KR20030073409A - A Method of Charging for the Mobile Video-Telephony Service - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A billing method for a packet mobile picture phone service is provided to achieve billing by the quantity of packets used for calls, billing based on time, and billing by a mixed method in executing a packet-based mobile picture phone service. CONSTITUTION: If a picture phone call is connected between mobile picture terminals, a gate keeper transmits an IRQ(Information ReQuest) message to the calling mobile picture terminal(S301). In response to the IRQ message, the calling mobile picture terminal transmits an IRR(Information Request Response) message to the gate keeper with the number of packets transmitted and received for the called mobile picture terminal(S302). The transmission of the IRQ and IRR messages is repeatedly executed during the call between the two terminals according to a preset time period(S303), and the gate keeper creates temporary billing information every repetition(S304). If the picture phone call ends abnormally, the gate keeper transmits the temporary billing information, created until the abnormal completion, to a billing system(S305).

Description

A Method of Charging for the Mobile Video-Telephony Service

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a charging method of a packet mobile videophone service, and more particularly, to a mobile videophone service based on a packet network in a mobile communication network such as CDMA-2000 and 1x EV-DO or WCDMA (IMT-2000). In addition to the billing for other existing data services, the city and the billing service can be separately charged for the video call service. Furthermore, in the future, one terminal may charge the data for each data service at the same time. A billing method for a packet mobile videophone service is provided.

From the CDMA2000 1x network, the mobile phone can operate as an Internet Protocol (IP) terminal and high-speed bidirectional data service is possible. In next-generation mobile networks, such as 1x EV-DO and IMT-2000, data rates will increase further.

Therefore, based on this, a more advanced communication method for providing a video telephone service in a mobile communication network having a packet network has been developed.

In the existing line-based mobile phone service, the charge for using the service is based on a time-based charging method. Since the CDMA2000 mobile telephone network has implemented a packet-based billing function for data services, such a conventional packet-based billing method has a problem that it is difficult to apply differential charging for a specific service.

In addition, in the case of a data service between the server and the client, differential charging may be performed based on the amount of packets transmitted from the server, but in the case of a communication service between terminals such as a mobile telephone service. There was a problem that such differential charging method cannot be applied.

In addition, when using a plurality of types of data services at the same time to improve the performance of the terminal, it is necessary to implement a charging method that can perform differential charging for each data service.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems and demands, and its object is to charge by the amount of packets used in a call, time-based billing, and these in performing a packet-based mobile videophone service. It is to provide a charging method of a packet mobile video telephony service that enables charging by a mixed method and enables a differential charging method for each service when implementing a two-way multimedia service.

1 is a block diagram showing an example of a packet-based communication system for the H.323 mobile video telephone service to which the method of the present invention is applied;

Figure 2 shows a basic call processing flow chart that precedes the execution of the charging method for a packet mobile video telephone service according to an embodiment of the present invention,

3 is a flowchart of a charging method for a packet mobile videophone service according to an embodiment of the present invention.

※ Explanation of code for main part of drawing

10,11: mobile video terminal 14, 16: base station

18, 20: base station controller 22, 24: packet data serving node

28: gatekeeper 30: element management system

32: billing information management system 34: customer information management system

36: network management system 300: billing system

100: mobile phone network (CDMA2000 data core network)

In order to achieve the above object, the charging method of a packet mobile videophone service according to the present invention is a wireless Internet protocol (Wireless IP) address in a next-generation mobile communication network that performs data communication including a packet-based mobile videophone service. A first step of connecting a call between an incoming / outgoing mobile video terminal based on the first step; Requesting, by a predetermined period, cumulative information on the amount of transmission / reception packets of the call to one of the caller / receiver mobile video terminals connected to the call; A third step of temporarily generating first charging information based on the accumulated information received from the mobile video terminal as a result of the request; A fourth step of finally generating second billing information based on the last accumulated information transmitted from the corresponding mobile video terminal when the call is released; A fifth step of acquiring third charging information generated for the packet amount of all traffic data passing through the corresponding switching node by using the originating / incoming mobile video terminal as an end point periodically and during the call release; ; And a sixth step of performing the billing for the corresponding call and the subscriber / service billing for the traffic data based on the generated first billing information, the second billing information, and / or the obtained third billing information. It is configured to include.

The request information for the cumulative information of the second step is included in an information request message (IRQ) based on an H.323 information transmitted to the mobile video terminal, and the corresponding cumulative information of the third step is correspondingly Is included in an H.323-based Information Request Response message (IRR) and received from the mobile video terminal, and the final cumulative information of the fourth step is included in a release message for the call. Characterized in that it is received from a mobile video terminal.

In addition, when the calling / calling mobile video terminal is a mobile video telephone on both sides, the terminal performing the second to fourth steps is designated as a calling mobile video terminal, and the calling mobile video terminal is a personal computer and the called mobile video is called. When the terminal is a mobile video telephone, the terminal performing the second to fourth steps is preferably specified as the incoming mobile video terminal.

Hereinafter, a charging method of a packet mobile video telephone service according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram showing an example of a packet-based communication system for a H.323 mobile video telephone service to which the method of the present invention is applied, and is a mobile video terminal 10 having a video camera attached thereto and capable of making and receiving video calls. 11); Base stations 14 and 16 which communicate with the mobile video terminals 10 and 11 by using radio sections; Base station controllers 18 and 20 for performing R-P interface processing, packet subscriber state management (active, dormant), packet service connection with a wireless network, and interworking with a data network; The address is dynamically allocated to the mobile video terminals 10 and 11 connected with the plurality of Internet protocol address resources, and the PPP connection processing with the mobile video terminals 10 and 11, visited subscriber management, and the movement. Packet data serving nodes (hereinafter referred to as PDSNs) 22 and 24 which perform outgoing / receiving packet data transfer functions of the video terminals 10 and 11; A Home Agent (HA) 26 that provides the functionality of the Mobile Internet Protocol (Mobile IP); It is additionally installed in the mobile telephone network 100 capable of transmitting packet data, and processes an originating call of the video mobile terminals 10 and 11 and passes all call processing signal messages, and the mobile video terminal 10 and 11. A gatekeeper 28 that manages information and status of subscribers using and performs authentication and charging based on the subscriber information; An element management system (EMS) 30 for accessing the gatekeeper 28 and other additional equipment to perform failure, performance, configuration, accounting, and security management functions of the corresponding equipment; A billing information management system (BDS) 32 which receives and manages billing information from the gatekeeper 28 via the element management system 30; A customer information management system connected to the element management system 30 and managing information (e.g., subscriber number (telephone number, ID), mobile internet protocol address, etc.) of video telephone service subscribers from the gatekeeper 28 ( CDS) 34; And a network management system (NMS) 36.

For reference, FIG. 1 illustrates a synchronous CDMA2000 / 1x EV-DO network as an example. In the case of an asynchronous WCDMA network, SGSN and GGSN are configured in place of the PDSNs 22 and 24. The function of the HA 26 may be included in the WCDMA network for interworking between heterogeneous networks.

Next, the operation of FIG. 1 will be described in terms of helping to understand the new network component and the method of the present invention, but the description of some of the same known parts (for example, the description of the general functions of the base station, the base station controller, and the PDSN). ) To be omitted.

The gatekeeper 28 is a network element that supports video telephone call processing and subscriber database and state management functions, authentication and billing generation as described above, and signaling messages for all video telephone call processing are always Via element 28.

After the video telephone call is connected between the terminals 10 and 11, only the signal messages periodically checking the state of the terminal are the base station 14, 16, the base station controller 18, 20 and the PDSN 22, The terminal 10, 11 and the gatekeeper 28 communicate with each other via 24, and actual data traffic including voice and / or video is transmitted to the base station 14, 16 and the base station controller 18. (20), the PDSN (22, 24), and the HA (26) via the terminal 10, 11 will be in direct communication with each other.

The PDSN (22, 24) (or SGSN, GGSN in the case of WCDMA network) as a system for transmitting data traffic during the call between the terminals (10, 11) counts the amount of packets transmitted in both directions via them. The PDSN (22, 24) generates packet charging information including information on the amount of packets transmitted so far periodically and at the time of call disconnection, and the generated packet charging information in the network 100 Transfer to billing system (not shown). The billing system receives and processes the packet billing information to settle the packet billing for each subscriber.

When a call is terminated, an associated signaling message is sent to the gatekeeper 28, which also generates charging information. However, since the existing H.323 standard includes information on the start time and end time of the call in the billing information, the gatekeeper 28 cannot know the information on the amount of packets used. Therefore, the billing system must perform billing settlement by mixing the billing information collected from the gatekeeper 28 and the billing information collected from the PDSNs 22 and 24. impossible. The reason is that if the time information of each of the corresponding systems must match, and even if they match, if the terminal also uses the video phone service while using the other data service, the packet charging information provided from the PDSN (22, 24) is This is because separate billing information only for the videophone service cannot be processed and separated because it contains a packet amount including both of the above services. In addition, generating packet billing in PDSN generates billing information periodically from the time after session is connected (that is, when Mobile IP is registered after power-on) to the end (Mobile IP release), so within the period This is because, in the case of using a video telephone after using another data service in sequence, charging information such as PDSN is mixed with packet quantity information of two services.

Therefore, the present invention implements a new billing method to enable billing for videophone services only, as well as to enable billing for each service if it is applied, which will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. .

Fig. 2 shows a basic call processing flow diagram that precedes the execution of the charging method of the packet mobile video telephone service (see Fig. 3) according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, the gatekeeper 28 registers a video call registration request message including a wireless IP (ie, a simple IP or a mobile IP) address assigned to itself from the mobile video terminals 10 and 11. Receive RRQ) (S201, S202), and after registering it, a registration confirmation message (Registration Confirm: RCF) corresponding to the RRQ is sent to the mobile video terminals 10 and 11, respectively, and responds (S203, S204).

In the state registered as described above, when a mobile request terminal (Admission Request: ARQ) is sent from the mobile image terminal 10 to the mobile image terminal 11 and is received by the gatekeeper 28 ( S211), the gatekeeper 28 responds by sending an Admission Confirm (ACF) corresponding to the ARQ to the mobile video terminal 10, and at this time, the registered mobile video terminal 11 in the ACF message. The wireless internet protocol address of) is included (S212).

The mobile video terminal 10 sends a call setup message to the mobile video terminal 11 through the gatekeeper 28 (S213), and thus the mobile video terminal 11 transmits the gate. After sending a Call Proceeding message to the mobile video terminal 10 through the keeper 28 (S214), an ARQ message is sent to the gatekeeper 28 (S215), and the gatekeeper 28 is transmitted. ) Responds to the ARQ message with an ACF message (S216).

The mobile image terminal 11 transmits an alerting message to the mobile image terminal 10 via the gatekeeper 28 (S217), and then the mobile image via the gatekeeper 28. A connection message is sent to the terminal 10 (S218).

As a result of the above process, the mobile video terminal 10 forms a call path to the mobile video terminal 11 via an originating PDSN 22, a home agent (HA) and a destination PDSN (24). (S221), the mobile video terminal 11 forms a call path to the mobile video terminal 10 via the called PDSN 24, the calling home agent, and the calling PDSN 22 (S222).

3 is a flowchart illustrating a charging method of a packet mobile video telephone service according to an embodiment of the present invention, which illustrates a process after a call connection is made between the mobile video terminals 10 and 11 by performing the process of FIG. 2. In the process of communicating between the gatekeeper 28 and the mobile video terminal 10 via the PDSN 22, the base station controller 18, and the base station 11, which are intermediary nodes between the 28 and 10, respectively. Description is general and should be omitted.

First, after the video telephone call is connected between the mobile video terminals 10 and 11 by performing the process of FIG. 2, the gatekeeper 28 sends an information request message (H.323 based message) to the calling mobile terminal 10 side. Information ReQuest: IRQ) is sent (S301).

In response to the IRQ, the calling mobile video terminal 10 receives the H.323-based Information Request Response (hereinafter referred to as IRR) to the gatekeeper 28 to selectively select the IRR message. In the optional parameter part, the number of packets transmitted / received to the incoming mobile video terminal 11 (ie, the cumulative packet amount from the beginning of the call) is sent to the present time (S302).

In step S302, packet amount information is contained in a field defined as an optional parameter of an IRR message in the H.323 standard.

As in the step S301 and the step S302, the transfer of the IRQ message and the IRR message is a call between the mobile video terminals 10 and 11 according to a time period preset by an operator's input to the gatekeeper 28. During the repetition (S303), the gatekeeper 28 generates temporary charging information for each repetition (S304).

In step S304, the temporary charging information is also filled in with the number of packets transmitted and received, respectively, in a field defined as an optional parameter in the H.323 standard.

The temporary billing information is periodically generated as described above in order to generate billing information on the amount of packets used up to that time even in an abnormally terminated call. When it is recognized that the video telephone call between the mobile video terminals 10 and 11 is abnormally terminated, the temporary billing information generated until the abnormal termination is transmitted to the charging system 300 to settle the billing (S305).

When the video telephone call between the mobile video terminals 10 and 11 is normally completed, the calling mobile video terminal 10 finally checks the number of packets transmitted / received by itself (that is, the accumulated packet amount from the start of the call to the end). The calculated packet amount is included in a call release message and transmitted to the gatekeeper 28 (S306), and the gatekeeper 28 generates final charging information based on this (S307). When the calling mobile video terminal terminates abnormally, or when the called mobile video terminal releases the call or when the called mobile video terminal first releases the call, the called mobile video terminal sends a call release message. You have to send it. In this case, the gatekeeper generates final charging information based on this information.

When the final charging information is generated, the gatekeeper 28 transfers the accumulated charging amount and the start and end time of the call corresponding to the final charging information to the charging system 300 (S308).

The billing system 300 performs billing settlement for the videophone call based on the final billing information received from the gatekeeper 28 in step S308, wherein either one of the corresponding PDSNs 22 or 28 or 22 is used. (Or, in case of WCDMA network, SGSN or GGSN, the packet charge settlement result delivered through the corresponding SGSN or GGSN), i.e., the packet amount of the last billing information received in step S308 is deleted from all the packet passes through the corresponding PDSN 22. As a result, it is possible to perform differential charging for other data services different from the video call based on the remaining packet amount, and based on the talk time based on the video call time information included in the final billing information. One bill can be settled, which may be selected by the network operator according to the situation (S309).

In addition, the process of deleting the packet amount corresponding to the video call from the packet billing information content received from the PDSN (or SGSN, GGSN) in the billing system can be implemented in other ways. That is, when the mobile video terminal registers Mobile IP after power-on, it uses a specific network access identifier (NAI) and uses another data service such as WAP. When using a separate NAI, PDSN and the like generate packet charging information for each NAI, and the charging system unconditionally deletes the charging information entered into the NAI for video telephony, and differential charging with the charging information received through the gatekeeper. Can be performed. By using separate NAI for each service, it can be utilized in the network for various purposes as well as the charging function. However, whether or not the terminal should terminate the session connected to the existing NAI at the moment when the NAI is changed may be determined based on performance of the terminal and capacity related to the session of the network operator.

In addition, since the PDSN 22, 24 calculates the packet amount based on the Internet protocol packet, the mobile image terminal 10, 11 also calculates the packet number based on the Internet Protocol layer. The information calculated in bytes should be sent in the IRR message or the call release message. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the network operator may select a layer that calculates the number of packets according to the situation.

In addition, among the types of call processing, in the case of a video call between mobile video phones, the gatekeeper 28 exchanges IRQ messages and IRR messages only with the calling mobile video terminal 10 as in steps S301 and S302. In the case of a video call from a personal computer (PC) to a mobile video telephone, only a called mobile video terminal is exchanged. The reason for this is that in the case of two-way multimedia service, it is sufficient to calculate the number of outgoing packets and outgoing packets on only one of the calling party and the receiving party. When a personal computer makes a call, the function is based on the called party mobile videophone. This is because it is easy to implement.

As described in detail above, according to the charging method of the packet mobile video telephony service according to the present invention, when the packet-based video telephony service is implemented in the CDMA-2000 and 1x EV-DO or WCDMA (IMT-2000) networks, the billing for the packet mobile video telephony service is charged. The billing can be settled separately from the billing for other existing data services, and billing based on packet volume, billing based on talk time, and billing by mixing them can be selectively implemented. When implementing various multimedia services based on the data network, the effect of implementing the differential charging method for each service is created, and when implementing the various charging methods, there is an advantage that it is possible without changing the existing data network.

Claims (12)

In the next generation mobile communication network which performs data communication including packet based mobile video telephone service, A first step of connecting a call between an originating and called mobile video terminal based on a wireless IP address; Requesting, by a predetermined period, cumulative information on the amount of packets transmitted and received of a corresponding call to one of the called / incoming mobile video terminals connected to the call; A third step of temporarily generating first charging information based on the accumulated information received from the mobile video terminal as a result of the request; A fourth step of finally generating second billing information based on the last accumulated information transmitted from the corresponding mobile video terminal when the call is released; A fifth step of acquiring third charging information generated for a packet amount of traffic data passing through a corresponding switching node by using the originating / incoming mobile video terminal as an end point periodically and during the call release; And Based on the generated first charging information, the second charging information, and / or the obtained third charging information, performing charging for the corresponding call and charging for each subscriber and / or service for the traffic data; 6. A charging method for a packet mobile videophone service, comprising six steps. The method of claim 1, The request for the cumulative information of the second step is a charging method of a packet mobile video telephone service, characterized in that through the transmission of the information request message (Information Request: IRQ) based on H.323. The method of claim 1, The charging method of the packet mobile video telephone service, characterized in that the reception of the cumulative information of the third step is made through the reception of an information request response message (IRR) based on H.323. The method of claim 3, wherein And the cumulative information is carried in an Optional Parameter field of the IRR message. The method of claim 1, The charging method of the packet mobile video telephone service, characterized in that the reception of the final cumulative information of the fourth step is achieved by receiving a release message for the call. The method of claim 1, And the second charging information includes information on start and end time and packet usage of the call. The method of claim 1, And the switching node is PDSN, SGSN or GGSN. The method of claim 1, And the switching node calculates the amount of packets passing through itself based on Internet protocol packets. The method of claim 1, And the mobile video terminal calculates its transmission / reception packet amount based on an internet protocol layer. The method of claim 1, And the terminal performing the second to fourth steps is an outgoing mobile video terminal when the calling / incoming mobile video terminal is both a mobile video telephone. The method of claim 1, When the originating mobile video terminal is a personal computer and the terminating mobile video terminal is a mobile video telephone, the terminal performing the second to fourth steps is the incoming mobile video terminal; . The method of claim 1, And charging at the time of abnormal call termination between the originating and terminating mobile terminals, based on the temporary charging information of the third step.