KR20140044959A - Charging method, apparatus and system for contents delivery network - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a charging process method in a content delivery network (CDN) and, more in detail, to a charging process method for a content delivery network, an apparatus and a system therefor, capable of calculating charging data on usage of content in a user terminal by receiving information on an packet usage amount in accordance with using the content in the user terminal. The charging process system according to an embodiment of the present invention for this comprises: a dummy packet generating device for collecting information on the packet usage amount of the content which a plurality of cache devices provide to the user terminal and generating a dummy packet; and a charging process device for mirroring the packet usage amount via one network device which controls a session connection or the dummy packet generating device in order to charge the package usage amount transmitted or received via a session to be connected to the user terminal over a network, generating a charging data record (CDR), collecting a user data record corresponding to the session, integrating the charging data record with the user data record, and generating one kind of the charging data. [Reference numerals] (100) User terminal; (200) Content providing device; (310) Internet; (321) Gateway; (322) Packet core device; (323) Switching device; (330) Access network; (340) Cache controller; (350a) First cache device; (350b) Second cache device; (410) Charging process device; (420) Communication service provider charging device; (430) Dummy packet generating device

Description

Technical Field [0001] The present invention relates to a charging method for a content transmission system,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a billing method in a content delivery system (CDN), and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for receiving a packet from a plurality of cache devices providing content to a user terminal, To a billing processing method for a content transmission system capable of calculating billing data on content usage of a user terminal, and an apparatus and system therefor.

2. Description of the Related Art [0002] In recent years, according to the improvement of performance of a user terminal such as a smart phone and development of a mobile communication technology, a user accesses a web server provided by a contents provider (CP) , Audio, applications, and so on.

However, while the number of Web servers provided by a content provider (CP) is limited, the number of users wishing to access the web server is rapidly increasing. As a result, various problems such as data loss, bottleneck, transmission delay, .

The CDN (Contents Delivery Network) service has come to solve such a problem.

The CDN service is a service for reliably delivering various types of contents such as photographs, movies, and music videos to user terminals. The CDN service is a service for providing various contents such as images, Such as video, audio, or the like, which is large in capacity or frequently requested by the user, is copied and stored in advance in a cache device distributed and distributed at major points on the network, in particular, near the user terminal, The cache device located closest to the user terminal transmits content from the cache device to the user terminal in order to improve content access speed of the user terminal and provide more stable contents have.

As the demand to use the CDN service having various advantages has continuously increased, the demand for the billing processing technology capable of efficiently processing the billing process for the user terminal using the CDN service is continuously increased have.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been proposed in order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the related art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a billing processing method for a content transmission system capable of effectively processing billing according to content transmission in a content transmission system providing CDN service, And a system.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for more accurately calculating a charge for providing a user's content using a CDN service and a billing process for a content transmission system that can more efficiently perform a billing process between a user using a CDN service and a non- Method, apparatus and system therefor.

In order to accomplish the above object, a charging system for a content transfer system including a plurality of cache devices of the present invention and a cache controller for controlling the plurality of cache devices comprises a cache memory A dummy packet generating device for collecting information on a packet usage amount from the cache controller to generate a dummy packet; And mirroring the packet usage through either the network device controlling the session connection or the dummy packet generating device to charge the packet usage amount transmitted and received through the session connected to the user terminal on the network, A charge data record (CDR), collecting a user data record (UDR) corresponding to the session, and integrating the charging data record and the user data record to generate one charging data Device. ≪ / RTI >

Here, the user data record includes any one of session start-up information, connection-in-progress information, connection end information, access equipment identification information according to session connection, and session connection time information in correspondence with the identification information of the user terminal can do.

The charging data record may include at least one of a connection time with the content providing apparatus, a start and end time of downloading of the packet, download progress information, a total packet size, a packet service type, , An instantaneous, and an average transmission rate.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a dummy packet generating apparatus including a packet usage amount collecting unit for collecting information on a packet usage amount of content provided from a plurality of cache apparatuses to a user terminal through a cache controller, ; A dummy packet generator for generating a dummy packet based on the information on the packet usage collected through the packet usage collector; And a dummy packet transmission unit for sequentially transmitting the generated dummy packet to the billing processing apparatus.

Here, the dummy packet includes a header and a payload, and the header includes information on a packet usage amount of the content provided to the user terminal by the cache apparatus, And information on the invalid data given by the packet generating unit.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a billing apparatus for performing a billing operation on a packet used for a session through a session with a user terminal on a network, A charging data record processing unit for generating a charging data record by mirroring the packet usage through a packet generating apparatus; A user data record processing unit for collecting user data records corresponding to the session; And a billing data generation unit for generating the billing data by integrating the charging data record and the user data record.

At this time, the billing data generation unit may integrate the charging data record and the user data record based on the identification information of the user terminal, and generate billing data in a form supported by the communication company billing apparatus.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a billing method for a content transmission system including a plurality of cache devices and a cache controller for controlling the plurality of cache devices, Generating a charging data record through a dummy packet generating apparatus that transmits a dummy packet with respect to a packet usage amount transmitted and received through a session connected to a user terminal; Collecting a user data record of the user terminal corresponding to the session; And a step in which the charge processing device integrates the charging data record and the user data record to generate one charging data.

Here, the dummy packet generating apparatus collects packet usage information for contents transmitted to the user terminal by a plurality of cache devices through a cache controller before generating the charging data record. The dummy packet generating apparatus including the packet usage information as header information and adding a payload including invalid data to the header information to generate a dummy packet; And sequentially transmitting the dummy packet generated by the dummy packet generating device to the charging processing device.

In this case, when the dummy packet is not received through the dummy packet generation device, the charging device may mirror the information on the packet usage amount transmitted / received through the session on the network, It is also possible to create a data record.

In addition, the step of collecting the user data record may include: requesting the user data record of the user terminal to the network device to which the accounting device controls the session connection; And receiving the user data record of the user terminal from the network device by the charging processing device.

Here, in the step of generating the accounting data, the charging apparatus may integrate the charging data record and the user data record based on the identification information of the user terminal and generate the charging data in the form of charging data supported by the communication company charging apparatus have.

According to the billing processing method, the apparatus and system for the content transmission system of the present invention, the packet usage information according to the content provision from the plurality of cache devices is received, and dummy packets are generated based on the received packet usage information. It is possible to detect the same traffic as the traffic that has been received, and to calculate accurate billing data for the contents provided to the user terminal based on the detected traffic.

FIG. 1 is a system diagram illustrating a problem occurring in a billing process in a conventional content transmission system.
2 is a system diagram illustrating a billing processing method for a content transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a dummy packet generating apparatus according to the present invention.
4 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of the charge processing apparatus of the present invention.
5 is a flowchart illustrating a method of generating a dummy packet according to an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a flowchart of a billing data generation method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention. This is to omit the unnecessary description so as to convey the key of the present invention more clearly without fading. Also, the terms first, second, etc. are used for describing various components and are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another component, and are not used to define the components.

The same reference numerals are used for portions having similar functions and functions throughout the drawings.

Prior to the description, the user terminal described in the specification of the present invention may be implemented in various forms. For example, mobile terminals such as a smart phone, a tablet PC, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistants), a PMP (Portable Multimedia Player), and an MP3 player, as well as a smart TV, Or the like can be used. Any terminal can be applied to the user terminal of the present invention as long as it is a terminal capable of requesting contents from the contents providing apparatus through the network and receiving and using the contents.

Also, the content providing apparatus described in the present invention is for providing various contents such as photographs, video, audio, applications, etc. to a user terminal, and is provided with at least one content And transmits the corresponding content according to a request of the user terminal, and preferably provides the contents agreed with the communication service provider providing the CDN service.

Hereinafter, prior to describing the billing processing system according to the embodiment of the present invention, problems occurring in the billing process in the conventional contents transmission system will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 is a system diagram illustrating a problem occurring in a billing process in a conventional content transmission system.

Referring to FIG. 1, generally, a user terminal 100 requests content from a content providing apparatus 200 through a network 300, and receives and uses content provided from the content providing apparatus 200.

Here, the user terminal 100 is preferably a user terminal 100 subscribed to a communication service provided by a specific communication service provider, for example, a data service of a communication service provider providing a CDN service, and the network 300 is also a communication service provider But it is not limited thereto.

The billing processing system 400 is a system capable of performing billing on a packet usage amount transmitted and received through a session connected to the user terminal 100 on the network and generates a charging data record (CDR) And a billing processing device 410 that changes billing data to billing data that can be processed by the carrier billing device 420.

More specifically, the user terminal 100 can access the content providing apparatus 200 through the nearby wired and wireless access network 330 by using the content provided by the content providing apparatus 200. [ When a session connection is normally established in the core network 320 providing the packet data service, the packet core device 322 monitoring the sequence of processes generates a user data record (UDR) according to the session connection can do.

The user data record is user information related to the session connection. When the user terminal 100 is successfully connected to the core network 320 through the access network 330, the packet core device 322 transmits the user data 100 to the user terminal 100, Connection start information, connection intermediate information, and connection termination information indicating the start of the session corresponding to the identification information of the IP address, for example, the IP address. In addition, user information related to the session connection, such as identification information (e.g., identification information of a mobile switching center, a base station controller, and a base station transmitter), session connection time information, .

Thereafter, when the session is normally connected, the packet core device 322 allocates an appropriate IP to the user terminal 100 and accesses the content providing device 200 via the switching device 323, the gateway 321, And controls a series of processes.

The user terminal 100 transmits the content request message to the content providing apparatus 200 and the content providing apparatus 200 receives the content from the content providing apparatus 200 through the network 300, Monitors the packet usage amount of the content transmitted through the network 300, and transmits information on the packet usage amount and the user data record to the accounting processing apparatus 410.

The charging processor 410 generates a charging data record based on the information on the packet usage amount received from the packet core device 322. Herein, information on the packet usage amount is received from the packet core device 322 The charging device 410 may directly generate a charging data record for charging by mirroring the packet usage amount transmitted and received through the network 300. [

Herein, the charging data record is a service data record in which the user terminal 100 requests contents from the contents providing apparatus 200 by using various services such as the contents providing apparatus 200 after the session connection, Information related to the connection to the content providing apparatus 200 in correspondence with the identification information of the user terminal 100 such as the IP address, the start and end time of downloading of the data packet, the download progress information, the total data packet size, The type of service, the number of repetitions of download, and the instantaneous and average transmission speed.

That is, as in the general traffic flow of FIG. 1, all traffic passing between the user terminal 100 and the content providing apparatus 200 is transmitted / received through a certain path on the network 300, Collects user data records through any one of a plurality of network devices on the network 300, for example, packet core device 322, and mirrors information on packet usage from the packet core device 322, Data records can be generated.

Then, the billing processor 410 integrates the user data record and the charging data record on a session-by-session basis based on the identification information of the user terminal 100, for example, the IP address, and processes it into billing data requested by the communication charging apparatus 420 And transmits it to the communication company charging apparatus 420.

Then, the communication company charging apparatus 420 requests charging of the contents used by the user in the form set by the user of the user terminal 100, for example, mail, e-mail, or the like.

As described above, when general contents are transmitted, the billing system 400 collects user data records through the packet core device 322 that controls data traffic on the network 300, generates a charging data record based on the packet usage amount However, in the network environment based on the CDN service, devices such as the packet core device 322 have a problem that it is difficult to grasp the accurate flow of the contents provided to the user terminal 100. [

This will be described in more detail.

1, a content delivery network (hereinafter referred to as a CDN service) includes a user terminal 100, a content providing apparatus 200, and a plurality of caches distributed on a network 300, And a cache controller 340 for controlling the devices 350a and 350b and the plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b.

The plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b may be located near the edge of the network 300, that is, near the user terminal 100, ).

To this end, the plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b store a part or all of the content in advance according to a predetermined content distribution policy of the content served from the content providing apparatus 200. [ Here, the content distribution policy may be set differently according to the CDN provider, and a plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b may store content having a high possibility of being requested by the user terminal 100, When a content request message to be transmitted to the providing apparatus 200 is detected, a cache apparatus, for example, a first cache apparatus 350a caching content corresponding to the content request message among the plurality of cache apparatuses 350a and 360b, The content is transmitted to the user terminal 100 on behalf of the providing apparatus 200.

Here, in order for the first cache apparatus 350a, which is caching content corresponding to the content request message, to transmit the content to the user terminal 100 on behalf of the content providing apparatus 200, And informs that the content corresponding to the content request message is being cached (cache hit information).

Here, the cache hit determination is basically performed based on the URL address of the content providing apparatus 200 included in the content request message, but the present invention is not limited to this. It is also possible to perform cache hit determination based on content such as continuous matching of the number of content chunks have.

The cache controller 340 controls the management of a plurality of cache devices 300 distributed on the network 300 and the content delivery process by the plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b, The cache controller 340 interrupts the flow of the content transmitted from the content providing apparatus 200 to the user terminal 100 and instructs the first cache apparatus 350a to transmit the content to the user terminal 100 100 in order to transmit the content.

Here, the cache controller 340 preferably transmits a control command according to the byte caching method.

The byte caching method is a method in which content provided by the content providing apparatus 200 is divided in units of chunks beforehand. For this purpose, each of the cache apparatuses 350a and 350b is managed by the content providing apparatus 200 The cache controller 400 may store some or all of the contents to be served in units of chunks. When the cache controller 400 transmits the label information of the chunk data to, for example, the first cache device 350a, 350a confirms the chunk data corresponding to the received label information and transmits the confirmed chunk data to the user terminal 100. [

That is, the first cache device 350a performs a role of transmitting chunk data of contents to the user terminal 100 in the order indicated by the control of the cache controller 400. [

The traffic flow according to the provision of contents to the user terminal 100 in the CDN service is as shown in (2).

In this case, the packet core device 322 may generate a user data record according to the session connection between the user terminal 100 and the content providing apparatus 200 and transmit the user data record to the billing processing apparatus 410. However, The information becomes impossible to confirm.

In other words, the packet core device 322 can only check the label information transmitted from the cache controller 340 to the first cache device 350a, and actually transmit the first cache device 350a to the user terminal 100 The information on the exact packet usage can not be confirmed and the billing processor 410 can not mirror the amount of packets transmitted and received through the packet core device 322 and thus can not generate a charging data record have.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a billing system according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig.

The billing apparatus 410 collects information on user data records and packet usage from the packet core apparatus 322 in the core network 320. However, the present invention is not limited to this, Lt; RTI ID = 0.0 > 321 < / RTI >

The plurality of gateways may include a serving gateway (SGW), a packet data network gateway (PGW), and the like. For example, the serving gateway may serve as a mobility anchor in the eNodeB handover of the user terminal 100 The packet data network gateway allocates an IP address of the user terminal 100 and performs packet data related functions in the core network 220, Performs different QoS policies for each terminal 100, and controls traffic and the like.

A user data record generated through the serving gateway among the plurality of gateways includes identification information for the serving gateway and a user data record generated through the packet data network gateway may include identification information of the packet data network gateway have.

The packet core apparatus 322 performs user authentication of the user terminal 100 and transmits a communication channel for connecting the PDS (destination server of the content providing apparatus), for example, a user terminal-eNodeB-SGW - a Mobility Management Entity (MME) that manages the status of creation, modification, release, etc. of the communication channel leading to the PGW-PDN and manages the connection of the core network 320 of the user terminal 100 And the user data record generated by the MME preferably includes identification information of the MME.

In addition, the billing processor 410 may be an Internet Usage Extractor (IUX) that mirrors the amount of packet transmission / reception transmitted through the session connected to the user terminal 100 and generates a charging data record by subdividing the amount of packet transmission / And an IPMS (Internet Protocol Mediation System) for receiving a user data record received from any network device and a charging data record generated through the IUX and generating a partial charging data record which is real time charging information in units of a predetermined time Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to an example in which the billing apparatus 410 integrally performs the functions of the IUX and the IPMS without distinguishing the above configuration.

Also, the billing apparatus 410 may operate as an online charging system (pre-payment system) and may further include an OFCS (Offline Charging System) for an off-line charging system (post-payment system) And the billing processing device 410 integrally.

However, the present invention is not limited to the above, and it is obvious that the billing apparatus 410 can be classified into IUX, IPMS, OFCS and the like according to the system designing method.

Also, in an embodiment of the present invention, when the cache controller 340 transmits label information to each of the cache devices 350a and 350b according to the byte caching scheme, each of the cache devices 350a and 350b transmits the label information But the present invention is not limited thereto and each of the cache devices 350a and 350b may transmit content service information such as TCP Only the flow information necessary for processing the packet may be provided, and then the content may be transmitted to the user terminal 100. [

In addition to the functions described above, the cache controller 340 selects a specific cache device to be provided with content to the user terminal 100 in an environment in which predetermined content is stored in a plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b It can also play a role.

More specifically, the user terminal 100 generates a content request message (for example, an HTTP GET message) upon input of URL information of a specific content to be used by the user at the request of the user, The content providing apparatus 200 acquires the address information of the content providing apparatus 200 and transmits the content request message to the content providing apparatus 200. Thereafter, the cache controller 340 connected to the content providing apparatus 200 monitors the cache controller 340 and selects an optimum cache apparatus, for example, a first cache apparatus 350a and returns the address information of the selected first cache device 350a to the user terminal 100. [

The optimum cache apparatus can be selected based on the cache apparatus closest to the user terminal 100. The optimum cache apparatus can be selected based on the current load state of the cache apparatus or the type of contents stored in the cache apparatus Can be selected.

In this case, the address information (IP address) delivery may be implemented by various known methods such as HTTP redirecting.

Thereafter, when the cache controller 340 returns the address information of the optimal cache apparatus, the first cache apparatus 350a, the user terminal 100 transmits a content request message to the first cache apparatus 350a, 1 cache device 350a may provide the content corresponding to the content request message to the user terminal 100. [

If cache hit information is not received from a plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b adjacent to the user terminal 100 but after another cache device that is farther from the user terminal 100 but is caching contents is checked, And may request the user terminal 100 to provide the content to the corresponding cache device.

Hereinafter, a billing method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

2 is a system diagram illustrating a billing processing method for a content transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Before describing the billing processing method according to the embodiment of the present invention with reference to FIG. 2, description of the main configuration of the content transmission network described with reference to FIG. 1 will be omitted, The processing method will be mainly described.

The user terminal 100 transmits a content request message to the content providing apparatus 200 and transmits the content request message to the content providing apparatus 200 through the network 300. The user terminal 100 transmits the content request message to the content providing apparatus 200, When a content request message is detected, a plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b monitoring packets between the providing apparatuses 200 generate cache hit information and transmit the cache hit information to the cache controller 340. [

For example, the first cache apparatus 350a is in a state of caching contents corresponding to the first part of the contents requested by the user terminal 100, and the second cache apparatus 350b is in a state of caching contents corresponding to a later part of the contents requested by the user terminal 100 For example,

The cache controller 340 blocks the content transmitted from the content providing apparatus 200 to the user terminal 100 and transmits label information to each of the cache apparatuses 350a and 350b.

Each of the cache devices 350a and 350b can provide the content that it is caching to the user terminal 100 according to the label information received from the cache controller 340. [

Each of the cache apparatuses 350a and 350b transmits information on the amount of packet usage due to the content transmission to the user terminal 100 to the user terminal 100, For example, an IP address, to the cache controller 340.

The cache controller 340 integrates the information on the packet usage amount received from each of the cache devices 350a and 350b into one packet usage amount information based on the identification information of the user terminal 100, To the dummy packet generator 430, which is logically or physically connected to the controller 340.

The dummy packet generating apparatus 430 receives the dummy packet and generates a dummy packet and transmits the dummy packet to the billing processing apparatus 410. Here, the dummy packet includes a header and a payload, The cache devices 350a and 350b include information on packet usage for content provided to the user terminal, and the payload includes information on invalid data for informing that the cache device 350a or 350b is a dummy packet.

The dummy packet generation device 430 sequentially transmits the generated dummy packet to the billing processing device 410. The billing processing device 410 generates a charging data record by mirroring the amount of packets transmitted and received on the network Likewise, the charging data record can be generated based on the dummy packet. The charging data record may further include identification information indicating that the charging data record is generated based on the dummy packet transmitted through the dummy packet generating device 430. [

Then, the billing apparatus 410 transmits a user data record of the user terminal 100 corresponding to the session to any one of the network devices, for example, the packet core device 322 on the network 300 that controls the session connection And combine the charging data record and the user data record to generate one charging data.

At this time, the billing apparatus 410 processes billing data requested by the billing apparatus 420 when generating the billing data, and then transmits the billing data to the billing apparatus 420.

As described above, the billing apparatus 410 can store information on the same packet usage amount as the packet usage amount for the content actually provided to the user terminal 100 by each of the cache apparatuses 350a and 350b, By checking the packet generation device 430, it is possible to more accurately calculate the user's billing using the CDN service.

The billing processing method in the billing processor 410 will be described in detail below. The outline of the billing processing system for the content transmission system according to the embodiment of the present invention and the operation method thereof have been described above.

The network 300 in which a plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b of the present invention are dispersedly disposed at key points means a communication network for transmitting and receiving information between the user terminal 100 and the content providing apparatus 200 A communication network implemented using various types of wired / wireless communication technologies such as an internet network, an intranet network, a mobile communication network, and a satellite communication network may be mixed rather than a single communication network type. The network 300 according to the embodiment of the present invention is preferably a mixed network of a mobile network and an Internet network, but any type of network can be applied to the network 300 of the present invention.

For example, the network 300 may include an external network, such as the Internet network 310, connected to a mobile network including a plurality of wired and wireless access networks 330 and a core network 320.

The wired / wireless access network 330 constituting the mobile network is an access network that performs wired / wireless communication with the user terminal 100 and includes a plurality of base stations such as a base station (BS), a base transceiver station (BTS) And a base station controller such as a base station controller (BSC) and a radio network controller (RNC).

Alternatively, the digital signal processing unit and the radio signal processing unit integrally implemented in the base station may be divided into a digital unit (hereinafter referred to as DU) and a radio unit (hereinafter referred to as RU) A plurality of RUs (not shown) may be provided in each of the regions, and a plurality of RUs (not shown) may be connected to a centralized DU (not shown).

The core network 320 configuring the mobile network together with the wire / wireless access network 330 plays a role of connecting the wired and / or wireless access network 330 with an external network, for example, the Internet network 310.

As described above, the core network 320 is a network system that performs main functions for mobile communication services such as mobility control and switching between wired and wireless access networks 330. The core network 320 manages and controls packet flow in the mobile network , And may serve for interworking with a mobile network and an external network, such as the Internet network 310.

In addition, the Internet network 310 refers to a general public network in which information is exchanged according to the TCP / IP protocol. The Internet network 310 is connected to the content providing apparatus 200, The data may be provided to the user terminal 100 through the network 320 and the wired and wireless access network 330 or may be provided to the plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b according to a predetermined distribution policy.

In addition, the mobile packet transmitted and received on the mobile network may be transmitted through a GTP (GPRS Tunneling Protocol) tunnel unlike the Internet network 310. For example, when the user terminal 100 transmits a content request message requesting content provided by the content providing apparatus 200, the source address information of the user terminal 100 (the IP address of the user terminal 100) And the destination address information (IP information of the content providing apparatus 200) to the access network 330. The base station (eNodeB, for example) of the access network 330 adds a GTP header, a UDP Header, an IP header for GTP tunneling, and transmits the mobile packet to the core network 320. At this time, the GTP header may include tunneling end point ID (TEID) assigned to the user terminal 100. The core network 320 removes the GTP header, the UDP header, and the IP header for GTP tunneling, and transmits the original IP packet transmitted from the user terminal 100 to the content providing apparatus 200 through the Internet network 310 .

As described above, the network 300 of the present invention has been briefly described. The network 300 is coupled with a cache device to store computing resources such as hardware and software, and provides the computing resources required by the client to the corresponding terminals And a cloud computing network that can do that. Here, cloud computing refers to a computer environment in which information is permanently stored on a server on the Internet and temporarily stored in a client terminal such as a desktop, a tablet computer, a notebook, a netbook, or a smart phone. Cloud computing, Refers to a computer environment access network that stores information on a server on the Internet and makes the information available anytime and anywhere through various IT devices. The network 300 may be a closed network such as a LAN (Local Area Network) or a WAN (Wide Area Network), an open network such as the Internet, a CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), a WCDMA (LTE) and Evolved Packet Core (EPC), as well as next-generation networks and cloud computing networks to be implemented in the future.

Hereinafter, a main configuration of a dummy packet generating apparatus 430 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

3 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a dummy packet generating apparatus according to the present invention.

2 and 3, the dummy packet generation apparatus 430 of the present invention may include a packet usage amount collection unit 431, a dummy packet generation unit 432, and a dummy packet transmission unit 433 .

Here, the packet usage collecting unit 431 collects the packet usage information according to the content transmission of the plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b that provide the actual contents to the user terminal 100 on behalf of the content providing apparatus 200 And collects packet usage information of a plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b through the cache controller 340. [

The dummy packet generating unit 432 generates a dummy packet of the same size when the packet usage amount information for each cache apparatus is received through the packet usage amount collecting unit 431. [

At this time, if the dummy packet transmission unit 433 sequentially transmits the dummy packet to the billing processing apparatus 410 by using the packet usage information as header information and generating a dummy packet including meaningless invalid data in the payload .

The billing processing apparatus 410 monitors the dummy packet received through the dummy packet generating apparatus 430 and generates a charging data record including the total size of the contents transmitted to the user terminal 100 based on the dummy packet can do.

Hereinafter, the main configuration of the billing apparatus 410 according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

4 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of the charge processing apparatus of the present invention.

2 and 4, the billing apparatus 410 of the present invention may include a charging data record processing unit 411, a user data record processing unit 412, and a billing data generation unit 413. [

The charging data record processing unit 411 receives the dummy packet received through the dummy packet generating apparatus 430 as a basis for performing the charging of the packet usage amount transmitted and received through the session connected to the user terminal 100 on the network 300 To generate a charging data record.

At this time, when the dummy packet is not received through the dummy packet generating device 430, the charging data record processing unit 411 transmits the received data packet to any one of the network devices for controlling the session connection on the network 300, A charging data record may be generated by mirroring the packet usage amount transmitted / received through the transmission / reception unit 322.

Here, the charging data record is information on the packet usage amount according to the content usage of the user terminal 100, for example, the connection time with the content providing apparatus 200 in correspondence with the IP address of the user terminal 100, End and elapsed time, download progress information, total packet size, service type of packet, number of repetition of download, instantaneous and average transfer rate.

The user data record processing unit 412 collects user data records according to a session connection of the user terminal 100. For example, the user data record processing unit 412 may store session start information, connection intermediate information, Information on the access equipment according to the session connection, and information on the session connection time. This user data may be collected from the packet core device 322 which controls the flow of data packets in the core network 320. [

The billing data generation unit 413 performs a function of collecting charging data records and user data records collected through the charging data record processing unit 411 and the user data record processing unit 412 to generate one billing data.

At this time, billing data is generated in a form supported by the carrier billing apparatus 420. To this end, the billing data generating unit 413 extracts only necessary data from the charging data record and the user data record, And may be integrated into one billing data.

In this manner, the packet usage information about the content transmitted from the cache devices 350a and 350b to the user terminal 100 is collected through the cache controller 340 in the network to which the CDN service is applied, The billing apparatus 410 can detect the same traffic as the traffic transmitted to the actual user terminal 100 and can generate billing data more accurately based on the detection.

Hereinafter, a method for generating a dummy packet through the dummy packet generating apparatus 430 will be described with reference to FIG. 5 before describing a method of generating billing data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a method of generating a dummy packet according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 and 5, a plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b monitors packets transmitted and received between the user terminal 100 and the content providing apparatus 200, and the user terminal 100 It is assumed that the content requested by the content providing apparatus 200 is a cache hit state in which the requested content is cached.

In this case, the cache controller 340 blocks the flow of the content transmitted from the content providing apparatus 200 to the user terminal 100, and transmits the label information to each of the cache apparatuses 350a and 350b according to the content flow do.

Each of the cache devices 350a and 350b transmits the chunk data of the corresponding content to the user terminal 100 according to the label information received from the cache controller 340. When the transmission is completed, The packet usage fid information is generated corresponding to the identification information of the user terminal 100 and the generated packet usage information is transmitted to the cache controller 340. [

When the content transmission is completed, the plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b generate packet usage information for the content provided to the actual user terminal 100 and include the IP address information of the user terminal 100, To the controller 340.

The cache controller 340 collects the packet usage information collected by the dummy packet generation device 430 (S101), and the dummy packet generation device 430 generates a dummy packet based on the packet usage information S103).

At this time, it is preferable that the packet usage information is set as header information of a dummy packet, and dummy packets are generated by giving meaningless data to the payload of the dummy packet.

Thereafter, the dummy packet generating apparatus 430 sequentially transmits the generated dummy packet to the billing processing apparatus 410 (S105), and the billing processing apparatus 410 generates a charging data record based on the transmitted dummy packet .

Hereinafter, a billing data generation method in the billing apparatus 410 according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

6 is a flowchart of a billing data generation method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 and 6, a billing apparatus 410 according to an embodiment of the present invention controls the session connection to perform a billing on a packet usage amount transmitted and received through a session connected to the user terminal 100 (Step S201), and generates a charging data record (step S203). In step S203, the packet data is transmitted through the packet core device 322 or the dummy packet generation device 430,

Here, the charging data record includes identification information at the generated place. For example, a charging data record generated through the cache controller 340 includes identification information of the cache controller 340, 410 may include identification information of the charging processing device 410. [

In addition, charging data records can also be collected through a plurality of network devices such as the packet core device 322 or the gateway 32 on the network 300. In this case, .

In addition, when the packet usage amount transmitted through the dummy packet generation device 430, that is, the dummy packet is mirrored to generate the charging data record, the identification information of the dummy packet generation device 430 may be included.

When the charging data record is generated, the charging processor 410 collects the user data record. The charging server 410 checks the identification information, the session information, and the like of the user terminal 100 included in the charging data record, (E.g., packet core device 322) on the network 300 to collect the user data record for the session of the network 100,

Here, in an embodiment of the present invention, when the charging data record is collected, the charging processor 410 collects the user data record. However, the present invention is not limited to this example. After collecting the user data record, Records may be collected, and the above process may occur at the same time.

Thereafter, the billing apparatus 410 integrates the charging data record and the user data record based on the identification information of the user terminal 100 (S207), and generates one charging data (S209).

In step S209, the billing apparatus 410 extracts only a part of the data as needed, and generates the billing data. If the billing apparatus 410 transmits the generated billing data to the billing apparatus 420, The billing device 420 transmits billing information according to the content usage through the promised method as a user of the user terminal 100

Thus, by receiving the packet usage amount information according to the content provision from the plurality of cache devices and generating the dummy packet based on the received packet usage amount information, it is possible to detect the same traffic as the traffic transmitted to the actual user terminal, The advantage is that it can be calculated.

Also, the billing processor 410 can generate the charging data record based on the dummy packet transmitted through the dummy packet generating device 430 in the same manner as in the conventional method without any design change, thereby making it easy to apply the system Provide an effect.

The billing processing method in the content transmission system according to the embodiment of the present invention has been described above.

The billing processing method in the content transmission system according to the embodiment of the present invention can be implemented as a computer-readable code on a computer-readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, and the like, alone or in combination, and includes all kinds of recording devices in which data that can be read by a computer system is stored. Examples of the computer-readable recording medium include an optical recording medium such as a magnetic medium such as a hard disk, a floppy disk and a magnetic tape, a compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM), and a digital video disk (ROM), random access memory (RAM), flash memory, and the like, such as a magneto-optical medium such as a magneto-optical medium and a floppy disk, And hardware devices that are specifically configured to perform the functions described herein.

In addition, the computer-readable recording medium may be distributed over network-connected computer systems so that computer readable codes can be stored and executed in a distributed manner. In addition, functional programs, codes, and code segments for implementing the present invention can be easily inferred by programmers of the technical field to which the present invention belongs.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, but, on the contrary, It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that numerous changes and modifications can be made to the invention. And all such modifications and changes as fall within the scope of the present invention are therefore to be regarded as being within the scope of the present invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a billing method in a content delivery system (CDN), and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for receiving a packet from a plurality of cache devices providing content to a user terminal, To a billing processing method for a content transmission system capable of calculating billing data on content usage of a user terminal, and an apparatus and system therefor.

According to the billing processing method, the apparatus and system for the content transmission system of the present invention, the packet usage information according to the content provision from the plurality of cache devices is received, and dummy packets are generated based on the received packet usage information. It is possible to detect the same traffic as the traffic that has been transmitted, and it is possible to calculate the accurate billing data for the contents provided to the user terminal on the basis thereof, thereby contributing to the spread of the contents transmission system technology.

In addition, since the present invention is not only possible to be marketed or operated, but also can be practically and practically carried out, it is industrially applicable.

100: user terminal 200: content providing apparatus 300: network
310 Internet network 320 Core network 321 Gateway
322: Packet core device 323: Switching device 330: Connection network
340: cache controller 350a: first cache device 350b: second cache device
400: a billing system 410: a billing system
430: dummy packet generation device 420: communication carrier billing device

Claims (12)

A billing system for a content delivery system comprising a plurality of cache devices and a cache controller for controlling the plurality of cache devices,
A dummy packet generating device for collecting information on a packet usage amount for contents provided to a user terminal by a plurality of cache devices from a cache controller and generating a dummy packet; And
A packet data generation unit for generating a charging data record (CDR) by mirroring the packet usage through either the network device controlling the session connection or the dummy packet generation device to charge the packet usage amount transmitted and received through the session connected to the user terminal on the network, A charging data record (UDR) for collecting a user data record (UDR) corresponding to the session, and integrating the charging data record and the user data record to generate one charging data, ;
And a charging unit for charging the charging system. The method according to claim 1,
The user data record
And information on any one of session initiation information, connection intermediate information, connection termination information, access equipment identification information according to session connection, and session connection time information corresponding to the identification information of the user terminal. system. The method according to claim 1,
The charging data record
The download duration, the download progress information, the total packet size, the type of service of the packet, the number of download repetitions, the instantaneous, and the average transfer rate in response to the identification information of the user terminal And wherein the information includes any one of information. A packet usage collecting unit for collecting information on a packet usage amount of contents provided by a plurality of cache apparatuses to a user terminal through a cache controller;
A dummy packet generator for generating a dummy packet based on the information on the packet usage collected through the packet usage collector; And
A dummy packet transmission unit for sequentially transmitting the generated dummy packet to the billing processing apparatus;
The dummy packet generating apparatus comprising: 5. The method of claim 4,
The dummy packet
A header and a payload, the header including information on a packet usage amount of content provided to the user terminal by the cache apparatus, the payload being allocated by the dummy packet generation unit And information on invalid data generated by the dummy packet generation unit. A charging data record is generated by mirroring the packet usage through any one of the network devices or the dummy packet generating device controlling the session connection to charge the packet usage amount transmitted and received through the session connected to the user terminal on the network A charging data record processing unit;
A user data record processing unit for collecting user data records corresponding to the session; And
A charging data generating unit for combining the charging data record and the user data record to generate one charging data;
And a control unit for controlling the charging unit. The method according to claim 6,
The billing data generation unit
The charging data record and the user data record are integrated based on the identification information of the user terminal, and the charging data is generated in a form supported by the communication company charging apparatus. A billing method for a content delivery system comprising a plurality of cache devices and a cache controller for controlling the plurality of cache devices,
Generating a charging data record through a dummy packet generation device that transmits a dummy packet for a packet usage amount transmitted and received through a session connected to a user terminal by the charging processing device;
Collecting a user data record of the user terminal corresponding to the session; And
The charging processing device integrating the charging data record and the user data record to generate one charging data;
And a charging step of charging the battery. 9. The method of claim 8,
Before the step of generating the charging data record
The dummy packet generating apparatus collecting packet usage information about contents transmitted to the user terminal by a plurality of cache devices through a cache controller;
The dummy packet generating apparatus including the packet usage information as header information and adding a payload including invalid data to the header information to generate a dummy packet; And
Sequentially transmitting the dummy packet generated by the dummy packet generating device to the billing processing device;
Further comprising the steps of: 9. The method of claim 8,
In the step of generating the charging data record,
Wherein when the dummy packet is not received through the dummy packet generating device, the charging processing device generates a charging data record by mirroring information on a packet usage amount transmitted and received through the session on the network . 9. The method of claim 8,
The step of collecting the user data record
Requesting a user data record of the user terminal to the one network device for controlling the session connection by the charging processing device; And
Receiving the user data record of the user terminal from any one of the network devices;
And a charging step of charging the battery. 9. The method of claim 8,
The step of generating the billing data
Wherein the charging processing device integrates the charging data record and the user data record based on the identification information of the user terminal and generates the charging data record in the form of accounting data supported by the communication company charging device.

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