WO2007051416A1

WO2007051416A1 - A charging method and system

Info

Publication number: WO2007051416A1
Application number: PCT/CN2006/002938
Authority: WO
Inventors: Junxian Mo
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 2005-11-03
Filing date: 2006-11-02
Publication date: 2007-05-10
Also published as: CN101160789A; CN1960264A

Abstract

A charging method includes: after the service flow is established, the charging point begins to record the service flow charging information, said service flow charging information comprises information on the service flow identification and/or the service flow quality of service; the charging server obtains the recorded service flow charging information of said charging point, and operates charging according to said charging information. The present invention provides a charging system, charging point and charging server. The present invention may implement the charging based on the data channel and the charging based on the service flow, provide the charging mode for the telecommunication provider more reasonably and accurately, accordingly improve the satisfaction degree of user and improve the efficiency of the network resource.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to communication technologies, and in particular, to a charging method and system. In the prior art, as shown in FIG. 1 , the charging system includes: a user terminal, configured to log in, access, and quit a network; a charging point, configured to obtain information such as a user terminal logging in, accessing, and exiting the network, and The billing information is generated by using the information, and then the billing information is sent to the billing server for charging by the billing server. The billing server is configured to perform billing according to the billing information.

The user terminal can be a computer, a mobile phone, or the like. The charging point may be an access server, and the charging server may be an AAA server.

Referring to Fig. 2, the charging procedure according to the above charging system will be described below.

Step 21. The user logs in to the network.

Step 22: When the user logs in to the network successfully, the charging point finds that the user has logged into the network, and then automatically initiates the charging request information to the charging server, where the starting charging request information includes the user name, the charging session identifier, and the user. Address, duration, traffic, etc.

Step 23: The accounting server receives the start charging request information, records information such as the user, the charging session, the user address, the duration, and the traffic in the packet, and saves the data as a user charging record in the database, and returns to the charging point. Start billing response.

Step 24: The charging point may perform real-time protection on the charging information according to the network condition and the operation requirement, and provide an intermediate charging message to the accounting server in the charging process. At this time, according to the predetermined intermediate period, the charging point sends the intermediate charging request information to the charging server.

Step 25: The accounting server receives the intermediate charging request information, and records information such as the user name, the charging session identifier, the user address, the duration, and the traffic in the packet, and saves the data as a user charging record in the database, and performs charging. The point returns to the intermediate charging response. Step 26: After the user completes using the network, the network is disconnected from the network, and the user may hang up the line actively, or the network abnormality detection, the user forced to go offline, and the like.

Step 27: After the charging point senses that the user terminal exits the network, it sends termination charging request information to the accounting server.

Step 28: The accounting server receives the termination charging request information, and records information such as the user, the charging session, the user address, the duration, and the traffic in the packet, and saves the data as a user charging record in the database, and returns to the charging point. Terminate the billing response.

With the development of the network, the communication content supported by the network is gradually diversified, such as audio, video and data, etc. The existing charging method based on user connection, that is, for one client terminal connection, only one charging process is established. The fee has not been able to meet the basic requirements of reasonable and accurate billing. For example, when a client terminal establishes multiple service flows with different Q _0S (Quality of Service), if the previous one client terminal is connected to a billing process, the mechanism is too coarse and cannot be accurately and accurately charged. In order to support these different services, such as using different service flows in the WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability System for Microwave Access) network to carry data of different services, the service quality of different data channels and service flows is different, so Billing for different data channels and traffic flows to increase user satisfaction and increase utilization of network resources. Summary of the invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for billing that enables billing based on traffic flows, thereby increasing user satisfaction and increasing utilization of network resources.

The embodiment of the present invention provides a charging method, which can be applied to a wireless metropolitan area network access technology, including: after a service flow is established, a charging point starts to record service flow charging information, and the service flow meter The fee information includes a service flow identifier and/or a service flow service quality information; the charging server obtains the service flow charging information recorded by the charging point, and performs charging according to the charging information.

An embodiment of the invention also discloses a billing system, including:

a charging point, configured to send charging request information to the charging server, where the charging request information includes a service flow identifier and/or service flow service quality information; The accounting server is configured to perform charging according to the charging request information from the charging point.

Embodiments of the present invention also disclose a charging point, including:

a processing unit, configured to fill in a service flow identifier and/or service flow service quality information that is currently used in the current network in the user data record, and associate the user name, the charging session identifier, the duration, and the traffic corresponding to the service flow identifier Fill in the user data record to generate billing request information;

And a sending unit, configured to send the charging request information generated by the processing unit to the charging server.

An embodiment of the present invention further discloses a charging server, including:

a receiving unit, configured to receive charging request information sent by a charging point;

The charging processing unit is configured to perform charging according to the service flow identifier and/or the service flow quality of service information of the charging request information received by the receiving unit.

According to the present invention, data channel-based charging and traffic-based charging are implemented by introducing data channel identification and service flow information in the charging process, thereby providing a more reasonable and more accurate charging for the telecommunication operator. mode. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 illustrates a prior art billing system;

Figure 2 shows a prior art charging flow chart;

3 is a flow chart showing charging by service flow according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

4 is a flow chart showing charging by data channel according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;

Figure 5 shows the billing system of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In order to facilitate the understanding and implementation of the present invention, the embodiments of the present invention are described in conjunction with the drawings.

Embodiment 1 of the present invention provides a traffic flow-based charging method, and the basic idea is that, in a wireless metropolitan area network access technology, after a service flow is established, a charging point starts to send a service flow to an accounting server. Accounting request information; when the service flow ends, the charging point sends a service flow termination to the accounting server. The billing server performs charging according to the service flow start charging request information and the service flow termination charging request information.

In order to implement the present invention, WiMax is used as an example to extend the message of the portable accounting request information: Radius message. That is, the VSA method is used to add two types of cells, Qos Info and Service Flow ID, in the Radius message, so that when the accounting server receives the message, it can perform charging according to the service flow information in the message. The specific extension is shown in the following table.

In the above table, M indicates that the item is mandatory, O indicates that the item is optional, and null indicates that the item is not selected; wherein, the Qos Info and Service Flow ID cells are newly extended cells to indicate the current charging. Qos category, service flow identifier, which is the billing information that is added to realize the billing according to the service flow. The billing server needs to implement the billing processing of the traffic stream granularity according to the information.

As shown in FIG. 3, the traffic flow based charging process is described below.

Step 301: Perform authentication on the user terminal. After the authentication is passed, continue with the following steps. Otherwise, end the communication process.

Steps 302-1 to 302-8, the process of establishing the service flow 1 and charging based on the service flow 1. After the service flow 1 is established, the billing process will be triggered. The following steps 302-1, 302-2 302-8 show the establishment and termination of the traffic flow 1 and the charging flow based on the traffic flow 1, which are now described in detail.

Step 302-1: The user creates a service flow 1. Step 302-2: The charging point initiates a service flow start charging request message to the charging server. The start charging request information includes a username, a charging session identifier, a user address, a duration, a traffic, a service flow identifier, and/or a service flow service quality information.

The service flow service shield information includes: a data transmission service type, which is related to an application environment. For example, there are five types of data transmission services in WiMAX: UGS (Active Authorization Service), rtPS (Real Time Data Service), ertPS (enhanced real-time data service), nrtPS (non-real-time data service), BE (best effort service); quality of service parameters corresponding to data transmission service types, for example, UGS quality of service parameters include: transmission rate, delay, jitter , transmission priority level, etc.; multimedia stream type, which usually includes VoIP (IP-based voice call), Video (video), gaming (game), etc.; resource adjustment indication, indicating whether the service can be down-regulated when resources are insufficient Quality parameters.

According to 302-3, the accounting server receives the service flow start charging request information, and records the user name, the charging session identifier, the user address, the duration, the traffic, the service flow identifier, and/or the service flow service shield in the packet. Information, etc., is stored in the database as a user billing record, and the billing response is returned to the billing point back to the service stream.

Step 302-4: The charging point may determine the intermediate charging of the service flow according to the network condition, the operation policy, and the indication of the AAA server, so as to protect the charging information in real time. At this time, the charging point can provide the service flow intermediate charging request information in the charging process. At this time, according to the predetermined intermediate period, the charging point transmits the service flow intermediate charging request information to the accounting server.

Step 302-5: The accounting server receives the service flow intermediate charging request information, and records the user name, the charging session identifier, the user address, the duration and/or the traffic, the service flow identifier, and/or the service flow service memorandum in the packet. The quantity information and the like are stored in the database as user billing records, and the service flow intermediate charging response is returned to the billing point.

Step 302-6, the service flow 1 ends.

Step 302-7: The charging point sends the service flow termination charging request information to the accounting server.

Step 302-8: The accounting server receives the service flow termination charging request information, and records the user name, the charging session identifier, the user address, the duration and/or the traffic, the service flow identifier, and/or the service flow in the packet. The service quality information and the like are saved as a user charging record in the database, and the service flow termination charging response is returned to the charging point.

According to the present invention, a service flow rate can be set in the billing server to charge the service stream based on the service flow rate. The service flow rate may exist in the form of a table or may exist directly in the charging process. The billing server can also directly charge the existing rate as the service stream rate.

The following describes the charging process of the charging server in the embodiment of the present invention by taking the service flow rate table as an example. The service flow rate table includes: service flow information and a rate corresponding to the service flow. The business flow rate table is as follows:

When a service flow is established to the end, the accounting server can be based on the duration of the service flow, traffic,

The amount of the business flow can be calculated by the Qos information and the corresponding rate. For example, if the fee is charged according to the duration, the billing service can multiply the duration and the rate to obtain the total billing amount of the service stream.

In addition to performing charging according to the information carried in the foregoing charging message and the service flow rate, the charging server may also formulate different service flow charges according to the information carried in the charging message combined with other information (such as a charging policy). Rate, in order to perform reasonable charging, the charging policy may include: charging according to traffic segmentation, for example, when the traffic is at 1-100 Mbits, the rate value is set to 10 yuan/M; when the traffic is at 101 When the value is -200 Mbit, the rate value is set to 8 yuan/M; when the flow rate is 201-300 Mbits, the rate value is set to 6 yuan/M.

Steps 303-1 to 303-8, the network may also establish another service flow (such as service flow 2) according to the request information of the user terminal, and the service flow 2 is similar to the establishment process and the charging process of the service flow 1, that is, step 303- 1 to 303-8 are similar to steps 302-1 to 302-8, and the description will not be repeated. It should be noted that step 302-1 is before step 303-1, however, the subsequent action of traffic 1

302- 2 302-8 and subsequent actions of service flow 2 303-1 303-8 are not related in chronological order.

Step 304: Perform charging for other service flows, and the charging process is similar to the charging process of the service flow 1, and the description is not repeated.

Step 305: The user terminal exits the network.

As can be seen from Figure 3 and the above description, an accounting process can be divided into three phases: charging start, intermediate charging, and charging end. For example, 302-1 to 302-3 are the charging start phase of service flow 1, 302-4 to 302-5 are the intermediate charging phase of service flow 1, and 302-6 to 302-8 are the charging for service flow 1 The end phase; 303-1 to 303-3 are the charging start phase of service flow 2, and 303-4 to 303-5 are the intermediate charging phases of service flow 2,

303-6 to 303-8 are the charging end phases of service flow 2.

Embodiment 2 of the present invention further provides a data channel-based charging method, and the basic idea is that, in a wireless metropolitan area network access technology, after a data channel is established, a charging point sends a data channel to an accounting server. The charging request information is started; after the data channel is closed, the charging point sends the data channel termination charging request information to the accounting server; the charging server performs charging according to the data channel starting charging request information and the data channel termination charging request information. .

In order to implement the present invention, WiMax is used as an example to extend the message of the portable accounting request information: Radius message. That is, in the Radius message, the VSA mode is used to add three types of cells: the Qos Info Data Path Type Service Flow ID, so that the accounting server can perform charging according to the Qos Info, Data Path and/or Service Flow information in the message. . The specific extension is shown in the following table.

Attribute Name Type Access- Access- Interface(s)

Request Accept

User-Name 1 M M ASN -> AAA

HA -> AAA

NAS-IP-Address 4 O ASN -> AAA

NAS-IPv6-Address 95 O ASN - AAA

Foreign Agent Address 26/xl 0 ASN -> AAA

Acct-Multi-Session-Id 50 M O ASN <-> AAA

Calling-Station ID 31 o ASN -> AAA

Home Agent 261x3 M M ASN <- > AAA

Framed-IP-Address 8 M O ASN <-> AAA

Pre-shared Secret 26/x4 O AAA -> ASN

Reverse Tunnel Specification 26/x5 o AAA -> ASN

-HA Shared Key 26/x6 o AAA -> HA Painting-HA SPI 261x1 O HA -> AAA

NAS-Port-Type 61 O ASN -> AAA

Qos Info 26/x8 o ASN->AAA

Data Path Type 261x9 o ASN->AAA

Service Flow ID 26/xlO o ASN->AAA

In the above table, M indicates that the item is mandatory, O indicates that the item is optional, and null indicates that the item is not selected. Among them, the three cells of Qos Info, Data Path Type, and Service Flow ID are newly expanded cells to indicate this. Qos Info, Data Path Type ^ Service Flow ID for secondary billing.

As shown in FIG. ₄ , a data channel based charging procedure in accordance with the present invention is described below.

Step 401: Perform authentication on the user terminal. After the authentication is passed, continue with the following steps. Otherwise, end the communication process.

Steps 402d to 402k, the user establishes the data channel 1. When the R6 connection is established, the charging process starts, and the charging point (such as the network access server) sends the start accounting message to the accounting server. . At this time, step 402 d 402 k and the like represent the charging process of this data channel. A detailed description of each step is as follows.

Step 402d: The charging point sends a data channel start charging request information to the accounting server, where the starting charging request information includes a user name, a charging session identifier, a user address, a duration, a traffic, a data channel type, and a data channel identifier. / or data channel service quality information, etc. In the case of roaming, the charging point sends a data channel start charging request message to the access accounting server, and the access charging server sends the data channel start charging request information to the home charging server.

The data channel quality of service information includes: quality of service parameters, which generally include: transmission rate, delay, jitter, transmission priority level, etc.; multimedia stream type, which usually includes VoIP (IP-based voice call), Video (video), gaming (game), etc.; resource adjustment indication, indicating whether the service shield parameter can be lowered when resources are insufficient.

Step 402e: After receiving the start charging request information, the accounting server records the user name, charging session identifier, user address, duration, traffic, data channel type, data channel identifier, and/or data channel quality of service information in the packet. Etc., as the data channel billing record is saved to the database, and the data channel is returned to the billing point to start the billing response.

Step 402f: The charging point may perform intermediate charging of the data channel according to the network condition and the operation policy, The billing information is protected in real time. At this time, the charging point can provide the data channel intermediate charging request information in the charging process. At this time, according to the predetermined intermediate period, the charging point sends the data channel intermediate charging request information to the charging server.

Step 402g: After receiving the data channel intermediate charging request information, the accounting server records the user name, the charging session identifier, the user address, the duration, the traffic, the data channel type, the data channel identifier, and/or the data channel service in the packet. The quality information, etc., is saved as a data channel user billing record to the database, and the data channel intermediate billing response is returned to the billing point.

Step 402j: The charging point initiates a data channel termination charging request message to the charging server. The data channel termination charging request information includes a username, a charging session identifier, a user address, a duration, a traffic, a data channel type, a data channel identifier, and/or a data channel quality of service information.

Step 402k: The accounting server receives the data channel termination charging request information, and records the user name, the charging session identifier, the user address, the duration, the traffic, the data channel type, the data channel identifier, and/or the data channel service quality in the packet. Information, etc., is saved as a user billing record in the database, and a data channel termination charging response is sent to the billing point.

Steps 403d to 403k, the user establishes the data channel 2, and when the R6 connection is established, the charging process starts, and the charging point starts to send the data channel to start the accounting message. At this time, 403d, ..., 403k, etc. indicate the process of establishing and ending the data channel, and the charging process based on the data channel in the process, the flow is the same as the data channel 1 based charging process in step 2. , no longer repeat the narrative.

At this point, the user can establish other data channels and bill other data channels.

It should be noted that step 402d precedes step 403d, but thereafter steps 402e

402k is a series of independent chronological actions that are not necessarily related to the 403e 403k-string independent chronological action.

It should be noted that, because the granularity of the data channel charging is larger than the granularity of the traffic flow accounting, after the charging server learns the data channel charging information, the service flow charging can be adjusted according to the type of the data channel, for example, according to different data channels. The type multiplies the amount based on the traffic flow by a factor.

As shown in FIG. 5, Embodiment 3 of the present invention further provides a charging system, including: a charging point, The charging request information is sent to the charging server, where the charging request information includes a service flow identifier and/or a service flow service quality information. The accounting server is configured to perform charging according to the charging request information from the charging point.

The charging point includes: a processing unit, configured to fill in a service flow identifier and/or service flow service quality information that is currently used in the current network in the user data record, and use a username corresponding to the service flow identifier, The charging session identifier, the duration, and the traffic are filled in the user data record to generate the charging request information, and the sending unit is configured to send the charging request information generated by the processing unit to the charging server. The charging point further includes a processing sub-unit, configured to fill in the data channel identifier and/or data channel quality of service information being used in the current network in the user data record, and the username corresponding to the data channel identifier The charging session identifier, the duration, and the traffic are filled in the user data record to generate the data channel charging request information, and the sending subunit is configured to send the data channel charging request information generated by the processing subunit to the charging server.

The charging server includes: a receiving unit, configured to receive charging request information sent by a charging point; and an accounting processing unit, configured to perform charging according to a data channel or a service flow of the charging request information received by the receiving unit. . The charging server further includes: a receiving subunit, configured to receive data channel charging request information sent by the charging point; and a charging processing subunit, configured to calculate, according to the data channel charging request information received by the receiving unit fee.

It should be noted that the present invention is not only applicable to WiMax networks, but also to a network supporting one user terminal corresponding to multiple data channels and service flows.

According to the present invention, data channel-based charging and traffic-based charging can be implemented by introducing data channel identification and service flow information in the charging process, thereby providing a more reasonable and more accurate charging for the telecommunication operator. mode.

While the invention has been described by the embodiments of the invention in the embodiments of the invention Request to limit.

Claims

Rights request

A charging method, characterized in that it comprises:

After the service flow is established, the charging point starts to record the service flow charging information, where the service flow charging information includes the service flow identifier and/or the service flow service quality information;

The billing server obtains the service flow billing information recorded by the billing point, and performs billing according to the billing information.

The charging method according to claim 1, wherein the charging server obtains the service flow charging information recorded by the charging point, specifically: the charging point sends a service flow to the charging server. Starting charging request information and service flow termination charging request information, where the service flow starting charging request information includes a user name, a charging session identifier, a duration and/or a traffic, a service flow identifier, and/or a service flow service quality information. The traffic flow termination charging request information includes a username, a charging session identifier, a duration and/or traffic, a service flow identifier, and/or a service flow quality of service information.

The charging method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein before the charging point sends the service flow termination charging request information to the accounting server, the following steps are further performed: the charging point is sent to the charging server. Service flow intermediate charging request information.

The charging method according to claim 3, wherein the charging point transmits the service flow intermediate charging request information to the charging server at a predetermined period.

The charging method according to claim 4, wherein the service flow intermediate charging request information includes a user name, a charging session identifier, a duration and/or a traffic, a service flow identifier, and/or a service flow. Service quality information.

The charging method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: performing charging according to the data channel, and the charging of the data channel includes:

After the data channel is established, the charging point sends data channel charging request information to the accounting server, where the data channel charging request information includes a data channel type.

7. A billing system, comprising:

a charging point, configured to send charging request information to the charging server, where the charging request information includes Service flow identification and/or service flow service quality information;

The accounting server is configured to perform charging according to the charging request information from the charging point.

8. A charging point, characterized in that:

The charging point according to claim 8, wherein the charging point further comprises a processing sub-unit, configured to fill in a data channel type currently used in the current network in the user data record to generate data. Channel charging request information;

And a sending subunit, configured to send the data channel charging request information generated by the processing subunit to the charging server.

10. A billing server, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive charging request information sent by a charging point, where the charging request information includes a service flow identifier and/or service flow service quality information;

The charging processing unit is configured to perform charging according to the charging request information received by the receiving unit.

The charging server according to claim 10, wherein the charging server further comprises: a receiving subunit, configured to receive data channel charging request information sent by the charging point, and the data channel charging request information Including data channel type;

The charging processing sub-unit is configured to perform charging according to the data channel charging request information received by the receiving unit.