obtaining license; said request message including user information; determining the group, which said user device belongs to, based on the user information in said request message; assigning license for user device based on the group which said user device belongs to. A server and system are also disclosed. Said server includes the first determining module and assigning module. Said system includes user device and server. By employing said method, server or system, the license requirement of different user devices is satisfied and the network performance is improved.

Description

 Method, device and system for distributing licenses

 The present invention relates to the field of computer and communication technologies, and in particular, to a method, device and system for allocating a license. Background technique

 A license, or license, is a form of contract that authorizes a customer and a customer to authorize or authorize the scope, function, or duration of the product being sold or purchased. Currently, the existing license control scheme can be divided into stand-alone license control and network license control. In the single-machine license control scheme, each user equipment corresponds to a license file that contains a license and a signature for the authorization. The license file is bound to the ESN (Equipment Serial Number) of the user equipment. License usage of the device. In the network license control scheme, the license server (License Server) controls the license usage of all user devices on the network. The license file is no longer available on the user device. The license file is saved on the license server. The user device passes the license and the license. Server communication to request permission.

 The network structure diagram of the network license control in the prior art is shown in FIG. 1 , in which the license file is placed on the license server, and the license usage of the user equipment in the entire network is controlled. The user equipment that is accessed by the user requests permission from the license server through the network. The license server determines whether the currently used license has reached the license range specified in the license file. If not, the license is returned to the user equipment; otherwise, the license of the user equipment is denied. request. Each user device can only run normally after requesting permission from the license server.

 The license server authorizes the user equipment according to the policy. The implementation strategy in the prior art is that the license server shares the licenses for all user equipments and only controls the total amount of licenses.

 In the process of implementing the present invention, the inventors have found that the above prior art has at least the following problems:

 When the total authorized license is less than the total amount of license required for each user equipment to operate, it will cause some user equipments to be idle without any permission, while other user equipments are required to be fully loaded after the license is requested, resulting in The overall performance of all user equipment in the network is degraded;

All user devices are treated equally, without prioritizing different user devices or user device groups. When the license is insufficient, some VIP user device groups cannot be licensed. For example, a telecom operator purchases a total of 1 million lines of access equipment from a device supplier and deploys it in A, B, and C areas of a certain city. Area B is an important VIP user equipment group (such as a certain Government agencies, etc.), if the license is shared for all user devices, it may be at a certain peak During the period of use, the user equipment in Area A can request permission to access the network, and only a small number of user equipments in Area B can request permission to access the network, resulting in the VIP user equipment group not getting the corresponding network due to the lack of permission. service. Summary of the invention

 Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, device, and system for allocating licenses to meet the licensing requirements of different user equipments and improve network performance.

 An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for allocating a license, where the method includes:

 Receiving a request message for obtaining a license sent by the user equipment, where the request message includes user information; determining, according to user information in the request message, a group to which the user equipment belongs;

 Assigning a license to the user equipment according to the group to which the user equipment belongs.

 An embodiment of the present invention further provides a server, where the server includes:

 a first determining module, configured to receive a request message for obtaining a license sent by the user equipment, where the request message includes user information, and determining, according to user information in the request message, a group to which the user equipment belongs;

 And an allocating module, configured to allocate a license to the user equipment according to the group to which the user equipment belongs.

 The embodiment of the invention further provides a network system, where the network system includes:

 a user equipment, configured to send a request message for obtaining a license, where the request message includes user information; and receiving a license allocated for itself;

 And a server, configured to receive the request message, determine a group to which the user equipment belongs according to the user information in the request message, and allocate a license to the user equipment according to the group to which the user equipment belongs.

 In the embodiment of the present invention, a request message for obtaining a license sent by a user equipment is received, where the request message includes user information; determining, according to user information in the request message, a group to which the user equipment belongs; The device allocates licenses to ensure that when the total amount of licenses in the entire network is insufficient, some VIP user devices or user device groups can still use the licenses, thereby providing different license services for different user devices. In addition, the corresponding licenses of each group are equivalent to reserved or pre-allocated for the specified user equipment, so that by controlling the grouping of the licenses, some user equipments can be prevented from being idle without any permission, and some user equipments are available. In the case of load operation, it is beneficial to balance the processing within the entire network, thereby improving the overall performance of the network. DRAWINGS

 1 is a structural diagram of a control network for a network license in the background art;

 2 is a flowchart of a method for allocating a license according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a flowchart of a process of creating a group and specifying a license for at least one group according to an embodiment of the present invention; 4 is a flowchart of processing for performing authorization verification when at least one set of specified licenses is created in the embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 5 is a flowchart of processing for releasing a license by a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention;

 6 is a flowchart of processing for performing license authorization when a license is allocated to a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention;

 FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a process for performing license authorization when a user equipment is allocated a license according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a process for a user to release a license according to an embodiment of the present invention;

 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a network system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

 FIG. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a server according to an embodiment of the present invention;

 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a server according to an embodiment of the present invention;

 FIG. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a server according to an embodiment of the present invention;

 FIG. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a server according to an embodiment of the present invention;

 FIG. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a server according to an embodiment of the present invention;

 FIG. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of a server according to an embodiment of the present invention. detailed description

 In the embodiment of the present invention, a request message for obtaining a license sent by a user equipment is received, where the request message includes user information; determining, according to user information in the received request message, a group to which the user equipment belongs; Assign licenses to meet the licensing needs of different user devices and improve network performance.

 In the embodiment of the present invention, a processing procedure for allocating a license is as shown in FIG. 2, and includes:

 Step 200: Receive a request message for obtaining a license sent by the user equipment, where the request message includes user information. Step 201: Determine, according to user information in the received request message, a group to which the user equipment belongs;

 The user information may include: a serial number of the user equipment, and/or an IP address; further, the user information may further include other information that can identify the user equipment.

 Step 202: Assign a license to the user equipment according to the group to which the user equipment belongs. In one embodiment, prior to step 200, a group can be created and a license can be specified for at least one of the groups, wherein the user device can use the license corresponding to the group to which it belongs. You can assign an assigned user device to a group when you create a group; or you can assign a user group to a user device when you create it. In the embodiment of the present invention, a process of creating a group and specifying a license for at least one group is as shown in FIG. 3, and includes:

 Step 300, load the license file, and enable the license file.

 Step 301: Create a group through the configuration interface (including graphics or command line). When you create a group, you can assign unique identification information to each group.

Step 302: Specify an allocation policy of the user equipment for the group, that is, specify the allocated user equipment for the group, and note the user equipment. The group to which the user equipment belongs is automatically adapted. Or, when the user equipment's allocation policy is not specified for the group, the user equipment is assigned a group to which the user equipment is created.

 Step 303: Specify a license for at least one of the created groups, where the license may be specified for the group according to the control information in the license file. Here, for a certain class of countable licenses, licenses are specified for at least one group, and the sum of the licenses in all groups cannot exceed the sum specified in the license file. Of course, for an uncountable license, the server specifies at least one group whether the license can be used, that is, if the license specified for the group is a countable license when the group is created, the total license specified in all groups does not exceed the license file. The sum of the licenses that can be specified in the license; if the license specified for the group is an uncountable license when the group is created, the license specified is the license available for that group in the license file.

 As shown in FIG. 4, in one embodiment, a process for authorizing verification is included when specifying a license for at least one of the created groups:

 Step 400: Determine whether the license to be designated is a countable license, and if yes, execute step 401, otherwise, execute step 404.

 Step 401: Determine whether the sum of the licenses to be designated in all the groups exceeds the license sum specified in the license file, and if yes, execute step 402; otherwise, execute step 403.

 Step 402: The specified license designation fails.

 Step 403: Specify the license to be specified for at least one group.

 Step 404: Determine whether the license to be specified is specified in the license file, and if yes, execute step 405; otherwise, execute step 402.

 Step 405: Specify the license to be specified for at least one group.

 After a group is created and a license is specified for at least one group, the group can be managed, including: Dynamic provisioning of licenses between groups, but for the countable licenses, the sum of the licenses in all groups cannot exceed the license file The sum specified in the group; the group is deleted, all the licenses in the group can be recycled at this time, and the license can be recycled and used by other groups or user equipment.

 After receiving the request message for obtaining the license sent by the user equipment, the user information of the user equipment may be determined according to the user information in the request message, where the user information may include: a serial number of the user equipment, and/or an IP address; The user information may also include other information that can identify the user equipment.

After determining the group to which the user equipment belongs, the user equipment may be assigned a license according to the group to which the user equipment belongs, where the processing procedure for performing the license authorization on the user equipment is included. In one embodiment, the license corresponding to the group to which the user equipment belongs may be The available licenses are searched for in the range, and the available licenses are found to be allocated to the user equipment. When the search determines that there is no license available in the license scope corresponding to the group to which the user equipment belongs, the license acquisition request of the user equipment may be rejected. The user equipment accesses the network and accepts the network service after requesting the permission, where the user equipment can periodically or irregularly check the validity of the license, such as heartbeat detection. When the network service ends, the user equipment needs to release the license. In an embodiment, the processing flow for releasing the license by the user equipment is as shown in FIG. 5, including:

 Step 500: Receive a request message for releasing a license sent by a user equipment, where the request message includes user information. Step 501: Extract user information from the request message, and determine, according to the user information, a group to which the user equipment belongs. Step 502: Release the license to the group to which the user equipment belongs. In another embodiment, creating a group also includes creating a public group and assigning a license to the public group, wherein all user devices can use the license corresponding to the public group. Of course, the process of assigning a license to a public group also includes a process of authorization verification, similar to the process flow shown in FIG. At this point, the distribution of the entire license information is shown in Table 1, just as an example:

 Table 1 License allocation as specified in the license file

 Group a set of two sets of N license allocation tables: License allocation table: License allocation table: License control parameters 1 License control parameters 1 License control parameters 1 License control parameters 2 License control parameters 2 License control parameters 2 Unassigned licenses (common license pool )

 License Allocation Table:

 License Control Parameters 1

 License Control Parameters 2

The license control parameters in Table 1 refer to specific license control items and have practical physical meanings. For example, if the maximum number of online users controlled is 1000, then the corresponding admission control parameter is the maximum number of users; if the maximum transmission rate controlled is 100M/S, then the corresponding admission control parameter is the maximum transmission rate.

 In one embodiment, the available licenses may be searched within the license range corresponding to the group to which the user equipment belongs and the license range corresponding to the public group, and the found available licenses may be allocated to the user equipment. For example, when it is determined that there is no license available in the license scope corresponding to the group to which the user equipment belongs, the available licenses may be found within the license range corresponding to the public group, and the found available licenses are allocated to the user equipment. The license acquisition request of the user device can be rejected when it is determined by the search that the license is still not available within the license range corresponding to the public group.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the license is allocated to the user equipment, the processing procedure for performing the license authorization on the user equipment is included. Step 600: Receive a request message for obtaining a license sent by the user equipment, where the request message includes user information. Step 601: Extract user information from the request message, and determine, according to the user information, a group to which the user equipment belongs.

 Step 602: Determine whether there is a license available in the permission range corresponding to the group to which the user equipment belongs, and if yes, execute step 603; otherwise, execute step 604.

 Step 603: Search for a license and allocate it to the user equipment within a license range corresponding to the group to which the user equipment belongs.

 Step 604: Determine whether there is a license available in the permission range corresponding to the public group. If yes, go to step 605. Otherwise, go to step 606.

 Step 605: Find a license and allocate it to the user equipment within the permission range corresponding to the public group.

 Step 606: Reject the license acquisition request of the user equipment.

 In another embodiment, the process of performing the license authorization on the user equipment may be that the available licenses are searched for and allocated to the user equipment within the permission range corresponding to the public group, and no license is available in the license range of the public group pair. At the time, the available licenses are searched for and assigned to the user equipment within the license range corresponding to the group to which the user equipment belongs. As shown in Figure 7, the processing flow is as follows:

 Step 700: Receive a request message for obtaining a license sent by the user equipment, where the request message includes user information. Step 701: Extract user information from the request message, and determine, according to the user information, a group to which the user equipment belongs.

 Step 702: Determine whether there is a license available in the permission range corresponding to the public group. If yes, go to step 703. Otherwise, go to step 704.

 Step 703: Find a license and allocate it to the user equipment within a license range corresponding to the public group.

 Step 704: Determine whether there is a license available in the permission range corresponding to the group to which the user equipment belongs, and if yes, execute step 705; otherwise, perform step 706.

 Step 705: Search for a license and assign it to the user equipment within a license range corresponding to the group to which the user equipment belongs.

 Step 706: Reject the license acquisition request of the user equipment.

 The user equipment accesses the network and accepts the network service after requesting the permission, where the user equipment can periodically or irregularly check the validity of the license, such as heartbeat detection. When the network service ends, the user equipment needs to release the license, in one embodiment, the user The processing flow of the device release license is shown in Figure 8, including:

 Step 800: Receive a request message for releasing a license sent by the user equipment, where the request message includes user information. Step 801: Extract user information from the request message, and determine, according to the user information, a group to which the user equipment belongs.

 Step 802: Determine whether the user equipment is assigned a license corresponding to the public group. If yes, go to step 803. Otherwise, go to step 805.

Step 803: Determine whether the total number of licenses in the public group has reached the upper limit. If yes, go to step 805. Otherwise, go to step 804. Step 804, releasing the license into the public group.

 Step 805: Release the license to the group to which the user equipment belongs.

 In the process shown in Figure 8, it is determined whether the license is released into the public group or the group to which the user equipment belongs by determining whether the user equipment is assigned a license corresponding to the public group. When it is determined that the user equipment is assigned a license corresponding to the public group, the license is released into the public group, and when the total of the licenses in the public group has reached the upper limit, the license is released to the group to which the user equipment belongs. In another embodiment, it may be determined whether the license is released to a group or a public group to which the user equipment belongs by determining whether the user equipment is assigned a license corresponding to the group to which the user equipment belongs. When it is determined that the user equipment is assigned a license corresponding to the group to which the user equipment belongs, the license is released to the group to which the user equipment belongs, and when the total license in the group to which the user equipment belongs has reached the upper limit, the license is released to the public group. Inside.

 In the embodiment of the present invention, a request message for obtaining a license sent by a user equipment is received, where the request message includes user information; determining, according to user information in the request message, a group to which the user equipment belongs; The device allocates licenses to ensure that when the total amount of licenses in the entire network is insufficient, some VIP user devices or user device groups can still use the licenses, thereby providing different license services for different user devices. In addition, the corresponding licenses of each group are equivalent to reserved or pre-allocated for the specified user equipment, so that by controlling the grouping of the licenses, some user equipments can be prevented from being idle without any permission, and some user equipments are available. In the case of load operation, it is beneficial to balance the processing within the entire network, thereby improving the overall performance of the network. The embodiment of the present invention further provides a network system. The structure of the system is as shown in FIG. 9 , and includes a user equipment 900 and a server 901. The user equipment 900 is configured to send a request message for obtaining a license, where the request message includes a user. Information; and receiving a license assigned to itself;

 The server 901 is configured to receive a request message, determine a group to which the user equipment 900 belongs according to the user information in the request message, and allocate a license to the user equipment 900 according to the group to which the user equipment 900 belongs.

 Referring to FIG. 10, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a server, where the server includes:

 a first determining module 1000, an allocating module 1001, wherein the first determining module 1000 is configured to receive a request message for obtaining a license sent by the user equipment, where the request message includes user information, and is determined according to the user information in the request message. The group to which the user device belongs;

 The distribution module 1001 is configured to allocate a license to the user equipment according to the group to which the user equipment belongs.

 As shown in FIG. 11, in one embodiment, the server shown in FIG. 10 further includes a grouping module 1002 for creating a group and assigning a license to at least one group, wherein the user equipment can use the license corresponding to the group to which it belongs.

As shown in FIG. 12, in an embodiment, in the server shown in FIG. 10 or FIG. 11, the allocating module 1001 may include: a first searching unit 1200, a first allocating unit 1201; wherein, the first searching unit 1200 is configured to: User equipment Find available licenses within the license range corresponding to the group to which it belongs;

 The first allocating unit 1201 is configured to allocate the found available license to the user equipment when the first searching unit 1200 finds the available license.

 In an embodiment, the first determining module 1000 is further configured to receive a request message for releasing the license sent by the user equipment, and determine, according to the user information in the request message, the group to which the user equipment belongs.

 As shown in FIG. 13, the server shown in FIG. 12 may further include:

 The first release module 1003 is configured to release the license to the group to which the user equipment belongs after the first determining module 1000 determines the group to which the user equipment belongs.

 In one embodiment, the grouping module 1002 can also be used to create a public group and assign permissions to the public group, wherein all user devices can use the permissions corresponding to the public group. As shown in FIG. 14, at this time, in the server shown in FIG. 11, the allocating module 1001 may include:

 The second search unit 1400, the second search unit 1401, is configured to search for available licenses within the license range corresponding to the group to which the user equipment belongs and the license range corresponding to the public group;

 The second allocating unit 1401 is configured to allocate the found available license to the user equipment when the second searching unit 1400 finds the available license.

 In an embodiment, the first determining module 1000 is further configured to determine, according to the user information in the request message, the group to which the user equipment belongs after receiving the request message for releasing the license sent by the user equipment. As shown in Figure 15, the server shown in Figure 11 can also include:

 The determining module 1004 is configured to determine whether the user equipment is assigned a license corresponding to the public group;

 The second release module 1005 is configured to release the license into the public group when the determining module 1004 determines that the user equipment is assigned a license corresponding to the public group; and the determining module 1004 determines that the public group is not allocated to the user equipment. When the corresponding license is granted, the license is released to the group to which the user device belongs. Of course, the judging module 1004 and the second releasing module 1005 may also be located in the server shown in FIG.

 In the embodiment of the present invention, a request message for obtaining a license sent by a user equipment is received, where the request message includes user information; determining, according to user information in the received request message, a group to which the user equipment belongs; By assigning licenses, it is guaranteed that when the total amount of licenses in the entire network is insufficient, some VIP user equipments or user equipment groups can still use the licenses, thereby providing different license services for different user equipments. In addition, the corresponding licenses of each group are equivalent to reserved or pre-allocated for the specified user equipment, so that by controlling the grouping of the licenses, some user equipments can be prevented from being idle without any permission, and some user equipments are available. In the case of load operation, it is beneficial to balance the processing within the entire network, thereby improving the overall performance of the network.

One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that all or part of the above-described methods can be programmed The instructions are related to hardware, and the program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, and the storage medium may include: a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

 It is apparent that those skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations to the invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of the invention and the scope of the invention.

Claims

Claim A method for allocating a license, the method comprising:  Receiving a request message for obtaining a license sent by the user equipment, where the request message includes user information;  Determining, according to user information in the request message, a group to which the user equipment belongs;  Assigning a license to the user equipment according to the group to which the user equipment belongs.  2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user information comprises a serial number and/or an IP address of the user equipment.  3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:  A group is created, and a license is specified for at least one group, wherein the user equipment can use a license corresponding to the group to which the user equipment belongs.  The method according to claim 3, wherein the assigned user equipment is specified for the group when the group is created; or the user equipment is assigned the group to which the user equipment is created when the user equipment is created.  5. The method according to claim 3, wherein if the license specified for the group when the group is created is a countable license, the specified license sum does not exceed the license sum that can be specified in the license file; The license specified for the group when the group is created is an uncountable license, and the specified license is the available license corresponding to the group in the license file.  The method according to claim 1 or 3, wherein the assigning a license to the user equipment according to the group to which the user equipment belongs includes:  The available licenses are searched for within the license range corresponding to the group to which the user equipment belongs, and the found available licenses are assigned to the user equipment.  The method of claim 6, wherein the method further comprises:  Receiving a request message for releasing a license sent by the user equipment, where the request message includes user information; determining, according to user information in the request message, a group to which the user equipment belongs;  Release the license to the group to which the user device belongs.  8. The method according to claim 3, wherein the creating a group further comprises: creating a public group, and assigning a permission to the public group, wherein all user equipments can use the corresponding public group license.  The method according to claim 8, wherein the assigning the license to the user equipment according to the group to which the user equipment belongs includes: The available licenses are searched within the license range corresponding to the group to which the user equipment belongs and the license range corresponding to the public group, and the found available licenses are allocated to the user equipment. The method according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the method further comprises: receiving a request message for releasing a license sent by the user equipment, where the request message includes user information; User information in the determination of the group to which the user equipment belongs;  Release the license to the group to which the user equipment belongs, where the license is not a license corresponding to the public group assigned to the user equipment;  Or releasing the license into the public group, wherein the license is a license corresponding to the public group assigned to the user equipment;  Or releasing the license into the public group, wherein the license is a license corresponding to the public group assigned to the user equipment and the total of the licenses in the public group does not reach an upper limit;  Alternatively, the license is released into the group to which the user equipment belongs, wherein the license is a license corresponding to the public group assigned to the user equipment and the total number of licenses in the public group has reached an upper limit.  A server, wherein the server comprises:  a first determining module (1000), configured to receive a request message for obtaining a license sent by the user equipment, where the request message includes user information, and determining, according to user information in the request message, a group to which the user equipment belongs;  The distribution module (1001) is configured to allocate a license to the user equipment according to the group to which the user equipment belongs.  The server according to claim 11, wherein the server further comprises:  The grouping module (1002) is configured to create a group and specify a license for at least one group, wherein the user equipment can use a license corresponding to the group to which it belongs.  The server according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the allocating module (1001) comprises: a first searching unit (1200), configured to search within a permission range corresponding to the group to which the user equipment belongs Available licenses;  The first allocating unit (1201) is configured to allocate the available available licenses to the user equipment when the first searching unit (1200) finds an available license.  The server according to claim 13, wherein the first determining module (1000) is further configured to receive a request message for releasing a license sent by the user equipment, according to a user in the request message. The information determines a group to which the user equipment belongs;  And, the server further includes:  The first release module (1003) is configured to release the license to the group to which the user equipment belongs after the first determining module (1000) determines the group to which the user equipment belongs. The server according to claim 12, wherein the grouping module (1002) is further configured to create a public group and specify a license for the public group. wherein all user equipments can use the public Group correspondence Permission.  The server according to claim 15, wherein the allocating module (1001) comprises: a second searching unit (1400), configured to be within a permission range corresponding to the group to which the user equipment belongs and Find available licenses within the license range corresponding to the public group;  The second allocation unit (1401) is configured to allocate the available licenses found to the user equipment when the second search unit (1400) finds an available license.  The server according to claim 15 or 16, wherein the first determining module (1000) is further configured to: after receiving the request message for releasing the license sent by the user equipment, according to the request The user information in the message determines a group to which the user equipment belongs;  The server further includes:  a determining module (1004), configured to determine whether the user equipment is assigned a license corresponding to the public group; and a second releasing module (1005), configured to determine, by the determining module (1004), the user equipment When there is a license corresponding to the public group, releasing the license into the public group; when the determining module (1004) determines that the user equipment is not assigned the license corresponding to the public group, releasing the license to Within the group to which the user equipment belongs.  The server according to claim 17, wherein the determining module (1004) is further configured to determine whether a total of licenses in the public group has reached an upper limit;  The second release module (1005) is further configured to: when the determining module (1004) determines that the user equipment is assigned the license corresponding to the public group, and the total license in the public group does not reach the upper limit, Release the license into the public group; or when the determining module (1004) determines that the user equipment is assigned the license corresponding to the public group and the total license in the public group has reached the upper limit, the license is permitted Released to the group to which the user device belongs.  19. A network system, the network system comprising:  a user equipment (900), configured to send a request message for obtaining a license, where the request message includes user information; and the receiving is a self-assigned license;  a server (901), configured to receive the request message, determine, according to user information in the request message, a group to which the user equipment (900) belongs, and according to the group to which the user equipment (900) belongs, the user The device (900) assigns a license.