KR100819051B1 - Apparatus and method for generating billing information of service over ip network - Google Patents

Abstract

An apparatus and a method for creating billing information for IP-based services are provided to increase reliability for IP-based services by creating billing information containing CDRs(Call Detail Records) and TDRs(Traffic Detail Records) so as to calculate service charges in consideration of transmission quality. An apparatus(100) for creating billing information for IP-based services comprises a CDR creation part(110), a TDR creation part(120), and a billing information processing part(130). Based on a QoS-guaranteed service session to provide an IP-based service to a user, the CDR creation part creates a CDR containing at least one among user information, the start time of the service, the end time of the service, the time used for the service. The TDR creation part collects flow information transmitted through the QoS-guaranteed service session and creates a TDR for the service. The billing information processing part combines the created CDR with the created TDR and creates billing information for service charge calculation.

Description

Apparatus and Method for generating billing information of service over IP Network}

1 is a block diagram of an apparatus for generating charging information for an IP-based service according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is an overall configuration diagram of a billing generation system that extends the billing information generation device of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of generating charging information for an IP based service according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a charging information generating method under an extended charging generating system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a diagram illustrating a signal processing procedure of each device under the charging generation system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for generating billing information for an IP-based service and a method thereof. Specifically, the present invention relates to an IP multimedia service for which transmission quality is guaranteed by receiving approval for network resource use through resource and admission control. The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for collecting and processing billing information. This is a configuration that generates billing information combining service usage history and traffic usage history in order to calculate the service fee in QoS (Quality of Service) guaranteed IP multimedia service where communication between service users is made after approval of use of IP network resource. It includes.

In the conventional billing information generation method, a service control device such as a call server generates call detail record (CDR) data centered on service usage time and uses it as a service charge calculation standard. This is simply based on the calculation of the service fee in the service itself, which is charged to the user as basic service usage information such as the start or end time of the service.

However, IP network resource services, such as multimedia services under IP-based, consider the quality of service provided by the user despite the quality of the service being different depending on the state or characteristics of the IP network where the service is provided, as well as the service information itself. There is a problem in the conventional charging method that charges only without time.

In other words, this method can be said to charge the service fee only according to the usage time without considering the quality of service (or call quality) that can vary depending on the transmission characteristics of the IP network such as delay, loss, and jitter. In this case, even if the IP network is not in good condition, the user will be charged for the usage time even if the user does not think that the service is satisfactory, and the user will be dissatisfied with it, further distrusting the entire IP network service. It may result in the result.

Therefore, in the present invention, the charging information generation method including the traffic usage information reflecting the service usage time and the service quality is considered, rather than the existing service usage-based charging information.

The present invention provides an apparatus for collecting and processing billing information in an IP multimedia service that guarantees transmission quality by obtaining approval for the use of network resources through Resource and Admission Control as a technical problem for solving the above problems. The proposed method combines service usage information and traffic usage information when collecting billing information of QoS-guaranteed multimedia services provided through IP network, so that the service usage and the status of IP network are not generated. It is possible to calculate the service usage fee considering the transmission quality according to the present invention.

According to an embodiment of the present invention for achieving the technical problem, the billing information generation device for an IP-based service, the user information, based on the service session of the QoS (Quality of Service) guarantee for providing the IP-based service of the user, CDR generation unit for generating a service detail information (Call Detail Record) including at least one or more information of the start time of the service, the end time of the service and the use time of the service, transmitted through a service session of the QoS guarantee TDR generation unit that collects flow information to generate a traffic detail record (Traffic Detail Record) for the service and billing for generating billing information for calculating a service usage fee by combining the generated service usage information and the traffic usage information It comprises an information processing unit.

Another preferred embodiment of the apparatus for generating charging information for an IP-based service in the present invention for achieving the technical problem is to approve the use of IP network resources, and if there is a service session started with the approved resources, Resource and Admission Control device that provides flow aggregation information belonging to a service session, and a service session is received from the resource admission control device the resources required for the service based on the service request information contained in the user's call signaling message And a call server for generating a call detail record of a service provided through the service session at the end of the service session, and a flow belonging to the initiated service session based on the flow set information provided from the resource admission control device. Recall information by collecting information from the network Combining the bus traffic utilization data traffic collection unit and said service use information and the traffic using the information to generate (Traffic Detail Record) about to be configured to include a charge information processing unit to generate the charging information for service fee calculation.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above technical problem, the charging information generation method for an IP-based service includes the user information based on a service session of QoS (Quality of Service) guarantee for providing an IP-based service of a user. Generating a service detail record including at least one of a start time of the service, an end time of the service, and a use time of the service; flow information transmitted through a service session of the QoS guarantee; Generating traffic usage information (Traffic Detail Record) for the service by combining and generating billing information for calculating a service usage fee by combining the generated service usage information with the traffic usage information; do.

Another preferred embodiment of the method for generating charging information for an IP-based service in the present invention for achieving the above technical problem is to receive a call signaling message of a user and a resource required for a service based on service request information included in the message. Requesting a resource admission control device to the device, initiating a session for the service under the approved resource from the resource admission control device, and a flow set for the service session started from the resource admission control device. Receiving information and collecting information of flows belonging to the service session, generating a traffic detail record about the service based on the collected flow information, and at the end of the service session Information on the Services Provided through the Call Detail Re cord) and generating billing information for calculating a service usage fee by combining the service usage information and the traffic usage information.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art may easily implement the present invention. As those skilled in the art would realize, the described embodiments may be modified in various different ways, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. In the drawings, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted in order to clearly describe the present invention. Like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout the specification.

1 is a block diagram of an apparatus for generating charging information for an IP based service according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

To ensure stable network transmission quality for multimedia applications served over IP networks such as Voice over IP (VoIP) or IP-based Video on Demand (VoD), the call server reserves network resources through a resource admission control device. Start a session. Application service sessions approved for the use of network resources are guaranteed a certain level of quality of service through the network.

The multimedia application service session includes a set of flows of audio, video, text, etc. that constitute a multimedia stream. Each flow belonging to the service session is identified by the network equipment as 5-tuple (source IP address, destination IP address, source port number, destination port number, protocol number), and according to the transmission quality of service set through the resource admission control device. Delivered.

Most existing IP-based multimedia services refer to service usage information (CDR, Call Detail Record) stored by the call server controlling the service session to calculate the user fee. The call server receives a call signal from a user terminal to establish a service session and reserves a network resource through a resource admission control device and establishes a service session. When the service session is terminated, the call server generates and stores a CDR containing information such as user information, service start time, service end time, service usage period, etc., or delivers it to the billing server to calculate the service usage fee. Use it as a resource. Accordingly, the present invention intends to propose a billing system in which network transmission quality is considered by generating billing mediation information combining service usage information and network usage information and delivering the same to the billing server.

Referring to FIG. 1, the apparatus 100 for generating billing information is based on a service session of QoS (Quality of Service) guarantee for providing an IP-based service of a user, the user information, a start time of the service, and termination of the service. The CDR generation unit 11 for generating a service detail information (Call Detail Record) including at least one or more information of the time and the usage time of the service and the flow information transmitted through the service session of the QoS guarantee to collect the service TDR generation unit 120 for generating traffic detail information (Traffic Detail Record) for the billing information processing unit 130 for generating the billing information for calculating the service usage fee by combining the generated service usage information and the traffic usage information It is composed of The service usage information and the traffic usage information include a unique number of a service provided to a user, and the billing information processor 130 combines the generated service usage information and the traffic usage information based on the unique number. In one embodiment, the service is an IP-based multimedia service, and the user becomes a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) terminal or a Video on Demand (VOD) client.

FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram of a charging generation system that extends the charging information generating apparatus of FIG. 1 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the billing mediation apparatus 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention may be configured as a traffic collector 203, a billing information processor 204, and a billing information storage 205. In order to perform a network resource management function for an IP multimedia service, the call server 201, the resource admission control device 202, the charging brokerage device, and the network equipment 206 interoperate with each other.

An IP-based multimedia service user (eg, VoIP terminal, VoD client) first establishes a service session to communicate with an end user or server. To this end, the service user sends a call signaling message (eg SIP INVITE message) to the call server. The call server 201 calculates the bandwidth resources required for establishing the service session based on the end user information (IP address, port number, audio and video media stream codec) included in the call signaling message, and sends the resource admission control device 202 to the resource admission control device 202. Request approval for the use of the transmission resource.

The resource approval request message includes information on which inflow equipment to enter and out of the outflow equipment of the transmission network, the number of service session flows, bandwidth for each flow, charging key (charging key or charging correlation information), and the like. The billing key is a unique number generated by the call server and is used as an index for combining a call detail record (CDR), which is service usage information, and a traffic detail record (TDR), which is network usage information. The charging key may be generated and managed by the call server or the resource admission control device.

The resource admission control device 202 that has received the resource approval request determines whether the transmission resource is available and makes an approval or rejection decision. When the transmission resource is available, the resource admission control device transmits a resource approval response message to the call server, and the call server establishes a service session between end service users based on the reserved resource. In this case, the resource admission control device instructs the traffic collection unit 203 of the charging intermediary device to collect the corresponding service session flow information from the network equipment by transmitting the flow information and the charging key included in the approved service session.

The traffic collector 203 may use interfaces such as NNetFlow, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Command Line Interface (CLI), and Operation and Maintenance (OAM) to collect flow information from network equipment. Flow information collected from network equipment is related to transmission quality such as delay, loss, and jitter depending on whether the equipment is supported, in addition to basic information such as flow start time, flow end time, flow duration, packet number, and byte number. May contain information.

In order to terminate the service session after the use of the service, the call server transmits a resource release request message to the resource admission control device 202. The resource admission control device 202 returns the used resource and notifies the call server that the resource is normally released through the resource release response message. The call server receiving the response message creates the billing data for the service user by creating a CDR containing the service usage history. The CDR contains the billing key value and includes service user information, service start time, service end time, service duration and call server ID. The call server 201 generates the charging mediation information by transmitting the created CDRs to the charging information processing unit 104, and the charging mediation information is used later to calculate the service fee.

The charging information processing unit 204 received the CDR from the call server 201 waits to receive the TDR from the traffic collecting unit 203. When collecting information on all flow sets belonging to one service session from the network equipment, the traffic collector 203 generates a TDR and transmits it to the billing information processor 204. The TDR includes a charging key received from the resource admission control device 202 in addition to the above flow information.

The billing information processing unit 204, which receives the TDR from the traffic collector 203, searches the billing key value, finds the corresponding CDR, generates the billing mediation information in which the CDR and the TDR are combined, and stores the billing information storage in the billing information store 205. do.

In summary, the billing information generation system includes a call server 201 for processing a call signal of a service user, a resource admission control device 202 for determining resource availability and processing resource admission control, and a basis for calculating a service fee. In generating billing information through a billing intermediary device that generates billing information, a message including a billing key is generated when a resource approval request is made, delivered to the resource admission control device, and a CDR including a billing key when a resource is released. A call server 201 for generating a detail record and delivering it to the billing information processing unit, a resource admission control device 202 for generating an accounting message including a billing key and service session flow information at the time of resource approval and delivering it to the traffic processing unit; After receiving the accounting message, the service session flow information is collected from the network equipment based on the accounting message, and the TDR (T Traffic processing unit 203 for generating raffic Detail Record) information and delivering it to the billing information processing unit; billing information for generating billing mediation information by combining CDR from the call server and TDR from the traffic processing unit and transferring it to the billing information store; And a billing information storage device 205 that receives and stores billing mediation information from the billing information processor and supports a search function.

Here, when the call server 201 generates a unique billing key, generates a resource approval request message including the same, and transmits the generated resource approval request message to the resource admission control device 202, the resource admission control device 202 determines whether the resource is available and uses the resource. It will return an acknowledgment message for the usage and generate an accounting message containing the TDR and service session flow information.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of generating charging information for an IP based service according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, first of the user information, a start time of the service, an end time of the service, and a use time of the service based on a service session of QoS (Quality of Service) guarantee for providing an IP-based service of a user A service detail information (Call Detail Record) including at least one or more information is generated (301), the flow information transmitted through the service session of the QoS guarantee is collected to collect the traffic detail information (Traffic Detail Record) about the service In operation 303, the generated service usage information and the traffic usage information may be combined to generate billing information for calculating a service usage fee. There is no posterior relationship in the CDR generation and the TDR generation process.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of generating charging information under an extended charging generating system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, first, a call signaling message of a user is received and a resource required for a service is requested to a resource and admission control device based on the service request information included in the message (401). As a result, under the approved resource from the resource admission control device (402) to initiate a session for the service (403), and receives the flow set information for the service session started from the resource admission control device belonging to the service session Information of the flow is collected (404). Based on the collected flow information, a traffic detail record of the service is generated (405), and a call detail record of a service provided through the service session is also generated (406). Finally, the service usage information and the traffic usage information are combined to generate billing information for calculating the service usage fee (407). There is no posterior relationship in the CDR generation and the TDR generation process.

The collected flow information may include at least one of basic information including at least one of a flow start time, flow end time, flow duration, number of packets, and number of bytes, and information about delay, loss, and jitter of the flow. Consisting of the transmission quality-related information including the above, the flow information collection is collected by filtering the flow information belonging to the service session based on the flow set information from the flow information exported by the network equipment (exporting).

5 is a diagram illustrating a signal processing procedure of each device under the charging generation system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

This is a flowchart illustrating a resource admission control procedure and a billing mediation information generation procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, first, the call server 501 transmits a resource approval request message to the resource admission control device 502. The message includes a set of flows necessary for establishing a service session, bandwidth per flow, and charging key information. The resource admission control device 502 determines whether the resource is available, returns a resource approval response thereto, and then transmits an accounting request message including the charging key and the flow set information to the traffic collection unit 503.

The traffic collector 503 starts collecting the flow information from the network equipment 506 based on the flow set information included in the accounting request message.

The call server 501 returns the used transmission resource by sending a resource release request message to the resource admission control device 502 to terminate the service session after the service usage ends. After the service session ends, the call server 501 generates a CDR and transmits it to the billing information processing unit 504. At this time, the billing key and service usage history information are included.

Due to the time interval in which the network equipment 506 periodically exports the flow information to the outside, the time when the charging information processing unit 504 receives the CDR after the service session is terminated and the traffic collecting unit 504 is the service session There is a delay between the time of completing the flow information collection and generating the TDR.

When the traffic collector 503 completes the TDR generation, the traffic collector 503 first transfers the generated TDR to the charging information processor 504. The billing information processing unit 504 finds the corresponding CDR through the billing key included in the TDR, combines the two pieces of information, generates the billing mediation information, and stores the billing information storage 505.

The invention can also be embodied as computer readable code on a computer readable recording medium. Computer-readable recording media include all kinds of recording devices that store data that can be read by a computer system. Examples of computer-readable recording media include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disks, optical data storage devices, and the like, which are also implemented in the form of carrier waves (for example, transmission over the Internet). Include. The computer readable recording medium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion. In addition, functional programs, codes, and code segments for implementing the present invention can be easily inferred by programmers in the art to which the present invention belongs.

Such a method and apparatus of the present invention have been described with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings for clarity, but these are merely exemplary, and various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible to those skilled in the art. Will understand. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention will be defined by the appended claims.

When the billing information generating apparatus and method thereof for the IP-based service of the present invention are used, the resource approval control method and the billing mediation information generating method for the service quality-guaranteed IP multimedia service do not generate billing information based on the existing service usage history. By generating the billing information combining the service usage history and the network usage history, it is possible to calculate the service usage fee considering the transmission quality. Through this, a reasonable billing system is constructed in which the user bears the cost considering not only the service itself but also the service transmission quality, which results in the user increasing the reliability of the service provided based on the overall IP base as well as the service.

Claims (23)

At least one of the user information, the start time of the service, the end time of the service, and the use time of the service based on a service session of QoS (Quality of Service) guarantee for providing an IP-based service of a user; A CDR generation unit generating service use information (Call Detail Record); A TDR generation unit for collecting flow information transmitted through a service session of the QoS guarantee and generating a traffic detail record of the service; And And a charging information processing unit for generating the charging information for calculating a service usage fee by combining the generated service usage information and the traffic usage information. The service usage information and the traffic usage information each include a charging key that serves as an index for the service as a unique number for the service, The billing information processing unit combines the two pieces of information by identifying the service usage information corresponding to the billing key included in the traffic usage information when combining the service usage information and the traffic usage information. Billing information generation device for the base service. delete The method of claim 1, The traffic usage information includes charging information for the IP-based service, characterized in that at least one of the information on the inflow and outgoing devices for the service session, the number of flows of the service session and the bandwidth of each flow; Device. A resource and admission control apparatus for approving the use of an IP network resource and providing flow aggregation information pertaining to the service session when a service session initiated as the authorized resource exists; On the basis of the service request information included in the user's call signaling message, a resource required for a service is approved by the resource admission control device to start a service session, and when the service session ends, use information of a service provided through the service session (Call Detail) A call server for generating a record; A traffic collector configured to collect, from a network, flow information pertaining to the initiated service session based on the flow set information provided from the resource admission control device to generate a traffic detail record about the service; And And a billing information processing unit for generating billing information for calculating a service usage fee by combining the service usage information and the traffic usage information. The service use information (Call Detail Record) and the traffic use information (Traffic Detail Record) are each a unique number for the service includes a charging key that serves as an index for the service, The billing information processing unit combines the two pieces of information by identifying the service usage information corresponding to the billing key included in the traffic usage information when combining the service usage information and the traffic usage information. Billing information generation device for the base service. The method of claim 4, wherein And a billing information storage for storing the billing information generated by the billing information processor and providing the billing information to a billing server for determining billing. The method of claim 4, wherein The call detail record of the service includes at least one of the user information, the start time of the service, the end time of the service, and the use time of the service. Information generator. delete delete The method of claim 4, wherein And service request information included in the call signaling message of the user includes an IP address and a port number of a service provider, and a codec of an audio and video stream to be serviced. The method of claim 4, wherein The flow information collected by the traffic collector includes basic information including at least one or more of a flow start time, flow end time, flow duration, number of packets, and number of bytes and delay, loss, and jitter of the flow. Billing information generation device for the IP-based service, characterized in that consisting of transmission quality related information including at least one of the information. The method of claim 4, wherein The traffic collector uses at least one interface of NetFlow, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Command Line Interface (CLI), and Operation and Maintenance (OAM) to collect flow information on the service session from a network. Billing information generator for IP-based services. The method of claim 4, wherein And the traffic collection unit filters and collects flow information on the service session, based on the flow set information, from among flow information exported by a network device, and collects the flow information for the IP-based service. The method of claim 4, wherein The service is an IP-based multimedia service and the user is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) terminal or Video on Demand (VoD) client characterized in that the charging information generating device for the IP-based service. At least one of the user information, the start time of the service, the end time of the service, and the use time of the service based on a service session of QoS (Quality of Service) guarantee for providing a user's IP-based service; Generating a call detail record; Collecting traffic information transmitted through a service session of the QoS guarantee to generate a traffic detail record of the service; And Generating billing information for calculating a service usage fee by combining the generated service usage information and the traffic usage information; The service usage information and the traffic usage information each include a charging key that serves as an index for the service as a unique number for the service, The generating of the charging information may include combining the two pieces of information by identifying the service usage information corresponding to the charging key included in the traffic usage information when combining the service usage information and the traffic usage information. Billing information generation method for an IP-based service. delete The method of claim 14, The traffic usage information includes charging information for the IP-based service, characterized in that at least one of the information on the inflow and outgoing devices for the service session, the number of flows of the service session and the bandwidth of each flow; Way. Receiving a call signaling message of a user and requesting a resource required for a service from a resource and admission control device based on the service request information included in the message; Initiating a session for the service under an approved resource from the resource admission control device; Receiving flow aggregation information on the service session started from the resource admission control device and collecting information on flows belonging to the service session; Generating a traffic detail record of the service based on the collected flow information; Generating a call detail record of a service provided through the service session at the end of the service session; And And combining the service usage information and the traffic usage information to generate billing information for calculating a service usage fee. The service use information (Call Detail Record) and the traffic use information (Traffic Detail Record) are each a unique number for the service includes a charging key that serves as an index for the service, The generating of the charging information may include combining the two pieces of information by identifying the service usage information corresponding to the charging key included in the traffic usage information when combining the service usage information and the traffic usage information. Billing information generation method for an IP-based service. The method of claim 17, The call detail record of the service includes at least one of the user information, the start time of the service, the end time of the service, and the use time of the service. How to generate information. delete delete The method of claim 17, The requesting of a resource required for a service to a resource admission control device may include requesting a resource approval request message including information on inflow and outflow devices required for the service, the number of flows belonging to the session of the service, and bandwidth information for each flow. Billing information generation method for the IP-based service, characterized in that the request for transmission to the resource admission control device. The method of claim 17, In the step of collecting information of flows belonging to the service session, the collected flow information includes basic information including at least one or more of a flow start time, flow end time, flow duration, packet number, byte number and delay of the flow. Billing information generation method for the IP-based service, characterized in that consisting of information related to the transmission quality, including at least one of loss and jitter. The method of claim 22, The collecting of the flow information belonging to the service session may include collecting and filtering flow information belonging to the service session based on the flow set information among flow information exported from a network device. How to generate billing information for a service.

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