KR20080051678A - Mobile communication system and method for providing fee discounting service - Google Patents

Abstract

A mobile communication system and a fee discount service method thereof are provided to offer the fee discount service according to the type of a call such as a video call and a short message service as well as an audio call. A home location register(40) stores and manages the subscriber's information, additional service information by subscribers and call connection information. An accounting center reads out the call connection information stored in the home location register and produces the account information by subscribers. A call completion statistics server(70) collects the account data related to the transmitting and receiving calls from the accounting center, produces the accounting data according to the kinds of calls, stores the produced data to an accounting type database, settles the accounting data according to the accounting types, selects the excellent subscriber from the accounting data and notifies the excellent subscriber to the accounting center. The accounting types are accounting types for transmitting and receiving calls of audio and video calls.

Description

MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING FEE DISCOUNTING SERVICE}

1 is a signal flow diagram for providing a rate discount service in a conventional mobile communication system,

2 is a block diagram of a mobile communication system according to an embodiment;

3 is a signal flowchart for providing a rate discount service in a mobile communication system according to an embodiment;

4 is a configuration diagram of a rate discount system for providing a rate discount service provided in the CCSS of FIG.

5 is a CDR format diagram according to an embodiment;

6 is a flow chart of a method for a rate discount service in a mobile communication system according to an embodiment;

7 is a flowchart illustrating a rate discount service method in a mobile communication system according to another embodiment.

* Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings

1 mobile terminal 10 base station

20: base station controller 30: mobile switching center

40: home location register 50: short character transmission center

60: billing center 70: arc completion

The present invention relates to a mobile terminal, and more particularly, to a mobile communication system and method for providing a discount service for outgoing / incoming calls of subscribers.

Conventional rate discount service has provided a rate discount service according to the profile of the subscriber (profile). The rate discount according to the profile means a discount through a part of the free charges provided by the rate product subscribed according to the characteristics of the subscriber. For example, a subscriber who makes a lot of calls on the weekend subscribes to a product provided by the free call on the weekend or a fare product that can make a free call for a limited time each month. The information of subscribers who have subscribed to the free call plan is stored in a Visitor Location Register (VLR) provided in the mobile switching center (MSC) 130 of FIG. Can be used. In addition, long-term subscribers receive a certain rate of discount when used over the period. Or, some free calls are provided only on the subscriber's specific days (birthday, wedding anniversary, etc.).

The method for providing discount information according to the subscriber profile may be performed as follows. As shown in FIG. 1, discount information according to a profile of a particular subscriber is registered in a subscriber home location register (HLR) 140 through an operator's customer care billing service (CCBS) 160. It is delivered to the VLR via a Mobile Application Protocol (MAP) message and stored.

For example, if a particular subscriber subscribes to a plan that provides 100 minutes of free voice calls, or if 5 minutes of free calls are given on birthdays or anniversaries, the subscriber's rate information is sent through the carrier CCBS 160. Updated to 140), a particular subscriber can receive a rate discount through a corresponding free call.

In addition, as a method of activating the service at the beginning of the mobile communication service, various discounts were given to subscribers having a large influence on the market. When there are subscribers mainly doing Mobile Oriented Calls (MOC) and subscribers with a large amount of Mobile Terminated Calls (MTCs), both of them are highly influential, but conventionally, discounts are provided only to the call-oriented subscribers.

In addition, in the conventional discount method, the excellent subscriber standard is mainly set only for voice calls, but excellent subscribers are considered in consideration of outgoing / incoming calls such as SMS (Short Message Service) / MMS (Multimedia Message Service), which are frequently used by teenagers or 20s. It is necessary to select a discount and provide a discount.

Meanwhile, in the current mobile communication market, since most mobile terminal users are subscribed to 2G mobile communication services, it is difficult to create more markets for using mobile communication services. You need to join. Among 3G services currently provided, two services, video call and high-speed data download, have the most users. However, the reality of video calls through data services is still smaller than that of voice calls. Therefore, in order to activate 3G mobile communication service, activating a video call service is an important situation for a communication service provider.

Therefore, as a way to activate 3G mobile communication services, it is necessary to provide a rate discount service for video calls.

An object of the present invention is to provide a discount service by selecting excellent subscribers according to the types (bill types) of not only voice calls but also video calls and short text messages, thereby actively inducing the use of other calls in addition to voice calls. To provide a mobile communication system and a rate discount service method.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a mobile communication system and a rate discount service method for actively inducing a call volume increase by providing a rate discount service to a subscriber in consideration of both originating and incoming calls of a subscriber.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the number of outgoing / receiving calls for the video call and the short text message as well as the voice call of the mobile communication subscriber is accumulated for each subscriber, the subscriber is selected as an excellent subscriber and notified to the corresponding subscriber. Here, the excellent subscriber information is stored in the home location register and the visitor location register to notify the corresponding subscriber through a short message.

Hereinafter, various embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, in the following description, when there is a risk of unnecessarily obscuring the gist of the present invention, a detailed description of well-known functions and configurations will be omitted.

2 illustrates a configuration of a mobile communication system according to an embodiment. This is a general mobile communication network structure, and any suitable mobile communication scheme of the present invention may be applied thereto, including IS-95A / B, GSM, CDMA2000, WCDMA, UMTS, and the like.

As shown in FIG. 2, the mobile communication system 100 includes a mobile station (MS) 1, a base station system (BTS) 10, and a base station controller (BSC). 20, a Mobile Switching Center (MSC) / Gateway (GW) 30, and a Home Location Register (HLR) 40. FIG. A visitor location register (VLR) is provided inside the mobile switch 30, and the mobile switch 30 is connected to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) as well as another mobile phone network (PLMN). Land mobile network).

The mobile terminal 10 may be any suitable mobile terminal having a mobile communication function including a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a notebook computer, and the like. In addition, the mobile terminal 10 may be a legacy voice-centric terminal that does not support data transmission according to the IP scheme or a terminal that supports the IP scheme. The BTS 10 is a device that manages radio resources and substantially exchanges information with a mobile communication terminal via a wireless link. The BSC 20 is equipment for controlling the BTSs 10 and supports an appropriate communication protocol for performing call setup and release.

The MSC / GW 30 is a device that connects a mobile communication network with other types of communication networks such as the Internet, a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), and a Public Switched Data Network (PSDN), and supports protocol conversion between heterogeneous communication networks. do. A gateway (GW) is a logical device (or node) that performs data conversion between heterogeneous networks in a mobile communication network, and is commonly called a packet data service node (PDSN), an access gateway (AGW), or a media gateway (MGW). Can be.

The VLR 33 temporarily stores the location and subscriber information of the mobile communication terminal located in the communication area of the MSC / GW 30. In addition, the HLR 40 stores and manages subscriber information, additional service information for each subscriber, and location information of the mobile communication terminal.

Meanwhile, the mobile communication system 100 shown in FIG. 2 includes a short message service center (SMSC) 60 that provides a short message service and a consumer care billing service (CCBS) that collects and stores charging data (CCBS). 60), a plurality of supplementary service nodes that provide various supplementary services, such as an Automatic Response System (ARS) (not shown) that provides a voice announcement service.

In addition, according to one embodiment, a call completion statistics server (CCSS) (70) connected to the CCBS (60) is further provided. The call completion statistics server 70 generates billing data for each billing type by using the billing data of call completion of the calling party and the called party.

The CCSS 70 collects billing data (MO-CDR) for incoming calls and billing data (MT-CDR) for incoming calls from the CCBS 60 for each subscriber, and collects them from the MO-CDR and MT-CDR, respectively. DB is extracted from billing data by billing type according to the type of call. In one embodiment, the type of call that is the classification criterion of the billing type may include an outgoing call and an incoming call of voice, video, SMS, and MMS.

According to an exemplary embodiment, in order to select an excellent subscriber based on an outgoing / incoming call, the CCSS 70 sets and stores a reference for the excellent subscriber. The CCSS 70 updates the subscriber's information as the superior subscriber in the CCBS 60 when the DB data for each subscriber reaches the superior subscriber standard, and delivers the excellent subscriber information to the subscriber through the SMSC 50. . In one embodiment, a good subscriber includes at least one of a lot of outgoing subscribers and a lot of incoming subscribers. And, according to an embodiment, as shown in Figure 3, the specific subscribers through the CCSS 70, the sum of the number of outgoing / incoming calls of video and audio calls, the sum of the number of outgoing / incoming calls of SMS messages excellent subscribers If the reference is exceeded, the information of the corresponding subscriber is changed to the excellent subscriber, and the information is registered in the HLR 40 and the VLR 43 in the MSC / GW 30. The MSC 30 sends this information to the SMSC 50 to provide the subscriber with the rate discount information in a short message.

The outgoing subscriber criterion for outgoing / incoming calls (more than a few minutes, more than a few outgoing / outgoing calls, etc.) can be predetermined or software-changed by the system operator, for a certain amount of time (eg, about two minutes). It applies only to outgoing / incoming call, and this time standard can be changed by software.

For example, the service provider sets the excellent subscriber criterion of the outgoing / incoming call to the CCSS 70 by adding the monthly outgoing / incoming call for each subscriber, such as 100 call / 200 call / 300 call, and reaches each criterion. If you meet these criteria, you can offer a discount of 2% / 5% / 7% in the month.

4 illustrates a detailed configuration of a rate discount system provided in the CCSS 70 to provide a rate discount service to excellent subscribers. As shown in FIG. 4, the fee discount system according to an embodiment includes a CDR data collection unit 71, an outgoing / incoming call count accumulation unit 73, an excellent subscriber selecting unit 75, and an excellent subscriber. It consists of a transmission part 77 and the charging type DB 79.

The CDR data collection unit 71 collects CDR data, which is charging data, from the CCBS 60. When each CDR is a CDR for an outgoing / incoming call, the outgoing / incoming call count accumulating unit 73 classifies it into a billing type such as voice, video, SMS, and multimedia message service (MMS). The call / accumulation count accumulation unit 73 extracts a call when the call duration is more than a predetermined standard (for example, about 2 minutes) for each of the audio call and the video call as the billing type. And, if the call holding time is more than a certain standard, the number of outgoing / incoming call of the call by the database for each subscriber and cumulative management. In addition, the outgoing / incoming call count accumulating unit 73 databases the outgoing / incoming call counts of SMS messages for each subscriber and then accumulates them in the billing type DB 79. The billing type DB sums up the number of outgoing / incoming calls according to the billing type at the end of each month. When the billing type DB is completed, the billing type DB stores the outgoing / outgoing call count of the month in the billing type DB and reflects the billing type DB in the next month.

When the number of outgoing / incoming calls accumulated for each billing type (voice / video call, SMS message) reaches a standard assigned by an operator, the excellent subscriber selecting unit 75 generates excellent subscriber information by selecting the excellent subscriber. In addition, the excellent subscriber transmitter 77 transmits and stores the generated excellent subscriber information to the CCBS 60, the CCBS 60 stores the excellent subscriber information in the HLR (40) and VLR (33).

Hereinafter, an embodiment of a method for transmitting the best subscriber information stored in the HLR 40 and the VLR 33 to the corresponding subscriber will be described in detail.

When the call is set up at the MSC 30, the calling party mobile call control unit (not shown) in the MSC 30 reads the good subscriber information from the HLR 50 and the VLR 33, so that the calling party and the called party are the best subscribers. If it is determined, and transmits the determination result to the SMSC 50, the SMSC 50 transmits a rate discount message to the subscriber.

In the charging data record (CDR) format stored in the charging type DB 79, as shown in FIG. 5, the above information and other various information are stored. There are various types of billing types (roaming billing, gateway billing, outgoing / receiving call billing, etc.). According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the charging type may be classified according to a type of a call including an outgoing call and an incoming call of a voice, a video, a short message service (SMS) and a multimedia message service (MMS). In this embodiment, only information on the number of outgoing / incoming calls exceeding a predetermined call duration and the number of outgoing / incoming calls of an SMS message is displayed.

The method for providing a rate discount service to a subscriber by the above-described configuration will be described sequentially.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a method of discounting a price of a mobile terminal according to an exemplary embodiment. As shown in FIG. 6, the CCSS 70 collects charging data for an incoming call and charging data for an incoming call for each subscriber in the CCBS 60 (S1). For example, a kind of call that serves as a criterion for classifying various types of billing is an outgoing / incoming call of voice or video. The CCSS 70 accumulates the number of outgoing / incoming calls for which the outgoing / incoming call holding time exceeds a predetermined time and DBs each subscriber (S3). If the sum of the accumulated number of outgoing / incoming calls exceeds a predetermined value, the CCSS 70 selects the corresponding subscriber as an excellent subscriber (S5). The CCSS 70 notifies the CCBS 60 of the selected excellent subscriber information and stores it (S7). The CCBS 60 registers the excellent subscriber information with the HLR 40 and the VLR 33 (S9). When the MSC 30 detects the call setup (S11), the CCSS 70 reads the excellent subscriber information from the HLR 40 and the VLR 33 (S13). The CCSS 70 determines which one of the calling subscriber and the called subscriber corresponds to the excellent subscriber (S15), and transmits a rate discount message to the excellent subscriber (S17). For example, when the CCSS 70 transmits the excellent subscriber information to the SMSC 50, the SMSSS 50 may transmit a rate discount message to the excellent subscriber through the SMSC 50.

On the other hand, the case where the sum of the number of SMS outgoing / incoming calls exceeds a certain number of times to provide a rate discount service to the subscriber selected as an excellent subscriber.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a method of a mobile terminal fee discount service according to another embodiment. As shown in FIG. 7, the CCSS 70 collects charging data for an incoming call and charging data for an incoming call for each subscriber in the CCBS 60 (P1). For example, a type of call serving as a classification criterion of billing type includes an outgoing / incoming call of audio or video. CCSS 70 accumulates DB number of SMS outgoing / incoming call for each subscriber based on charging data for outgoing call and charging data for incoming call (P3). The CCSS 70 selects subscribers whose SMS sum / incoming call counts exceed a predetermined number as excellent subscribers (P5). The CCSS 70 notifies the CCBS 60 of the selected excellent subscriber information and stores it (P7). The CCBS 60 registers the excellent subscriber information with the HLR 40 and the VLR 33 (P9). When the MSC 30 detects the call setup (P11), the CCSS 70 reads the excellent subscriber information from the HLR 40 and the VLR 33 (P13). The CCSS 70 determines which one of the calling party and the called party corresponds to the excellent subscriber (P15), and transmits a rate discount message to the excellent subscriber (P17). For example, when the CCSS 70 transmits the excellent subscriber information to the SMSC 50, the SMSSS 50 may transmit a rate discount message to the excellent subscriber through the SMSC 50.

According to this configuration, the sum of the number of outgoing / receiving calls for not only the voice call but also the video call and the short text message of the mobile communication subscriber is accumulated for each subscriber, and when the preset criteria is reached, the superior subscriber is selected and notified to the superior subscriber. Can be.

While the invention and its various functional components have been described in particular embodiments, the invention may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, middleware, or a combination thereof, and the system, subsystem, components or sub-configurations thereof. It should be understood that they can be used as elements. If implemented in software, the elements of the invention are instructions / code segments for performing the necessary tasks. The program or code segments may be stored in a machine readable medium, such as a processor readable medium, a computer program product, or may transmit a transmission medium or communication link by means of a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave or a signal modulated by a carrier. Can be sent through. Machine readable media or processor readable media may include any medium that can store or transmit information in a form readable and executable by a machine (eg, processor, computer, etc.).

In addition, while the present invention has been described in connection with some embodiments, it is to be understood that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as will be understood by those skilled in the art. You will need to know Also, such modifications and variations are intended to fall within the scope of the claims appended hereto.

By the configuration according to the above embodiments, by selecting the excellent subscribers according to the type (bill type) of not only voice calls but also video calls, short text messages, etc., a rate discount service is provided to actively use other calls besides voice calls. Provided is a mobile communication system and a rate discount service method thereof.

In addition, the present invention provides a mobile communication system and a rate discount service method for actively inducing a call volume increase by providing a rate discount service to a subscriber in consideration of both originating and incoming calls of a subscriber.

Claims (13)

A home location register for storing and managing subscriber information, additional service information for each subscriber, and call access information; A billing center for reading billing information stored in the home location register and generating billing data for each subscriber; Collecting billing data for the call and billing data for the incoming call from the billing center for each subscriber, generate billing data for each billing type according to the type of call from the billing data for the call and billing data for the incoming call And a call completion statistics server that stores the charge type database, calculates the billing data for each billing type, and reaches a predetermined best subscriber selection criterion, and selects an excellent subscriber from the billing data according to the billing type and notifies the billing center. Mobile communication system. The method of claim 1, The billing type is a billing type for the outgoing / incoming calls of voice and video calls, the number of outgoing / incoming calls of the audio and video calls in the billing database is stored for each subscriber. The method of claim 1, The billing type is a billing type for outgoing / outgoing calls of short messages, wherein the number of outgoing / outgoing calls of the short messages is stored for each subscriber in the billing database. The method of claim 2, The excellent subscriber selection criterion is based on the condition that the sum of the number of outgoing / incoming calls exceeding a predetermined time is maintained over a predetermined time. The method of claim 4, wherein The excellent subscriber selection criterion is based on the condition that the sum of the number of short message origination / incoming calls exceeds a predetermined value. The method according to claim 4 or 5, A mobile switch having a plurality of call controllers for mobile subscribers, wireline subscribers, and relay lines to connect the caller and the caller's call path; and a visitor location register for temporarily storing the location and subscriber information of the mobile terminal; The charging center registers the excellent subscriber information with the home location register and the visitor location register in the mobile exchange, When the calling party's mobile call controller in the mobile switchboard is requested to set up a call, the calling party's mobile call controller reads the excellent subscriber information from the home location register and the visitor location register, so that either one of the calling party and the called party is connected. And if the subscriber is determined to be the excellent subscriber, transmits the subscriber information to the subscriber via the short message transmission center. A mobile switch that connects a caller's caller's call path, a home location register that stores and manages subscriber information, additional service information and call access information for each subscriber, and charges for each subscriber by reading call access information stored in the home location register. As a rate discount service method of a mobile communication system composed of a billing center for generating data, Collecting billing data for incoming calls and billing data for incoming calls for each subscriber from the billing center; Generating billing data for each billing type according to the type of call, storing the billing data for each billing type, and making a database from billing data for the outgoing call and billing data for the incoming call; And calculating the billing data for each billing type and selecting a good subscriber and notifying the billing center of the selected good subscriber information when a preset good subscriber selection criterion is reached. The method of claim 7, wherein The billing type is a billing type for the outgoing / incoming call of the voice call and video call, the number of outgoing / incoming call of the audio call and video call is stored for each subscriber in the billing database. The method of claim 7, wherein The billing type is a billing type for outgoing / outgoing calls of SMS, and the number of outgoing / outgoing calls of the short message is stored for each subscriber in the billing database. The method of claim 8, The excellent subscriber selection criterion is a condition that the sum of the number of outgoing / incoming calls for which the duration of the outgoing / incoming call exceeds a certain time exceeds a predetermined value, the rate discount service method of the mobile communication system. The method of claim 9, The excellent subscriber selection criterion is a condition that the sum of the number of short message outgoing / incoming calls exceeds a predetermined value. The method according to claim 10 or 11, wherein Registering, by the charging center, the excellent subscriber information with the home location register and a visitor location register in the mobile switchboard; Receiving, by the calling mobile call controller of the mobile exchange, a call setting request; Reading, by the calling party's mobile call controller, the excellent subscriber information from the home location register and the visitor location register; Determining, by the calling party's mobile call controller, any one of the calling subscriber and the called subscriber corresponds to the excellent subscriber; And transmitting a rate discount message to a subscriber corresponding to the excellent subscriber through a short message transmission center. A computer readable storage medium storing computer executable instructions for performing a discount service method in a mobile communication system. The mobile communication system includes a mobile switch connecting a caller and a caller, a home location register for storing and managing subscriber information, additional service information for each subscriber, and call connection information, and call connection information stored in the home location register. Includes a billing center that reads and generates billing data for each subscriber; The method, Collecting billing data for incoming calls and billing data for incoming calls for each subscriber from the billing center; Generating billing data for each billing type according to the type of call, storing the billing data for each billing type, and databaseting the billing data for the outgoing call and billing data for the incoming call; And calculating the billing data for each billing type and selecting a good subscriber and notifying the billing center of the selected good subscriber information when a predetermined good subscriber selection criterion is reached.

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