JPH10242960A - Charge management device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a charge management device capable of grasping a usage charge matched with user's service use in a multi-media network and attaining general usage charge discount. SOLUTION: The charge management device 1 receives a usage charge log from a service provider 10 by a cession charge preparing means 3, defines a series of user's use from the start of service use up to its end and stores its usage charge in a cession charge DB 21 as a cession charge. When usage charge log information consists of plural log records of the same cession, the device 1 totalizes cession item charges corresponding to the log records, stores the total amount in a cession item charge DB 23 and applies discount to the cession item charges, the cession charge and the totalized charge stored in respective DBs 23, 21, 25 by a discount applicable means 7.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a VOD (Video On
Demand) service, online shopping, information provision service, Internet connection service, distance education service, etc.
In addition, the present invention relates to a fee management device for performing fee management consistent with user service usage.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional charge management apparatus for a multimedia network, a charge totaling process is performed in units of generation of a charge due to use of a service. For example, in online shopping, if clothes, shoes, and bags are purchased together, the usage fee log has a total of three records, one record each.
I was creating records.

[0003]

In the above-described method, since there is no relation that each record is purchased at the same time, for example, "If you buy clothes and shoes together in online shopping, your bag is free." There is a problem that it is not possible to flexibly deal with complicated and complicated discount processing.

[0004] In the conventional method, in order to realize such a discount, a plurality of objects such as "clothes, shoes and bags" must be managed as one object, so that the expression is not sufficient. There is a problem that it is natural and lacks versatility.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a fee management device capable of grasping a usage fee consistent with a user's service usage in a multimedia network and realizing a general-purpose usage fee discount.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a method for counting usage charges based on usage fee log information generated when using a multimedia network service, calculating a discount, and calculating a discount. In a multimedia service for calculating a billing fee to a user, a series of usages from the start to the end of the service usage of a user is defined as a session from the usage fee log information output from the service providing apparatus, and the usage fee is defined as a session. The gist of the present invention is to include a session fee creating unit that creates a session fee and a fee aggregation unit that recursively aggregates the session fee.

According to the present invention, a series of usages from the start to the end of the user's use of the service is defined as a session from the usage fee log information, and the usage fee is created as a session fee. Aggregate session fees recursively.

[0008] The present invention according to claim 2 is based on claim 1.
In the invention described in the above, the session fee creation means comprises:
In the case where the usage fee log information includes a plurality of log records of the same session, the gist of the present invention is to include a session item fee aggregation unit that aggregates session item fees corresponding to the plurality of log records and creates a session fee.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, when the usage fee log information includes a plurality of log records of the same session, the session item fee corresponding to the plurality of log records is totaled to generate a session fee. I do.

Further, the present invention according to claim 3 provides the present invention as claimed in claim 2.
In the invention described above, a gist of the present invention is to include a discount applying unit that applies a discount to a session item fee, a session fee, and a fee totalization.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, discounts can be applied to session item charges, session charges, and charge totals.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a fee management device according to one embodiment of the present invention. The charge management device 1 shown in FIG. 1 is created in a service providing device 10 that provides a multimedia network service, and is used in a charge log stored in a charge log database 11.
Specifically, it receives a usage fee log including user information, service information, date and time information, usage fee information, and a session ID, and from the usage fee log information, a series of usage from the start to the end of the service usage of the user as a session. Define
A session charge for creating the use charge as a session charge and, when the use charge log information includes a plurality of log records of the same session, summing up the session item charges corresponding to the log record and creating a session item charge The creation means 3, the session charge database 21 and the session item charge database 23 storing the created session charge and the session item charge respectively created by the session charge creation means 3, and the session charges stored in the session charge database 21 are recursively counted. Charge totaling means 5, a charge totaling database 25 storing the charge totaling information collected by the charge totaling means 5, a session item charge database 23, a session charge database 21, and a charge totaling database 25, respectively. Discount means 7 housed session item fee, a discount to the session charges and fee totalization performed, billed database 2 that stores billing rates
7 and a fee discount database 29 for storing fee discount information.

First, a session introduced in this embodiment will be described. A session is a logical definition of a series of uses from the start to the end of service use by a user, and the definition of the start and end of a session is service-dependent. However, there may be a case where a plurality of sessions exist in one service, or a case where each session exists in different layers of software and interact with each other. For example, one call corresponds to a telephone, one lesson corresponds to a distance education service, one transaction corresponds to online shopping, and one rental corresponds to a VOD session. If a network connection fee is required to use these services, the session from the start to the end of the network connection also corresponds to the session. By defining the session in this way, various network services can be handled in the same fee processing framework without depending on the services.

If a plurality of usage fee logs are generated during one session, the session IDs have the same value. In a general service, one session fee record is created in one session. On the other hand, in the case of a service in which a plurality of usage fee logs are generated in one session such as online shopping, one session fee record and one or more session item fee records are generated in one session.

Next, the operation of the fee management device shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

When the service providing apparatus 10 stores the usage fee log in the usage fee log database 11 (step S)
10), the session fee creation means 3 of the fee management device 1 reads out the usage fee log from the usage fee log database 11 (step S20). Session fee creation means 3
Checks whether the session ID of the read usage charge log is unique (step S3).
0). If the session ID is unique, the process proceeds to step S70, where a session fee is created and stored in the session fee database 21. If the session ID is not unique, ie, a plurality of usages are performed in one session. In the case of a service that generates a charge log, one session charge record and one or more session item charge records are generated in this one session. (Step S40).

When the session item fee record is stored in the session item fee database 23, the discount applying unit 7 determines whether or not the fee discount can be applied to the product, and the fee discount is applied (step S50). When the fee discount is applied, the session item fee record stored in the session item fee database 23 is updated, and the session item fee is totaled (step S60). A record is generated and stored in the session fee database 21 (Step S70).

When the session fee record is stored in the session fee database 21, the discount applying means 7 determines whether or not the fee discount can be applied. The discount is applied, and the session fee record stored in the session fee database 21 is applied. Is updated (step S8)
0). When the session charge record is generated in this way, the charges are totaled by the charge totaling means 5 (step S100) and stored in the charge totaling database 25. When the discount application unit 7 applies a discount to the charge total information stored in the charge total database 25, the contents of the charge total database 25 are updated (step S110).

Further, the records of the charge totaling database 25 are collected by the charge totaling means 5 as needed in a larger unit (step S120), and a discount is applied each time (step S130). The unit and number of tabulations differ depending on the type of discount, screen display, bill display, and the like. Finally, the billing fee is calculated and stored in the billing fee database 27 (step S14).
0). The above processing is performed in real time.

Next, the concept of a session will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3A shows an example of online shopping. In the case of online shopping, a plurality of usage fee logs are generated in one session since a session is started from the start of the shopping service until various commodities are put into a shopping basket, the transaction is completed, and the service is terminated. When the network connection is charged, a network connection session from the network connection to the termination occurs at the same time.

FIG. 3B shows an example of a VOD session. In the case of VOD, the way of capturing a session differs depending on whether the charging unit is rental or viewing, but here, the charging unit will be described as rental. In this case, the session starts from the start of the rental and ends, but the user can rent a plurality of VODs at the same time.
May occur at the same time.

FIG. 4 shows the relationship between the usage fee and the discount. The lowest layer is a fee generated by the user using the service and a discount for the fee. There may not be a discount. The next layer is a charge obtained by summing (use charge-discount) of a lower layer and a discount for the charge. These calculations are repeated to finally obtain the billing fee. The total number of times differs depending on the type of discount, the type of screen display, the type of bill display, and the type of unit required. 1 shown in FIG.
Generally, only one type of discount can be applied to one box.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the discount applying means 7 between the charge totaling and the charge discount. First, the discount applying means 7 reads the layer, various IDs,
The total charge amount is searched, and the discount amount is calculated by substituting those values into the calculation method only when the conditions are matched, by comparing with the layer and the conditional expression of the charge discount database 29,
Update the discount amount in the charge totaling database 25. Discounts on session charges and session item charges can be handled in the same manner.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention,
From the usage fee log information, a series of usage from the start to the end of the user's use of the service is defined as a session, the usage fee is created as a session fee, and the session fee is recursively aggregated. By performing the charge summarization process in the first place, the process can be standardized into a recursive process.

According to the present invention, when the usage fee log information includes a plurality of log records of the same session,
Since session item charges corresponding to a plurality of log records are aggregated to create a session charge, and discounts can be applied to the session item charges, session charges, and charge aggregation, a plurality of products are purchased at the same time. The complicated discount processing at the time can be accurately performed, and the discount processing can be performed by the same method without depending on the service. Further, even if a discount pattern is added, it can be dealt with by increasing the number of layers in the charge aggregation, and can be flexibly handled.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a fee management device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the fee management device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the concept of a session used in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing a relationship between a usage fee and a discount in the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation concept of discount applying means used in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Charge management device 3 Session charge creation means 5 Charge collection means 7 Discount application means 10 Service providing device 11 Usage charge log database 21 Session charge database 23 Session item charge database 25 Charge collection database 27 Billing charge database 29 Charge discount database

Claims (3)

[Claims] Claims: 1. A multimedia service for calculating a usage charge, calculating a discount, and calculating a charge to a user based on usage charge log information generated when a multimedia network service is used, the multimedia service being output from a service providing apparatus. A session charge creation means for defining a series of use from the start to the end of the user's service use from the use charge log information as a session, and creating the use charge as a session charge, and recursively collecting the session charge A charge management device comprising: 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein, when the usage charge log information includes a plurality of log records of the same session, the session charge creation unit aggregates session item charges corresponding to the plurality of log records to create a session charge. 2. The charge management device according to claim 1, further comprising an item charge totaling unit. 3. A session item fee, a session fee,
3. The charge management device according to claim 2, further comprising discount application means for applying a discount to the charge totalization.