KR100636979B1 - Method for displaying billing rates by position location technologies in wireless communication systems - Google Patents

Abstract

1. TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a billing display method using a positioning technique in a wireless communication system and a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for realizing the method.

2. The technical problem to be solved by the invention

The present invention provides a charging display method for differentiating a charging level (ie, a usage fee) of an outgoing signal according to a location identified through positioning of a wireless terminal in a wireless communication system, and informing the user of the charging level, and for realizing the method. To provide a computer-readable recording medium that records the program.

3. Summary of Solution to Invention

The present invention, the positioning step of checking whether or not the terminal is located in the area to which the discriminating charging grade is applied; A location information transmission step of transmitting location information of the terminal identified in the location confirmation step to a base station of the wireless communication system; And a display step of displaying the differentiated charging class information on the terminal according to whether the terminal is located in an area to which the discriminating charging class is applied based on the location information of the terminal identified in the positioning step. box.

4. Important uses of the invention

The present invention is used for billing services and the like in a wireless communication system.

Billing, Billing Class (Utilization Charges), Location, Terminal, Service Rate

Description

Method for displaying billing rates by position location technologies in wireless communication systems}             

1 is an exemplary configuration diagram of a wireless communication system to which a positioning technology to which the present invention is applied is applied.

2 and 6 are screen display examples of a general mobile terminal.

3 to 5 and 7 are diagrams illustrating one embodiment of displaying a charging grade according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a charging display method using a positioning technique according to the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings

11: GPS satellites 12: base station

13: base station controller 14: location-related service server

15: GIS database

The present invention is currently being used in the wireless subscriber network (WLL), broadband wireless subscriber network (B-WLL), frequency public communication network (TRS), mobile telephone network (Cellular), personal mobile communication network (PCS), intelligent transportation network (ITS), foreign countries In the wireless communication system including other mobile phone networks in use in next generation, next generation mobile communication networks such as International Mobile Telecommunication-2000 (IMT-2000) and Universal Mobile Telecommunication Service (UMTS), which are currently being standardized in European and North American methods. A computer-readable record that records a charge display method (i.e., usage fee) of an outgoing call and displays it on a screen and a program for realizing the method according to the location identified through the location confirmation of the wireless terminal. It is about the medium.

Currently, in the case of wired communication, rates are applied according to distance in the case of voice communication, and rates are applied differently according to the network used in the case of data service. In other words, the wired communication services such as telephones, faxes, and modems, which are widely used at present, have fixed subscriber positions, so that new subscribers use the network according to the service (for example, public switched telephone network (PSTN). Telephone Network (ISDN), Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN), Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), etc. were determined and accordingly the billing could be made according to the distance between incoming signals, network or service. .

However, in the case of mobile communication, a single national rate is applied, and billing is applied by the amount of traffic (traffic), time of use, number, day of the week (weekend), and a combination thereof. In other words, in the mobile communication, the subscriber's location is not fixed, so the existing method is divided into "Mobile-to-land" and "Mobile-to-mobile". Apply call charges.

Although some operators apply different service rates for specific regions, they simply use base station / sector identification numbers (IDs).

Therefore, a method of identifying a location of a user who attempts to make a call using various positioning technologies in a mobile communication network and informing a user by differently applying a service rate determined by an operator according to the identified location is required.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems as described above, to change the billing class (ie, usage fee) of the outgoing signal according to the location identified through the positioning of the wireless terminal in the wireless communication system, to inform the user It is an object of the present invention to provide a billing display method and a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for realizing the method.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a billing display method according to location checking in a wireless communication system, comprising: a positioning step of confirming whether a terminal is located in an area to which a billing grade to be discriminated is applied; A location information transmission step of transmitting location information of the terminal identified in the location confirmation step to a base station of the wireless communication system; And a display step of displaying the differentiated charging class information on the terminal according to whether the terminal is located in an area to which the discriminating charging class is applied based on the location information of the terminal identified in the positioning step. In the wireless communication system to provide a charging display method by the location check.
In addition, the present invention for achieving the above object, in the charging display method according to the location in the wireless communication system, using a signal different from the frequency used in the wireless communication system in a region where a different service rate is applied A positioning step of checking whether or not it is located; A location information transmission step of transmitting location information of the terminal identified in the location confirmation step to a base station of the wireless communication system; A display step of displaying the different service rate information on the terminal according to whether the terminal is located in an area to which the other service rate is applied based on the location information of the terminal identified in the positioning step; And charging the terminal according to whether the terminal is located in an area to which the other service rate is applied based on the location information of the terminal identified in the positioning step. Provide a billing display method.

In addition, the present invention for achieving the above object, the wireless communication system having a processor, a positioning function for checking whether or not the terminal is located in an area to which the different charging rates are applied; A location information transmission function for transmitting location information of the terminal identified by the location confirmation function to a base station of the wireless communication system; And displaying the differentiated charging class information on the terminal according to whether the terminal is located in an area to which the discriminating charging class is applied based on the location information of the terminal identified by the positioning function. A computer-readable recording medium having a program recorded thereon is provided.
In addition, the present invention for achieving the above object, in a wireless communication system having a processor, whether or not the terminal is located in an area to which different service rates are applied by using a signal different from the frequency used in the wireless communication system. Positioning function to check; A location information transmission function for transmitting location information of the terminal identified by the location confirmation function to a base station of the wireless communication system; A display function of displaying the different service rate information on the terminal according to whether the terminal is located in an area to which the other service rate is applied based on the location information of the terminal identified in the location checking function; And a program for realizing a charging function for charging the terminal according to whether the terminal is located in an area to which the other service rate is applied based on the position information of the terminal identified in the positioning function. Provide possible recording media.

The present invention applies the positioning technology of a terminal in a CDMA mobile communication network such as digital cellular, PCS, IMT-2000, and can make a different charging class (ie, usage fee) according to the location of the confirmed terminal and display it. To be.

To this end, the present invention allows to confirm the location of the wireless terminal by a variety of network-based, terminal-based and other various positioning techniques, and to apply a variety of billing classes to the identified location and to display it on the wireless terminal.

Therefore, in the present invention, in the reality that the number of mobile subscribers such as cellular and PCS exceeds the number of wired telephone subscribers, it is possible to apply a positioning technology to a wireless terminal for mobile communication so that the charging class according to the identified location can be different. In low-traffic areas (eg, homes, suburbs, etc.), it is possible to increase the traffic by providing services relatively inexpensively.In high-traffic areas, operators can apply relatively high rates. You can increase the efficiency of the overall network by increasing the number or distributing the traffic. In addition, by using the positioning technology, the user's usage area can be identified, enabling regionally differentiated billing and business according to the purpose of the operator, and traffic by base station and region collected by the network management system / device of the current mobile communication system. Regional traffic data collection and statistics are more accurate than statistical data.

The above objects, features and advantages will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a wireless communication system to which a location technology is applied according to the present invention, in which “11” is a Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite and “12” Base Station Transceiver Subsystem (BTS). ), "13" represents a base station controller (BSC), "14" represents a Location Related Service (LCS) server, and a Geographic Information System (GIS) database (DB), respectively.

The base station 12 performs a wired / wireless conversion function that communicates with the mobile terminal via wireless, and performs wired communication with the base station controller 13. At this time, the mobile station receives the positioning signal identified by the GPS satellite 11 from the mobile terminal via wireless and transmits it to the base station controller 13 through the wire, and transfers the charging class of the outgoing signal according to the confirmed position to the mobile terminal.

A base station controller (BSC) 13 connects the base station 12 to a code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile communication network to coordinate the connection between the base stations 12 and the communication between the base station 12 and the CDMA mobile communication network. It functions as a signal processing for. At this time, the mobile terminal transmits the relevant information for the positioning to the location service server 14 through the mobile communication network, and transfers the billing grade data according to the location identified by the location service server 14 to the base station 12.

The location service server 14 receives the location request from the base station controller 13, searches the geographic information (GIS) database 15, and retrieves the result (billing grade data) through the CDMA mobile communication network. To pass.

The mobile terminal displays charging class data according to the location received from the base station 12 on the screen.

According to the present invention, the charging level of an outgoing signal is changed according to the identified position by applying the positioning technology of the wireless terminal to the mobile communication network such as cellular, PCS, IMT-2000. To this end, the positioning technology underlying the present invention can be generally classified into the following network-based, terminal-based, dedicated network-based, and other technologies.

First, the network-based technology, which is a method of determining the location using the base station 12 constituting the mobile communication network, the parameters required for this are the angle of arrival (AOA) of the radio wave and the time of arrival ( TOA, Time Of Arrival), Time Difference Of Arrival (TDOA), amplitude, phase, signal strength, and the like. The calculation of the location of these parameters at the network side is called a network-based technique. The parameters can be classified into a case of receiving at the base station 12 and a method of receiving at the mobile terminal and delivering them to the network side. have.

Meanwhile, looking at the terminal-based technology, the terminal-based technology may also be referred to as GPS-based technology. That is, it is a method of determining its own location using the signal information of the GPS satellites 11 received by the GPS module embedded in the mobile terminal. This method reduces the calculation amount of the mobile terminal by providing information such as the operation of the built-in GPS module alone and the position of the GPS satellite 11 in the network, and the calculated position error is not detected because three or more GPS satellites 11 are not visible. It includes how to compensate for the growth, that is, with the help of the network. If the external GPS is used, the cost of purchasing the GPS separately is increased, and the size of the terminal increases, making it difficult to carry.

On the other hand, looking at a dedicated network-based technology, a dedicated network-based technology is a technology using a dedicated network for positioning, and uses a frequency different from that of a general wireless communication system. For example, a dedicated network in the US LMS (location and monitoring) band is used, and a separate signal is used for location determination. This is a kind of road sign, and the roadside base station of the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is also included in this category.

Dedicated network-based technology generally lacks economic feasibility because a separate network must be constructed for location verification. Signals can also be designed separately for specific applications and achieve high accuracy in some locations.

In addition, in other manners, there is a "RadioCamera" technique as a technique for determining a location by receiving a signal transmitted by a mobile terminal in a network, similar to the network-based technique in addition to the above method.

"RadioCamera" technology finds a location by comparing the fingerprint of the radio signal form of the current user with the radio signal form known in advance for a specific area. The technology uses a database of user signals received via multipath and radio signal propagation that is already established to enable continuous location measurements regardless of the user's own location requirements.

In addition, there is a method of identifying the position by the ID of the base station 12 or the ID of the sector in the area of the base station 12, although no special positioning technique is used. That is, its location can be identified by the sector ID in the area of the base station 12 or the base station 12 being served by the digital cellular mobile communication system or the PCS system, and this method will be applied to the IMT-2000.

Since the sector size in the base station 12 or the base station 12 area in the cellular mobile communication system or the PCS varies, the accuracy with respect to the position also varies greatly.

With respect to such positioning technology, the operator applies the positioning technology that can obtain the accuracy (error range for actual location) and the reliability (service call rate for all call attempts) suitable for the service provided by the operator. You can check. For example, when using a mobile terminal with GPS function, if the network supports the differential GPS (DGPS, Differential GPS) function in an area where three or more GPS satellites 11 can be seen, the position has an accuracy of about 10 m. Since it can be confirmed, in the suburban area by using a relatively low rate for the charge in the other areas it is possible to use a lot of mobile communication services in the suburban area.

Regardless of the call, the mobile terminal user can know the charging class determined by the operator. The mobile terminal can be divided into a method of knowing after turning on the mobile terminal and registering a location and a method of knowing after a new call attempt. . This depends on the positioning technique used and may depend on the load on the network / system.

First, regardless of the call, a method of continuously knowing a charging rate even before a call attempt is performed by transmitting a control signal from a broadcasting channel (i.e., from a base station to a mobile terminal) in a predetermined charging level for a specific or all regions. For example, there is a paging channel, but the logical and physical channel configuration is different for each system, so that the billing class of the region (e.g., base station / sector / Location Area, etc.) determined by the operator is appropriate. At intervals, it is continuously informed and displayed on the mobile terminal.

Second, the method that can be known after the new call attempt can be classified into a method that can be known during the call attempt or after the call initiation according to the service performance (including accuracy and reliability) desired by the operator among the various positioning techniques as described above. That is, the technology using the call (traffic) channel of the network-based technology is a method of receiving a signal of the call channel after the call is started to determine the location can be confirmed only after the call is started. In the network-based technology, a method using a channel other than a call channel (for example, a pilot channel) can identify a location during a call attempt.

Terminal-based technology can be used both during and after call attempts, and can be selected by the operator according to service target performance. By applying the selected technology as described above, the location of the subscriber is confirmed, and at this time, the billing grade of the identified region is transmitted through a message used when setting up a call so that it can be known.

Now, a method of displaying the charging level received from the network / system on the terminal screen will be described.

As described above, the method of recognizing the charging class, that is, the usage fee (for example, x won in 10 seconds) for the identified location is slightly different for existing cellular and PCS terminals, regardless of the call. There is a way to keep track of location and a way to check location after a call attempt.

First, a method of continuously checking a location irrespective of a call is similar to using a graphic symbol indicating a signal strength of a call area or a symbol indicating a remaining battery level in FIG. Similarly, a new picture symbol (an arbitrary picture indicating a billing grade) is used for a liquid crystal display (LCD) of a mobile terminal. Also, as shown in FIG. 4, a graphic symbol represented by a number may be used on a line where the graphic symbol is displayed. In addition, as shown in FIG. 5, the charging grade may be alternately displayed on the terminal screen display device (LCD) at an appropriate time interval with a character used previously. In addition, when a new mobile terminal with improved performance is introduced and a plurality of lines can be displayed on a display device (LCD), a method of displaying on one of them is also possible. In addition, for a terminal capable of displaying color in order to provide an image service in the IMT-2000 or the like, the charging level may be displayed by color classification in a graphic symbol.

If the call is in progress, currently only the talk time is displayed as shown in FIG. 6, and the billing level may be displayed as shown in FIG. 7 below.

On the other hand, looking at the method to check the location after the call attempt, as shown in Fig. 6, only the call time is displayed, as shown in Fig. 7 in the lower line so that the total usage fee can be known.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a charging method using a positioning technique according to the present invention.

In this embodiment, although there may be a slight difference depending on the system, a description will be given of the charging method using the positioning technology based on the IS-95 being used as a wireless access method of the digital cellular and PCS systems.

As shown in FIG. 8, in the charging display method using the positioning technique according to the present invention, first, when the mobile terminal is powered on (POWER ON), synchronization is first achieved through pilot channel and sync channel acquisition (801). . After acquiring this motivation, he will inform his network of his location.

After this procedure, if the charging grade is known regardless of the call attempt, the charging grade is displayed on the screen of the mobile terminal based on the charging information received through a broadcasting channel such as a paging channel for the position determined by the positioning method. (803, 804).

On the other hand, if the charge level is known after the call attempt, after the call attempt is made using the mobile terminal in the idle state (805), the position is determined by the positioning method, and the charging information is obtained during the call attempt or after the call is initiated. The charging level is received and displayed on the screen of the mobile terminal (803, 804).

The present invention described above is capable of various substitutions, modifications, and changes without departing from the spirit of the present invention for those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains, and the above-described embodiments and accompanying It is not limited to the drawing.

As described above, the present invention enables the user to know the charge level at his / her location where the user attempts to make a call, so that an alternative communication means according to a desired service can be used, and in the case of an operator, a low rate is applied to a place where traffic is small By inducing traffic, the utilization of facilities can be improved, and the distribution of traffic generated by regions can be more closely understood, thereby optimizing the network.

Claims (20)

In the charging display method by location confirmation in a wireless communication system, A positioning step of confirming whether the terminal is located in an area to which the discriminating charging class is applied; A location information transmission step of transmitting location information of the terminal identified in the location confirmation step to a base station of the wireless communication system; And A display step of displaying the differentiated charging class information on the terminal according to whether the terminal is located in an area to which the discriminating charging class is applied based on the location information of the terminal identified in the positioning step; Billing display method by location confirmation in a wireless communication system comprising a. The method of claim 1, A charging step of charging the terminal according to whether the terminal is located in an area to which the discriminating charging class is applied based on the location information of the terminal identified in the positioning step Billing display method by the location check in the wireless communication system further comprising. The method of claim 2, The display step The terminal receives the broadcast channel signal including the discriminating charging class information and displays the discriminating charging class information. Charging display method by location confirmation in wireless communication system. The method of claim 2, The display step The terminal receiving and displaying the differentiated charging grade information indicating whether the terminal is located in an area to which the differentiated charging grade is applied based on the location information of the terminal identified in the positioning step; Charging display method by location confirmation in wireless communication system. The method of claim 2, The positioning step is Identifying whether the terminal is located in an area to which the discriminated charging class is applied by using a signal different from a frequency used in the wireless communication system; Charging display method by location confirmation in wireless communication system. The method of claim 5, A signal different from the frequency used in the wireless communication system is Signals used in private networks Charging display method by location confirmation in wireless communication system. The method of claim 5, A signal different from the frequency used in the wireless communication system is Which is the signal used in the GPS network Charging display method by location confirmation in wireless communication system. The method of claim 2, The positioning step is Checking whether the terminal is located in an area to which a different charging class is applied by using a wireless signal form known in advance for a specific region and a wireless signal form provided by the terminal. Charging display method by location confirmation in wireless communication system. The method of claim 2, The positioning step is Determining whether the terminal is located in an area to which a different charging class is applied based on a signal exchanged between the base station and the terminal Charging display method by location confirmation in wireless communication system. The method of claim 9, The signal exchanged between the base station and the terminal is Call channel signal Charging display method by location confirmation in wireless communication system. The method of claim 9, The signal exchanged between the base station and the terminal is Except for the call channel, Charging display method by location confirmation in wireless communication system. The method of claim 11, The channel signal other than the call channel is A broadcast channel signal provided by the base station Charging display method by location confirmation in wireless communication system. The method of claim 12, The broadcast channel signal provided by the base station An ID of the base station or an ID of the base station sector Charging display method by location confirmation in wireless communication system. The method of claim 11, The channel signal other than the call channel is Pilot channel signal Charging display method by location confirmation in wireless communication system. In the charging display method by location confirmation in a wireless communication system, A positioning step of checking whether a terminal is located in an area to which a different service rate is applied by using a signal different from a frequency used in the wireless communication system; A location information transmission step of transmitting location information of the terminal identified in the location confirmation step to a base station of the wireless communication system; A display step of displaying the different service rate information on the terminal according to whether the terminal is located in an area to which the other service rate is applied based on the location information of the terminal identified in the positioning step; And A charging step of charging the terminal according to whether the terminal is located in an area to which the other service rate is applied based on the location information of the terminal identified in the positioning step Billing display method by location confirmation in a wireless communication system comprising a. The method of claim 15, The display step Indicating that the terminal is the different service rate region according to whether the terminal is located in the region to which the other service rate is applied Charging display method by location confirmation in wireless communication system. The method of claim 16, The display step Displaying the different service rate according to whether the terminal is located in an area to which the different service rate is applied; Charging display method by location confirmation in wireless communication system. The method according to claim 16 or 17, The display step Displaying at a predetermined time interval depending on whether the terminal is located in an area to which the different service rate is applied Charging display method by location confirmation in wireless communication system. In a wireless communication system having a processor, A positioning function for checking whether the terminal is located in an area to which a discriminating charging class is applied; A location information transmission function for transmitting location information of the terminal identified by the location confirmation function to a base station of the wireless communication system; And A display function for displaying the differentiated charging class information on the terminal according to whether the terminal is located in an area to which the discriminating charging class is applied based on the location information of the terminal identified in the positioning function; A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for realizing this. In a wireless communication system having a processor, A positioning function for checking whether a terminal is located in an area to which a different service rate is applied by using a signal different from a frequency used in the wireless communication system; A location information transmission function for transmitting location information of the terminal identified by the location confirmation function to a base station of the wireless communication system; A display function of displaying the different service rate information on the terminal according to whether the terminal is located in an area to which the other service rate is applied based on the location information of the terminal identified in the location checking function; And A charging function for charging the terminal according to whether the terminal is located in an area to which the other service rate is applied based on the location information of the terminal identified in the positioning function; A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for realizing this.

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