KR101177100B1 - Apparatus and method for charging communication service - Google Patents

Abstract

Communication charging apparatus and method are disclosed. The present invention provides a packet receiver for receiving a packet transmitted and received between a mobile terminal and a content providing device, a packet analyzer for checking whether one or more request signals or response signals included in the packet are included, and a plurality of request signals are included in the packet. If it is, the storage unit for storing the plurality of request signals, the response signal and the request signal stored in the storage unit is matched according to the order received, the charging element information included in the matched request signal and the response signal Reference to the charging information generating unit for generating the charging information. According to the present invention, the charging process for the pipeline transmission method is performed only when a plurality of request signals are included in a single packet, so that the request signal is not stored when the pipeline transmission method is not used.

Communication, billing

Description

Apparatus and method for charging communication service}

The present invention relates to a communication charging apparatus and method, and more particularly, to a communication charging apparatus and method for a pipeline transmission scheme.

HTTP is basically a data transmission protocol in which one response signal corresponding to one request signal is transmitted.

However, according to HTTP, another request signal cannot be transmitted before a response signal for one request signal is received in the corresponding session, and thus a delay occurs until the response signal is received.

In order to prevent such a delay phenomenon, a pipeline transmission scheme in which a plurality of request signals are continuously transmitted in a single session and a plurality of corresponding response signals are continuously received is used.

However, in order to perform billing for the use of the pipelined communication service, all request signals must be stored. Therefore, there is a problem in that the storage area is limited and the load is increased due to session management.

An object of the present invention is to propose a communication charging device and method for performing a charging process for a pipeline transmission method only when a plurality of request signals are included in a single packet.

According to an aspect of the invention, the packet receiving unit for receiving a packet transmitted and received between the mobile terminal and the content providing device; A packet analyzer to determine whether one or more request signals or response signals included in the packet are included; A storage unit storing the plurality of request signals when the packet includes a plurality of request signals; And a charging information generation unit matching the response signal with the request signal stored in the storage unit and generating charging information by referring to the matched request signal and charging element information included in the response signal. A billing device is provided.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for analyzing charging for the use of a communication service of the charging device, the method comprising: receiving a packet transmitted and received between the mobile terminal and the content providing device; Checking whether one or more request signals or response signals included in the packet are included; If the packet includes a plurality of request signals, storing the plurality of request signals; Matching the response signal with the request signal in an order of receipt; There is provided a charging analysis method comprising generating charging information by referring to charging element information included in the matched request signal and the response signal.

According to the present invention, the charging process for the pipeline transmission method is performed only when a plurality of request signals are included in a single packet, so that the request signal is not stored when the pipeline transmission method is not used.

Since the present invention does not store all request signals, there is an advantage that the load of session management is reduced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention is capable of various modifications and various embodiments, and specific embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the detailed description. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not to be limited to the specific embodiments, but includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention. In the following description of the present invention, when it is determined that the detailed description of the related known technology may obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In order to facilitate a thorough understanding of the present invention, the same reference numerals are used for the same means regardless of the number of the drawings.

1 is a diagram illustrating a mobile communication charging system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The mobile communication charging system includes a mobile terminal 110, a charging device 120, a content providing device 130, and a charging information storage device 140.

The mobile terminal 110 is a terminal capable of connecting to the Internet through a WCDMA communication network, and requests and receives contents from the content providing server 130 via the charging device 120.

The charging device 120 analyzes a packet of data transmitted and received between the mobile terminal 110 and the content providing device 130 to perform charging. The charging device 120 may transmit a packet corresponding to a signal for requesting content from the mobile terminal 110 to the content server 130 (hereinafter referred to as a request signal) and a request signal from the content server 130 to the mobile terminal 110. The charging information is generated by referring to the charging related information (hereinafter referred to as charging element information) extracted from the packet (hereinafter referred to as a response packet) to which the corresponding content data is transmitted. The charging device 120 transmits the charging information to the charging information storage device 140. In this case, the charging element information includes at least one of a packet size in the IP layer, a packet size in the application layer, a destination URL, a content size, a user agent, and a packet arrival time.

The billing information storage device 140 includes a database for storing billing information of service users, and bills the user according to the billing information received from the billing device 120. For example, the charging information storage device 140 calculates and stores the communication service fee of the service user according to the received charging information. In addition, the billing information storage device 140 may store, in the case of a user who has prepaid a communication service fee, a sum of a prepaid amount, which is subtracted from the billing information.

2A is a diagram illustrating a case in which a single request signal and a response signal are sequentially transmitted according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2B is a request signal and response signal according to a pipeline type according to an embodiment of the present invention. A diagram illustrating a case of transmission.

The transmission method according to FIG. 2A is a transmission method (hereinafter, referred to as a general transmission method) in which one request signal is transmitted, followed by a response signal. This is a general transmission order of request and response signals, and the charging information storage device 140 may generate charging information by pairing a request packet and a response packet assuming that a response signal follows the request signal.

In the general transmission method, since the mobile station 110 does not transmit the request packet before receiving the response packet, a delay may occur.

2B is a transmission method (hereinafter, referred to as a pipeline transmission method) in which the mobile terminal 110 sequentially transmits a request signal in a pipeline format and sequentially receives a response signal corresponding to each request signal. If the time taken to transmit the response packet after receiving the request signal at 130 is long, it may be more efficient than the general transmission method of FIG. 2A.

The charging device 120 stores the request signals in order to generate the charging information according to the pipeline transmission method, and then generates charging information for each pair of signals at the time when the response signal is transmitted. For example, the charging device 120 confirms the transmission of the request signals REQUEST1, REQUEST2, and REQUEST3, and stores each request signal in order. At this time, the charging device 120 may have a database capable of storing the request signal, or may access and connect to an external database to store and load data. The charging device 120 pairs the response signals RESPONSE1, RESPONSE2 and RESPONSE3 transmitted by the content providing device 130 to the user terminal 110 with the request signal, and generates charging information corresponding to each pair. At this time, since the charging device 120 receives the response signals in the order corresponding to the request signal, the charging device 120 may generate the charging information by pairing with the stored request signals in the received order.

3 is a diagram illustrating a charging device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, the charging device 120 includes a packet receiver 310, a packet analyzer 320, a storage 330, and a charging information generator 340.

The packet receiver 310 detects a packet transmitted between the mobile terminal 110 and the content providing device 130. That is, the packet receiver 310 includes a packet including a request signal transmitted from the mobile terminal 110 to the content providing apparatus 130 and a response signal transmitted from the content providing apparatus 130 to the mobile terminal 110. Detect the transmission of a packet.

The packet analyzer 320 confirms that the detected packet includes one or more request signals or response signals.

If the packet includes a plurality of request signals, the storage unit 330 stores the plurality of request signals. In this case, the storage unit 330 may include a database for storing the request signal, and may separately include a database for managing the plurality of stored request signals. A database for managing the request signal will be described later with reference to FIG. 4.

In the pipeline transmission, when the plurality of request signals are stored in the storage unit 330 and the plurality of response signals are received in the pipeline transmission, the charging information generation unit 340 receives the same order of receiving the request signals and the response signals. The charging element information is extracted from the matched request signal and the response signal. Subsequently, the charging information generation unit 340 generates charging information by referring to the extracted charging element information.

4 is a diagram illustrating a database for storing parameters for pipeline transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention.

A database storing parameters for pipeline transmission (hereinafter referred to as parameter DB) includes records for each pipeline, and each record includes a request signal number field 410, a start field 420, an offset field 430, Index field 440 is included.

The request signal number field 410 stores the number of request signals transmitted to the corresponding pipeline through the charging device 120 to the content providing device 130.

The start field 420 stores the address of the start point of the sector in which the first request signal transmitted to the pipeline through the charging device 120 to the content providing device 130 is stored.

The offset field 430 stores an offset from the start point indicating the end point of the sector in which the last request signal is stored.

Index field 440 stores an index for identifying the pipeline. Subsequently, the charging device 120 may access a parameter corresponding to each pipeline based on the index of the index field 440.

When the received packet includes a plurality of request signals, the charging device 120 determines that the transmission is a pipeline transmission and stores the plurality of request signals. At this time, the charging device 120 stores each parameter in a new record of the parameter DB. For example, the charging device 120 stores the number of request signals in the request number field 310, the address of the sector in which the first request signal is stored in the start field 420, and the last in the offset field 430. Stores an offset indicating the end point of the sector in which the request signal is stored.

In this case, the charging device 120 may store the plurality of request signals in a separate storage space, and may access them using the start field 420 and the end field 330. In addition, the charging device 120 may control the parameter DB to update the value of each field.

5 is a diagram illustrating a method of processing charging of a charging apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The charging device 120 receives a packet including a request signal from the mobile terminal 110 (505).

The charging device 120 determines whether a plurality of request signals are included in the received packet (510).

When the plurality of request signals are included in step 510, the charging device 120 counts the number of request signals received through the pipeline transmission and stores the received request signals (515).

The charging device 120 updates the parameter changed by the request signal stored in step 515 (520). For example, if the charging device 120 stores one request signal received in the pipeline transmission, the number of request signals is changed to 2, and the offset is added by adding the capacity of the request signal stored in step 415. do. Of course, if the charging device 120 stores the first request signal of the pipeline transmission, it stores the parameter information for this in a new record.

The charging device 120 determines whether there is an additional request signal in the received packet (525).

If the request signal is further included in step 525, the charging device 120 performs the process after step 510 again.

If the request signal is no longer included in step 525, the charging device 120 receives a packet including the response signal (530).

The charging device 120 loads the request signal according to the parameter and matches the response signal of the packet received in step 530. Subsequently, the charging device 120 generates charging information by combining charging element information of each signal (535).

The charging device 120 deletes the request signal loaded in step 535, and changes the parameter according to the deletion of the request signal (540). For example, the charging device 120 subtracts 1 from the number of request signals of the pipeline transmission, and changes the value of the start field 420 by the capacity of the request signal.

The charging device 120 determines whether a response signal is further included in the packet received in operation 530 (545).

If the response signal is further included in step 545, the charging device 120 performs the process after step 525.

If no response signal is further included in step 545, the charging device 120 terminates the charging process for the pipeline transmission.

When there is one request signal included in the packet received in step 505, the charging device 120 receives the packet including the response signal (550).

The charging device 120 extracts charging element information from the received response signal and the request signal, and generates the charging information by combining the charging element information (545).

Although the above has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as set forth in the claims below It will be appreciated that modifications and variations can be made.

1 is a diagram illustrating a mobile communication charging system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2A is a diagram illustrating a case where a request signal and a response signal are continuously transmitted according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2B is a diagram illustrating a case in which a request signal and a response signal according to a pipeline format are transmitted according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 illustrates a charging device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a diagram illustrating a database for storing parameters for pipeline transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a diagram illustrating a method for processing charging of a charging device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

110: mobile terminal 120: charging device

130: content providing device 140: billing information storage device

310: packet receiver 320: packet analyzer

330: storage unit 340: billing information generation unit

Claims (8)

A packet receiver configured to receive packets transmitted and received between the mobile terminal and the content providing apparatus; A packet analyzer to determine whether one or more request signals or response signals included in the packet are included; A storage unit which stores the request signal only in a reception order of the request signal when the packet includes a plurality of request signals; And a charging information generation unit matching the response signal with the request signal in the reception order and generating charging information by referring to the matched request signal and charging element information included in the response signal. The method according to claim 1, And the charging information generating unit generates corresponding charging information for each pair matched with the request signal and the response signal. The method according to claim 1, And the charging information generating unit transmits the generated charging information to a charging information storage device. delete A method for analyzing billing for use of a communication service of a billing device, Receiving a packet comprising one or more request signals; Storing the request signals only in the order in which the request signals are received when the packet includes a plurality of request signals; Receiving a packet comprising a response signal; Matching the response signal with the request signal in the reception order; And generating charging information by referring to the charging element information included in the matched request signal and the response signal. 6. The method of claim 5, The generating of the charging information may include generating charging information corresponding to each pair matched with the request signal and the response signal. 6. The method of claim 5, The generating of the charging information comprises the step of transmitting the generated charging information to the charging information storage device. delete

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