KR101406974B1 - Method and apparatus for processing bill - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for processing a bill.
To this end, the billing processor analyzes the billing information generated according to the call call using the packet-based call service, extracts service identification information that can identify a carrier of the packet-based call service from a plurality of call information included in the billing information, Communication network information capable of identifying a carrier of a communication network used for call, caller information capable of identifying a caller of a call, caller information capable of identifying a caller of a call, and billing information analysis A subscriber information storage unit for storing subscriber information of the packet-based call service corresponding to the caller information or the called party information, and subscriber information corresponding to caller information or called party information acquired by the billing information analysis unit from the subscriber information storage unit A charging object selection unit for reading out and selecting the object as a charging object, And a billing data generation unit for generating billing data to be charged at the billing object selected by the billing object selection unit based on a plurality of pieces of call information acquired by the billing information analysis unit.

Description

[0001] METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING BILL [0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for charging a call, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for charging a call using a packet-based call service such as mVoIP (Mobile Voice over Internet Protocol) service.

As is known, VoIP is a technology that converts voice to a digital packet (the minimum unit of data transmission) over a network using an IP address and transmits it. In other words, it is called Internet phone.

In recent years, VoIP has evolved into mVoIP as the mobile Internet has evolved through smartphones. In other words, it is called mobile internet phone. mVoIP is a technology that allows users to make Internet calls to mobile phones using wireless mobile Internet such as WiFi, 3G, and 4G networks. The mVoIP service is growing at a rapid pace as smartphones become popular, and smartphone users are all potential mVoIP users.

VoIP and mVoIP are being offered in various forms such as PC-to-PC, PC-to-phone, and telephone-to-phone. However, mVoIP uses a wireless network in any form. On the other hand, in the case of a mobile communication network operator, in the case of using a wireless network resource established by itself in a packet-based call service such as an mVoIP service, it is necessary to perform billing according to traffic generation.

However, according to the related art, there is a problem that the mobile communication network provider can not perform the billing process in the packet-based call service.

Published Patent Publication No. 2011-0071312, published on June 29, 2011.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, when a call is made using a packet-based call service such as an mVoIP service, a call is charged for a call using the packet-based call service based on the billing information including the usage amount of the transmission packet according to the call call The present invention provides a billing apparatus and method capable of performing processing.

The problems to be solved by the present invention are not limited to those mentioned above, and another problem to be solved can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the billing information generated according to the call call using the packet-based call service is analyzed, and service identification information that can identify the service provider of the packet-based call service, among the plurality of call information included in the billing information, Communication network information for identifying a carrier of a communication network used for the call, caller information capable of identifying a caller of the call, caller information capable of identifying a caller of the call, and communication usage information A subscriber information storage unit that stores subscriber information of the packet-based call service corresponding to the caller information or the called-party information; and a subscriber information storage unit that stores the caller information or the called- The subscriber information corresponding to the < RTI ID = 0.0 > An accounting object selecting unit for reading out the billing data from the bill storing unit and selecting the billing object as an object of billing; and a billing object selecting unit for selecting billing data to be charged from the billing object selected by the billing object selecting unit on the basis of the plurality of pieces of call information acquired by the billing information analyzing unit And a billing data generating unit for generating a billing data.

Here, the billing data generation unit may generate billing data for the data service by subtracting the usage amount of the transmission packet included in the communication use information from the usage amount of the billing object measured according to the use of the data service.

Wherein the billing information analyzing unit is configured to determine whether a packet transmitted according to the call call is an incoming packet from among the plurality of call information, origination identification information indicating whether a packet transmitted according to the call is an outgoing packet, At least one of network type information that can identify the type of communication network used for the call or call type information that can identify whether the call is a voice call or a video call.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling a packet-based call service, the method comprising: receiving charging information generated according to a call call using a packet-based call service; analyzing the received charging information to extract, from among a plurality of call information included in the charging information, Service identification information for identifying a service provider of the service, communication network information for identifying a carrier of a communication network used for the call, caller information for identifying a caller of the call, information for identifying a caller of the call, The method comprising the steps of: acquiring caller information and communication usage information according to the call; reading out subscriber information of the packet-based call service corresponding to the caller information or the called party information from a database and selecting it as a billing target; Based on the plurality of call information, It provides a charging processing method capable of generating a billing data to charge.

Here, the generating of the billing data may include generating billing data for the data service by subtracting a usage amount of the transmission packet included in the communication use information from the usage amount of the billing object measured according to the use of the data service .

According to the embodiment of the present invention, when a call is made using a packet-based call service such as an mVoIP service, based on billing information including communication usage information (for example, usage amount information of a transmission packet or call time information) And perform a charging process on the call signal using the packet-based call service.

In addition, by generating billing data by subtracting the packet usage amount of the packet-based call service from the packet usage amount of the billing object measured according to the use of the data service, it is possible to prevent duplicate billing from being performed on the packet by the packet- .

1 is a block diagram of a billing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an mVoIP service network to which a billing apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention can be applied.
3 is a block diagram showing another example of an mVoIP service network to which a billing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention can be applied.
4 is a block diagram showing another example of an mVoIP service network to which a billing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention can be applied.
FIG. 5 is a structure diagram showing a field structure of mVoIP charging information provided by the charging apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention for charging.
6 is a flowchart for explaining a billing processing method by the billing processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The advantages and features of the present invention and the manner of achieving them will become apparent with reference to the embodiments described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the invention to those skilled in the art. Is provided to fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art, and the invention is only defined by the scope of the claims.

In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear. The following terms are defined in consideration of the functions in the embodiments of the present invention, which may vary depending on the intention of the user, the intention or the custom of the operator. Therefore, the definition should be based on the contents throughout this specification.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram of a billing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown, the billing apparatus 100 includes a billing information analysis unit 110, a subscriber information storage unit 120, a billing object selection unit 130, and a billing data generation unit 140.

The billing information analysis unit 110 analyzes the billing information generated according to the call call using the packet-based call service such as the mVoIP service, and identifies the service provider of the packet-based call service among the plurality of call information included in the billing information Service identification information, communication network information capable of identifying a carrier of a communication network used for a call, caller information capable of identifying a caller of a call, caller information capable of identifying a caller of a call, . For example, the communication use information may include usage amount information or call time information of a transmission packet by the packet-based call service.

In addition, the billing information analysis unit 110 analyzes the billing information generated according to the call call using the packet-based call service such as the mVoIP service, and determines whether the packet transmitted according to the call is an incoming packet, The call type identification information indicating whether the packet transmitted according to the call is an outgoing packet, the network type information capable of identifying the type of the communication network used for the call, the type of call capable of identifying whether the call is a voice call or a video call Information and so on.

The subscriber information storage unit 120 stores caller information of a call using a packet-based call service such as mVoIP service or subscriber information of a packet-based call service corresponding to caller information.

The billing object selecting unit 130 reads the subscriber information corresponding to the caller information or the called party information acquired by the billing information analysis unit 110 from the subscriber information storage unit 120 and selects the billing object.

The billing data generation unit 140 generates billing data to be charged from the billing object selected by the billing object selection unit 130 based on a plurality of pieces of call information obtained by the billing information analysis unit 110. [

Here, the billing information generated according to the call call using the packet-based call service analyzed by the billing information analysis unit 110 includes service identification information, communication network information, sender information, recipient information, communication use information, Information of a network type, information of a call type, and the like, and may not include some call information. For example, it may not include the caller identification information or the caller identification information, the network type information, the call category information, and the like.

On the other hand, a plurality of call information provided to the billing processing apparatus 100 and the generation time of the billing information including the billing information may be generated at the time of generation or end of the call by the packet-based call service such as mVoIP service. Or during a call by a packet-based call service.

The billing information analyzed by the billing information analysis unit 110 may have a structure as illustrated in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 5, the billing information 500 includes a header field 510 and a data field 520. The data field 520 includes a field 521 for recording the service identification information, a field 522 for recording the communication network information, a field 523 for recording the sender information, a field 524 for recording the receiver information, A field 526 for recording the reception identification information or the transmission identification information, a field 527 for recording the network type information, and a field 528 for recording the call type information.

Here, the service identification information is used to confirm which 3PP (third party player) service provider is the packet-based call service in the billing process.

The communication network information is used for mutual settlement among the operators operating the communication networks when a plurality of communication networks are used for the packet-based communication service.

The sender information and the called party information may be, for example, a telephone number or a user ID (IDentification). The user ID means information used for user identification when the called party or caller party of a call through a packet-based call service is a communication terminal device to which a telephone number is not assigned.

The communication usage information is used for the billing system which charges the usage fee according to the weight of usage. Here, the usage amount information of the transmission packet included in the communication use information can be used when carrying out the differential charging according to the packet usage amount like the general data charging, and the communication time information included in the communication use information is the same as the normal communication charge It can be used to perform differential billing according to the length.

The caller identification information or the caller identification information is used when an object of the billing process is selected. That is, in the case of a call through a packet-based call service, it can be measured by using an origination-side packet according to a general packet charge, and it can be measured by using an incoming-side packet. Accordingly, it is possible to perform a billing process based on a call call only to the sender, a billing process according to a call call only to the called party, or a billing process according to a call call to equally divide the call to the caller and the caller. At this time, it is possible to distinguish whether the call is an incoming call or an outgoing call based on the incoming call identification information or the outgoing call identification information.

The network type information can be used when the billing process needs to be different depending on the network type. For example, the present invention can be used when applying a different charging processing scheme (for example, a charging plan) in the case of using a WCDMA network, using a Wi-Fi network, using an LTE network, or the like.

The currency type information can be used when it is necessary to change the billing process according to the currency type. For example, it can be used when different billing processing methods (for example, a billing system) are applied when a voice call is made and when a video call is made.

Meanwhile, the billing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention can receive billing information generated by various entities according to a change in network configuration for a packet-based call service such as an mVoIP service. For example, it is possible to receive and process billing information generated by a communication terminal device carried by a user, a service providing server operated by 3PP, an exchange device operating a mobile communication network, a service device, or the like.

2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an mVoIP service network to which a billing apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention can be applied.

2, the mVoIP service network includes a communication terminal apparatus 201, a base station 202, a packet switch 203, a public communication network 204, a service providing server 205, a packet analyzing apparatus 206, Device 207 or the like.

In this network environment, the communication terminal apparatus 201 can generate billing information and transmit it to the packet switching center 203 upon transmission of the data packet. The packet switching center 203 provides the mVoIP service to the service providing server 205 And transmits the copied packet to the packet analyzing unit 206. The packet analyzing unit 206 analyzes the received packet. The packet analyzer 206 separates the billing information from the transmission packet and transmits the separated billing information to the billing processor 207. Then, the billing apparatus 207 can perform the billing process for the mVoIP call based on the billing information.

3 is a block diagram showing another example of an mVoIP service network to which a billing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention can be applied.

3, the mVoIP service network includes a communication terminal apparatus 301, a base station 302, a packet exchanger 303, a public communication network 304, service providing servers 305, 306 and 307, a billing apparatus 308 ) Can be implemented.

In this network environment, the service providing servers 305, 306, and 307 generate billing information according to the mVoIP service they are servicing, respectively, and transmit the billing information to the billing processing device 308. Then, the billing apparatus 308 can perform billing processing on the mVoIP call based on the billing information.

4 is a block diagram showing another example of an mVoIP service network to which a billing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention can be applied.

4, the mVoIP service network includes a communication terminal apparatus 401, a Wi-Fi AP 402, a packet exchanger 403, a Wi-Fi authentication server 404, a public communication network 405, 406, a packet analyzer 407, a billing processor 408, and the like.

In this network environment, the packet exchanger 403 generates billing information while relaying transmission packets between the communication terminal apparatus 401 and the service providing server 406, transmits the generated billing information to the packet analyzing apparatus 407, 407 transmits billing information separated from the received signal to the billing processing device 408. [ Then, the billing processing device 408 can perform billing processing on the mVoIP call based on the billing information.

Meanwhile, in the embodiment of FIGS. 2 to 4, the process of generating or transmitting billing information may be performed at a time point at which a call is generated or terminated by a packet-based call service such as an mVoIP service. Or during a call by a packet-based call service.

6 is a flowchart for explaining a billing information processing method by the billing processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

The process of receiving accounting information and generating billing data in the billing apparatus 100 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 6. FIG.

First, the billing information analysis unit 110 receives billing information generated according to a call using a packet-based call (hereinafter, referred to as mVoIP) service. For example, the billing information may include service identification information, communication network information, sender information, called party information, packet usage amount information, incoming identification information or originating identification information, network type information, currency type information, and the like (S601).

Then, the billing information analyzing unit 110 analyzes the received billing information to extract service identification information capable of identifying the mVoIP service provider, communication network information capable of identifying a carrier of the communication network, sender information capable of identifying the sender, Receiving destination identification information indicating whether a packet transmitted according to a call is an incoming packet, a call indicating whether a packet transmitted according to a call is an outgoing packet, Identification information, network type information capable of identifying the type of the communication network used for the call, currency type information capable of identifying whether the call is a voice call or a video call, and the like (S603 and S605).

The billing object selecting unit 130 reads the subscriber information of the mVoIP service corresponding to the caller information or the called party information obtained by the billing information analyzing unit 110 from the database, that is, the subscriber information storage unit 120, (S607).

Next, the billing data generation unit 140 generates billing data to be charged from the billing object selected by the billing object selection unit 130, based on a plurality of pieces of call information obtained by the billing information analysis unit 110. [ At this time, the billing data generating unit 140 generates billing data for the data service by subtracting the usage amount of the mVoIP packet from the billing amount of the billing object measured according to the use of the data service. Then, duplicate charging is not performed on the mVoIP packet (S609 and S611).

In addition, the billing data generation unit 140 generates a billing data based on usage amount information of transmission packets contained in the communication use information, which is one of a plurality of call information, Based on the call time information included in the communication use information, and perform a differential charging process for imposing a usage fee based on the length of the talk time for the packet-based call service.

Each block of the block diagrams attached hereto and combinations of steps of the flowchart diagrams may be performed by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded into a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus so that the instructions, which may be executed by a processor of a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, And means for performing the functions described in each step are created. These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer usable or computer readable memory capable of directing a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to implement the functionality in a particular manner so that the computer usable or computer readable memory It is also possible for the instructions stored in the block diagram to produce a manufacturing item containing instruction means for performing the functions described in each block or flowchart of the block diagram. Computer program instructions may also be stored on a computer or other programmable data processing equipment so that a series of operating steps may be performed on a computer or other programmable data processing equipment to create a computer- It is also possible that the instructions that perform the processing equipment provide the steps for executing the functions described in each block of the block diagram and at each step of the flowchart.

Also, each block or each step may represent a module, segment, or portion of code that includes one or more executable instructions for executing the specified logical function (s). It should also be noted that in some alternative embodiments, the functions mentioned in the blocks or steps may occur out of order. For example, two blocks or steps shown in succession may in fact be performed substantially concurrently, or the blocks or steps may sometimes be performed in reverse order according to the corresponding function.

The foregoing description is merely illustrative of the technical idea of the present invention, and various changes and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the essential characteristics of the present invention. Therefore, the embodiments disclosed in the present invention are intended to illustrate rather than limit the scope of the present invention, and the scope of the technical idea of the present invention is not limited by these embodiments. The scope of protection of the present invention should be construed according to the following claims, and all technical ideas within the scope of equivalents should be construed as falling within the scope of the present invention.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to use the packet-based call service such as the mVoIP service using the wireless network established by the mobile communication network provider for billing in an environment providing a call connection service such as voice call or video call .

100: billing apparatus 110: billing information analysis unit
120: subscriber information storage unit 130: billing object selection unit
140 billing data generation unit 500 billing information
510: header field 520: data field

Claims (5)

Based on the call information using the packet-based call service, service identification information for identifying a carrier of the packet-based call service from a plurality of call information included in the billing information, A call originator information for identifying a caller of the call, a caller information for identifying a caller of the call, communication use information according to the call, An accounting information analyzing unit for obtaining accounting information indicating whether a packet to be transmitted is an incoming packet and origination identification information indicating whether a packet transmitted according to the call is an outgoing packet ;
A subscriber information storage unit for storing caller information or subscriber information of the packet based call service corresponding to the called party information;
An accounting object selection unit for reading out the subscriber information corresponding to the caller information or the called party information acquired by the billing information analysis unit from the subscriber information storage unit and selecting the billing object as a billing object,
On the basis of the call information of the plurality of acquired by the charging information analyzing unit, and generating charging data to be imposed on the selected charging destination by the accounting object selection section, depending on the source identification information according to the call number to the sender And performing a charging process of performing a charging process of a packet to be transmitted or a charging process of a packet transmitted according to the calling call to the called party according to the calling destination identification information, And a charging data generating unit for generating charging data for the data service by subtracting the usage amount of the transmission packet included in the communication use information from the packet usage amount
Billing device. delete The method according to claim 1,
The charging information analyzing unit may acquire at least one or more of network type information capable of identifying a type of a communication network used for the call or call type information capable of identifying whether the call call is a voice call or a video call doing
Billing device. Receiving billing information generated according to a call call using the packet-based call service,
Analyzing the received billing information to extract service identification information for identifying a carrier of the packet-based call service from a plurality of call information included in the billing information, a communication network capable of identifying a carrier of a communication network used for the call, Information indicating callers of the call, caller information identifying a called party of the call, communication use information according to the call, and information indicating whether a packet transmitted according to the call is an incoming packet Acquiring caller identification information and origination identification information indicating whether a packet transmitted according to the call call is an outgoing packet ;
Reading the subscriber information of the packet-based call service corresponding to the caller information or the called-party information from a database and selecting the subscriber information as a billing object;
Performs a billing process for a packet transmitted according to the call call to the caller according to the caller identification information or performs a billing process for performing a billing process for a packet transmitted according to the call call to the called party according to the caller identification information And generating billing data to be charged at the billing object based on the obtained plurality of call information, wherein a usage amount of the transmission packet included in the communication use information in the packet usage amount measured according to the use of the data service is And generating the accounting data for the data service by subtracting
Batch processing method.
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