KR100553796B1 - System and method for settling an account in calling card service - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a billing method for allowing a subscriber with a prepaid calling card and a postpaid calling card to make a payment using both the prepaid calling card and the postpaid calling card when using a call service or a payment service. As for

If the subscriber wants to use a call service or a payment service using a calling card, the subscriber makes a prepaid payment while the prepaid amount is exhausted and automatically makes a postpaid payment after the prepaid amount is exhausted, so that the subscriber calls When the prepaid amount of the card is exhausted, it is characterized in that it is configured to use a call service or a payment service without a separate payment method change procedure.

The present invention, even if the prepaid charge balance for the calling card service user when the call service or payment service is exhausted, it is possible to automatically provide a postpaid call card service continuously without forcibly terminating the service or requiring recharging. There is an advantage that can provide a good calling card service.

Description

Billing system and method for calling card service {System and method for settling an account in calling card service}

1 is a block diagram of a charging system in a call card service according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is an internal block diagram of a service control system (SCP) shown in FIG.

3A and 3B are flowcharts illustrating a charging method in a call card service according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a charging method in a call card service according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention relates to a billing system in a calling card service, and more particularly, when a subscriber having a prepaid calling card and a postpaid calling card uses a calling service or a payment service, the payment amount is compared with the prepaid calling card. It relates to a billing method to be able to pay by using the post-paid currency card.

Currently, intelligent network calling card services are largely divided into prepaid and postpaid calling card services.

First, in the prepaid calling card service, a subscriber charges a predetermined amount in his calling card in advance and receives the corresponding service.

On the other hand, in the postpaid calling card service, the subscriber first receives the service, and then the service provider adds up the service charges for a certain period and subsequently charges the billing method specified by the subscriber.

In addition, a call card service can be divided into a call service and a payment service. A call service is a service that provides a telephone call connecting a subscriber and a called party requested by the subscriber through a telephone network. After the purchase of the service is a service that can pay the payment amount through the subscriber's currency card account in return for the purchase.

In the case of the prepaid calling card service, a billing record for billing the service provided by the subscriber is generated by a service control system (hereinafter referred to as SCP: Service Control Point) that manages the prepaid charge amount. On the other hand, in the case of the postpaid calling card service, the postpaid calling service generates the billing record at a service performing exchange (SSP: Service Switching Point) that performs the actual call connection and exchange, and the postpaid payment service generates the billing record. Generated by SCP performing procedures such as authentication.

This prepaid calling card service provides and sells a card with a serial number without requiring a separate sign-up procedure, and the postpaid calling card service is only available to subscribers who are allowed to subscribe after verifying the postpaid billing method through the initial sign-up procedure. Providing.

Currently, even if the same service provider treats and provides a prepaid calling card service and a postpaid calling card service as a separate service, a user who registers both a prepaid calling card service and a postpaid calling card service uses the prepaid calling card service. In the case of using a call service or a payment service, there was an inconvenience in that the service can be used only as much as the balance of the prepaid call card service.

Generally, a card with a fare-limiting function is a prepaid card that allows you to pay a certain amount in advance and pay for that amount, or a postpaid card that allows you to set a certain amount in advance and pay only for that amount. Cards, each of which is given a unique numbering combination. In order to use the card, if the user enters the number combination, the authority managing the use of the card detects the balance of the card based on the entered number combination, and the user only runs out until the amount corresponding to the balance is exhausted. Provides the desired service. Such a card may be a calling card mainly used for telephone bill payment.

On the other hand, a notification type service currently provided offline or online via the Internet, when a subscriber subscribes to a voice message or a short message to be transmitted to one or more designated telephone numbers at a specific time, the predetermined telephone number is reserved at the scheduled time. It is a supplementary service that transmits a pre-stored voice message or a short message, and payment accordingly is generally adopted in a postpaid manner.

According to the postpaid payment method, a bill is charged only for calls for which message transmission is successful at a time designated by the service subscriber. The payment method is adopted as the postpaid payment method described above while providing the above-described notification type service using a card with a limited payment amount. In this case, the amount of payment for the card is limited to a certain amount, so when the subscriber registers for the notification type service, even if there is a balance equal to the amount incurred due to the provision of the notification type service, It may happen that there is no balance.

In this case, although the user may consider a postpaid calling service, it is generally economical for the user to use the card first because a certain rate discount is applied to the card provided to the prepaid calling card service.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and when a subscriber having a prepaid calling card and a postpaid calling card uses a calling service or a payment service, the payment amount is set to the prepaid calling card and the Its purpose is to provide a billing system that allows payments by using a postpaid currency card.

Billing system of the calling card service according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention to achieve the above object,

In the charging system of the call card service,

SCP DB management means for managing a database storing data for performing subscriber authentication, prepaid service and postpaid service;

When providing a call service, authentication is performed for the subscriber by interworking with the SCP DB management means, and the SCP call processing for determining the payment method for the call service as one of a prepaid service and a postpaid service based on the prepaid charge amount for the successful subscriber. Way;

When providing a call service at the request of the SCP call processing means, in conjunction with the SCP DB management means, the maximum available time and postpaid payment information for the prepaid charge amount required for the execution of the payment method determined by the SCP call processing means are provided. Provided to the SCP call processing means, when providing a payment service by request of a call card payment system, authenticates the subscriber in conjunction with the SCP DB management means, and based on the prepaid charge amount for the successful subscriber SCP charging means for determining the payment method of the service as one of a prepaid service and a postpaid service;

It detects the call service request of the subscriber connected to the public telephone network, receives the authentication information and the called number from the subscriber, transfers it to the SCP call processing means, and provides the call service to the subscriber under the control of the SCP call processing means. A service performing exchange and;

A call that detects a payment service request of a subscriber connected through the Internet, receives authentication information and payment request information from the subscriber, transfers it to the SCP charging means, and provides a payment service to the subscriber under the control of the SCP charging means. Characterized in that it comprises a card payment system.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described an embodiment of the present invention in more detail.

1 is a block diagram of a billing system in a call card service according to an embodiment of the present invention, a single station exchange (hereinafter referred to as LE: Local Exchange) 20 in which a landline telephone 10 is accommodated, and a service performing exchange (hereinafter, SSP). 30, service control system (SCP) 40, database 50, intelligent peripheral (IP: Intelligent Peripheral) (60), calling card payment system (CCPS: Calling Card Payment System) (70) Equipped.

In case of a call service, the LE 20 transmits a service use request to the SSP 30 when a service request is detected from the subscriber station 10.

The SSP 30 delivers the service use request received from the LE 20 to the call processing module of the SCP 40 and receives the maximum use time of the prepaid call service corresponding to the subscriber's prepaid balance from the SCP call processing module. If the call is maintained and the call is maintained even when the call time exceeds the maximum usage time of the prepaid call service, the billing module requests the billing rate information corresponding to the postpaid call service to the SCP call processing module and sends the billing information to the SCP call processing module. It performs the function of providing postpaid calling service for the call received from.

As shown in Fig. 2, the SCP 40 has a module 41 which performs protocol processing for exchanging No.7 messages with the SSP 30, and a module above the module 41. After analyzing and authenticating the call service use request received from the SSP 30, if the subscriber is a valid subscriber, request the prepaid call service maximum available time corresponding to the prepaid charge balance to the SCP billing module, and deliver the result to the SSP. If the post-paid call service charge rate information request additionally occurs in the SSP 30, the call processing module 42 for transferring the billing information according to the call type of the corresponding subscriber to the SSP 30, subscriber information required for authentication, prepaid and postpaid DB management module 43 for storing and managing the charge rate information and subscriber's call record information necessary for charging of the combined call service in the database 50, in the case of the prepaid call service, the called number and the remaining balance, Generate prepaid service billing information using information such as time and prepaid call service billing rate information, and manage postpaid call service billing information in case of postpaid call service, and service use request and payment request information received from CCPS 70 To analyze the validity of the subscriber and a valid subscriber is provided with a charging module 44 for comparing the prepaid charge balance and payment request amount to process the payment.

The CCPS 70 recognizes the service use request from the subscriber terminal 80 connected through the Internet, and performs a function of transmitting the service use request and payment information requested by the subscriber to the SCP charging module.

Next, an operation of the call service of the charging system in the call card service according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 3A to 3B.

If the use of the call service is requested from the subscriber station 10 accommodated in the LE 20 (S10), the calling party SSP 30 requests the subscriber number and authentication information from the subscriber (S12, S14). .

The SSP 30 transmits the received information to the call processing module 42 of the SCP 40 to request authentication for the corresponding subscriber (S16), and the SCP call processing module 42 sends the subscriber number to the SCP DB. Transmission to the management module 23 requests the subscriber information for the subscriber number (S18 to S22).

Accordingly, SCP DB management module 43 retrieves the subscriber information for the subscriber number in the database 50 and transmits the retrieved subscriber information to the SCP call processing module 42 (S24 ~ S26), SCP call processing module 42 performs authentication for the corresponding subscriber based on the transmitted subscriber information to determine whether the subscriber is a valid subscriber (S30, S32).

As a result of the determination, if authentication fails (N), the call is disconnected and the call service is terminated. If authentication is successful (Y), the called party is requested to the subscriber through the SSP 30 (S34, S36), and the SSP ( In response to the request, 30) requests and receives the called party number from the subscriber and transmits it to the SCP call processing module 42 (S38, S40, S42), and the SCP call processing module 42 displays the current subscriber's prepaid charge balance. Search (S46) if there is no balance ('N' in S46) provides a post-paid call service, and if there is a balance ('Y' in S46), the SCP billing module 43 requests the calculation of the maximum available time. (S48, S50). Here, the SCP call processing module 42 transmits the called number and the current time to the SCP charging module 44 so that the SCP charging module 43 can calculate the maximum available time of prepaid service for the called number. The postpaid call service described above will be described from step S96.

Subsequently, the SCP billing module 44 collects the collected forwarding number and the prepaid billing rate table corresponding to the current time from the database 50 through the SCP DB management module 43 (S52, S56, S58, S60), Using the collected prepaid charge rate and the current subscriber's prepaid charge balance, the maximum time the subscriber can use the prepaid call service is calculated and delivered to the SCP call processing module 42 (S62-S66).

Immediately before connecting the call, the SCP call processing module 42 sends a message to the SSP 30 to calculate the prepaid call time using the prepaid call service from the current time and instructs the call to connect to the called party (S68 to S72).

Subsequently, the SSP 30 sends an event to the SCP call processing module 42 as an event when the call time becomes longer or the call is terminated than the maximum available time of prepaid service notified by the SCP call processing module 42 (S74, S76), SCP call processing module 42 requests charging for the prepaid call service terminated with SCP charging module 44 (S78, S80).

Accordingly, the SCP billing module 44 requests the SCP DB management module 43 to generate a prepaid service call record and reduce the balance after performing the charging function (S84, S86), and the SCP DB management module prepaid service. The call record is generated and the prepaid charge balance is reduced at the same time, and then the billing result is notified to the SCP call processing module 42 (S88 to S92).

The SCP call processing module 42 determines whether the corresponding call time exceeds the maximum usage time of the prepaid service (S94), otherwise (N), that is, when the subscriber or the called party disconnects the call and the prepaid call service is terminated. Disconnecting the call and terminating the service, if it is determined in the step S94 that the corresponding call time exceeds the maximum use time (Y) to the SCP DB management module 43 through the SCP charging module 44 Requests for postpaid service billing information (service discriminator, billing type, billing characteristics, call type, billing number, special service type, etc.) to initiate postpaid calling service (S96-S102).

SCP DB management module 43 retrieves the postpaid service charging information for the subscriber in the database 50 and transfers the search result to the SCP call processing block (S112) through the SCP charging module 44 (S104 ~). S112).

The SCP call processing block 42 receiving the postpaid service billing information through the above-described process transmits the postpaid service billing information to the SSP 30, and the SSP 30 receiving the postpaid service billing service receives the prepaid call service therefrom. It is provided to the subscriber in succession (S114, S118).

When the subscriber or the called party disconnects the call and the postpaid call service is terminated and the end of the postpaid call is notified from the SSP 30, the SCP call processing block 42 releases the call-related resource and instructs it to the SSP 30, SSP 30 also releases the call-related resources to terminate the call service (S120 to S140).

Next, the operation of the payment service of the charging system in the calling card service according to another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 4.

If the CCPS 70 receives the service request and payment information of the subscriber terminal 80 connected through the Internet (S200), the CCPS 70 requests the subscriber authentication and payment to the SCP billing module 44 (S202, S204).

The SCP charging module 44 requests subscriber data from the SCP DB management module 43 and based on subscriber data (subscriber social security number / business registration number / passport number and subscriber password) transmitted from the SCP DB management module 43. The subscriber is authenticated with (S206 to S220).

If the subscriber authentication fails as a result of the authentication, the SCP charging module 44 transmits the subscriber authentication failure result to the CCPS 70, the CCPS 70 transmits the payment processing result (failure) to the subscriber, and terminates the service (S234-S230).

Unlike the above case, if the subscriber authentication succeeds as a result of the authentication, the SCP charging module 44 compares the prepaid charge balance and the payment request amount among the subscriber data, and if the prepaid charge balance is larger than the payment request amount, the SCP DB management module 43 ) To request the prepayment for all payment request amounts, and if the payment request amount is large, the amount corresponding to the prepaid charge balance requires the prepayment process, and the amount corresponding to the difference between the payment request amount and the prepaid charge balance. Requests post-payment processing (S232-S240).

Accordingly, the SCP DB management module 43 receives the prepaid payment process or the postpaid payment process, performs payment processing, generates payment record information for this, and then results in the CCPS 70 through the SCP billing module 44. CCPS 70 transmits the payment result to the subscriber and terminates the service (S242 to S248 and S226 to S230).

According to the present invention as described above, even if the prepaid charge balance for the call card service user is exhausted during the call service or payment service, it is possible to automatically provide the postpaid call card service continuously without forcibly terminating the service or requesting recharging. By doing so, there is an advantage in that it is possible to provide a quality calling card service to the subscriber.

On the other hand, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be modified and modified within the scope not departing from the gist of the present invention, such modifications and changes should be regarded as belonging to the following claims. will be.

Claims (8)

In the charging system of the call card service, SCP DB management means for managing a database storing data for performing subscriber authentication, prepaid service and postpaid service; SCP, which authenticates the subscriber by interworking with the SCP DB management means, and decides the payment method for the call service as one of the prepaid service and the postpaid service based on the prepaid charge amount for the successful subscriber. Call processing means; When providing a call service at the request of the SCP call processing means, in conjunction with the SCP DB management means, the maximum available time and postpaid payment information for the prepaid charge amount required for the execution of the payment method determined by the SCP call processing means are provided. Provided to the SCP call processing means, when providing a payment service by request of a call card payment system, authenticates the subscriber in conjunction with the SCP DB management means, and based on the prepaid charge amount for the successful subscriber SCP charging means for determining the payment method of the service as one of a prepaid service and a postpaid service; It detects the call service request of the subscriber connected to the public telephone network, receives the authentication information and the called number from the subscriber, transfers it to the SCP call processing means, and provides the call service to the subscriber under the control of the SCP call processing means. A service performing exchange and; A call that detects a payment service request of a subscriber connected through the Internet, receives authentication information and payment request information from the subscriber, transfers it to the SCP charging means, and provides a payment service to the subscriber under the control of the SCP charging means. Billing system of a call card service, characterized in that configured including a card payment system. The method of claim 1, The SCP call processing means If the prepaid charge amount of the successful subscriber is present, the payment method for the call service is determined as a prepaid payment service. If the prepaid charge amount does not exist, the payment method for the call service is determined as a postpaid payment service. The prepaid payment service provides only the maximum available time according to the prepaid charge amount, and if the call continues even after the maximum use time is exceeded, the currency, characterized in that for changing the payment method for the call service to a postpaid payment service. Charging System for Card Services. The method of claim 2, The SCP call processing module requests the maximum available time by transmitting the current time and the called number to the SCP charging means, and the SCP charging means collects the charging rate information on the called number from the database to make the maximum prepaid service available. Billing system of a call card service, characterized in that after calculating the time to transmit to the SCP call processing module. The method of claim 1, The SCP charging means If the prepaid charge amount is large by comparing the prepaid charge amount and the payment request amount of the successful subscriber, the prepayment service is settled as a prepaid service by determining the payment method by the payment service, If the payment request amount is large, the prepaid amount of the prepaid charge amount is prepaid for the payment method by the payment service, and the difference between the payment request amount and the prepaid charge amount is postpaid payment. A first step of receiving a subscriber number and authentication information from the subscriber and performing authentication on the subscriber when the service request of the subscriber is detected through the single station switch (LE); A second step of receiving an incoming number from the subscriber when the authentication is successful, and checking a prepaid charge balance for the subscriber to calculate a prepaid service available time corresponding to the confirmed prepaid charge balance; A third step of providing a postpaid call service based on postpaid service charge information registered by the subscriber, if the call is continued while the prepaid service available time is exceeded in a state where a call is initiated; A fourth step of terminating the service by releasing the call-related resources when the caller or the called party disconnects the call; A fifth step of receiving the subscriber information and the authentication information from the subscriber when the service request of the subscriber is detected through a calling card payment system (CCPS) and performing authentication on the subscriber; A sixth step of comparing the prepaid charge balance with a payment request amount if the authentication is successful; If the prepaid charge amount is larger, the prepayment process is performed on the entire payment request amount, while if the prepaid charge amount is large, the prepaid payment process is performed on the entire prepaid charge amount and the difference between the payment request amount and the prepaid charge amount is A seventh step of performing post-payment processing; And And an eighth step of recording the results of the prepaid and postpaid processing in a database and transmitting the processing results to a subscriber. The method of claim 5, wherein In the second process The prepaid billing rate is determined using the current time and the called number that initiated the call, and the prepaid billing rate is calculated using the prepaid billing rate and the prepaid charge amount. The method of claim 6, The prepaid billing rate is determined by the type of the called number is billed in the calling card service, characterized in that stored in advance in the database. delete

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