KR20080107201A - Billing system and method for improving system performance at changing phone numbers - Google Patents

Abstract

A billing system and a method for processing billing data are provided to calculate the telephone charge of a client accurately and free of charge, even when the phone number of the client is changed in the billing system of a mobile communication system. A system for calculating a communication charge comprises the followings: a billing element extracting unit(22) which distinguishes a corresponding client from billing data of a call to be charged, read commodity information of the client which is valid at the time when the call is generated, and then determines the billing element; and a charge calculation processing unit(23) which inquires the accumulated use details about the billing element, and then performs the charge calculation to reflect the calculated result to the accumulated use details.

Description

BILLING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPROVING SYSTEM PERFORMANCE AT CHANGING PHONE NUMBERS}

1 is a network diagram of a communication system to which the present invention is applied.

2 is a block diagram of a fare calculation system according to the present invention;

Figure 3 is a flow chart illustrating a process of adding a record to the customer product information table at the time of telephone number change in accordance with the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a charging data processing method according to the present invention.

The present invention relates to a billing system and a billing data processing method for improving system performance when changing a phone number. In particular, even if a phone number of a customer is changed in a billing system of a mobile communication system, the same billing factor is applied, it is accurate and free of charge. The present invention relates to a billing system and a billing data processing method which improves the performance of the system by performing a calculation and eliminating the need for reprocessing for billed calls that occur before the telephone number change.

As the use of telephony services, especially mobile communication services, increases, there is a demand for a system that can efficiently charge and manage such services. Moreover, the recent communication service accommodates various fee schemes and various service plans, so the system for calculating the fee for the communication service needs various information such as customer information, pricing policy, and the like.

In order to accommodate such complex service plans and pricing policies, a file-based billing system is currently applied. A file-based billing system divides the series of processing required to calculate the service charge into multiple stages, allowing each stage to be executed by a separate, independent processor, while pre-determining each processor's input and output types. Implement in the form of a file with structure. Each of the input and output in the form of a file is stored in storage (eg, a database system) that processors can access in common. Information for controlling the flow between processing is stored in a table that processors can access in common (eg, customer product information table, history table, cumulative history table, etc.).

When the telephone number of the customer is changed in such a rate calculation system, a conventional billing data processing process will be described as an example. It is assumed that the customer subscribed to the product 'S1' before M 1, and there is a free billing element 'F1' which provides 60 minutes of free money to the 'S1' product. At this time, the information shown in Table 1 is generated in the customer product information table.

BAN CN CTN SOC SEQ FTR EFF_DT EXP_DT B1 C1 CTN A S1 One F1 A specific day in the past 9999/12/31

In Table 1, 'BAN' is a customer's billing account number, and 'CN' is a contract number uniquely assigned to a customer when the customer joins a carrier. 'CTN' is the telephone number, 'SOC' is the product code, and 'SEQ' is the sequence number recorded in the customer product information table. 'FTR' is a feature that is the basis of billing, 'EFF_DT' is a commodity start date, and 'EXP_DT' is a commodity end date.

If the customer used three calls each with 10 minutes, 20 minutes, and 10 minutes of talk time, the information stored in the cumulative history table, which accumulates and manages the billing calculation results, is displayed in order for the first billing call (10 minutes) to be processed. The cumulative usage history table is shown in Table 2.The cumulative usage history table is shown in Table 3 when the second billing issue (20 minutes) is processed, and the cumulative usage history table is shown in Table 4 when the third billing issue (10 minutes) is processed. .

BAN CN CTN SOC SEQ FTR Free allowance Free usage Chargeable amount B1 C1 CTN A S1 One F1 60 10 0

BAN CN CTN SOC SEQ FTR Free allowance Free usage Chargeable amount B1 C1 CTN A S1 One F1 60 30 0

BAN CN CTN SOC SEQ FTR Free allowance Free usage Chargeable amount B1 C1 CTN A S1 One F1 60 40 0

In the cumulative usage table, the free allowance is calculated when the first record is created for free charge management. The free allowance is calculated as [monthly free offer x (months in the month / day in the month)]. Assuming M month is up to 30 days, the free allowance for M month is calculated as (60 × 30/30 = 60).

In this situation, if the customer who used the telephone number of CTN A changed the telephone number to CTN B on M 15, the customer product information table is changed and added as shown in Table 5, and the reprocessing request table is shown in Table 6 As such, the customer's billing call is set to be reprocessed. Here, the re-processing of billing calls may change the free allowance in case of cancellation of the customer's subscription, product change, etc., so that the total billing issue for the customer's monthly billing of the corresponding billing account has already been cleared by clearing the information in the cumulative usage history table. The process of doing that.

BAN CN CTN SOC SEQ FTR EFF_DT EXP_DT B1 C1 CTN A S1 One F1 A specific day in the past M 15 B1 C1 CTN B S1 2 F1 M 15 9999/12/31

BAN CTN Reason B1 CTN 1 Change number

When the fee calculation system reprocesses the billing call of the customer, the cumulative usage table changes as shown in Table 7 below.

BAN CN CTN SOC SEQ FTR EFF_DT Free allowance Free usage Chargeable amount B1 C1 CTN A S1 One F1 M 1 30 30 10

When reprocessing three calls that have already been billed, the free allowance is calculated as (60 × 15/30 = 30), which is 30 minutes, and the total amount is 40 minutes.

After that, when the customer changed the phone number and used two calls with 10 minutes of talk time from M 15 to the end of the month, the information is stored in the cumulative usage table that accumulates and manages the billing calculation results as shown in Table 8. do.

BAN CN CTN SOC SEQ FTR Free allowance Free usage Chargeable amount B1 C1 CTN B S1 2 F1 30 20 0

The free allowance is calculated when the first record is created for free charge management in the cumulative history table, in which case the free allowance is assigned to (60 × 15/30 = 30) for 30 minutes. The changed telephone number CTN B is recorded in the CTN, and 2 is recorded in the SEQ. And since 10 calls are used twice, the free usage is 20 minutes.

For the customer, 5 calls were used during the month, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 10 minutes, 10 minutes, 10 minutes, 60 minutes total, and 60 minutes free, so all 60 minutes used by the customer should be treated free. In the conventional system, billing is performed for 10 minutes before the number change. In other words, the contract that purchased the free 60-minute merchandise is unchanged, so all free 60-minute hours of M-month are applied free of charge. By doing incorrect free calculations.

In addition, in terms of performance, reprocessing all calls made by customers prior to the telephone number change causes a significant load on system performance.

The present invention has been proposed to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, the present invention is to ensure that accurate free calculation is performed even if the telephone number of the customer is changed in the rate calculation system of the mobile communication system do.

In addition, another object of the present invention is to improve system performance by eliminating the need for reprocessing of all billing calls that occurred before the change even if the telephone number is changed in the rate calculation system of the mobile communication system.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a system for calculating a communication fee, wherein the customer is identified from the billing data of the billing target call, and the product information of the identified customer valid at the call occurrence time of the billing target call is read and billed. And a billing factor extracting unit for determining a factor, and a billing processing unit for querying the cumulative usage history for the billing element to process billing calculation and reflecting the result in the cumulative usage history. The billing processing unit is characterized in that if the same billing factor is applied to the same customer, even if the telephone number is changed, it is treated as one contract.

In another aspect, the present invention is a method for processing billing data, the step of identifying the customer from the billing data of the billing target call, and extracting the billing element by reading the product information of the identified customer valid at the call occurrence time of the billing target call And querying the cumulative usage history for the billing factor to process billing calculation and reflecting the result in the cumulative usage history, wherein the billing factor extraction step and the billing calculation processing step are the same for the same customer. Another feature is that if the billing factor is applied, it is treated as a contract even if the telephone number is changed.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a computer-readable recording medium recording a program for processing billing data, the program identifies the customer from the billing data of the billing call, the product of the identified customer valid at the time of the call of the billing call Extracting a billing element by reading information, querying a cumulative usage history for the billing element, processing a billing calculation, and reflecting the result in the cumulative usage history; The billing processing step is another feature of treating as a contract even if the phone number is changed when the same billing factor is applied to the same customer.

According to the present invention, even when the telephone number of the customer is changed, accurate free calculation is performed, and reprocessing of the billed call that occurs before the telephone number change is not required to be performed, thereby improving system performance.

The above objects, features, and advantages will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, whereby those skilled in the art may easily implement the technical idea of the present invention. Could be. In addition, in describing the present invention, when it is determined that the detailed description of the known technology related to the present invention may unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted. Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a configuration diagram of a network of a communication system to which the present invention is applied.

The collection system 10 is connected to a system that provides services to customers such as a mobile communication switch 2, a short message service center 4, and a multimedia message service center 6, so as to charge service to the customer. Collect billing data. In addition, the collection system 10 configures the collected billing data in a common data format and delivers it to the fee calculation system 20.

For example, when a customer makes a call using a mobile phone and the connection with the other party is successful, the call is recognized as one call from then on, and the exchange 2 ends the call in accordance with a predetermined format when the call ends. The billing data is created and transferred to the collection system 10. In general, billing data includes an outgoing telephone number, an incoming telephone number, a call origination time and an end time.

The billing system 20 calculates a fee based on the billing data so that the billing system 30 can send a bill to the customer. Specifically, the billing system 20 evaluates billing data according to the customer and service information required for billing, calculates a bill, and stores it in a database for billing (eg, a history table and a cumulative history table). do. The database for this billing is stored in storage 40.

2 is a block diagram of a fare calculation system 20 to which the present invention is applied. As shown, the fee calculation system 20 includes a message processing unit 21, a charging element extraction unit 22, and a charging calculation processing unit 23. In addition, the storage device 40 holds the customer product information 41, the usage history table 42, and the cumulative usage history table 43.

The message processor 21 checks the billing data delivered from the collection system 10, edits it as necessary, and converts the billing data into a standard format required by the billing element extraction unit 22 to perform subsequent processing. ).

The charging element extracting unit 22 identifies the customer for each of the standardized charging data processed by the message processing unit 21, and stores the product information table 41 of the customer valid for the call occurrence time of the billing target call from the storage device 40. Determine the billing factor by reference. That is, the charging element extraction unit 22 performs functions such as checking the billing account number, determining the pricing policy, determining the billing cycle, editing and checking, and selecting the rate plan.

The billing calculation processor 23 calculates a fee that meets the fee policy selected by the customer with reference to the contents of the billing data guided by the billing factor extraction unit 22 and the tables stored in the storage device 40. This calculates the charge for the individual call, that is, the individual call charge. The individual call charges are stored in the usage history table 42 and added to the cumulative usage history table 43 to update the cumulative usage history table 43.

In the customer product information table 41 according to the present invention, the customer's billing account number (BAN), contract number (CN), telephone number (CTN), customer code (SOC), product sequence number (SEQ), Together with the element on which charging is based (FTR), the start date of the product (EFF_DT), and the end date of the product (EXP_DT), the order number of the original product (ORIG_SEQ) before the telephone number change and the start date of the original product (ORIG_EFF) before the telephone number change It is provided as a field.

Customer's Billing Account Number (BAN) means payer information, such as the credit card number or Giro number or deposit account number, which the customer has chosen to pay for the call. The contract number (CN) is a number uniquely assigned to the customer on a contract basis when the customer subscribes to a telecommunication company and is a number that does not change even when a telephone number is changed. Sequence number (SEQ) refers to the sequence number is given every time the product is added to the customer product information table 41.

Using the fields 'ORIG_SEQ' and 'ORIG_EFF' which are newly added to the customer product information table 41 according to the present invention, the billing factor extraction unit 22 and the billing calculation processing unit 23 change only the phone number under the same contract. Therefore, if the same billing factor (FTR) is applied, it is treated as a contract before and after the telephone number change. In the case of treating the telephone number change before and after as one contract, the charging element extracting unit 22 recognizes and processes two records before and after the telephone number change existing in the customer product information table 41 as one record. And when the accounting calculation unit 23 inquires the cumulative usage history table 43 for the billing target call that occurred after the telephone number change, the billing processing unit 23 searches the record generated before the telephone number change, and the billing target occurred before and after the telephone number change. The call is managed as one record in the cumulative usage history table 43.

The contract number (CN) is added as a new field in the reprocessing request table, and when reprocessing, the entire call used by the CN is reprocessed, not the entire call used by the CTN. Therefore, if the telephone number is changed under the same contract, reprocessing of the billing call before the change is not performed.

The usage history table 43 and the cumulative usage history table 44 are provided with fields such as BAN, CN, CTN, SOC, SEQ, FTR, free allowance, free use amount, chargeable amount, and the like.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of adding a record to the customer product information table 41 when changing the telephone number according to the present invention.

First, when the customer is notified of the telephone number change as the telephone number is changed (101), the customer's information is confirmed (102). The customer product information table is queried using the confirmed customer information (103), and a new record is added to the retrieved customer product information table (104). Next, record the information in the newly added record, in which the ORIG_SEQ field records the original product number (SEQ) before changing the telephone number, and records the start date (EFF_DT) of the original product before changing the telephone number in the ORIG_EFF field (105). ).

For example, if the customer changed the telephone number from CTN A to CTN B on M 15, the customer product information table is shown in Table 9.

BAN CN CTN SOC SEQ FTR EFF_DT EXT_DT ORIG_SEQ ORIG_EFF B1 C1 CTN A S1 One F1 Past specific date 15 May One Past specific date B1 C1 CTN B S1 2 F1 15 May 9999/12/31 One Past specific date

The fee calculation system 20 then uses the ORIG_SEQ field value instead of the SEQ field value and uses the ORIG_EFF field value instead of the EFF_DT field value when querying the customer product information table while calculating the fee for the billing data. Accordingly, the fee calculation system recognizes two records before and after the telephone number change as one record.

Next, a process of calculating a fee for billing data in the fee calculation system 20 will be described with reference to FIG. 4.

The billing factor extraction unit 22 checks the billing data of the customer in order to calculate a fee (201) and thereby obtains customer product information (202). Here, when the billing data is changed after the telephone number is changed from CTN A to CTN B, the customer product information table 41 is inquired using CTN B as the inquiry key. The charging element extraction unit 22 checks the BAN, CN, CTN, ORIG_SEQ, FTR, ORIG_EFF, and EXP_DT in the customer product information table 41.

Thereafter, the billing calculation processor 23 inquires the cumulative usage history table 43 stored in the storage device 40 (203). At this time, the fee calculation system 20 inquires the cumulative usage history table 43 using CN, ORIG_SEQ, ORIG_EFF acquired from the customer product information table 41 as an inquiry key.

If the customer's corresponding information does not exist in the cumulative usage history table 43 because it is the first billing data after the billing, the new information such as the allowable free amount is generated and accumulated by the information obtained from the customer product information table 41. Recorded in the usage history table 43 (205).

If the customer's corresponding information exists in the cumulative usage history table 43, the charge calculation processing unit 23 before the telephone number change when the cumulative usage history table 43 is inquired about the billing target call that occurred after the telephone number change. The fee is calculated by querying the record generated in step 206, and the fee calculation result for the billing data is stored in the usage history table 42 (207). At the same time, the cumulative usage history information of the customer stored in the cumulative usage history table is updated to reflect the result of the charge calculation (208). Even when the result of the calculation of the fee is reflected in the cumulative usage history table 43, the fee calculation system 20 accesses the cumulative usage history table 43 using CN, ORIG_SEQ, and ORIG_EFF as the inquiry key, and the billing call generated before and after the telephone number change. Is managed as one record in the cumulative usage history table 43. Therefore, the billing calculation processing unit 23 does not need to reprocess the billing call before the phone number change if the phone number is changed under the same contract.

In the case of Table 9, the cumulative usage history table that cumulatively manages the billing calculation results when the customer uses two calls with 10 minutes and 10 minutes respectively, from M15 after the change of the telephone number to the end of the month (43) Looking at the information entered in) in order as follows.

Table 10 shows the cumulative usage history table that reflects the results of processing the first billing call (10 minutes of usage time).

BAN CN CTN SOC SEQ FTR EFF_DT Free allowance Free usage Chargeable amount B1 C1 CTN B S1 One F1 M 1 60 50 0

When querying the cumulative usage history table, the BAN, CN, SEQ, FTR, and EFF_DT fields are used as the query keys, but the SEQ is searched with ORIG_SEQ value of 1 and EFF_DT with ORIG_EFF value of M1. Records in the cumulative usage history table are retrieved, and the free amount is calculated based on the retrieved information.

Table 11 shows the cumulative usage history that reflects the result of processing the second billing call (10 minutes of usage time).

BAN CN CTN SOC SEQ FTR EFF_DT Free allowance Free usage Chargeable amount B1 C1 CTN B S1 One F1 M 1 60 60 0

To summarize the improvement according to the present invention, a total of 60 minutes were used during the month and all the 60 minutes free of charge as a product purchase contract is not present. That is, the portion which was charged for 10 minutes in the conventional treatment method was corrected correctly. It also makes a significant contribution to improving system performance by eliminating the need to reprocess all calls made by customers before each change.

As described above, the method of the present invention may be implemented as a program and stored in a recording medium (CD-ROM, ROM, RAM, floppy disk, hard disk, magneto-optical disk, etc.) in a computer-readable form. This process can be easily carried out by those of ordinary skill in the art.

The present invention described above is capable of various substitutions, modifications, and changes without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention for those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. It is not limited by the drawings.

According to the present invention, even when the telephone number of the customer is changed, accurate free calculation is performed, and reprocessing of the billed call that occurs before the telephone number change is not required to be performed, thereby improving system performance.

Claims (13)

In the system for calculating the communication fee, A billing element extraction unit for identifying a corresponding customer from billing data of a billing target call and reading a product information of the identified customer valid at the call occurrence time of the billing target call; It is provided with a billing calculation processing unit for querying the cumulative usage history for the billing element to process billing calculation and reflect the result in the cumulative usage history, And the billing factor extracting unit and the billing processing unit are treated as one contract even if the phone number is changed when the same billing element is applied to the same customer. The method of claim 1, And the billing factor extracting unit recognizes two records before and after the telephone number change existing in the customer product information as one record when the billing element extracting unit is treated as one contract. The method of claim 1, And the billing element extraction unit recognizes before and after a telephone number change as one record when reading the customer product information. The method of claim 1, When the billing processing unit is treated as a contract, the communication fee calculation system, characterized in that to query the record generated before the telephone number change when the cumulative usage history for the billing target call that occurred after the telephone number change . The method of claim 4, wherein And the billing calculation processing unit does not reprocess the billing call before the telephone number change when the billing processing unit handles the contract. The method of claim 1, And the billing calculation processing unit manages billing target calls generated before and after the telephone number change as one record in the cumulative usage history when treated as one contract. In the method of processing the billing data, Identifying the customer from the billing data of the billed call, extracting billing elements by reading product information of the identified customer valid at the call occurrence time of the billed call; Querying the cumulative usage history for the billing element to process billing calculation and reflecting the result in the cumulative usage history, The billing element extraction step and the billing calculation processing step, if the same billing element is applied to the same customer billing data processing method, characterized in that treated as one contract even if the phone number is changed. The method of claim 7, wherein If the billing element extraction step is treated as one contract, billing data processing method characterized in that to recognize the two records before and after the telephone number change in the customer product information as one record. The method of claim 7, wherein If the billing element extraction step is treated as a contract, billing data processing method characterized in that when reading the customer product information, before and after the telephone number change as a record. The method of claim 7, wherein In the billing calculation step, the billing data processing characterized in that the record generated before the telephone number change is inquired when the cumulative usage history is inquired for the billing target call that occurred after the telephone number change when the billing transaction is handled as one contract. Way. The method of claim 10, The billing calculation processing step is characterized in that the billing data processing method characterized in that it does not reprocess the billing call before the telephone number change if treated as one contract. The method of claim 7, wherein The billing calculation processing step is characterized in that the billing data processing method characterized in that the billing target call occurred before and after the telephone number change when treated as a single contract in a single record in the cumulative usage history. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for processing billing data, the program comprising: Identifying the customer from the billing data of the billed call, extracting billing elements by reading product information of the identified customer valid at the call occurrence time of the billed call; Querying the cumulative usage history for the billing element to process billing calculation and reflecting the result in the cumulative usage history, The charging element extracting step and the charging calculation processing step, if the same charging element is applied to the same customer, even if the phone number is changed, the recording medium, characterized in that treated as one contract.

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