JP3516595B2 - Charge collection method, apparatus and communication system - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a bill collection method, bill collection device, and communication system in a server that delivers data to a client.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a packet-switched network, when transferring pay data from a server to a client, a method for charging according to the amount of data transferred without charging a packet that has not arrived There is a charging method based on this.

An example of a conventional charging method based on such a confirmation response is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-142245. In this publication, as shown in FIG. 15, the charging system in this conventional packet switching network is composed of a terminal 1, a terminal 2, a packet switching station 3, a packet switching station 4, a charging counter 5, and a retransmission waiting queue 6. Has been done. The charging method in the packet switching network having such a configuration operates as follows.

That is, when the data packet 8 output from the terminal 1 is received by the packet switching station 4 via the packet switching station 3, the packet switching station 4 sends an acknowledgment packet 9 to the packet switching station 3. . Upon receiving the confirmation response packet 9, the packet switching center 3 deletes the data packet 8 held from the retransmission waiting queue 6 and adds the charge corresponding to the information amount of the data packet 8 to the charge counter 5. In this way, the packet switching center 3 which performs the charging calculation when receiving the packet 9 of the confirmation response executes the charging calculation and collects the charging according to the transmitted data packet from the terminal 2.

[0005]

However, the above-mentioned prior art has the following problems. The problem is that when the terminal 2 receives the data packet 8 and the packet switching center 4 does not send the acknowledgment packet 9,
It is possible that the charging counter is not incremented in the packet switching station 3 while the terminal 2 is receiving the data. The reason is that the data has already reached the terminal 2 before the charging counter addition for the transmission of the acknowledgment packet 9 by the packet switching station 4.

[0006] That is, when the charging is simply based on the confirmation response from the client which is the terminal 2 which is the data receiving terminal, the client does not send the confirmation delivery, and therefore the client is not charged while receiving the data. It became possible and there was a problem that the charging side could not properly take the charge.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides
The problem is that the server that transmitted the data packet can accurately charge between the server and the client.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a method of sending from a server.
The client that receives the data to be transmitted receives the data
A response is sent back to the server with an acknowledgment signal indicating that it has been received.
In the communication method, the server charges the data.
If the data is, after encrypting the data
When sending to the client and receiving the acknowledgment signal
The decryption key for decrypting the data to the client
To the billing storage means and send it to the
Of the data that is not charged
In that case, identify that the data is not billable
The feature is that the child is attached and transmitted to the client.

Further, in the above bill collection method, the client stores the billing target data from the server in the undecrypted data storage means, and then sends the confirmation response signal to the server to decrypt the decryption key. Is received and the data to be charged stored in the undecrypted data storage means is decrypted.

Further, in the above bill collection method, the server encrypts the data to be billed to the client with an encryption key and transmits the encrypted data to the client, receives the confirmation response signal, and receives the confirmation response signal from the billing target. A billing operation is performed based on the data, stored in the storage unit, and the decryption key is transmitted to the client.

Further, according to the present invention, in a billing device for transmitting encrypted billing target data from a server to a client, the client receiving the billing target data sends a confirmation response to the server through the first layer of the OSI reference model. Response signal sending means for sending a signal, a billing calculation processing unit for billing calculation processing based on the billing target data in the server receiving the confirmation response signal, and to the client in the server receiving the confirmation response signal And a decryption key transmitting unit for transmitting a decryption key for decrypting the billing target data.

Further, the present invention is directed to transmitting data.
Means and the data sent by the sending means
Cryptography that encrypts billable data with an encryption key
Encryption means and data encrypted by the encryption means
Decryption key transmitting means for transmitting a decryption key for decrypting
And billing for data encrypted by the encryption means
A server having a billing calculation means for performing calculation, and the above-mentioned encryption
Undecrypted data storage that stores data encrypted by encryption means
Storage means and the data transmitted by the transmission means.
Sending a response signal that returns a confirmation response signal indicating that it has received
Means and the recovery key transmitted by the decryption key transmission means.
Stored in the undecrypted data storage means based on the encryption key.
And a decoding means for decoding the stored data.
Client and the data is billed to the server.
In the case of data that is an elephant, the data is
It is encrypted by the dan and sent to the client,
When the confirmation response signal is received, the decryption key transmission means
Therefore, the decryption key that decrypts the data is
Send to Ant and charge by the charge calculation means
Calculate and store the information to that effect in the charge storage means, and
If the data is data that is not subject to billing, add the above identifier
Indicates that the data is not subject to billing by additional means
Characterized by sending an identifier to the client
It

Further, according to the present invention, when paying data is transferred from the server side to the client side, in order to prevent the client side from handing over the data to the application before performing the charging process on the server side, the encrypted data is transferred. Is sent, and after the billing process based on the confirmation response sent from the client side is completed, the billing method by the transport protocol method that realizes proper billing process by notifying the key for decryption, Billing device,
It is a communication system.

Further, the present invention will be specifically described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 1, 1 is a data transmitting side and 2 is a data receiving side. Further, in the data transmission side 1, 10 is an application program on the server side for transmitting data. Further, 11 is a transport protocol on the server side. A physical layer 12 on the server side may be a LAN such as wireless communication or Ethernet, or a public telephone network. Further, 13 is a means for accumulating billing information.

On the data receiving side 2, 20 is a client side application program for receiving data. Reference numeral 21 is a transport protocol on the client side. 22 is a physical layer on the client side.

Under such a configuration, a sequence for transmitting data from the server side 1 to the client side 2 is shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, when data is transmitted from the server-side transport protocol 11 to the client-side transport protocol 21, as shown in A, B, and C of FIG. 2, the data is encrypted using a certain encryption key (encoded). Data) and sends the encrypted data to the client side transport protocol 21.

The server side transport protocol 11 is the client side transport protocol 21.
When the confirmation response (Ack (1,2,3), D in FIG. 2) is received from
The server-side transport protocol 11 writes the billing information (Bill (1,2,3), F in FIG. 2) for the data of the transmitted packets A, B, C into the billing information storage means 13. Then, the server side transport protocol 11
Sends a key (Key, E in FIG. 2) for decrypting the data of the packets A, B, C encrypted and transmitted to the client side transport protocol 21. Upon receiving the key, the client-side transport protocol 21 decrypts the data of packets A, B, and C (Data (1,2,3)) based on the key, and decrypts the decrypted data to the client-side application program. 20 (G in FIG. 2).

As described above, since the server side transport protocol 11 performs the charging process based on the confirmation response sent from the client side transport protocol 21, even if the same data is sent by resending, There is no heavy charge.

Further, the client side transport protocol 21 cannot pass the data to the client side application 20 unless the accounting process is performed in the server side transport protocol 11.
It is possible to avoid a situation in which the data received by the client side application program 20 can be obtained before the server side performs the charging process.

[0020]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described.
A detailed description will be given with reference to the drawings.

[First Embodiment] (Configuration of this Embodiment) Referring to FIG. 1, in this embodiment, a server side 1 for transmitting data, a client side 2 for receiving data, and a server 1 and a client 2 are provided. It comprises a communication medium 3 for transferring data between them. The server side 1 and the client side 2 are an OS consisting of 7 layers used as a standard of a communication protocol.
TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol) based on the I (Open Systems Interconnection) reference model
Internet Protocol) may be a more efficient protocol or another protocol, and is not limited to these. The first OSI reference model
The physical layer of the layer, the data link layer of the second layer, the network layer of the third layer, the transport layer of the fourth layer, ... The application layer of the seventh layer, etc.,
The packet switching station is composed of the first to third layers.

The communication medium 3 may be 10BASE-T or 100BASE-TX by Ethernet, LAN using Token-ring, wireless communication, or optical fiber communication. It may be via a public line and is not limited to these.

Next, the server side 1 has a server side application program 10, a server side transport protocol 11, a server side physical layer 12, and a billing information storage means 1.
It consists of 3. The client side 2 includes a client side application program 20, a client side transport protocol 21, and a client side physical layer 22.

The server-side physical layer 12 and the client-side physical layer 22 are hardware / software for communicating with each other using the communication medium 3, and Ethernet, wireless communication and the like correspond thereto. Next, the server side transport protocol 11 and the client side transport protocol 21 guarantee mutual reliable data when data communication is performed using the respective physical layers 12 and 22. is there. The server-side application program 10 is an application that uses the server-side transport protocol 11 to send some data to the client-side application program 20, and the client-side application program 20 is sent from the server-side application program 10. It is an application that receives incoming data using the client side transport protocol 21.

Next, FIG. 3 shows the processing procedure of the server side transport protocol 11 in detail. The server-side transport protocol 11 includes transmission data storage means 110, encryption key generation means 111, and encryption means 1.
12, a decryption key storage means 113, a server side packet generation means 114, and a server side received packet interpretation means 115.

The transmission data storage means 110 temporarily stores the data requested by the server-side application program 10 to be transmitted to the client-side application 20. The encryption key generating means 111 is a means for generating a key for encrypting data and a key for decrypting data. Encryption means 1
Reference numeral 12 is for encrypting a part of the data in the transmission data storage means 110 based on the key received from the encryption key generation means 111. The encryption method here is
Any encryption algorithm may be used as long as it cannot be easily decrypted unless the key is received. For example, there are public key cryptosystems and secret key cryptosystems, and DES (Data Encryption Stabda) as one of the secret key cryptosystems is available.
rd) system, USA RSA system, FEAL system, etc. may be used.

The decryption key storage means 113 is an identifier (for example, T for identifying each encrypted data).
(Corresponding to the sequence number of the CP) and the key pair necessary for decrypting it are temporarily stored. The server-side packet generation means 114 generates a packet to be transmitted to the client-side transport protocol 21 based on the requests from the server-side application program 10 and the server-side received packet interpretation means 115, and sends it to the server-side physical layer 12. hand over. The server side reception packet interpreting means 115 receives the packet from the client side transport protocol 21 through the server side physical layer 12, interprets what the packet is, and what packet should be transmitted next. If there is a packet to be sent, the server side packet generating means 114 is requested to send the packet.

Further, the server side received packet interpreting means 11
If the billing information is generated as a result of the interpretation in step 5, the information is stored in the billing information storage means 13.

Next, FIG. 4 shows the processing procedure of the client side transport protocol 21 in detail. The client side transport protocol 21 is
Client side received packet interpretation means 210, undecoded data storage means 211, decryption means 212, client side packet generation means 213, received data storage means 214.
Composed of.

Here, the client side received packet interpreting means 210 uses the server side transport protocol 11
Interprets the packet received from the client through the client side physical layer 22, and then the server side transport protocol 1
Determine what the packet should be sent to 1,
If there is a packet to be sent, the client side packet sending means 213 is requested to send the packet. If the encrypted data is received, the encrypted data is sent to the undecrypted data storage means 211. When the encryption key is received from the server side transport protocol 11, the key is sent to the decryption means 212. The undecoded data storage unit 211 temporarily stores the undecoded data requested by the client-side received packet interpretation unit 210.

When the decryption means 212 receives the decryption key from the client-side received packet interpretation means 210, the decryption means 212 retrieves data that can be decrypted by the decrypted data storage means 211, decrypts the data, and stores the received data. Send to means 214. Received data storage means 214
Stores the decrypted data temporarily and stores it until it is read from the client side application program 20. The client-side application program 20 executes the application program using the decrypted data from the reception data storage means 214, and carries out a predetermined task.

(Description of Operation of this Embodiment) Next, the overall operation of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the sequence diagrams 5 and FIGS. 3 and 4.

First, it is assumed that the server side application program 10 requests the server side transport protocol 11 to transmit data, as shown in A (Data) of FIG. Then, those data are temporarily stored in the transmission data storage means 110 of FIG. Then, when the server-side packet generation means 114 transmits the requested data as a packet, the encryption means 112 reads from the transmission data storage means 110 the packet size to be transmitted, and the encryption key generation means 111 generates it. Encrypt using the encrypted key that was created. Then, the encryption means 112
Causes the decryption key storage means 113 to store a pair of an identifier representing the encrypted data and a key necessary to decrypt the data. These operations are performed during B in FIG. Then, the packet in which only the data part is encrypted is transmitted as shown in C (encoded Data (1)) of FIG.

Then, the remaining data (corresponding to E (encoded Data (2)) and G (encoded Data (3)) in the example of FIG. 5) are similarly encrypted and transmitted. At this time, it is not necessary to use a different key for each packet for encryption, and the same encryption key is used for a certain appropriate data size (for example, TCP window size or data size of billing unit). It may be encrypted (in this example, the data of the packets C, E, and G are encrypted with the same encryption key).

Next, the client side will be described.
When the client side receives the data C (encodedData (1)), it is the encrypted data transmitted from the server side by the client side received packet interpreting means 210 during D of FIG. Recognizing that, the encrypted data and its identifier are stored in the undecrypted data storage means 211. After that, E (encoded Data (2)), G (enco
Similarly for ded Data (3)),
The undecoded data storage means 21 is provided between F and H in FIG. 5, respectively.
Store in 1.

Then, the client side sends an acknowledgment to the server side at some point in order to guarantee the reliability of the data, but in this example, after the client side receives the data packet G (encoded Data (3)). The confirmation response is returned at time point H. At this point, the client-side transport protocol 21 does not have a key for decrypting the data received so far, so the data cannot be passed to the client-side application at this point.

The server side reception packet interpreting means 115 which has received the confirmation response through the server side physical layer 12 knows from the confirmation response that the client side transport protocol 21 has received the data packets C, E and G. You can Therefore, the server side received packet interpreting means 115 charges the charging information accumulating means 13 for the data sent in the packets C, E, G as shown by K (Bill (1,2,3)) in FIG. Write information.

Then, the server side received packet interpretation means 1
Reference numeral 15 denotes a client side transport protocol 2 for a key for decrypting the data transmitted in the packets C, E and G to the server side packet generation means 114.
Request 1 to send. Upon receipt of the request, the server side packet generation means 114, the decryption key storage means 113
The corresponding decryption key is read from the key, and the key information is transmitted to the client-side transport protocol 21 as a pair of the key and the identifier of the data that can be decrypted by the key, as indicated by L (key) in FIG. At this time, if there is data to be transmitted next, the key may be piggybacked on the encrypted packet of the data. The above operation is performed during J in FIG.

Next, the packet containing the key indicated by L (key) in FIG. 5 is sent to the client side received packet interpreting means 210 through the client side physical layer 22. The client-side received packet interpretation unit 210 sends the key included in the received packet to the decryption unit 212. The decryption unit 212 refers to the valid data identifier of the key, reads the data from the undecrypted data storage unit 211, decrypts the data, and writes the decrypted data to the reception data storage unit 214. Received data storage means 21
By writing the data in 4, the N (Dat
As indicated by a (1,2,3)), the client side application program 20 can read the received data. The above operation is performed during M.

Although one cycle of data transmission is shown above, data is transmitted by repeating this cycle.

In the above embodiment, although the connection of the communication path of the networking by the communication protocol is not described, it is assumed that the communication path is established before the data A is transmitted from the server side application. ing.

Further, it is assumed that the storage capacity of the undecrypted data storage means 211, the transmission data storage means 110, the decryption key storage means 113, the reception data storage means 214, the billing information storage means and the like is sufficient. As described above, for example, when the storage capacity of the undecrypted data storage unit 211 is insufficient, the confirmation response I and the encryption key L are transmitted and received so that the accounting can be calculated at the time when a packet of an appropriate capacity is transmitted in advance. It is something to do.

Further, in the present embodiment, if the encryption key and the decryption key are defined in a unified manner between the server and the specific client, the billing process is simple, but the confidentiality and certainty Since the serviceability such as security is lacking, it is preferable to change the encryption key and the decryption key each time data is transmitted and received. In that case, the DES (data enc
Ryption standard type ECB (electro codeboo)
k) mode, CBC (ciper block chaining) mode,
CFB (cipher feedback) mode, OFB (output fe
In any of the edback) modes, FEAL (fast encrypt)
Ion algorithm) method and asymmetric encryption method RAS
(Rivest, Shamir, Adleman) method, ElGama
Any of the l) method, the Rabin method, the knapsack encryption method, etc. may be used, and it may be determined based on confidentiality, security, serviceability, and the like. Then, in response to the encryption key for encrypting the transmission data from the server 1, the client side 2 uses the received decryption key to decrypt the decryption means 212.
The undecoded data stored in advance according to the decoding program inside is decoded, and stored in the received data storage means 214,
Operates according to the application program.

[Second Embodiment] In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, when an attempt is made to encrypt certain data and send the data, there is a packet of previous data that has not yet been acknowledged. In that case, the data is encrypted with the encryption key corresponding to the decryption key that enables the decryption.

For example, the data of A in FIG. 6 is transmitted to the server side transport protocol 11, and the packet B (D
ata (1) encoded by key (x)), C (Data (2) encoded by k
ey (x)) is the client side transport protocol 21
Sent to. At time D in FIG. 6, packet B
(Data (1) encoded by key (x)), C (Data (2) encoded by
Since the confirmation response to the data of key (x)) has not been received, the packet E (Data (3) encoded b) to be transmitted next is sent there.
The data of y key (x ')) and F (Data (4) encoded by key (x')) are encrypted with the key x'which is different from the encrypted key x of the data of packets B and C. Is decrypted with an encryption key x'that can decrypt the data of the packets B, C, E, F with the same single decryption key y '.

Then, as shown in the sequence diagram of FIG. 7, when the server side needs to transmit a plurality of keys to the client side and all the keys cannot be transmitted in one packet, this implementation is performed. Using the morphological method, it is possible to deal with one decryption key y ′ and avoid sending the key in multiple packets.

The existence of an encryption key that achieves such an encryption key x, x'and a decryption key y'is not publicly known, but corresponds to, for example, the decryption key y'by an encryption technique. By setting the upper bits of the number of bits as the encryption key x and the lower bits of the number of bits as the encryption key x ′,
The purpose of the embodiment can be executed.

[Third Embodiment] A third embodiment of the present invention will be described. Referring to FIG. 8, a server-side charging unit 14 is added above the server-side transport protocol 15, and a client-side charging unit 23 is newly added above the client-side transport-side protocol 24. The same parts as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals, and duplicate explanations are omitted.

In this case, the server side transport protocol 15 and the client side transport protocol 2
The protocol of 4 may be any transport protocol such as TCP as long as it guarantees the reliability of data communication.

At this time, FIG. 9 shows a detailed view of the server side charging means 14 and FIG. 10 shows a detailed view of the client side charging means 23. Referring to FIG. 9, the server side charging means 14 is
Transmission data storage means 140, encryption key generation means 14
1, an encryption unit 142, a decryption key storage unit 143, a server side packet generation unit 144, and a server side reception packet unit 145.

The client side charging means 23 includes the client side received packet interpretation means 230, the undecoded data storage means 231, the decoding means 232, the client side packet generation means 233 and the received data storage means 2.
It is composed of 34.

Next, the overall operation of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the sequence diagram of FIG. 11 and FIGS. 9 and 10.

First, as shown in A (Data) of FIG. 11, it is assumed that the server side application program 10 requests the server side charging means 14 to transmit data. Then,
Those data are temporarily stored in the transmission data storage means 140 of FIG. Then, when the server side packet generation means 144 transmits the requested data as a packet, the encryption means 142 reads the transmission data size portion from the transmission data storage means 140 and generates it by the encryption key generation means 141. Encrypt using the encrypted key that was created. Then, the encryption means 142 stores in the decryption key storage means 143 a pair of an identifier representing this encrypted data and a key necessary to decrypt this data. These operations are performed during B in FIG.

Then, the packet in which only the data part is encrypted is transmitted as shown in C (encoded Data (1)) of FIG. Then, the remaining data (E in the example of FIG. 11)
Similarly, (encoded Data (2)) and G (corresponding to encoded Data (3)) are encrypted and transmitted. At this time, it is not necessary to use a different key for each packet for encryption, and the same encryption key is used for a certain appropriate data size (for example, TCP window size or data size of billing unit). It may be encrypted. In this example, FIG.
Packet C (encoded Data (1)), E (encoded Data (1))
(2)), G (encoded Data (3)) data is encrypted with the same encryption key.

Next, the client side will be described.
When the client side receives the packet C (encoded Data (1)), during the period D in FIG. 11, the client side received packet interpreting means 230 firstly uses the encrypted data transmitted from the server side. Interpret / recognize that there is, and store the encrypted data C and its identifier in the undecrypted data storage means 231. Thereafter, similarly for E and G, the encrypted data and its identifier are stored in the undecrypted data storage means 231 between F and H of FIG. 11, respectively. Then, the client side received packet interpretation means 2
30 requests a decryption key to decrypt the data received so far at some point. In this example, FIG.
From the point of H of 1, a key request is transmitted to the server side transport layer protocol 15 by I (Key Request (1,2,3)).

The server side reception packet interpreting means 145 which receives this key request through the server side transport protocol 15 indicates that the client side charging means 23 has received the data packets C, E and G by the key request. I can know. Therefore, the server side received packet interpreting means 145 instructs the charging information accumulating means 16 to send the packet C, as shown by K (Bill (1,2,3)) in FIG.
Write charging information for the data sent by E and G. Then, the server side received packet interpreting means 145 instructs the server side packet generating means 144 to send the packet C,
The client-side charging means 24 is requested to transmit a key for decrypting the data transmitted by E and G. The server-side packet generation means 144 that has received the request
The corresponding decryption key is read out from the decryption key storage means 143, and the key information thereof is sent to the client side charging means 23 as shown in L of FIG. To do.

At this time, if there is data to be transmitted next, the key may be piggybacked on the encrypted packet of the data. The above operation is performed during J in FIG.

Next, the packet containing the key indicated by L (key) in FIG. 11 is sent to the client side received packet interpreting means 230 through the client side transport protocol 24. The client-side received packet interpretation unit 230 sends the key included in the received packet to the decryption unit 232. The decryption unit 232 refers to the valid data identifier of the key, reads the data from the undecrypted data storage unit 231, decrypts the data, and writes the decrypted data to the reception data storage unit 234. By writing the data in the received data storage unit 234, the client side application program 20 can read the received data, as indicated by N (Data (1,2,3)) in FIG. The above operation is performed during M.

Although one cycle of data transmission is shown above, data is transmitted by repeating this cycle.

In the present embodiment, it is possible to provide a mechanism in which an existing transport protocol such as TCP can be used to reliably charge according to the amount of data. In addition, since the reliability of data communication is guaranteed by the server-side billing means, the server-side transport protocol and the client-side transport protocol that are subordinate to the client-side billing means, the key retransmission due to the loss of the key transmission packet, etc. Need not be taken into account, and the protocol for charging becomes simple.

[Fourth Embodiment] A fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described. Referring to FIG. 12, the configuration of this figure is the same as that of FIG. 3, but a means for the server-side packet generation means 114 to receive data directly from the transmission data 110 is newly added. Further, referring to FIG. 13, although the configuration of this figure is the same as that of FIG. 4, the client side reception packet interpreting means 210 has the reception data storing means 21.
A new method for directly writing to 4 has been added. In addition,
The same parts as those in FIGS. 3 and 4 are designated by the same reference numerals, and the duplicated description is omitted.

Next, this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the sequence diagram 14. In FIG. 14, for the operations A to M, the C, E, and G packets include an identifier indicating that the data is encrypted. Except for this point, (implementation of the first embodiment described above is performed. The explanation is omitted because it is the same as the explanation of the operation of the embodiment.

Next, as shown by O (Data) in FIG. 14, it is assumed that the server side application program 10 requests the server side transport protocol 11 to transmit data. The data at this time is free. In the case of such free data, it is stored in the transmission data storage means 110 together with an identifier indicating that it is free.
Then, the server-side packet generation means 114 that has received the request for transmitting the free data does not go through the encryption means 112,
Data is directly read from the transmission data storage means 110.
Then, the data is sent to the server-side physical layer 12 as a packet together with an identifier indicating that the free data is included, and is sent to the client-side transport protocol 21 as indicated by P (Data (4)) in FIG. The same process is repeated thereafter, and the remaining data is transmitted as indicated by Q (Data (5)) and R (Data (6)) in FIG.

The client-side received packet interpreting means 210 in the client-side transport protocol that has received the packet containing the data indicates that the data in the packet is free because of the identifier that is the free data in the received packet. To know Therefore, the client-side received packet interpretation means 210 sends the received data directly to the received data storage means 214 without sending it to the undecoded data storage means 211. The data stored in the reception data storage means 214 is the server side transport protocol 1
It can be read from the application program on the client side without being restricted by 1 (T (Data (5,6,7)) in FIG. 14).

As described above, it becomes possible to transmit data in which pay data and free data are mixed. By applying this embodiment also to the third embodiment, it is possible to transmit data in which pay data and free data are mixed even in the configuration of the third embodiment.

In the above embodiment, one is a server and the other is a client. However, one side may be a node or router of a communication system having equipment having both a server function and a client function. Good.

In the above embodiment, although the communication medium is not particularly limited, 10 BASE-T or 100 BASE-TX by Ethernet, a LAN using Token-ring, or wireless communication, It may be optical fiber communication, or may be via a public line, and is not limited to these. Further, the plurality of packet switching stations 3 shown in FIG.
The server as the terminal station 1 and the client as the terminal station 2 may execute the present invention shown in each of the above-described embodiments via 4.

In the communication system, the charging information accumulating means may be stored in both parties or may be transferred to the communication partner, and if the charging is settled on a daily or monthly basis, If there is no mistake of accumulating billing information with each other, distrust of the service does not occur.

In the above embodiment, an example in which data is transmitted and received in the packet format is shown, but the packet format is not particularly limited, and when an analog public telephone line is used, the data amount, the data transmission time, etc. On the other hand, variable length data bit format by the Ethernet system or ATM fixed length bit format data transmission may be used.

[0070]

According to the present invention, firstly, since the method of charging on the server side is based on the confirmation response sent from the client side, it is possible to charge according to the amount of data received by the client side. .

Secondly, since the client side can decrypt the data received by the client side for the first time after the server side transmits the encrypted data and the server side performs the billing process, the client side illegally acquires the data. Can make things impossible. Therefore, legitimate protection is given to the charge collection, the trust relationship between the server side and the client side that transmits and receives data is established, and the total service reliability of the server and the client that subscribes to the communication system is established. Is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a communication sequence diagram of an embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration block diagram of a server side according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration block diagram of a client side according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a communication sequence diagram of the embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a communication sequence diagram of the embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a communication sequence diagram of the embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a configuration block diagram of a server side according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a configuration block diagram of a client side according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a communication sequence diagram of the embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a configuration block diagram of a server side according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a configuration block diagram of a client side according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a communication sequence diagram of the embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a packet communication configuration diagram and a sequence diagram according to a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Data transmission side (server) 2 Data receiving side (client) 3 communication media 10 Server side application program 11 Server side transport protocol 12 Server side physical layer 13 Server side charge storage means 14 Server side charging means 15 Server side transport protocol 16 Billing information storage means 20 Client side application program 21 Client side transport protocol 22 Client side physical layer 23 Client side charging means 24 Client side transport protocol 110,140 Transmission data storage means 111,141 encryption key generation means 112,142 encryption means 113,143 encryption key storage means 114, 144 Server-side packet generation means 115, 145 Server-side received packet interpretation means 210, 230 Client-side received packet interpreting means 211,231 Undecrypted data storage means 212,232 Decoding means 213, 233 Client-side packet generation means 214, 234 Reception data storage means

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A communication method in which a client that receives data transmitted from a server returns an acknowledgment signal indicating that the data has been received to the server, wherein the server charges the data from its own application layer. If the data is
Remain in the client's transport protocol
Prevent it from flowing to the client application
In order to encrypt the data, send it to the client, and when the confirmation response signal is received, calculate the charge and charge
Transmitting a decryption key for decoding the data from the store information to that effect to the storage means to the client
Stays in the transport protocol by
Decrypt data so that it flows to the application
If the data from the own application layer is not a billing target, the data is stored in the client.
A billing and collection method, characterized in that the data is sent to the client with an identifier indicating that the data is not subject to billing so that the data can flow to the application . 2. The client, when encrypted data is transmitted from the server, stores the data in the undecrypted data storage means and then returns the confirmation response signal to the server to decrypt the decryption key. Is used to decrypt the data stored in the undecrypted data storage means and then process the data, and when unencrypted data is transmitted from the server, it is stored in the undecrypted data storage means. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method is performed without any processing. 3. The charging collection method according to claim 1, wherein the data is sent from the server to the client in a packet format. 4. A transmission means for transmitting data, an encryption means for encrypting data to be charged out of the data transmitted by the transmission means with an encryption key, and data encrypted by the encryption means. A server having a decryption key transmitting means for transmitting a decryption key for decrypting the data, a billing calculation means for performing a billing calculation on the data encrypted by the encryption means, and a server encrypted by the encryption means. The undecrypted data storing means for storing the data, the response signal sending means for sending back the confirmation response signal indicating that the data sent by the sending means has been received, and the decoding sent by the decryption key sending means. and a client with a decoding means for decoding data in which the stored in the undecoded data storage means based on the key, the server, If the data from the application layer data is chargeable, the relevant data is the
It stays in the undecrypted data storage means of the client and
In order not to flow to the Ianto application
Then, the data is encrypted by the encryption means and transmitted to the client, and when the confirmation response signal is received, the charge calculation means calculates the charge and the charge accumulation means.
Storing the undecrypted data by transmitting information to that effect to the client by transmitting a decryption key for decrypting the data by the decryption key transmission means.
Recover data by sending the data that remains in the means to the decryption means.
The encrypted data can be sent to the application , and if the data from the own application layer is not the data to be charged, the data is stored in the client.
A communication system characterized in that the identifier is added to the data by the identifier adding means so as to be flowed to an application, and the data is sent to the client. 5. The client, when the encrypted data is transmitted from the server, stores the data in the undecrypted data storage means, and then returns the confirmation response signal to the server to decrypt the decryption key. Is used to process the data after decrypting the data stored in the undecrypted data storage means, and when unencrypted data is transmitted from the server, it is stored in the undecrypted data storage means The communication system according to claim 4, wherein processing is performed without any processing. 6. The communication system according to claim 4, wherein the server sends the data in a packet format.