KR20150042942A

KR20150042942A - Charging method for distributing a content, apparatus thereof

Info

Publication number: KR20150042942A
Application number: KR20130121767A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 이종민; 이경준; 호용환
Original assignee: 에스케이텔레콤 주식회사
Priority date: 2013-10-14
Filing date: 2013-10-14
Publication date: 2015-04-22

Abstract

The present invention relates to a charging method for distributing a content at a contents delivery network (CDN) and apparatus thereof. In greater detail, the present invention relates to a charging method at a CDN that, when creating charging data of a user terminal using a CDN service, can more accurately create charging data by creating charging data by using not only packet use volume but also a confirm message (ACK message) received from the user terminal and apparatus thereof. A cash controller according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises: an interface unit that sends and receives information with a number of cash devices and charging devices; and a control unit that, when packet use volume information on contents transmission provided to the user terminal is received from one cash device through the interface unit, judges if a confirm message on the contents transmission is received from the user terminal and that, when it is judged that the confirm message is received, creates a charging data record on the basis of the packet use volume information and controls to send it to a charging device through the interface unit.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a billing method for a content transmission system,

The present invention relates to a billing method in a content delivery network (CDN), and more particularly, to a billing method in a content delivery network (CDN) Message) to generate billing data, thereby generating billing data more accurately, and a device for the same.

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, .

A CDN (Contents Delivery Network) service is introduced 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 a user terminal. The CDN service is a service that is concentrated in a web server of a content provider remote from the user terminal, Some or all of the frequent contents are copied and stored in advance in a cache device distributed in a plurality of Internet service provider (ISP) point of presence (PoP), in particular, a cache device distributed and arranged near the user terminal, It means a service that allows the user terminal to access the corresponding cache device through the returned path and receive the content by returning the path of the cache device closest to the user.

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.

Recently, a separate charging apparatus for charging only a user terminal using a CDN service has been installed, and a technique for performing a charging process between a user using a CDN service and a user using a CDN service has been disclosed. However, There is a problem that handover of the user terminal or duplicated charging data may be generated when the user terminal is powered off because it is generated based on the packet usage amount transmitted and received on the network.

Korean Patent Laid-Open No. 10-2001-0074186, 2001.08.04 Published (name: CDN service providing method over wireless network)

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been proposed in order to solve the problems of the related art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a billing processing method in a content transmission system that can effectively process billing based on content transmission in a content transmission system for providing CDN service, The purpose is to provide.

More particularly, the present invention relates to a content transmission system capable of generating billing data more accurately by generating billing data using a confirmation message (ACK message) received from a user terminal when generating billing data according to content transmission in a content transmission system, And a device for the same.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cache controller comprising: an interface unit for transmitting and receiving information to and from a plurality of cache devices and a billing apparatus; And a control unit operable to determine whether an acknowledgment message for the content transmission has been received from the user terminal when the packet usage information for the content transmission from the one cache apparatus to the user terminal is received through the interface unit, And a control unit for generating a charging data record based on the packet usage information and controlling the charging data record to be transmitted to the charging processing apparatus through the interface unit.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a charging method in a content transmission system including a plurality of cache devices and a cache controller for controlling the plurality of cache devices, Receiving packet usage information for content transmission from any one of the cache devices to the user terminal; The cache controller determining whether an acknowledgment message for the content transmission has been received from the user terminal; And generating a charging data record based on the packet usage information when the cache controller determines that the confirmation message is received from the user terminal.

According to the billing processing method and apparatus for the content transmission system of the present invention, when billing data of a user terminal using a CDN service is used, not only billing data but also billing data is transmitted using an acknowledgment message (ACK message) There is an effect that it is possible to prevent the occurrence of duplicate charging data that may be caused by various problems such as handover or power-off of the user terminal.

Accordingly, it is possible to minimize the user's dissatisfaction using the CDN service and to expand the spread of the CDN service by allowing the user to perform a more accurate billing process using the CDN service.

FIG. 1 is a system diagram illustrating a billing method in a content transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG.
2 is a system diagram illustrating a billing method in a content transmission system according to another embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a system diagram illustrating a billing method in a content transmission system according to another embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a block diagram illustrating a main configuration of a cache controller according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a billing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a billing data generation method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a billing data generation method according to another 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. While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. However, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments thereof, It is to be understood that the invention is intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.

Also, terms including ordinal numbers such as first, second, etc. are used to describe various elements, and are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one element from another, Not used. For example, without departing from the scope of the present invention, the second component may be referred to as a first component, and similarly, the first component may also be referred to as a second component.

In addition, when referring to an element as being "connected" or "connected" to another element, it means that it can be connected or connected logically or physically. In other words, it is to be understood that although an element may be directly connected or connected to another element, there may be other elements in between, or indirectly connected or connected.

Also, the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. The singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. It is also to be understood that the terms such as " comprising "or" having ", as used herein, are intended to specify the presence of stated features, integers, It should be understood that the foregoing does not preclude the presence or addition of other features, numbers, steps, operations, elements, parts, or combinations thereof.

Now, a billing method and an apparatus therefor in a content transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Here, the same reference numerals are used for similar functions and functions throughout the drawings, and a duplicate description thereof will be omitted.

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.

In addition, the content providing apparatus described in the present invention is for providing various kinds of contents such as photographs, video, audio, applications, etc. to a user terminal and includes at least one And can transmit the corresponding content according to a request of the user terminal, and preferably provides the contents contracted with the communication service provider providing the CDN service. The content providing apparatus may be a web server or a web application server (WAS).

In addition, any of the above-described contents can be included in the contents of the present invention as long as they can be expressed by a specific address (e.g., URL) on the network. For example, if the entire web site is represented by one URL, it can be distributed as one content through the CDN service.

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

FIG. 1 is a system diagram illustrating a billing method in a content transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG.

1, a content transmission system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a user terminal 100 and a plurality of content providing apparatuses 200 for transmitting content between the user terminal 100 and the content providing apparatus 200, Cache devices 350a and 350b, and a cache controller 340. As shown in FIG.

First, the user terminal 100 requests specific content from the content providing apparatus 200 through the network 300 according to a request from the user, and receives and uses the content provided from the content providing apparatus 200.

More specifically, the user terminal 100 confirms the request for the specific content from the user. The request for the specific content may be input from a user such as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) requesting specific contents through a browser or the like. Then, the user terminal 100 accesses a name server such as a DNS (Domain Name Server) to acquire the IP address of the content providing apparatus 200 providing the corresponding content. Then, the user terminal 100 receives the content from the content providing apparatus 200.

The content providing apparatus 200 provides various contents such as photographs, video, audio, applications, etc. to the user terminal 100 and provides at least one content from a contents provider (CP) And provides the content to a plurality of user terminals 100 through the network 300.

A plurality of cache apparatuses 350a and 350b distributed on the network 300 are located between the user terminal 100 and the content providing apparatus 200 and are provided to the user terminal 100 on behalf of the content providing apparatus 200. [ To provide content to the user. The plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b are located between the access network 330 and the core network 320 and the cache controller 340 controlling the plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b is connected to the core network 320 The present invention is not limited thereto and if it is possible to control the content flow between the user terminal 100 and the content providing apparatus 200, a plurality of cache apparatuses 350a, 350b and cache controller 340 may be deployed on the network 300 in various forms.

The plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b stores a part or all of the content in advance according to a predetermined content distribution policy of the content to be 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 previously store content having a large capacity or content likely to be requested by the user terminal 100, The content is transmitted to the user terminal 100 on behalf of the providing apparatus 200.

When the content transmission to the user terminal 100 is completed, the plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b generate packet usage information according to content transmission and transmit the generated packet usage information to the cache controller 340 . At this time, it is transmitted to the cache controller 340 together with the identification information of the user terminal 100, that is, the IP address.

The cache controller 340 manages a plurality of cache devices 300 and controls a content delivery process by the plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b. First, when the cache controller 340 receives cache hit information indicating that content is being cached from the cache apparatus, for example, the first cache apparatus 350a caching the content requested by the user terminal 100, 200 to the user terminal 100 and may transmit a control command to the first cache device 350a so that the first cache device 350a can transmit the content to the user terminal 100. [

The cache controller 340 generates a charging data record based on the packet usage information when the packet usage information is received from the cache apparatus, for example, the first cache apparatus 350a, which has transmitted the content to the user terminal 100 . In this case, when there are a plurality of cache devices transmitting contents to the user terminal 100, for example, the packet usage information is received from the first cache device 350a, and the packet usage information from the second cache device 350b is The user terminal 100 can be integrated into one charging data record based on the IP address of the user terminal 100.

Herein, the charging data record is related to the use of a service in which the user terminal 100 requests content from the content providing apparatus 200 by receiving various services used by the user after the session is connected to the content providing apparatus 200 Information such as connection time with the content providing apparatus 200, download start, end and elapse time of the data packet, download progress information, total data packet size, The type of service, the number of downloading repetitions, the instantaneous and the average transmission rate, and the cache controller 340 generates the charging data record based on the packet usage information so as to include the above information.

The cache controller 340 may then send the generated charging data record to the accounting processor 410 of the billing system 400.

The billing processing system 400 is a system capable of generating billing data in accordance with the use of the content of the user terminal 100 requesting content provision and performing billing processing to the user terminal 100. The billing processing apparatus 410 and And a carrier billing device 420. [

The billing apparatus 410 is physically or logically connected to a cache controller 340 that provides a CDN service and collects a charging data record provided from the cache controller 340. The billing apparatus 410 also collects a user data record (UDR) provided from any network device on the network 300, for example, the packet core apparatus 322. The billing processor 410 may collect packet usage information for a session connected to the user terminal 100 through the packet core device 322. To this end, Or may be physically or logically coupled to the device 322.

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 session start corresponding to the IP address, for example. 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, the billing apparatus 410 plays a role of generating billing data based on the user data record and the charging data record. Then, the billing processor 410 integrates the collected user data records and the charging data records on a session-by-session basis based on the identification information of the user terminal 100, for example, the IP address, And transmits it to the communication company charging apparatus 420. The billing processor 410 can process and transmit the unified billing data using various billing protocols such as Radius, Diameter, and GTPP.

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.

The cache controller 340 according to the accounting processing techniques up to now generates a charging data record on the basis of the information received from the cache devices 350a and 350b transmitting the contents to the user terminal 100, For example, when the user terminal 100 does not normally receive the content for a variety of reasons, for example, when the user terminal 100 performs handover, or when the user terminal 100 is powered off.

For example, after the user terminal 100 is connected to the first access network (not shown), after transmitting the content request message to the content providing apparatus 200, the handover to the second access network (not shown) It is assumed that the situation is explained. It is also assumed that the first cache apparatus 350a is located near the first access network (not shown) and the second cache apparatus 350b is located near the second access network (not shown).

First, the first cache apparatus 350a detects a content request message transmitted from the content providing apparatus 200 via the first access network (not shown) from the user terminal 100. [ The first cache apparatus 350a caching the content provides the content to the user terminal 100 on behalf of the content providing apparatus 200. [

However, when the handover from the first access network (not shown) to the second access network (not shown) is performed by the user terminal 100, the first cache apparatus 350a, which can not recognize the handover, And transmits the packet usage amount information to the cache controller 340 when the content transmission is completed, irrespective of whether the user terminal 100 receives the content or not. Since the user terminal 100 has not received the content requested by the user terminal 100, the user terminal 100 transmits the content request message to the content providing apparatus 200 via the second access network (not shown) The content providing apparatus 200 provides the content to the user terminal 100 in place of the content providing apparatus 200. [ When the content transmission is completed, the second cache apparatus 350b also transmits the packet usage amount information to the cache controller 340, and the cache controller 340 generates duplicate accounting data.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems and it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for generating charging data records for generating billing data based on only packet usage information received from the cache apparatuses 350a and 350b, The charging server 100 generates a charging data record by taking into account whether or not the content 100 has actually received the content, that is, considering the confirmation message transmitted from the user terminal 100

The cache controller 340 according to the embodiment of the present invention does not reflect the packet usage amount information from the first cache apparatus 350a but directly reflects the packet usage amount from the user terminal 100 After confirming whether or not the message is received, it is reflected in the charging data record, thereby generating an accurate charging data record without duplication. This can be confirmed based on the content response message identification information.

In other words, a cache device, for example, the first cache device 350a that provides the content response message including the content to the user terminal 100 on behalf of the content providing device 200 may transmit the packet usage information to the cache controller 340 And transmits identification information of a content response message provided to the user terminal 100, for example, 2XEB. Then, the cache controller 340 confirms whether the confirmation message including the identification information of the content response message, i.e., 2XEB, is received from the user terminal 100. [

If it is determined that the confirmation message including the identification information of the 2XEB contents response message has been received, the cache controller 340 determines that the packet usage information received from the first cache device 350a is valid packet usage information . Then, the cache controller 340 generates a charging data record based on the packet usage information.

As described above, the cache controller 340 according to the embodiment of the present invention can transmit the charging data to the user terminal 100 at the time of generating the charging data record based on the packet usage amount information according to the content transmission transmitted from the plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b. It is possible to prevent the occurrence of duplicate charging data that may be generated due to various problems such as handover or power off by generating a charging data record after confirming whether or not a confirmation message according to content reception is received, A more accurate billing process can be performed by the user.

A method of generating a charging data record in the cache controller 340 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in more detail below. When the charging processing device 410 collects user data records from the packet core device 322 However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the information may be collected through a plurality of gateways 321. The plurality of gateways may include a serving gateway (SGW), a packet data network gateway (PGW), and the like.

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 may be classified into IUX, IPMS, OFCS and the like according to the system designing method.

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 an embodiment of the present invention is a method in which the billing processing apparatus 410 of the billing processing system 400 logically and physically connected to the cache controller 340 uses the content 2, the billing processing system 400 of the present invention is a system in which the billing process of the user terminal 100 receiving the content through the CDN service is performed, And a second accounting processing device 412 that only takes charge of the user terminal 100 that has not received the content through the CDN service. As described above, the charging data record generated by the cache controller 340 is processed by the first charging processing device 411 logically and physically connected to the cache controller 340, and the packet core device 322 generates A second charging data record is processed by the second charging processing device 412. In addition, functions of the above-described IUX, IPMS, off-line charging system, and the like can be performed by the second charging processing device 412.

Also, the cache controller 340 may directly transmit the packet usage information received from the plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b to the billing processing system 400 without generating the charging data record directly. 3, when the cache controller 340 is logically and physically connected to the dummy packet generating apparatus 430 of the billing processing system 400, the cache controller 340 controls the dummy packet generating apparatus 430 430 transmits the packet usage information received from the plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b to the dummy packet generation device 430. The dummy packet generation device 430 receives the packet usage information from the cache devices 350a and 350b and generates a dummy packet. Here, the dummy packet includes a header and a payload. The header includes packet usage information for content provided by the cache devices 350a and 350b to the user terminal 100, The load will contain information about invalid data to indicate that it 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 the user data record of the user terminal 100 corresponding to the session to any one of the network devices on the network 300 that controls the session connection, for example, And collects the charging data record and the user data record to generate one charging data. At this time, the cache controller 340 reflects the acknowledgment message received from the user terminal 100 as described above when transmitting the packet usage amount information to the dummy packet generating device 430 so that the effective packet usage amount excluding the invalid packet usage amount information Only the information may be transmitted to the dummy packet generating device 430.

A network 300 in which a plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b of the present invention are distributed at main points is a communication network for transmitting and receiving information between the user terminal 100 and the content providing apparatus 200 For example, an Internet network 310 connected to a mobile network including a plurality of wired / 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).

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.

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 performs circuit switching or packet switching, And manages and controls packet flow in the mobile network. In addition, the core network 320 may manage inter-frequency mobility and perform functions for interworking with traffic in the access network 330 and the core network 320, and with other networks, such as the Internet network 310. The core network 320 may also include a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), a Home Location Register (HLR), a Mobile Mobility Entity (MME), and a Home Subscriber Server (HSS).

The Internet network 310 refers to a public network, that is, a 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 and is provided from the content providing apparatus 200 May be provided to the user terminal 100 via the core network 320 and the wire / wireless access network 330 or may be provided to the plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b according to a predetermined distribution policy.

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, the main configuration of the cache controller 340 according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

4 is a block diagram illustrating a main configuration of a cache controller according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1 and 4, the cache controller 340 according to the embodiment of the present invention may include an interface unit 341, a control unit 342, and a storage unit 343.

The interface unit 341 monitors various data transmitted and received through the core network 320 or the Internet network 310 and transmits and receives the data. In particular, the interface unit 341 is for communicating with the content providing apparatus 200 and the cache apparatuses 350a and 350b connected to the user terminal 100. [ To this end, the interface unit 341 may include a mirroring module and an injection module. The mirroring module copies data transferred through the core network 320 or the Internet network 310 and transfers the copied data to the controller 342. The injection module transmits data received from the control unit 342 to the cache devices 350a and 350b or the content providing device 200 through the core network 320 or the Internet network 310. [ Accordingly, the interface unit 341 can receive the content request message transmitted from the user terminal 100 to the content providing apparatus 200 through the connection with the user terminal 100. The interface unit 341 may receive the content response message for providing the content to the user terminal 100 through the connection with the content providing apparatus 200. [

In particular, the interface unit 341 according to the embodiment of the present invention can receive the packet usage amount information including the content response message identification information from the plurality of cache apparatuses 350a and 350b, Data records can be transmitted, or effective packet usage information other than the invalid packet usage information can be transmitted.

The control unit 342 performs overall control of the cache controller 340 according to the embodiment of the present invention. In particular, the control unit 342 of the present invention exchanges messages with the user terminal 100 via a plurality of cache units 350a and 350b via the interface unit 341, thereby controlling the plurality of cache units 350a and 350b And establishes a connection with the user terminal 100 via the network. The control unit 342 exchanges messages with the content providing apparatus 200 through the interface unit 341 and establishes a connection with the content providing apparatus 200. [

The control unit 342 receives a content request message (for example, an HTTP GET message) for a content request transmitted from the user terminal 100 to the content providing apparatus 200 through the interface unit 341 can do. The control unit 342 may receive a content response message (e.g., HTTP RESPONSE message) through which the content providing apparatus 200 transmits the content to the user terminal 100 through the interface unit 341. [

The control unit 342 can confirm that the cache devices 350a and 350b have specific contents through the cache hit information received through the interface unit 341. When the cache hit information is received, 342 may notify the content providing apparatus 200 not to transmit the content through the interface unit 341. [

If the cache devices 350a and 350b are caching content requested by the user terminal 100, the control unit 342 transmits control commands to the cache devices 350a and 350b through the interface unit 341 . Here, the control command is a control command indicating a unit of data (e.g., a chunk, a packet, etc.) of a content identical to the unit data of the content transmitted by the content providing apparatus 200, The label information of the unit data is transmitted.

Particularly, the controller 342 according to the embodiment of the present invention controls the amount of packet usage according to the content transmission provided to the user terminal 10 from any one cache device, for example, the first cache device 350a through the interface unit 341 Information, more precisely, packet usage information for the content response message. Then, the control unit 342 determines whether or not a confirmation message according to the content reception of the user terminal 100 having received the content, more precisely, an acknowledgment message for the content response message, is received from the user terminal. This can be determined based on the identification information of the content response message. That is, when receiving the packet usage information from the first cache apparatus 350a, the control unit 342 receives the content response message identification information corresponding to the received content usage response information, and the controller 342 transmits a confirmation message corresponding to the content response message identification information to the user terminal 100 Or the like.

If it is determined that the confirmation message corresponding to the content response message has been received from the user terminal 100, the control unit 342 transmits the charging data for the session connected to the user terminal 100 based on the packet usage information And generates a record. At this time, when a plurality of packet usage information is received, a plurality of packet usage information is integrated using identification information (e.g., IP address information) of the user terminal 100, and then, based on the packet usage information, You can create a record.

If it is determined that the confirmation message corresponding to the content response message is not received from the user terminal 100, the control unit 342 determines that the packet usage information corresponding to the content response message is invalid, It is controlled to be excluded when it is generated.

To this end, the control unit 342 of the present invention includes a packet usage information validity determination module 342a for determining whether packet usage information is valid, a charging data record generation module 342b for generating a charging data record based on valid packet usage information ). &Lt; / RTI >

Then, the control unit 342 controls the charging unit 410 to transmit the generated charging data record to the charging processing unit 410, which is physically or logically connected to the charging unit 410 through the interface unit 341.

In addition, the control unit 342 according to the embodiment of the present invention generates a charging data record based on the packet usage information (packet usage information according to the content response message) from the plurality of cache apparatuses 350a and 350b , It is described that the reception of the confirmation message according to the content transmission is confirmed from the user terminal 100 to generate the charging data record. However, the present invention is not limited to this, It is possible to confirm whether the confirmation message is received or not and transmit only valid packet usage information to the billing processor 410.

The storage unit 343 stores various information for content transmission control, and may store label information about content unit data cached by each of the cache apparatuses 350a and 350b, for example.

The main configuration and the operation method of the cache controller 340 according to the embodiment of the present invention have been described above.

Hereinafter, the main configuration and operation method of the billing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.

5 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a billing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1 and 5, the billing apparatus 410 of the present invention includes a charging data record processing unit 413, a user data record processing unit 414, a billing data generation unit 415, and a billing data transfer unit 416, As shown in FIG.

The charging data record processing unit 413 performs a role of collecting charging data records from the cache controller 340. [

Here, the charging data record includes packet usage information according to content usage of the user terminal 100, for example, connection time with the content providing apparatus 200, start / end of downloading of the packet, The download progress information, the total packet size, the type of service of the packet, the number of repetitions of download, the instantaneous, and the average transfer rate.

The user data record processing unit 414 collects data related to a user according to a session connection of the user terminal 100, and for example, the user data record processing unit 414 records session start information, Connection intermediate information, connection termination information, access equipment identification information according to session connection, and session connection time information. The user data record may be requested by the general billing processor 410 and collected or may be directly generated by the user data record processing unit 414 by mirroring the packet usage amount transmitted and received through the session in the core network 320. [

The billing data generation unit 415 integrates the charging data records and the user data records collected through the charging data record processing unit 413 and the user data record processing unit 414 to generate a single billing data.

At this time, charging data is generated in a form supported by the communication company charging apparatus 420. To this end, the charging data generating unit 415 extracts only the necessary data from the charging data record and the user data record, And may be integrated into one billing data.

Thereafter, the billing data transfer unit 416 transfers the generated billing data to the billing apparatus 420 of the communication company.

Hereinafter, a method for generating billing data according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in more detail.

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

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 transmits the content requested by the user terminal 100 to the content providing apparatus 200 Quot; cache " state.

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 in accordance with the label information received from the cache controller 340 in the content response message, And transmits the packet usage information to the cache controller 340. The cache controller 340 receives the packet usage information from the user terminal 100, In addition, the packet usage information includes identification information of a corresponding content response message.

In operation S301, the cache controller 340 determines whether an acknowledgment message for the content response message is received from the user terminal 100 in operation S303.

In other words, when the user terminal 100 normally receives the content, the cache controller 340 transmits a confirmation message to the user terminal 100, so that the cache controller 340 checks whether a confirmation message for the content response message exists. At this time, since the confirmation message includes the identification information of the content response message, it can be confirmed by comparing the identification information of the content response message.

If the confirmation message is received from the user terminal 100 as a result of the determination, the cache controller 340 determines that the packet usage information is valid packet usage information (S305). Otherwise, It is determined based on the usage amount information (S307).

Thereafter, the cache controller 340 generates a charging data record based on valid packet usage information (S309). When the packet usage information is received from the plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b, the packet usage information includes the identification information of the user terminal 100, To generate one charging data record.

Thereafter, the cache controller 340 transmits the generated charging data record to the billing processing apparatus 410 (S311).

As described above, in the billing data generation method according to an embodiment of the present invention, when the confirmation message includes the content response message identification information and the packet usage information includes the content response message identification information, the cache controller 340 The validity of the packet usage information is determined based on the content response message identification information, and then a charging data record is generated based on valid packet usage information. However, when the packet usage information is included in the confirmation message transmitted by the user terminal 100, the cache controller 340 may not compare the packet usage amount of the confirmation message transmitted by the user terminal 100 And generate a charging data record based on the information.

7, when the cache controller 340 receives an acknowledgment message including packet usage information from the user terminal 100 (S401), the cache controller 340 determines that the user terminal 100 normally receives the content Therefore, after confirming the packet usage information included in the confirmation message, a charging data record is generated based on the packet usage information (S403). Thereafter, the cache controller 340 transmits the generated charging data record to the billing processing apparatus 410, and the billing processing apparatus 410 receiving the charging data record may integrate with the user data record to generate billing data.

In addition, in another embodiment of the present invention, the cache controller 340 determines only validity of the packet usage information received from the plurality of cache devices 350a and 350b and transmits only valid packet usage information to the billing processor 410 (If there are a plurality of packet usage information, the effective packet usage information is integrated and transmitted), and the charging processing device 410 receiving the packet usage information may generate the charging data mode based on the packet usage information.

As described above, the present invention generates billing data by using a packet usage amount and a confirmation message (for example, an ACK message) received from the user terminal, as well as a packet usage amount when generating billing data of the user terminal 100 using the CDN service, It is possible to prevent the occurrence of duplicate charging data that may be generated due to various problems such as handover or power-off of the mobile terminal.

Accordingly, it is possible to minimize the user's dissatisfaction using the CDN service by allowing the user to perform a more accurate billing process using the CDN service.

The billing processing method in the content transmission network 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 apparatuses 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.

According to the billing processing method and apparatus for the content transmission system of the present invention, when billing data of a user terminal using a CDN service is used, not only billing data but also billing data is transmitted using an acknowledgment message (ACK message) It is possible to prevent the occurrence of duplicate charging data that may be generated due to various problems such as handover or power-off of the user terminal, and it is possible to perform a more accurate billing process according to the use of the CDN service Thus, it is possible to minimize complaints of users using the CDN service and to expand the spread of the CDN service, thereby contributing to the dissemination of 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 billing system 410 billing device 420 carrier billing device
430: dummy packet generating device

Claims

An interface unit for transmitting and receiving information to and from a plurality of cache devices and a billing apparatus; And
When receiving the packet usage information for content transmission from the one cache apparatus to the user terminal through the interface unit, it is determined whether or not an acknowledgment message for the content transmission has been received from the user terminal, A controller for generating a charging data record based on the packet usage information and then controlling the charging data record to be transmitted to the charging processing device through the interface unit;
And a cache controller.

The method according to claim 1,
The control unit
The method comprising the steps of: determining whether a confirmation message for the content transmission is received from the user terminal when the packet usage information for the content transmission is provided from the plurality of cache devices to the user terminal; Wherein the controller determines that the packet usage information is valid and generates a charging data record by combining the valid packet usage information.

A charging method in a content transfer system including a plurality of cache devices and a cache controller for controlling the plurality of cache devices,
The cache controller receiving packet usage information for content transmission from a cache device to a user terminal;
The cache controller determining whether an acknowledgment message for the content transmission has been received from the user terminal; And
Generating a charging data record based on the packet usage information when the cache controller determines that the confirmation message is received from the user terminal;
And a charging step of charging the battery.

The method of claim 3,
After generating the charging data record,
The cache controller sending the charging data record to a charging processor;
The charging processing device collecting a user data record of the user terminal; And
The charging processing device integrating the charging data record and the user data record to generate one charging data;
Further comprising the steps of:

5. The method of claim 4,
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. Way.

5. The method of claim 4,
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 the information includes any one of information.

5. The method of claim 4,
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.