KR100927947B1 - Pay-as-you-go method based on service usage time and cumulative usage of service users - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a pay-as-you-go billing method according to the service usage time and the cumulative usage of the service user, and provides a pay-as-you-go billing method for accommodating the charging policy that changes according to the service usage time and the cumulative usage of the service user through a simple DB structure. I would like to.

To this end, the present invention provides a pay-as-you-go method, comprising: a first step of obtaining a frequency of use using a service information table when a charging system receives charging information; A second step of obtaining a billing plan ID using a usage-based billing policy table (a table for managing a pay-as-you-go billing policy that varies depending on service usage time) after the billing system checks whether the billing method is a pay-as-you-go system; A third step of obtaining, by the billing system, a cumulative usage amount using a billing history table; The billing system uses the cumulative usage-based billing policy table (a table for managing a pay-as-you-go billing policy that varies depending on the cumulative usage of a particular service user), the obtained billing plan ID, the cumulative usage amount, and the obtained usage frequency. A fourth step of obtaining a fare ID; And a fifth step of determining, by the billing system, the billed amount of the received billing information based on the service usage time and the accumulated usage of the fee ID.

Description

Method for managing variant pricing policy by the service time and service usage log}

1 is a configuration example of a charging system to which the present invention is applied.

2 is a correlation diagram between a charging policy and a service management table in accordance with the present invention;

3 is a structural diagram of an embodiment of a service information table used in the present invention;

Figure 4 is a structure diagram of an embodiment of a policy table that is applied differently for each service usage time according to the present invention.

Figure 5 is a structure diagram of one embodiment of a policy table that is applied differently according to the cumulative usage of the service user in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 6 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of a pay-as-you-go billing method according to the service usage time and the cumulative usage of a service user according to the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings

11: service user 12: service provider

13: billing system 14: service billing policy DB

15: Service user history DB

The present invention relates to a pay-as-you-go billing method according to the service usage time and the cumulative usage of the service user. More specifically, the billed amount of the pay-per-use billing policy determines the billing amount according to the service usage time. This paper relates to the billing method based on the service usage time and the cumulative usage of the service user for accommodating the billing policy that is changed according to the system through a simple database structure.

Most pay-as-you-go billing systems either accept a simple pay-as-you-go system that determines a certain billing amount in proportion to the usage, regardless of the time of service usage or the cumulative usage of the service user, or construct a DB table that accommodates only the billing policy required to provide your own services. By providing additional billing policies, DB tables are organized as many as billing policies, so the management of billing policies is inefficient or the flexibility of extension to billing policies is low. For example, if a billing system wants to use a discount policy at a certain time of day every day, {service ID, discount start time (xx hours xx minutes xx seconds), discount end time (xx hours xx minutes xx seconds) The DB table of the billed amount (or discount rate)} will be constructed and the billed amount will be determined. If you add a policy that provides additional discounts for excess users to users who use more than the standard frequency in the discount period, additionally configure a DB table consisting of {ServiceID, Reference Frequency, Discount Rate}, and the previous billing policy table. Will have to reference with. In addition, if you add a policy that charges a flat fee to users who use the service for free from 1st to the 2nd of every day of the month or use a different standard frequency during the discount period, an additional DB table is required.

Therefore, based on the change of the pay-as-you-go billing policy according to the usage time and the change of the pay-as-you-go billing policy according to the service user's usage, or the mixed result of the two criteria, A billing method is required.

The present invention has been proposed to meet the above requirements, and provides a pay-as-you-go billing method for accommodating a billing policy that changes according to service usage time and cumulative usage of a service user through a simple DB structure. have.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a pay-as-you-go method, comprising: a first step of obtaining a usage frequency using a service information table when a charging system receives charging information; A second step of obtaining a billing plan ID using a usage-based billing policy table (a table for managing a pay-as-you-go billing policy that varies depending on service usage time) after the billing system checks whether the billing method is a pay-as-you-go system; A third step of obtaining, by the billing system, a cumulative usage amount using a billing history table; The billing system uses the cumulative usage-based billing policy table (a table for managing a pay-as-you-go billing policy that varies depending on the cumulative usage of a particular service user), the obtained billing plan ID, the cumulative usage amount, and the obtained usage frequency. A fourth step of obtaining a fare ID; And a fifth step of determining, by the billing system, the billed amount for the received billing information based on the service usage time and the accumulated usage of the fee ID.

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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 an exemplary configuration diagram of a charging system to which the present invention is applied.

As shown in FIG. 1, when the service provider 12 provides a pay-as-you-go service to the service user 11, the service usage amount should be determined. In this case, the billing system 13 may calculate and vary the amount based on the payment based on the service billing policy DB 14 according to a predetermined service provision time and the service user usage DB 15 up to the service provision point.

The charging policy management DB required according to the present invention has a correlation as shown in FIG.

2 is a correlation diagram between a charging policy and a service management table according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, every service has a table containing general information of the service, and each service may be referred to as a service ID.

Each service has one or more usage-based pricing tables, and each usage-based pricing table cannot be included in more than one service information table. In addition, each usage-based billing table has one or more cumulative usage-based billing tables, and each cumulative usage-based billing table cannot be included in two or more usage-based billing tables.

Each service has various attributes (service name, normal / stop / cancellation, etc.) for its service provision and management, and the DB table structure for this varies from billing system to billing system.

Therefore, the present invention pays attention to information for the pay-as-you-go among the attributes of such a service, and it is assumed that the service information table is configured as shown in FIG. 3 to explain the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, each service has a service ID of "service ID", and "ratetype" is a field regarding whether to take a pay-per-use or another charging method, and is effective for the present invention only when "ratetype" is a pay-per-use. Do. "Unitkind" refers to the unit of the pay-per-count calculation, such as whether the service is pay-per-use, pay-per-second, or pay-per-minute, and "unit" is the unit of frequency calculation that is the basis for billing calculation.

That is, in the case of the metering system that calculates three minutes by one degree, "unit" is "3" and "unitkind" is "minute".

Meanwhile, assuming that there is a service information table as shown in FIG. 3, the present invention proposes a table structure as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 to manage charging policies of various variable pay-as-you-go.

4 is a structural diagram of an embodiment of a policy table applied differently according to service usage time according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, as the usage-based fee policy table, "validstart" and "validend" indicate the validity period of the corresponding policy, "period" and "periodtype" indicate the period of the corresponding policy, and " applystart "is the start time when the tariff is applied, and" applyend "is the end time when the tariff is applied.

For example, if the charges from the 1st to the 10th of the previous month and the 11th of the previous month to the end of the month represent different billing policies, the usage-based billing policy table will contain a tuple corresponding to the corresponding "service ID". There are two, and each tuple has a "period" of "2", a "periodtype" of "month", and an "applystart" of the first tuple of 0,0: 0,0: 0, "applyend" Becomes 23:59:59 seconds on the 10th of yyyy mm. In the second tuple, "applystart" would be 0: 0: 0 second on mm11, yyyy, and "applyend" would be 0: 0: 0 second on mm + 1 January. Here, mm month yyyy specifies any value before the validity period of the relevant policy.

The limitations are that "period", "periodtype", "validstar" t, "validend" of "timepolicyid" (rate plan ID) belonging to the same "serviceid" are the same, and the smallest "applystart" of such "timepolicyid" The interval between "and the largest" applyend "is equal to the period indicated by" period / periodtype ", and the areas indicated by" applystart "and" applyend "of each" timepolicyid "should not overlap each other. Also, all "applystart" and "applyend" times should be less than "validstart".

5 is a structural diagram of an embodiment of a policy table that is applied differently according to a cumulative usage amount of a service user according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 5, "periodstart" represents the applied usage frequency at which the application is started, "periodend" represents the applied usage frequency at which the application is finished, and "fixedrate" is represented by "periodstart" and "periodend". "Scaled rate" represents the amount to be charged per 1 degree within the interval.

For example, in a pay-as-you-go system with a 3-minute billing rate, if you express a billing policy that charges 1,000 won for the first 60 minutes, charges 50 won for every 3 minutes, and charges 20 won for every 3 minutes over 120 minutes, In the policy table, there are three tuples corresponding to the corresponding "timepolicyID", the first tuple "periodstart" and "periodend" are 1 and 20, the second tuple is 21 and 40, the third tuple is 41 and infinity. do.

As a restriction, the sections represented by "periodstart" and "periodend" of "ratepolicyid" (rate ID) corresponding to the same "timepolicyID" and "serviceID" should not have overlapping areas.

The operation of the pay-per-use billing method according to the service usage time and the cumulative usage of the service user of the present invention having the structure as described above will be described in detail as follows.

6 to be described below is a description of a pay-as-you-go billing method for determining the billing amount based on the service billing policy table as shown in FIGS. 3 to 5 and the service history DB of the service user.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a pay-as-you-go method according to a service usage time and a cumulative usage amount of a service user according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 6, the billing system charges a user ID (a), a service ID (b), a time of use [d], a usage amount [d] from a service providing apparatus (service provider), and the like. Information is received (601).

Subsequently, when the rate type of the service ID (serviceID) is pay-as-you-go, the billing system divides the usage amount into charge units (represented by "unit" and "unitkind") [e] with reference to the service information table and uses it. Obtain the frequency [bar] (602). For example, if the billing unit is 3 minutes (unit = 3, unitkind = minutes) and the usage amount is 3 minutes and 30 seconds, the frequency of use is 2.

On the other hand, the billing system checks whether the rate type is pay-as-you-go (603), and if it is not a pay-as-you-go, proceeds to the predetermined subscription processing routine 609, and if it is a pay-as-you-go, the service ID of the usage-based rate policy table Of the tuples with the given serviceID (serviceID) [I], the given time of use [d] is included in the interval between "validstart" and "validend" (that is, the interval in which the policy is valid) and calculated by "applystart" and "applyend". A tariff plan ID (timepolicy ID) [h] of tuples included in the applicable section (i.e., the tariff section) is obtained (604).

Here, the rate application period is added to the "applystart" and the "applyend" by the application period (expressed by "period" / "periodtype"), and the fee application period can be included if it can be included. The "applystart" + multiples of the application period and the multiples of "applyend" + application period are assumed to be included in the charge application period.

Subsequently, the billing system accumulates and converts the usage amount of the data belonging to the charge application section [company] obtained in step 604 from the billing history table of UserID [A] to the frequency of use using the billing unit [e]. The cumulative consumption [character] is calculated (605, 606).

After that, the billing system calculates the rate plan ID (timepolicyID) and service ID (serviceID) of the cumulative usage-based rate policy table in step 604 and the given service ID (ServiceID) [b]. Among the tuples, such as "periodstart" and "periodend", the cumulative usage obtained in the "606" process and the cumulative usage [in] + "602" ] And the rate ID (ratepolicy ID) [car] overlapping the region (additional usage interval) (607).

After that, the billing system determines the billing amount [ka] by multiplying the number of rates by which the cumulative section of each rate ID (ratepolicyID) [difference] of the process “607” and the additional use section are multiplied by the scaled rate. A fixed rate is added to the billed amount [ka] for the rate ID (ratepolicyID), which is not duplicated with [i] but overlaps with the additional usage period (608). The sum of the billed amounts of each section thus obtained is the billed amount for the billing information given in step 601.

As described above, the service usage time according to the present invention and the pay-per-use billing method according to the cumulative usage of the service user will be described as follows.

-Service billing policy: 100 won per 3 minutes from the 1st to 10th of the previous month, 200 won for the second month, and 200 won after that, and a flat fee of 1000 won for 60 minutes from the 11th of the previous month to the end of the month, 60 If the amount exceeds 120 minutes, a fixed amount of 500 won shall be charged, and if it exceeds 120 minutes, the amount shall be charged 50 won per 3 minutes, which shall apply from August 1, 2002.

Table composition

<Service Information Table>

<Price Policy Table based on Time of Use>

<Accumulated usage fee policy table>

-Example of calculating the billed amount

If a user named user A has a cumulative frequency of 19 degrees as of August 20, a charge of 90 minutes of usage occurs.

The frequency of use is "30" by the "602" process, and the application period in the "604" process includes August 20, the current time, when the application period is added from June 11 to July 31. The selected plan ID (timepolicyID) is 'b'.

Since the cumulative frequency of use is 19 degrees in the process of "605" and "606", the rate ID (ratepolicyID) included in the additional use interval of [19,19 + 30] in the process of "607" c), d), e) to be.

In the case of c), since the overlapped area is [20,20] and is also included in the previous cumulative usage, the fixed rate is not added and 1 * scaled rate = 0 won is determined.

In case of d), it is not included in the previous cumulative usage, so fixed rate + 20 * scaled rate = 500 won.

E) In case of overlapping area [41,49] and not included in the previous cumulative usage, fixed rate + 9 * scaled rate = 180 won. The final bill is therefore 0 + 500 + 180 = 680 won.

As described above, the present invention focuses on the main elements of the existing pay-as-you-go policy based on the service time and the usage history of the service user, and makes these elements into a database in the most general manner, and determines the billed amount therefrom.

The method of the present invention as described above may be implemented as a program and stored in a computer-readable recording medium (CD-ROM, RAM, ROM, floppy disk, hard disk, magneto-optical disk, etc.).

The present invention described above is not limited to the above-described embodiments and the accompanying drawings, and various substitutions, modifications, and changes are possible in the art without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. It will be clear to those of ordinary knowledge.

The present invention as described above, when building a pay-as-you-go billing system, it is possible to simply express various billing policies according to the usage time and cumulative usage without additional database (DB) structure, which can freely expand or change the billing policy. There is.

Claims (5)

In the pay-as-you-go charging method, A first step of obtaining, by the billing system, billing information using the service information table; A second step of obtaining a billing plan ID using a usage-based billing policy table (a table for managing a pay-as-you-go billing policy that varies depending on service usage time) after the billing system checks whether the billing method is a pay-as-you-go system; A third step of obtaining, by the billing system, a cumulative usage amount using a billing history table; The billing system uses the cumulative usage-based billing policy table (a table for managing a pay-as-you-go billing policy that varies depending on the cumulative usage of a particular service user), the obtained billing plan ID, the cumulative usage amount, and the obtained usage frequency. A fourth step of obtaining a fare ID; And A fifth step of determining, by the billing system, the billed amount for the received billing information based on the service usage time and cumulative usage amount of the fee ID; Pay-per-use billing method comprising a. The method of claim 1, The first step is, When the billing system receives billing information such as a user ID, a service ID, a use time, and a usage amount from a service providing device, the billing system divides the amount of usage by the billing unit and rounds up the number of bills by referring to the service information table, The second step, After the billing system checks whether the billing method is a pay-as-you-go system, the received usage time is included in the validity period of the tariff policy and is included in the tariff application period from the tuple whose service ID of the tariff policy table is the received service ID. Get the tuition plan ID for the tuple, The third step, The billing system calculates a cumulative usage amount by referring to the billing history table of the received user ID, converting the amount of the data belonging to the fee application section into the number of uses using the billing unit, The fourth step, The billing system calculates the cumulative usage and cumulative usage from the tuples such as the tariff plan ID and the service ID obtained from the tariff plan ID and the service ID of the tariff usage policy table. Get rate IDs overlapping usage frequency and zone (additional usage interval), The fifth step, The billing system determines the billing amount by multiplying the number of charges per unit by the frequency of overlapping the cumulative section and the additional usage section of each charge ID, and the billing ID is not duplicated with the calculated cumulative usage but overlaps with the additional usage section. And after adding a fixed rate to the settled billing amount for, sums the billed amount of each section to determine the billed amount for the input billing information. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The usage time based policy table, A pay-as-you-go billing method comprising a term of validity of the tariff, a period of the tariff, a start time to which the tariff applies, and an end time to which the tariff applies. The method of claim 3, wherein The cumulative usage based policy table, Applied usage frequency at which application starts, applied usage frequency at which application is terminated, fixed amount charged when cumulative usage amount first enters into the accumulated section, and pay-as-you-go fee Charging method. delete

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