GB2419256A - Acquiring data about the use of an apparatus to provide to a billing system. - Google Patents

Acquiring data about the use of an apparatus to provide to a billing system. Download PDF

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Publication number
GB2419256A
GB2419256A GB0422933A GB0422933A GB2419256A GB 2419256 A GB2419256 A GB 2419256A GB 0422933 A GB0422933 A GB 0422933A GB 0422933 A GB0422933 A GB 0422933A GB 2419256 A GB2419256 A GB 2419256A
Authority
GB
United Kingdom
Prior art keywords
data
data acquisition
network
acquisition means
telecommunications
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
GB0422933A
Other versions
GB0422933D0 (en
Inventor
Uwe Schmidtke
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Siemens AG
Original Assignee
Siemens AG
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Siemens AG filed Critical Siemens AG
Priority to GB0422933A priority Critical patent/GB2419256A/en
Publication of GB0422933D0 publication Critical patent/GB0422933D0/en
Priority to PCT/EP2005/010557 priority patent/WO2006040020A1/en
Publication of GB2419256A publication Critical patent/GB2419256A/en
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
    • H04L67/01—Protocols
    • H04L67/12—Protocols specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
    • H04L67/125—Protocols specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks involving control of end-device applications over a network
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L12/00—Data switching networks
    • H04L12/02—Details
    • H04L12/14—Charging, metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
    • H04M15/28—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP with meter at substation or with calculation of charges at terminal
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
    • H04M15/28—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP with meter at substation or with calculation of charges at terminal
    • H04M15/30—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP with meter at substation or with calculation of charges at terminal the meter or calculation of charges not being controlled from an exchange
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
    • H04M15/48—Secure or trusted billing, e.g. trusted elements or encryption
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
    • H04M15/56—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP for VoIP communications
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
    • H04M15/63—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP based on the content carried by the session initiation protocol [SIP] messages
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
    • H04M15/68—Payment of value-added services
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
    • H04M15/70—Administration or customization aspects; Counter-checking correct charges
    • H04M15/73—Validating charges
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
    • H04M15/82—Criteria or parameters used for performing billing operations
    • H04M15/8292—Charging for signaling or unsuccessful connection
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
    • H04L67/01—Protocols
    • H04L67/10—Protocols in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network
    • H04L67/104—Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L69/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass
    • H04L69/30—Definitions, standards or architectural aspects of layered protocol stacks
    • H04L69/32—Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
    • H04L69/322—Intralayer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions
    • H04L69/329—Intralayer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M2215/00—Metering arrangements; Time controlling arrangements; Time indicating arrangements
    • H04M2215/01—Details of billing arrangements
    • H04M2215/0156—Secure and trusted billing, e.g. trusted elements, encryption, digital signature, codes or double check mechanisms to secure billing calculation and information
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M2215/00—Metering arrangements; Time controlling arrangements; Time indicating arrangements
    • H04M2215/01—Details of billing arrangements
    • H04M2215/0196—Payment of value-added services, mainly when their charges are added on the telephone bill, e.g. payment of non-telecom services, e-commerce, on-line banking
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M2215/00—Metering arrangements; Time controlling arrangements; Time indicating arrangements
    • H04M2215/20—Technology dependant metering
    • H04M2215/202—VoIP; Packet switched telephony
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M2215/00—Metering arrangements; Time controlling arrangements; Time indicating arrangements
    • H04M2215/70—Administration aspects, modify settings or limits or counter-check correct charges
    • H04M2215/7072—Validate charges

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Computing Systems (AREA)
  • General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Medical Informatics (AREA)
  • Meter Arrangements (AREA)
  • Data Exchanges In Wide-Area Networks (AREA)
  • Telephonic Communication Services (AREA)

Abstract

Telecommunications apparatus such as a telephone is provided with a data acquisition application which acts as a data acquisition means. This records data concerned with the use made by the apparatus of the communication network to which it is connected. The data is transmitted to a billing server and use to generate a bill to the user. The present invention ensures that the data concerning a call connection may be acquired and provided to the billing system even though a central node does not control a call connection, i.e. in protocols such as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) operating on a peer-to-peer network topology wherein connections are not established by a central node and thus information concerning the connection is not available for the billing or accounting systems.

Description

24 1 9256 Telecommunications Apparatus This invention relates to
telecommunications apparatus for use Current communication networks have an hierarchical topology with central nodes responsible and involved in all processes including the establishment and de-establishment of connections between users. Thus, at the central nodes, data concerning the connection is available for billing systems to utilise to charge the user.
Newer communication protocols such as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Skype operate a peer-to-peer network topology.
In such topology connections are not established by a central node and thus information concerning the connection is not available for the billing or accounting systems.
According to the invention there is provided telecommunications apparatus, in use, connected to a telecommunications network for enabling communication to other apparatus connected to the network which telecommunications apparatus including data acquisition means to acquire data about the use of the apparatus and to provide the data to a billing system.
By providing data acquisition means at the apparatus the data concerning a call connection may be acquired and provided to the billing system even though a central node does not control a call connection.
In the described embodiment, the data acquisition means is a software module at the apparatus, which provides an interface to the network to enable announcement, data requests and security checks.
A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example only, with reference to the drawing in which: Figure 1 shows an embodiment of the invention with a number of items of telecommunication apparatus in accordance with the invention.
As is shown in Figure 1, a communications network 1 comprises an Internet Protocol Net 2, a billing server 3 connected to the Net 2, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) proxy 4 and a number of telecommunication devices.
The telecommunication devices include a personal computer 4 equipped with a SIP application, a SIP telephone 5, access network equipment 6 serving an analogue telephone 7, an analogue fax and an ISDN telephone 9.
In accordance with the invention, the telecommunications equipment 4, 5 and 6 are provided with a means to acquire usage - 2 data in the form of a Data Acquisition Application (DAA) 10, 11 and 12.
The DAA 10, 1 1, 12 is a software module which monitors use of the equipment and, in particular, the use made of the network when a connection is made to another user. Let us suppose that a user of the SIP enabled PC 4 wishes to communicate with a user of SIP telephone 5. A connection will be made 7 and after the conversation is finished the connection will be cleared down. The data describing this use e.g. time of day and duration of call is recorded by the DAA 11 and transmitted via the Net 2 to the billing server 3. The billing server 3 will charge the user.
In the case of the telephone 7, fax 8 or ISDN telephone 9 the call connection is made by the access network equipment 6 and the data recorded by DAA 10.
The data may be downloaded to the billing server 3 at the end of the connection or periodically throughout the connection.

Claims (7)

  1. Claims 1. Telecommunications apparatus, in use, connected to a
    telecommunications network for enabling communication to other apparatus connected to the network which apparatus including data acquisition means to acquire data about the use of the apparatus and to provide the data to a billing system.
  2. 2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the apparatus interacts with the network which has a peer-to-peer topology.
  3. 3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein the apparatus operates in accordance with the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).
  4. 4. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the data acquisition means comprises an interface to the network to enable announcement, data request or security check interactions with the network.
  5. 5. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the data acquisition means is located at a SIP User Agent.
  6. 6. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the data acquisition means comprises a software module.
  7. 7. Telecommunications Apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the drawings. - 4
GB0422933A 2004-10-15 2004-10-15 Acquiring data about the use of an apparatus to provide to a billing system. Withdrawn GB2419256A (en)

Priority Applications (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB0422933A GB2419256A (en) 2004-10-15 2004-10-15 Acquiring data about the use of an apparatus to provide to a billing system.
PCT/EP2005/010557 WO2006040020A1 (en) 2004-10-15 2005-09-30 Customer telecommunications apparatus providing billing information to network

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB0422933A GB2419256A (en) 2004-10-15 2004-10-15 Acquiring data about the use of an apparatus to provide to a billing system.

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
GB0422933D0 GB0422933D0 (en) 2004-11-17
GB2419256A true GB2419256A (en) 2006-04-19

Family

ID=33462781

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
GB0422933A Withdrawn GB2419256A (en) 2004-10-15 2004-10-15 Acquiring data about the use of an apparatus to provide to a billing system.

Country Status (2)

Country Link
GB (1) GB2419256A (en)
WO (1) WO2006040020A1 (en)

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2008008961A2 (en) * 2006-07-13 2008-01-17 Motorola Inc. Method and apparatus for charging in peer-to-peer networks
WO2009118687A1 (en) * 2008-03-28 2009-10-01 Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (Publ) Systems and methods for querying status of peer-to-peer multimedia connections in communication systems

Citations (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2002075504A2 (en) * 2001-03-20 2002-09-26 Worldcom, Inc. A method for billing in a telecommunications network
WO2003053037A1 (en) * 2001-12-17 2003-06-26 Worldcom, Inc. Call charging notification
GB2384646A (en) * 2002-01-28 2003-07-30 British Telecomm Monitoring of network usage
WO2003079622A1 (en) * 2002-03-12 2003-09-25 Worldcom, Inc. Policy control and billing support for call transfer in a session initiation protocol (sip) network
WO2004008687A1 (en) * 2002-07-12 2004-01-22 Comptel Oyj Method, means, and computer program product for controlling and/or restricting use of telecommunications connection

Family Cites Families (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO1999065185A2 (en) * 1998-06-05 1999-12-16 British Telecommunications Public Limited Company Communications network with tariff based on network load
KR100826463B1 (en) * 2000-07-21 2008-05-02 텔레맥 코포레이션 A method and system for data rating for wireless devices
US20030027549A1 (en) * 2001-07-30 2003-02-06 Msafe Inc. Prepaid communication system and method

Patent Citations (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2002075504A2 (en) * 2001-03-20 2002-09-26 Worldcom, Inc. A method for billing in a telecommunications network
WO2003053037A1 (en) * 2001-12-17 2003-06-26 Worldcom, Inc. Call charging notification
GB2384646A (en) * 2002-01-28 2003-07-30 British Telecomm Monitoring of network usage
WO2003079622A1 (en) * 2002-03-12 2003-09-25 Worldcom, Inc. Policy control and billing support for call transfer in a session initiation protocol (sip) network
WO2004008687A1 (en) * 2002-07-12 2004-01-22 Comptel Oyj Method, means, and computer program product for controlling and/or restricting use of telecommunications connection

Cited By (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2008008961A2 (en) * 2006-07-13 2008-01-17 Motorola Inc. Method and apparatus for charging in peer-to-peer networks
WO2008008961A3 (en) * 2006-07-13 2008-04-03 Motorola Inc Method and apparatus for charging in peer-to-peer networks
US7680482B2 (en) 2006-07-13 2010-03-16 Motorola, Inc. Method and apparatus for session tracing and session logging in a peer-to-peer communication environment
WO2009118687A1 (en) * 2008-03-28 2009-10-01 Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (Publ) Systems and methods for querying status of peer-to-peer multimedia connections in communication systems

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
GB0422933D0 (en) 2004-11-17
WO2006040020A1 (en) 2006-04-20

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Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
WAP Application withdrawn, taken to be withdrawn or refused ** after publication under section 16(1)