KR100419148B1 - Pre-Paid Charging Service System And Method In Asynchronous Mobile Intelligent-Network - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention can process a pre-paid charging service during call processing using a call control function and a service exchange function, which are intelligent network service functions, in a mobile switching center (hereinafter, referred to as 'MSC'). The present invention relates to a system and method for prepaid billing service in a mobile intelligent network. In the related art, an application process in an MSC processes a prepaid billing service by directly interworking with a PPS server through a Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP / IP) protocol. As a result, the overall network configuration was complicated, resulting in an increase in network operation costs. In addition, the application process was changed when the prepaid billing function was changed or added, which caused a lot of problems such as reliability and stability of the MSC.

Accordingly, the present invention is to process the prepaid billing service using the intelligent network service within the MSC of the asynchronous mobile communication network, so that it is possible to process the network prepaid billing service separated from the general call processing function without a separate network equipment do.

In addition, the present invention by processing the network-based prepaid billing service using the intelligent network services in the MSC without a separate network equipment, the overall network configuration is simplified to reduce the network operating costs, the application process in the MSC The service can be changed and added without modification.

Description

Pre-Paid Charging Service System And Method In Asynchronous Mobile Intelligent-Network}

The present invention relates to a prepaid billing service in an asynchronous mobile intelligent network, and in particular, a call processing function using a call control function and a service switching function, which are intelligent network service functions, in a mobile switching center (hereinafter referred to as MSC). The present invention relates to a prepaid billing service system and method in a mobile intelligent network capable of processing a pre-paid charging service.

Currently, standardization organizations such as the International Telecommunications Union (TTU) standardization sector (ITU-T) standardize and implement many additional functions for asynchronous mobile communication (eg, International Mobile Telecommunications 2000). .

The prepaid billing function implemented in this asynchronous mobile communication network is for prepaid calls to mobile subscribers in order to enable mobile subscribers to pay a certain amount in advance and receive communication services within the limits of the prepaid amount. Function to provide a service, which is implemented as a general additional function, not an intelligent network service.

That is, the conventional asynchronous mobile communication network provides a prepaid call service using a prepaid billing function, which is a general additional function. The system configuration for providing such a prepaid call service is shown in FIG. Mobile Switching Center (11), Home Location Register (HLR) (12), Pre-Paid Call Server (13), Customer Service and Billing System (CSBS) And billing system) 14 and Automatic Response System (ARS) 15 have a structure in which they interoperate with each other via a TCP / IP protocol.

In this case, the MSC 11 needs a separate agent to interwork with the network equipment related to the aforementioned prepaid billing service processing through the TCP / IP protocol.

The CSBS system 14 transmits the prepaid call service registration and prepaid billing service related information of the mobile subscriber input through the operator terminal to the HLR 12 and the PPS server 13, and the billing rate of the mobile subscriber. When the information such as the information is changed, the changed charging information is transmitted to the PPS server 13 so that the PPS server 13 manages the current charging information.

In addition, the ARS system 15 provides a prepaid billing service-related announcement to a mobile subscriber registered to a prepaid call service, but moves necessary when providing a announcement broadcast in connection with the corresponding PPS server 13 through the TCP / IP protocol. The subscriber information is provided from the PPS server 13.

The prepaid billing service implemented in the conventional asynchronous mobile communication network is not implemented as an intelligent network service, but after the MSC 11 and the PPS server 13 are interworked with the TCP / IP protocol, the MSC 11 moves. During the call processing for the subscriber, the prepaid billing service is processed in direct connection with the PPS server 13.

As described above, in the conventional asynchronous mobile communication network, the call processing application process in the MSC 11 processes the prepaid billing service by directly interworking with the PPS server 13 through the TCP / IP protocol, thereby providing network-level addition. It was difficult to distinguish between the function and the general call processing function. As a result, it was impossible to create, delete, and change various advanced services required by the service providers without modifying the application process in the MSC 11.

That is, in the related art, since the call processing application process in the MSC 11 directly controls the prepaid billing service, the application process should be changed when the actual prepaid billing function is changed or added, which is the reliability or stability of the MSC 11. There were disadvantages that could cause many problems.

In addition, in the conventional mobile communication network, the overall network configuration is complicated by using the PPS server 13, which is a separate network device that manages various kinds of information, in order to implement a prepaid billing service which is an additional function provided at the network level. There was a disadvantage that the network operation cost increased.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and its object is to process a prepaid billing service using an intelligent network service in an MSC of an asynchronous mobile communication network, thereby distinguishing from a general call processing function without a separate network equipment. It is to enable network-level prepaid billing services.

In addition, another object of the present invention, by processing the network-type prepaid billing service using the intelligent network services in the MSC without a separate network equipment, to simplify the overall network configuration to obtain the effect of reducing the network operating costs, within the MSC Service modification and addition is possible without modification of application process.

1 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration for providing a prepaid billing call service in a conventional asynchronous mobile communication network.

2 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration for implementing a prepaid billing service in an asynchronous mobile intelligent network according to the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a prepaid billing service processing procedure during call processing in an asynchronous mobile intelligent network according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a prepaid billing service processing procedure in the case of insufficient call balance in a busy state in FIG.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

21: HLR (Home Location Register) 22: VLR (Visitor Location Register)

23 MSC (Mobile Switching System) 24: SCF (Service Control Function)

25: SSF (Service Exchange Function) 26: SRF (Special Resource Function)

A feature of the present invention for achieving the above object is, SRF for providing a special resource, such as announcement for prepaid billing service; An HLR for storing and managing intelligent network service profile information of a mobile subscriber and locating the service profile to a VLR that manages a service profile of a visiting subscriber upon location registration; An entity that performs a call control function for processing a prepaid billing service, comprising: an MSC that performs a call control procedure based on a BCSM and performs an intelligent network exchange function; An SCF including intelligent network service logic for prepaid billing and overseeing intelligent network call control in processing a corresponding prepaid billing service; A prepaid billing service system in an asynchronous mobile intelligent network including an SSF that controls the interworking of the MSC and the SCF and performs intelligent network service processing for prepaid billing such as a sensing point processing function and an event processing function from the SCF. To provide.

Here, when the call balance of the calling subscriber requesting an outgoing call is smaller than the minimum call amount, the SCF interworks with the SRF to notify the calling subscriber that the call balance for performing the outgoing call is insufficient. According to the type billing service logic, it is characterized by performing real time reduction on the call balance while the current calling party maintains the call state.

The MSC transmits a beep sound indicating that the call cannot be proceeded to the current call balance according to the call control function when the beep timer for the busy call balance of the calling subscriber counted by the SSF expires. .

Another feature of the present invention includes the steps of checking whether the current subscriber balance of the calling subscriber is greater than or equal to the minimum amount of money by driving the prepaid billing service logic according to a service control function when an initial information collection detection point is met when an outgoing call is requested; Notifying the calling balance corresponding to the calling subscriber when the calling balance of the calling subscriber is equal to or greater than the minimum calling amount, and performing a reduction of the calling balance while maintaining the call status; When the release request for the call is received, the prepaid in the asynchronous mobile intelligent network comprising the step of releasing the call, stopping the real-time reduction of the call balance of the calling subscriber, and notifying the reduced and remaining call balance. To provide a type of charging service.

And, in the above-mentioned prepaid billing service method in the asynchronous mobile intelligent network, if the current subscriber balance of the calling subscriber is less than the minimum call amount, the calling balance for performing the outgoing call is insufficient for the calling subscriber according to the service control function. And notifying and ending the outgoing call.

On the other hand, the process of reducing the call balance while maintaining the call state, the step of confirming whether or not the call balance during the real-time reduction of the call balance of the calling subscriber is less than a predetermined amount; Driving a beep timer for a time when a call can proceed by calculating a remaining call balance for the calling subscriber when the busy call balance of the calling subscriber is less than or equal to a predetermined amount; And when the warning tone timer expires, sending a warning tone indicating that the caller can no longer proceed with the current busy balance.

Furthermore, in the step of sending the warning sound to release the call, if the calling subscriber does not release the call until a predetermined time elapses after sending the warning sound, after stopping the real-time reduction of the call remaining of the calling subscriber, And forcibly releasing the call.

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

First, the prepaid billing service system and method proposed by the present invention are for implementing a customized application for mobile network enhanced logic (CAMEL) network of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) standardized by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project). Based on the structure of an asynchronous mobile communication network (i.e., asynchronous mobile intelligence network), the system configuration for implementing the prepaid billing service in the non-mobile mobile intelligent network is shown in FIG. 2, the HLR 21 and the VLR. (Visitor Location Register) 22, MSC 23, SCF (Service Control Function) 24, SSF (Service Switching Function) 25 and SRF ( It is provided with a Specialized Resource Function, a Special Resource Function 26.

The HLR 21 stores and manages intelligent network service profile information of a mobile subscriber, and when registering a location, locates the service profile as a VLR 22 of a visited network, and the VLR 22 is an MSC 23. A functional entity included in and implemented, the service profile of the visited subscriber transmitted from the HLR 21 is stored and managed.

The MSC 23 is an entity that performs a call control function (hereinafter referred to as 'CCF') for providing a prepaid billing service, and is based on a basic call state model (BCSM). It performs a call control procedure and performs an intelligent network exchange function to interwork with the SCF 24.

The SCF 24 includes the intelligent network service logic for prepaid billing, and interworks with the SSF 25, the SRF 26, and the HLR 21 to oversee the intelligent network call control in processing the prepaid billing service. The SSF 25 controls the interworking of the MSC / GMSC (Global MSC) 23 and the SCF 24 and prepaid such as a detection point processing function and an event processing function from the SCF 24. Perform intelligent network service processing for billing.

The SRF 26 provides special resources such as announcements for prepaid billing services.

The prepaid billing service processing procedure in the asynchronous mobile intelligent network according to the present invention configured as described above will be described with reference to FIG. 3.

First, the CCF in the MSC 23 performs call processing by the BCSM when the mobile subscriber requests outgoing calls (step S10). At this time, initial information (service code, prefix, dialed) is performed during call processing by the corresponding BCSM. When an information collection detection point related to the collection is met, the CCF notifies the SSF 25 that the information collection detection point has been met (step S11).

Accordingly, the SSF 25 examines a service standard (Service Creteria) for operating the prepaid billing service (step S12), performs a number translation using the collected information, and then prepaid billing service is required. In this case, a trigger to the SCF 24 is determined, and an initial DP CAP message is transmitted to the SCF 24.

Then, the SCF 24 drives the prepaid billing service logic (step S13), reads the information on the current account balance of the calling party requesting the current outgoing call, and then reads the read balance. It is checked whether or not the minimum amount of money available for call (hereinafter, referred to as the "currency minimum amount") (step S14).

At this time, if the call balance is greater than or equal to the minimum amount of the call, after providing an announcement to notify the calling subscriber of the current call balance in cooperation with the SRF 26 through the SSF 25 in the MSC 23 (step S15), Arming the O_Answer and O-Answer events to the SSF 25 to monitor when the calling party and the called party transition to the busy state and when the call is released. .

Thereafter, when the called party becomes busy in response to a call, an incoming call event armed to SSF 25 in MSC 23 is triggered by SCF 24, and the SCF 24 calls the calling party's call balance. Start real-time decrementing for.

That is, the SCF 24 sends a charging response cap message (CAP_ApplyCharging) to the CCF and the SSF 25 in the MSC 23 to collect the charging information for the calling subscriber according to the prepaid charging service logic. After receiving the report message CAP_ApplyChargingReport, the real time billing according to the billing rate and call maintenance is performed to reduce the balance of the call. In this case, the SCF 24 calls the call cycle according to a predetermined time which is the billing standard. (Call Period) is notified to the SSF, and the corresponding SSF 25 notifies the SCF 24 of the call information (information on whether the call is held or not, CallActive) after the predetermined time has elapsed. While the state is maintained, the above-described real time charging is performed to reduce the currency balance (step S16).

In such a state, if a release request for a call currently being received is received (step S17), the CCF in the MSC 23 releases the call to the calling party and then informs the SSF 25 of the release of the calling party. If the calling party releases first, the calling party notifies that the call has been released. If the called party releases first, the calling party notifies that the calling party has been released.

Accordingly, when the SSF 25 notified of the calling party call release reports the calling release event to the SCF 24, the corresponding SCF 24 stops reducing the call balance of the calling party (step S18). Then, the SSF 25 includes the final call cycle information in the report message for the charging response cap message and transmits it to the SCF 24.

Subsequently, the SCF 24 interworkes with the SRF 26 through the SSF 25 in the MSC 23 to provide an announcement to notify the calling subscriber of the remaining call remaining due to the current call (step S19). ).

However, if the calling balance of the calling subscriber is less than the minimum call amount in step S14, the corresponding SCF 24 works with the SRF 26 through the SSF 25 in the MSC 23 to perform the calling call to the calling subscriber. After providing the announcement for notifying that the call balance is insufficient (step S20), an operation for ending the corresponding outgoing call is performed (step S21).

On the other hand, in the prepaid billing service processing procedure described with reference to FIG. 3, the remaining balance of the call is reduced due to the call in the step S16 of performing a real-time reduction of the call balance while the call is in a busy state. The prepaid billing service processing procedure when the call is no longer available due to lack thereof will be described with reference to FIG. 4.

First, the SCF 24 performs a real-time reduction of the call balance while the call is in the call state according to the prepaid billing service logic (step S41), and then the remaining call balance (hereinafter referred to as 'busy call'). It is checked whether the balance is 'less' or less than a predetermined amount set arbitrarily (step S42).

At this time, if the busy balance is more than the predetermined amount, the flow returns to step S41 to perform a real-time reduction of the remaining balance. If the remaining busy balance is less than or equal to the predetermined amount, the SCF 24 sends the remaining balance to the calling subscriber. By transmitting the warning tone (Warning tone) connection information, which is information about the time that the call can proceed, that is, the time to maintain the call state to the SSF (25), the SSF (25) drives the beep timer (Step S43) After starting time counting for call progress, it is checked whether the time counting of the warning sound timer is over (step S44).

If the time count of the beep timer has not expired, as described in FIG. 3, while performing the real-time reduction of the call balance while continuously maintaining the call state (step S45), it is determined whether the time count of the corresponding beep timer is over. The operation of step S44 for checking is repeated.

However, when the time count of the beep timer expires, the SSF 25 requests the beep to be sent to the CCF in the MSC 23, so that the CCF is no longer available to the calling subscriber currently busy with the current call balance. After transmitting a warning sound indicating that the call cannot proceed (step S46), the calling party waits for a predetermined time to release the call.

At this time, if the calling party releases the call within a predetermined time, the calling party releases the call and informs the SCF 24 of the call release through the SSF 25 to stop the reduction of the calling subscriber's balance. Done.

In addition, if the calling subscriber does not release the call until a predetermined time elapses after transmitting the corresponding beep, the corresponding SCF 24 stops reducing the call balance of the calling subscriber and then forcibly releases the call. Is sent to the SSF 25, and the SSF 25 instructs the CCF to release the call to release the call to the calling subscriber (step S47).

In summary, the prepaid billing service processing procedure performed by the intelligent network service in the MSC 23 in the asynchronous mobile intelligent network according to the present invention greatly balances the current call balance of the calling mobile subscriber when the initial information collection detection point is encountered during call processing. When an outgoing call request that notifies you of the call balance when it is greater than or equal to the minimum call amount, and provides a call service, while maintaining the call state, that is, reducing the call balance until a call release request is received. The prepaid billing service processing procedure and the calling subscriber is informed that the calling subscriber lacks the calling balance to carry out the outgoing call when the calling party's current calling balance is less than the minimum call amount. Prepaid billing service processing procedure when there is insufficient call balance when requesting outgoing call; If the calling party balance of the calling subscriber is less than the predetermined amount in the state, the alarm timer for the time when the call can proceed to the current calling balance is started, and when the corresponding warning timer expires, the alarm is sent to the calling subscriber. It will provide a prepaid billing service procedure when there is a shortage of money in a busy state.

In addition, the embodiments according to the present invention are not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various alternatives, modifications, and changes can be made within the scope apparent to those skilled in the art.

As described above, the present invention is to process the prepaid billing service using the intelligent network service in the MSC of the asynchronous mobile communication network, to process the network prepaid billing service separated from the general call processing function without a separate network equipment It becomes possible.

In addition, the present invention by processing the network-based prepaid billing service using the intelligent network services in the MSC without a separate network equipment, the overall network configuration is simplified to reduce the network operating costs, the application process in the MSC The service can be changed and added without modification.

Claims (8)

An SRF that provides special resources such as announcements for prepaid billing services; An HLR for storing and managing intelligent network service profile information of a mobile subscriber and locating the service profile to a VLR that manages a service profile of a visiting subscriber upon location registration; An entity that performs a call control function for processing a prepaid billing service, comprising: an MSC that performs a call control procedure based on a BCSM and performs an intelligent network exchange function; An SCF including intelligent network service logic for prepaid billing and overseeing intelligent network call control in processing a corresponding prepaid billing service; A prepaid type in the asynchronous mobile intelligent network, comprising: an SSF for controlling the interworking of the MSC and the SCF and performing intelligent network service processing for prepaid billing such as a sensing point processing function and an event processing function from the SCF. Billing service system. The method of claim 1, The SCF, in conjunction with the SRF when the calling balance of the calling subscriber requesting the calling call is smaller than the minimum call amount, informs the calling subscriber that the calling balance for performing the calling call is insufficient. Prepaid Billing Service System The method of claim 1, The SCF is a prepaid billing service system for an asynchronous mobile intelligent network, characterized in that to perform real-time reduction of the call balance while the current calling subscriber maintains a call state according to the prepaid billing service logic. The method of claim 1, The MSC, when the beep timer for outgoing call balance of the calling subscriber counted by the SSF is terminated, sends a beep indicating that the call cannot proceed with the current call balance according to the call control function. Prepaid billing service system in mobile intelligent network. When an initial call collection detection point is met when an outgoing call is requested, checking whether the current call balance of the calling subscriber is greater than or equal to the call amount by driving a prepaid billing service logic according to a service control function; Notifying the calling balance corresponding to the calling subscriber when the calling balance of the calling subscriber is equal to or greater than the minimum calling amount, and performing a reduction of the calling balance while maintaining the call status; When the release request for the call is received, releasing the call, stopping the real-time reduction of the call balance of the calling subscriber, and then notifying the reduced call remaining balance. Prepaid billing service method in intelligent network. The method of claim 5, And when the current call balance of the calling subscriber is smaller than the minimum call amount, notifying the calling subscriber that the call balance for performing an outgoing call is insufficient according to a service control function, and ending the outgoing call. Prepaid billing service method in asynchronous mobile intelligent network. The method of claim 5, The process of reducing the call balance while maintaining the call state may include: checking whether a call balance remaining during real-time reduction of the call balance of the calling subscriber is less than or equal to a predetermined amount; Driving a beep timer for a time when a call can proceed by calculating a remaining call balance for the calling subscriber when the busy call balance of the calling subscriber is less than or equal to a predetermined amount; And when the warning tone timer expires, sending a warning tone indicating that the caller can no longer proceed with the current busy call balance to release the call. Charging Service Method. The method of claim 7, wherein In the step of releasing the call by sending the warning sound, if the calling subscriber does not release the call until a predetermined time elapses after sending the warning sound, after stopping the real-time reduction of the call balance of the calling subscriber, Prepaid billing service method in an asynchronous mobile intelligent network, characterized in that forcibly canceling.