KR20070054490A - Method and system for operating billing policy - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and system of charging policy is disclosed. The method includes setting, by the central management apparatus, a billing menu including at least one billing item having rate information set thereon, and providing the set billing menu to the integrated manager terminal; When the at least one billing item is selected from the billing item provided in the integrated manager terminal, establishing a billing policy by the central management apparatus using the selected billing item; Recording, by the transmitting device, the access information by the access of the subscriber terminal and the content providing information by providing the content to the subscriber terminal, and transmitting the recorded access information and the content providing information to the central management apparatus; And extracting, by the central management apparatus, billing data that is the basis for billing calculation from the access information and the content providing information, and transmitting the extracted billing data to a billing server to calculate billing. It is characterized by including. Therefore, it is possible to vary the setting of the billing standard using the same system, and thus there is an effect that the billing policy can be operated in various ways without changing the system.

Terminal, network, billing policy

Description

 Charging policy operating method and system {METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR OPERATING BILLING POLICY}

1 is an overall configuration diagram of a charging policy operating system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 and 3 are schematic configuration diagrams of the integrated management device of FIG.

4 and 5 are web pages provided to an administrator terminal for setting a charging policy according to an embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a charging policy operating method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

*** Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings ***

100; Subscriber station 120; communications network

150; Billing server 200; Integrated management unit

220; Transmission device 240; Central management unit

242; Billing menu management unit 244; Billing policy establishment

246; Billing data extraction unit 260; Interface device

500; Billing menus 510-560; Surrender billing

The present invention relates to a method and system for operating a billing policy, and more particularly, to a billing policy operation for varying and setting billing conditions such as service provision type, content type, information and access channel of a connected terminal, etc. without changing the system. It relates to a method and a system.

The mobile communication system was a system for providing a mobile communication service that provides mobility to a wired telephone. However, according to the development of mobile communication technology, the development of the Internet, and the increasing needs of users, the mobile communication system is not only a voice telephone service but also a wireless communication network. It is evolving into a system that provides wireless Internet service. As various types of contents such as voice, images, and games are provided to a mobile terminal through a wireless Internet service, methods for setting a fee for using a mobile communication system are also increasing.

Accordingly, the additional service fee for the use of the content providing service is included in the mobile communication system fee as well as the call charge for using the voice telephone service, and the additional service fee is charged based on the amount of time and data using the service. Is common. This is a packet charging method in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) universal mobile communication system (UMTS), and the charging method not defined in the 3GPP UMTS standard is made through a predetermined system change.

For example, since the 3GPP UMTS standard does not define a standard for the content charging method, the 3GPP UMTS packet adds a special function to the GGSN, which serves as a gate between a terminal and an external network (Internet network) in the 3GPP UMTS packet network. .

As such, there is a problem in that the system must be changed in accordance with the setting criteria in order to change the standard for charging. In other words, through the same system, it is not possible to vary the billing standards in various ways, and therefore, there is a problem that it is difficult to satisfy the needs of service users that are diversified day by day.

The present invention was created in order to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to be able to vary the setting of the billing standard using the same system, and thus to operate the billing policy in various ways without changing the system. To provide a method and system for billing policies that can be utilized.

The charging policy operating method according to the first aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object, A-1) the central management device includes a billing menu that includes at least one or more billing items for which rate information is set; Setting and providing the set billing menu to the integrated manager terminal; A-2) if at least one billing item is selected from the billing item provided in the integrated manager terminal, establishing a billing policy by the central management apparatus using the selected billing item; A-3) transmitting, by the transmitting apparatus, the access information by the access of the subscriber terminal and the content providing information by providing the content to the subscriber terminal, and transmitting the recorded access information and the content providing information to the central management apparatus; And A-4) the central management apparatus extracts billing data that is the basis of billing calculation corresponding to the billing policy from the access information and the content providing information, and calculates billing by transmitting the extracted billing data to a billing server. It characterized in that it comprises a step to make.

In addition, the billing policy operating method according to the second aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object, B-1) the billing policy that the integrated management device includes at least one or more billing pricing items set rate information is set; Setting a menu and providing a set billing menu; B-2) the integrated management device to establish a charging policy by using at least one charging setting item selected from the charging setting menu; And B-3) calculating a charge for the content provided to the subscriber terminal in accordance with the established charge policy.

And the charging policy operating system according to the first aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object, the transmission device for recording the access information of the subscriber terminal and the content providing information for the content provided to the subscriber terminal; Setting a billing menu including at least one billing item having rate information set thereon; providing a set billing menu; establishing a billing policy according to at least one billing item selected from the billing menu; A central management device for extracting charging data corresponding to the charging policy from the access information and the content providing information received from the transmission device; And an interface device for transmitting the billing data received from the central management device to a billing server to calculate billing.

In addition, the billing policy management system according to the second aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object, the billing menu setting including at least one or more billing pricing items set rate information is set and the billing menu set An integrated management device for providing a charging policy according to at least one selected billing item in the billing menu; And charging data extracted from the access record of the subscriber station connected to the integrated management device and the content provision record by providing the content to the subscriber terminal in accordance with the charging policy, with reference to the rate information for each billing item. And a billing server for calculating.

Hereinafter, a charging policy operating method and system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and preferred embodiments. Like reference numerals designate like elements throughout the drawings.

First, the charging policy operating system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a charging policy operating system according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figures 2 and 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of the integrated management device of Figure 1, and Figures 4 and 5 an embodiment of the present invention According to an example, a web page provided to an administrator terminal to set a charging policy.

As shown in FIG. 1, the mobile communication system includes a communication network 120 and an integrated management device 200. In another application, at least one or more of a billing server 150 and a content providing device (not shown) may be provided. It includes more.

The communication network 120 includes a wired network and a wireless network, and connects the subscriber terminal 100, the content providing device, and the charging server 150.

The subscriber terminal 100 includes both a mobile communication terminal such as a cellular phone and a PDA capable of wireless communication, and a terminal capable of wired communication such as a computer. Preferably, the mobile phone includes a WAP 1. x and a WAP WP. This includes all phones that are classified according to the supported specs, such as 2.0.

As shown in FIG. 2, the integrated management device 200 has an open structure including a transmission device 220, a central management device 240, and an interface device 260 to be implemented together with other solutions. It can be a portal platform with flexibility and modularity, and establish a billing policy according to an optional billing item.

 That is, the transmission device 220 records the access information by the access of the subscriber terminal 100 and the content provision information by providing the content to the subscriber terminal.

On the other hand, preferably, the access information is all the information recorded in the transmission device in the process of the subscriber terminal 100 is connected to the integrated management device 240, the transmission device 220 is recorded through the process of authenticating the subscriber. .

For example, the transmission device 220 recognizes the terminal identification information or the subscriber identification information on the connected terminal, and recognizes that the connected terminal is the subscriber terminal 100 using the recognized information after recognizing the terminal information. At this time, the recognized information is recorded.

On the other hand, the terminal identification information refers to Mobile Identification Number (MIN) / Mobile Directory Number (MDN), MIN is a mobile station identification number is an identification number that the system recognizes the terminal. The MDN is often your own terminal number as you know it.

In addition, the subscriber identification information is identification information for identifying whether a terminal user connected to the integrated management device is a service subscriber, and usually means identification (ID). In addition, the terminal information refers to the specification information of the subscriber terminal 100 that supports a browser, such as a swap 1.x phone, a swap 2.x phone, a PDA, and a PC.

As such, the access information includes terminal identification information, subscriber identification information, and terminal information. Preferably, the subscriber terminal 100, such as Wired, CDMA 1x, CDMA 2000, WCDMA, and HSDPA, is connected to the integrated management apparatus 200. It further includes information about the access channel, that is, the communication network 120.

In addition, the transmission device 220 provides predetermined content to the authenticated subscriber station 100, and records predetermined information during content transmission. In this case, the recorded information is referred to as content providing information.

For example, when providing content to the subscriber terminal 100, the transmitting device 220 may provide information about content types such as poly information and pixel information of content provided and content size indicating a data amount for the content. Record information and information about the type of service that provides the content. The information recorded at this time is referred to as content providing information.

As shown in FIG. 3, the central management apparatus 240 includes a billing menu management unit 242, a billing policy establishing unit 244, a billing data extracting unit 246, and the like.

The billing menu manager 242 sets and manages a billing menu 500 including at least one of billing items 510 to 560 in which rate information is set.

On the other hand, the billing items (510 to 560) is the item of the billing standard, whether to charge differently according to the channel (communication network) 120 for connecting the subscriber terminal 100 to the integrated management device 200; The access channel item 510 to select the terminal, the terminal specification item 520 to select whether to charge differently according to the specification information of the subscriber terminal, the charge is set differently according to the type of service provided to the subscriber terminal A service type item 530 for selecting whether or not to be selected, a content information item 540 and 540 for selecting whether to charge differently according to the type of content provided to the subscriber terminal, and a manner in which the content is provided to the subscriber terminal. A content providing type item 560 for selecting whether to charge differently according to the user.

Each of the billing items 510 to 560 includes a small item in which different rate information is set. That is, the subitems of the terminal specification item 520, such as wired, CDMA 1x, CDMA 2000, WCDMA, and HSDPA, are small items of the access channel item 510. The sub-items of the service type item 530 may include content such as a photo service, a message service including a game, music, a short message service (SMS), a multimedia media service (MMS), and the like. The small items of the type item 560 include a general item and a bundle, and the small items of the content information items 530 and 540 include a content type 530 and a content size 540. The content type 530 again includes small items such as 16 poly, 24 poly, 64 poly, black & white color and 128 bit color, and the content size is 5 kb. Subitems such as less than, 5 kb or more, less than 10 kb, 10 kb or more, less than 50 kb, and 50 kb or more.

As described above, rates are set for each of the small items included in the billing items 510 to 560. Preferably, the set rates may be set differently according to the characteristics of the small items. For example, the terminal specification item 520 is described below.

The terminal specification has different rate information according to whether the subscriber terminal 100 is a wired terminal such as a computer or a mobile communication terminal such as a mobile phone, and even if the subscriber terminal 100 is a mobile phone, the mobile terminal specification supports the browser. The rate is set differently accordingly. In the case of a Wap 2.x phone, not only does it have all the support specifications of the Wap 1.x phone, but also supports more features, so the Wap 2.x phone may have a higher rate than the Wap 1.x phone. have. And preferably such rate information can be modified.

In addition, the rate information set in each sub-item for each billing item may be provided to the billing server 150 and managed in the form of a rate database (not shown).

In this way, the billing menu management unit 242 is composed of a variety of billing items to configure a billing menu 500 to select the billing criteria, the integrated manager terminal ( (Not shown).

Also, preferably, the billing menu management unit 242 may modify the billing menu 500 by adding a new billing item or deleting an existing billing item.

The charging establishment establishing unit 244 establishes a charging policy according to the charging establishment items 510 to 560 selected from at least one selected from the charging establishment menu 500. That is, the information on the billing items 520 and 530 selected through the billing menu 500 is received from the integrated manager terminal (not shown), and the received information is provided to the service provided to the subscriber station 100. Decide how you will charge.

For example, as shown in FIG. 5, when the terminal specification item 520 and the service type item 530 are selected by the integrated manager terminal, the charging establishment establishing unit 244 may use the terminal specification item 520 and the service. The charging policy is established according to the type item 530. That is, the charging policy establishing unit 244 includes the terminal specification item 520 and the service type item 530 as reference information for setting the charge for the service provided to the subscriber terminal 100.

The sub-items included in the terminal specification item 520 and the service type item 530, respectively, serve as a basis for generating billing data that is the basis for the actual billing calculation. This will be described in more detail as follows.

The charging data extracting unit 246 extracts the charging data corresponding to the charging policy established by the charging policy establishing unit 244 among the access information and the content providing information received from the transmission device 220.

That is, the access information and the content providing information received by the charging data extraction unit 246 are "CDMA", "Wap 2.x phone", "Game", "Bundle", "64 Poly", "128 bit color". In the above example, since the charging policy establishing unit 44 has established the charging policy based on the terminal specification item 520 and the service type item 530, the information indicating the " and " 50kb or more " "Wap 2.x phone" corresponding to the terminal specification item 520 and "game" corresponding to the service type item 530 are extracted as billing data. The extracted charging data is transmitted to the charging server 150 through the interface device 260.

In this case, the charging data is not limited to the small items corresponding to the terminal specification item 520 and the service type item 530, and also includes information standardized by a packet charging method such as 3GPP UMTS standard.

The interface device 260 transmits the charging data received from the central management apparatus 40 to the charging server 150 to calculate the charging based on the charging data.

In addition, the interface device 260 may store the charging data received from the central management device 240 for a predetermined time and then transmit the data to the charging server 150 at predetermined time intervals.

The charging server 150 collects the charging data extracted corresponding to the charging policy established by the integrated management apparatus 200 among the access information and the content providing information of the subscriber terminal 100 connected to the integrated management apparatus 200. The billing is calculated with reference to the rate information, which will be described in more detail as follows.

The billing server 150 includes a rate database and a billing calculator (not shown). Preferably, the billing server 150 further includes a billing billing unit (not shown) and a billing processing unit (not shown).

The rate database stores rate information for each billing item, and the rate information is received from the central management apparatus 240 from the integrated management apparatus 200.

The billing calculator calculates a billing according to the billing data received from the integrated management device 200 by searching the rate database. The billing unit bills the subscriber station 100 for the billing calculated by the billing unit. The payment processing unit processes the payment for the charges charged by the billing unit.

The contents provider of the present invention is a service provider that wants to provide a terminal with a service including a content and an application composed of various data to a terminal through a mobile communication system.

The content providing device (not shown) receives an account in the integrated management device 200 through the communication network 120 and registers a service to be provided to the subscriber terminal 100 according to the operation of the content provider. In this case, it is preferable that the integrated management apparatus 200 may add a charging setting item according to a content distribution policy between the content provider and the integrated manager.

Then, the charging policy operating method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a charging policy operating method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 6, the central management apparatus 240 sets up a charging pricing menu 500 including at least one of charging pricing items 510 to 560 in which rate information is set (S610). Provides the set billing menu 500 to the integrated manager terminal (not shown) (S620).

The central management apparatus 240 establishes a charging policy using at least one rate policy item selected by the integrated manager terminal (S630).

In this way, in the state where the charging policy is established, the transmission device 220 records the access information by the access of the subscriber terminal 100 and the content provision information by providing the content to the subscriber terminal 100 (S640). In operation S650, the recorded access information and the content providing information are transmitted to the central management apparatus 240.

In addition, the central management apparatus 240 extracts billing data that is the basis of billing calculation corresponding to the billing policy from the access information and the content providing information (S 660), and extracts the extracted billing data from the billing server 150. It transmits to (S 670).

Meanwhile, preferably, the central management apparatus 240 transmits the charging data to the interface apparatus 260, and the charging apparatus receives the charging data received from the central management apparatus 240 at predetermined time intervals. Transfer to the billing server 150 to calculate the billing.

Preferably, the billing server 150 calculates the billing according to the billing data by referring to the billing data received from the central management apparatus 240 with the rate information for each billing item (S680).

In addition, although not shown in the figure, it is more preferable that the billing server 150 bills the billing thus calculated to the subscriber station 100 provided with the service and processes the payment for the billing.

Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to preferred embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and the present invention belongs to the present invention without departing from the gist of the present invention as claimed in the following claims. Anyone with ordinary knowledge will have the technical idea of the present invention to the extent that various changes or modifications can be made.

As described above, according to the present inventor's billing policy operating method and system, it is possible to vary the setting of the billing standard using the same system, so that the billing policy can be operated in various ways without changing the system. There is.

Claims (15)

A-1) setting, by the central management apparatus, a billing menu including at least one billing item for which rate information is set, and providing the set billing menu to the integrated manager terminal; A-2) if at least one billing item is selected from the billing item provided in the integrated manager terminal, establishing a billing policy by the central management apparatus using the selected billing item; A-3) transmitting, by the transmitting apparatus, the access information by the access of the subscriber terminal and the content providing information by providing the content to the subscriber terminal, and transmitting the recorded access information and the content providing information to the central management apparatus; And A-4) the central management apparatus extracts billing data that is the basis of billing calculation corresponding to the billing policy from the access information and the content providing information, and transmits the extracted billing data to a billing server to calculate billing; Billing policy operating method comprising the step of. The method of claim 1, wherein the billing item is An access channel item for selecting whether to charge differently according to a channel connecting the subscriber station to the transmission device, and a terminal specification for selecting whether to charge differently according to specification information of the subscriber station. Item, a service type item for selecting whether to charge differently according to the type of service provided to the subscriber terminal, and a content information item for selecting whether to charge differently according to the type of content provided to the subscriber terminal. And at least one or more of a content providing type item for selecting whether to charge differently according to the manner in which the content is provided to the subscriber terminal. The method according to claim 1 or 2, after the step A-4). A-5) the billing policy operation method further comprising the step of calculating the billing by the billing server, the billing data received from the central management device with reference to the rate information for each billing item. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein step A-4) II) transmitting, by the central management apparatus, the charging data to an interface apparatus; And And iii) the interface apparatus transmitting the charging data received from the central management apparatus to the charging server at a predetermined time interval. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the billing server is And a database for storing rate information for each of the charge setting items. B-1) setting, by the integrated management device, a billing menu including at least one or more billing items for which rate information is set, and providing a set billing menu; B-2) the integrated management device to establish a charging policy by using at least one charging setting item selected from the charging setting menu; And B-3) calculating a billing for the content provided to the subscriber terminal in accordance with the established billing policy. The method of claim 6, wherein the billing item is An access channel item for selecting whether to charge differently according to a channel connecting the subscriber station to the transmission device, and a terminal specification item for selecting whether to charge differently according to specification information of the subscriber station A service type item for selecting whether to charge differently according to the type of service provided to the subscriber terminal, a content information item for selecting whether to charge differently according to the type of content provided to the subscriber terminal; And at least one or more of a content providing type item for selecting whether to charge differently according to the manner in which the content is provided to the subscriber terminal. A transmission device for recording access information of the subscriber terminal and content providing information about the content provided to the subscriber terminal; Setting a billing menu including at least one billing item having rate information set thereon; providing a set billing menu; establishing a billing policy according to at least one billing item selected from the billing menu; A central management device for extracting charging data corresponding to the charging policy from the access information and the content providing information received from the transmission device; And And an interface device for transmitting the billing data received from the central management device to a billing server to calculate billing. The method of claim 8, wherein the billing item is An access channel item for selecting whether to charge differently according to a channel connecting the subscriber station to the transmission device, and a terminal specification item for selecting whether to charge differently according to specification information of the subscriber station A service type item for selecting whether to charge differently according to the type of service provided to the subscriber terminal, a content information item for selecting whether to charge differently according to the type of content provided to the subscriber terminal; And at least one or more of a content providing type item for selecting whether to charge differently according to the manner in which content is provided to the terminal. The apparatus of claim 8 or 9, wherein the central management apparatus A billing menu manager for setting and managing a billing menu including at least one billing item having rate information set thereon; And A billing policy establishing unit for establishing a billing policy according to at least one billing set item selected from the billing set menu; And And a charging data extracting unit for extracting charging data corresponding to the charging policy among the access information and the content providing information received from the transmission device. 10. The apparatus of claim 8 or 9, wherein the interface device The charging policy operating system, characterized in that for transmitting the charging data to the charging server at a predetermined time interval. 10. The method of claim 8 or 9, wherein the billing server A rate database for storing rate information for each of the billing items; And And a billing calculator configured to search the rate database to calculate billing based on the billing data. The method of claim 12, wherein the billing server  A charging claim unit for charging the subscriber terminal with the charge calculated by the charging calculator; And The billing policy operating system, characterized in that it further comprises a payment processing unit for processing the payment for the charges billed by the billing unit. An integration for setting a billing menu including at least one billing item having rate information set thereon and providing a set billing menu, and establishing a billing policy according to at least one billing item selected from the billing menu Management device; And The billing data is extracted from the access record of the subscriber station connected to the integrated management device and the content provision record by providing the content to the subscriber terminal according to the billing policy, and the billing data is calculated by referring to the rate information for each billing item. The billing policy operating system comprising a billing server. 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the charging item is An access channel item for selecting whether to charge differently according to a channel connecting the subscriber station to the transmission device, and a terminal specification item for selecting whether to charge differently according to specification information of the subscriber station. A service type item for selecting whether to charge differently according to the type of service provided to the terminal, and a content information item and content for selecting whether to charge differently according to the type of content provided to the subscriber terminal. And at least one of a content providing type item for allowing a user to select whether to charge differently according to a method provided to the subscriber station.

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