WO2013000352A1

WO2013000352A1 - Method and device for ip data accounting

Info

Publication number: WO2013000352A1
Application number: PCT/CN2012/076241
Authority: WO
Inventors: 周娜; 霍玉臻; 王静
Original assignee: 中兴通讯股份有限公司
Priority date: 2011-06-27
Filing date: 2012-05-29
Publication date: 2013-01-03
Also published as: CN102857893A; CN102857893B

Abstract

Disclosed are a method and device for IP data accounting. The method comprises: an accounting system receiving continuity information and/or IP bypass information; and the accounting system performing an accounting on the IP data on the basis of the continuity information and/or the IP bypass information. The present invention solves the incapability in related art of differentiating IP bypass connections from non-IP bypass connections and of performing differentiated accounting, and prevents complicated system maintenance.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular to an IP data charging method and apparatus. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) evolved Evolved Packet System (EPS) is an evolved universal mobile communication system (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network). , referred to as E-UTRAN, Mobility Management Entity (MME), Serving Gateway (S-GW), Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW) PDN GW) Home Subscriber Server (HSS), 3GPP Authenticated Authorization and Accounting (AAA) server, Policy and Charging Rules Function (Policy and Charging Rules Function, referred to as PCRF) consists of entities and other supporting nodes. 1 is a schematic diagram of a mobile communication network connection according to the related art. As shown in FIG. 1, the mobility management entity is responsible for control planes such as mobility management, non-access layer signaling processing, and user mobility management context management. The S-GW is an access gateway device connected to the E-UTRAN, which forwards data between the E-UTRAN and the P-GW, and is responsible for buffering paging waiting data; the P-GW is an EPS and packet data network ( Packet Data Network (referred to as PDN) The border gateway of the network, which is responsible for PDN access and forwarding data between EPS and PDN. Both S-GW and P-GW belong to the gateway connected by the core network. The home base station is a small, low-power base station deployed in indoor places such as homes and offices. The main purpose is to provide users with higher service rates and lower the cost of using high-speed services, while making up for existing distributed Insufficient coverage of cellular wireless communication systems. The advantages of home base stations are affordable, convenient, low power output, plug and play, and more. In the home base station system, the home base station is a wireless side network element. 2 is a schematic diagram of a mobile communication network connection according to the related art. As shown in FIG. 2, the home base station can access the core network through the home network gateway gateway, or directly connect to the core network (as shown in FIG. 1). The main functions of the home base station gateway are: verifying the security of the home base station, handling the registration of the home base station, performing operation and maintenance management on the home base station, configuring and controlling the home base station according to the operator's requirements, and responsible for exchanging the core network and the home base station. data. In addition to supporting the access of the mobile core network, the mobile communication system (including the home base station system) can also support the IP offload function, and the terminal-to-home can be realized under the condition that the wireless side network element has the IP offload capability and the user subscribes to allow the IP offload. Local access to other IP devices or the Internet on the network. 3 is a schematic diagram of a mobile communication network connection according to the related art. The implementation of the IP offloading in the system shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 can provide strong support for the IP offloading technology by adding a shunt gateway, and the shunt gateway is used as a local A gateway that accesses an external network (such as the Internet), providing address allocation, accounting, packet filtering, policy control, data offloading, and NAS/S1-AP/RANAP (Radios Access Network Application Part) /GTP (General Tunneling Protocol) /PMIP (Proxy Mobile IP, Proxy Mobile IP) /MIP (Mobile IP, Mobile IP) Message Parsing, NAT (Network Address Translation), IP Offloading Features such as policy routing and execution. The offload gateway can be combined with the wireless side network element. When there is a home base station gateway, the branching gateway can be not only combined with the home base station (as shown in FIG. 2) or sub-set, but also can be combined with the home base station gateway (as shown in FIG. 3) or divided. The traffic distribution gateway may be a local service gateway (Local SGW, referred to as L-SGW) and a local packet data gateway (Local PGW, referred to as L-PGW), or may be a separate L-PGW, and may be a data offload function entity. . In addition, the home base station gateway can be combined with the home base station. Taking the communication system of FIG. 1 as an example, the IP offloading may be added on the wireless side network element (as shown in FIG. 5a) or the shunt gateway (as shown in FIG. 5b) or not added (as shown in FIG. 4, FIG. 6a and FIG. 6b). The NAT address translation function is implemented, and is not limited to accessing core network access and IP offloading through a single connection. In the case of IP offloading, for some users, some APN services need to have service continuity, while other APN services do not need to maintain service continuity, and continuous services provide users with a better experience, but may occupy more Multi-operator resources, therefore, operators want differentiated billing for services with different continuity requirements. Similarly, there may be differentiated charging for IP offloaded data and core network data, so that in the case of IP offloading, operators can flexibly perform data management and effectively implement intelligent operations. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an IP data charging method and apparatus to solve the problem that the IP offload connection and the non-IP offload connection cannot be distinguished and differentiated billing in the related art. According to an aspect of the present invention, an IP data charging method is provided. The IP data charging method according to the present invention includes: the charging system receives continuity information and/or IP offload information; and the charging system charges the IP data according to the continuity information and/or the IP offload information. Preferably, before the charging system receives the continuity information and/or the IP offload information, the method further includes: the offload gateway sending the continuity information and/or the IP offload information to the charging system. Preferably, before the offload gateway sends the continuity information and/or the IP offload information to the billing system, the method further includes the following: the mobility management entity sends the continuity information to the offload gateway via the serving gateway; the mobility management entity The wireless side network element sends continuity information to the traffic distribution gateway, where the wireless side network element includes one of the following: a base station, a home base station, an RNC, a traffic distribution gateway, a traffic off function entity, and a home base station gateway. Preferably, the mobility management entity comprises one of the following: an MME, an MSC, an SGSN, a home base station gateway. Preferably, before the offloading gateway sends the continuity information and/or the IP offloading information to the charging system, the method further includes: the PCRF sending the continuity information and/or the IP offloading information to the offloading gateway. Preferably, the offloading gateway comprises one of the following: a separate L-GGSN, an L-GGSN and an L-SGSN, a separate L-PGW, an L-PGW and an L-SGW, and a data offloading functional entity. Preferably, the offload gateway comprises a split access gateway and/or a offload service gateway, wherein the offload access gateway is an L-PGW or an L-GGSN, and the offload service gateway is an L-SGW or an L-SGSN. Preferably, the continuity information comprises one of: whether the IP connection supports mobility/service continuity; whether the packet data network PDN connection supports mobility/service continuity; whether the access point name APN supports mobility/service continuity. Preferably, the IP offload information includes one of the following: whether the IP connection is an IP offload connection; whether the PDN connection is an IP offload connection; whether the APN is an IP offload connection. According to another aspect of the present invention, an IP data charging apparatus is provided. The IP data charging apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a receiving module configured to receive continuity information and/or IP offload information; and an accounting module configured to charge IP data according to continuity information and/or IP offload information . In the present invention, the continuity information and/or the IP offload information can be used to distinguish between the IP offload connection and the non-IP offload connection, and use it for IP data billing to implement differentiated billing, which can avoid complicated system maintenance. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings, which are set to illustrate,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 1 is a schematic diagram of a mobile communication network connection according to the related art; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a mobile communication network connection according to the related art; FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a mobile communication network connection according to the related art; FIG. 5a is a schematic diagram 2 of a mobile communication system IP offload data flow according to the related art; FIG. 5b is a schematic diagram 3 of a mobile communication system IP offload data flow according to the related art; FIG. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a mobile communication system IP offload data flow according to the related art; FIG. 7 is a flow chart of an IP data charging method according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 8a is a flowchart 1 of a process for obtaining charging information for a terminal IP connection provided on the basis of the system architecture of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 8b is a basis of the system architecture of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention; Above, a flow chart 2 of the process of obtaining charging information for the terminal IP connection is provided; FIG. 9 is an embodiment according to the present invention. On the basis of the system architecture of FIG. 1 and the data stream of FIG. 6a, a flow chart 1 of a user initial access for IP split connection establishment process is shown; FIG. 10 is a basis of the data structure of FIG. 1 and FIG. 6a according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the above, the user initially accesses the flow chart 2 of the IP offload connection establishment process; and FIG. 11 is a structural block diagram of the IP data charging apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS It should be noted that the embodiments in the present application and the features in the embodiments may be combined with each other without conflict. The invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings in conjunction with the embodiments. The invention provides an IP data charging method. FIG. 7 is a flowchart of an IP data charging method according to an embodiment of the present invention, including the following steps S702 to S704. Step S702, the charging system receives continuity information and/or IP offload information. Step S704, the charging system charges the IP data according to the continuity information and/or the IP offload information. In the related art, it is impossible to distinguish between an IP offload connection and a non-IP offload connection and perform differentiated charging. In the embodiment of the present invention, the continuity information and/or the IP offload information may be used to distinguish between an IP offload connection and a non-IP offload connection, and use it for IP data billing to implement differentiated billing, which may avoid system maintenance complexity. Preferably, before the charging system receives the continuity information and/or the IP offload information, the method further includes: the offload gateway sending the continuity information and/or the IP offload information to the charging system. In the preferred embodiment, the offload gateway sends continuity information and/or IP offload information to the billing system. Since the connection established on the traffic distribution gateway is an IP offload connection, the traffic distribution gateway sends the charging information or the charging data record to the charging system, and carries the continuity information and/or the IP traffic distribution information, so that the charging system can distinguish the charging system. IP offloading and non-IP offloading for differentiated billing, this implementation is simple and reliable. It should be noted that the physical location of the offload gateway can be close to the wireless network or a user or user attachment point. The offload gateway can implement the functions of the serving gateway S-GW and/or the packet data network gateway P-GW. The offload gateway may be a serving gateway S-GW and/or a packet data network gateway P-GW located close to the wireless network or a user or user attachment point. Preferably, before the offloading gateway sends the continuity information and/or the IP offloading information to the charging system, the method further includes: a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) to send continuity to the offloading gateway. Information and/or IP offloading information. Preferably, before the offload gateway sends the continuity information and/or the IP offload information to the charging system, the offload gateway may obtain the continuity information in one of two ways:

(1) Sending continuity information to the offload gateway through the mobility management entity via the serving gateway. In this step, after the traffic distribution gateway obtains the continuity information transmitted by the serving gateway (referred to as policy 1), the continuity of the PCRF transmission, and/or the IP offloading policy (referred to as the policy 2), the continuity of the strategy 1 and the policy 2 may be integrated. The information and/or IP offload information, or the offload gateway may use either Policy 1 or Policy 2 as continuity information and/or IP offload information communicated to the billing system. (2) The continuity information is sent to the offload gateway by the mobility management entity via the radio side network element, where the radio side network element includes one of the following: a base station, a home base station, a radio network controller (Radio Network Controller, RNC for short), Split gateway, offload function entity, home base station gateway. In this step, after the traffic distribution gateway obtains the continuity information transmitted by the wireless side network element (referred to as policy 1), the continuity of the PCRF transmission, and/or the IP offloading policy (referred to as the policy 2), the traffic 1 and the policy 2 may be integrated. The continuity information and/or IP offload information communicated to the billing system, or the offload gateway may use either policy 1 or policy 2 as continuity information and/or IP offload information communicated to the billing system. Preferably, the mobility management entity includes one of the following: a mobility management entity (Mobile Management Entity, MME for short), a mobile switching center (Mobile Switching Center, MSC for short), and a serving general packet radio service support node (Serving General packet radio) Service Support Node (SGSN), home base station gateway. Preferably, the offloading gateway comprises one of the following: a separate L-GGSN, an L-GGSN and an L-SGSN, a separate L-PGW, an L-PGW and an L-SGW, and a data offloading functional entity. Preferably, the offload gateway comprises a split access gateway and/or a offload service gateway, wherein the offload access gateway is an L-PGW or an L-GGSN, and the offload service gateway is an L-SGW or an L-SGSN. Preferably, the continuity information comprises one of: whether the IP connection supports mobility/service continuity; whether the packet data network PDN connection supports mobility/service continuity; whether the access point name APN supports mobility/service continuity. Preferably, the IP offload information includes one of the following: whether the IP connection is an IP offload connection; whether the PDN connection is an IP offload connection; whether the APN is an IP offload connection. Preferably, the IP offload includes one of the following: a local IP access user local network, a local IP access company local network, a local IP access Internet, a diversion operation of the Internet service, and a specific IP data offload. The implementation process of the embodiment of the present invention is described in detail below with reference to an example. It should be noted that the following preferred embodiments may be implemented based on an application scenario of an evolved terrestrial radio access network (Evolved UTRAN, referred to as E-UTRAN). . FIG. 8a is a flowchart 1 of a process for obtaining charging information for a terminal IP connection provided on the basis of the system architecture of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 8a, the charging gateway is charged to the charging gateway in this embodiment. The system transmits the charging information carrying the continuity information and/or the IP offload information, and includes the following steps S8a01 to S8a05. Step S8a01, the terminal has an IP offload connection after accessing the wireless communication system. In step S8a02, IP offload data transmission is performed between the terminal, the radio side network element, and the offload gateway, and the data may pass through the serving gateway. Step S8a03, the traffic distribution gateway collects or counts information (such as traffic and duration) of the IP offload connection. Step S8a04, the traffic distribution gateway transmits charging information to the charging system, and carries continuity information and/or IP traffic distribution information. Step S8a05, the charging system receives and processes the charging information of the IP offload connection, and the processing operation of the charging information may include performing differentiated charging according to the continuity information and/or the IP offload information. FIG. 8b is a second flowchart of a process for obtaining charging information for a terminal IP connection provided on the basis of the system architecture of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 8a, the charging gateway is charged to the charging gateway in this embodiment. The system transmits the charging data record carrying the continuity information and/or the IP traffic information, and includes the following steps S8b01 to S8b05. Step S8b01, the terminal has an IP offload connection after accessing the wireless communication system. In step S8b02, IP offload data transmission is performed between the terminal, the radio side network element, and the offload gateway, and the data may pass through the serving gateway. In step S8b03, the offload gateway generates a charging data record for the IP offload connection. In step S8b04, the traffic distribution gateway transmits the charging data record to the charging system, and carries continuity information and/or IP traffic distribution information. Step S8b05, the charging system receives and processes the charging data record of the IP offload connection, and the processing operation of the charging information may include performing differentiated charging according to the continuity information and/or the IP offloading information. In the foregoing embodiment, the traffic distribution gateway sends the continuity information and/or the IP offload information to the charging system. The connection established on the traffic distribution gateway is an IP offload connection. Therefore, once the traffic distribution gateway sends the charging information to the charging system. The charging data record carries the continuity information and/or the IP traffic distribution information, which facilitates the accounting system to distinguish between the IP traffic distribution connection and the non-IP traffic distribution connection for differentiated charging. This manner can avoid configuring the traffic distribution gateway on the charging system. The information causes system maintenance to be complicated. In addition, the traffic distribution gateway can obtain continuity information and/or IP traffic information through the following embodiments. It should be noted that, as a preferred device, the traffic distribution gateway can prevent the system maintenance from being complicated by the configuration of the traffic distribution gateway information. However, the continuity information and/or IP traffic distribution information received by the charging system in the present invention is not only From the distribution gateway, the continuity information and/or IP offload information from any other device should be included in the problem that the inability to distinguish between the IP offload connection and the non-IP offload connection and differentiated billing to be solved by the present invention should be included. The scope of protection of the present invention. FIG. 9 is a flowchart 1 of a process for establishing an IP offload connection by a user initial access based on the system architecture of FIG. 1 and the data stream of FIG. 6a according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 9, the mobility is described in detail. The process of the management entity sending the continuity information to the distribution gateway via the service gateway includes the following steps S901 to S919. In step S901, the user needs to establish an RRC (Radio Resource Control) connection as a signaling message or a bearer of service data before performing communication. Step S902, the user sends an initial NAS (Non-Access-Stratum) message to perform an attach operation. Step S903: The wireless side network element sends the initial user message to the mobility management entity via the home base station gateway, and forwards the NAS message to the mobility management entity. Step S904, the mobility management entity starts the authentication and the security process, and performs verification on the user. Step S905, the mobility management entity requests the HSS to perform location update. Step S906, the HSS responds to the mobility management entity with a location update response, and may carry the continuity subscription information. Step S907: The mobility management entity sends a session establishment request to the serving gateway, performs IP offload connection establishment, and carries continuity information. Step S908: The serving gateway sends a session establishment request message to the offload gateway to carry continuity information. The offload gateway sends a session establishment response to the serving gateway. An IP-CAN session is established between the offload gateway and the PCRF, where the PCRF sends a continuity or/and IP offload policy to the offload gateway. In this step, after the traffic distribution gateway obtains the continuity information transmitted by the serving gateway (referred to as policy 1), the continuity of the PCRF transmission, or/and the IP offloading policy (referred to as policy 2), the integrated strategy 1 and the policy 2 may generate FIG. 8a. And the continuity information and/or IP offload information delivered to the billing system in FIG. 8b, or the split gateway may use either policy 1 or policy 2 as continuity information and/or IP offload information communicated to the billing system in FIGS. 8a and 8b. . Step S909, the serving gateway sends a session establishment response to the mobility management entity. Step S910, the mobility management entity initiates an initial context setup request to the radio side network element. Step S911, performing an RRC connection configuration process. Step S912, the radio side network element replies to the mobility management entity initial context establishment response. Step S913: The terminal sends a direct transmission message to the radio side network element, including attach completion information. Step S914, the radio side network element sends an attach complete message to the mobility management entity. Step S915 to step S917, the mobility management entity requests the offload gateway to update the bearer via the serving gateway. The offload gateway replies with the bearer update response message to the mobility management entity via the serving gateway. Step S918, the radio side network element requests the bearer gateway to perform bearer establishment. Step S919, the offload gateway responds to the radio side network element bearer setup response. FIG. 10 is a second flowchart of a process for establishing an IP offload connection by a user initial access based on the system architecture of FIG. 1 and the data stream of FIG. 6a according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 10, the mobility is described in detail. The process for the management entity to send the continuity information to the distribution gateway via the radio side network element includes the following steps S1001 to S1019. In step S1001, the user needs to establish an RRC (Radio Resource Control) connection as a bearer of signaling messages or service data before performing communication. In step S1002, the user sends an initial NAS (Non-Access-Stratum) message to perform an attach operation. Step S1003: The radio side network element sends the initial user message to the mobility management entity via the home base station gateway, and forwards the NAS message to the mobility management entity. In step S1004, the mobility management entity starts the authentication and the security process, and performs verification on the user. In step S1005, the mobility management entity requests the HSS to perform location update. Step S1006, the HSS responds to the mobility management entity with a location update response, and may carry a continuous subscription letter. Step S1007: The mobility management entity sends a session establishment request to the serving gateway to perform IP offload connection establishment.

Step S1008: The serving gateway sends a session establishment request message to the offload gateway; the offload gateway sends a session establishment response to the serving gateway. An IP-CAN session is established between the offload gateway and the PCRF, where the PCRF sends a continuity or/and IP offload policy to the offload gateway. Step S1009: The serving gateway sends a session establishment response to the mobility management entity. Step S1010: The mobility management entity initiates an initial context setup request to the radio side network element, and carries continuity information. In step S1011, an RRC connection configuration process is performed. Step S1012: The radio side network element replies to the mobility management entity initial context establishment response. Step S1013: The terminal sends a direct transmission message to the radio side network element, including attach completion information. Step S1014: The radio side network element sends an attach complete message to the mobility management entity. Step S1015 to step S1017, the mobility management entity requests the offload gateway to update the bearer via the serving gateway. The offload gateway replies with the bearer update response message to the mobility management entity via the serving gateway. Step S1018: The radio side network element requests the bearer gateway to perform bearer establishment, and carries continuity information. Step S1019: The offload gateway responds to the radio side network element bearer setup response. In the above embodiment, after the traffic distribution gateway obtains the continuity information transmitted by the radio side network element (referred to as policy 1), the continuity of the PCRF transmission, or/and the IP offload policy (referred to as the policy 2), the strategy 1 and the policy 2 may be integrated. Generating continuity information and/or IP offload information communicated to the billing system of Figures 8a and 8b, or the shunt gateway may use either policy 1 or policy 2 as continuity information and/or delivery to the billing system of Figures 8a and 8b IP offloading information. In order to simplify the description, the above embodiment only illustrates the charging acquisition manner of the IP connection by taking the case of FIG. 1 as an example. In the case of the split-gate gateway and the radio-side network element split, Figure 2, Figure 3 system of Figure 1, the data split mode, whether UTRAN or E-UTRAN system, is shown in Figure 4, Figure 5a, Figure 5b, Figure 6a or Figure 6b. The generating network element of the IP connection data charging information and the charging record are very similar to the above embodiments, and will not affect the description of the present invention, and therefore will not be described again. It should be noted that the steps shown in the flowchart of the accompanying drawings may be performed in a computer system such as a set of computer executable instructions, and, although the logical order is shown in the flowchart, in some cases, The steps shown or described may be performed in an order different than that herein. The embodiment of the present invention provides an IP data charging apparatus, and the IP data charging apparatus can be used to implement the foregoing IP data charging method. FIG. 11 is a structural block diagram of an IP data charging apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 11, the receiving module 1102 and the charging module 1104 are included. The receiving module 1102 is configured to receive continuity information and/or IP offload information. The charging module 1104 is connected to the receiving module 1102, and is configured to receive continuity information and/or IP offload information received by the receiving module 1102.

IP data is charged. It should be noted that the IP data charging device described in the device embodiment corresponds to the foregoing method embodiment, and the specific implementation process has been described in detail in the method embodiment, and details are not described herein again. In summary, according to the above embodiments of the present invention, an IP data charging method and apparatus are provided. In the present invention, the continuity information and/or the IP offload information can be used to distinguish the IP offload connection from the non-IP offload connection, and use it for IP data billing to implement differentiated billing, which can avoid complicated system maintenance. Obviously, those skilled in the art should understand that the above modules or steps of the present invention can be implemented by a general-purpose computing device, which can be concentrated on a single computing device or distributed over a network composed of multiple computing devices. Alternatively, they may be implemented by program code executable by the computing device, such that they may be stored in the storage device by the computing device, or they may be separately fabricated into individual integrated circuit modules, or they may be Multiple modules or steps are made into a single integrated circuit module. Thus, the invention is not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software. The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the present invention, and various modifications and changes can be made to the present invention. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. made within the spirit and scope of the present invention are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

Claim

1. An IP data charging method, comprising:

The billing system receives continuity information and/or IP offload information;

The charging system charges the IP data according to the continuity information and/or the IP offload information.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein before the charging system receives the continuity information and/or the IP offload information, the method further comprises: the offload gateway sending the continuity information to the charging system. And/or the IP offloading information.

The method according to claim 2, wherein before the offload gateway sends the continuity information and/or the IP offload information to the charging system, the method further includes one of the following:

The mobility management entity sends the continuity information to the offload gateway via the serving gateway; the mobility management entity sends the continuity information to the offload gateway via a radio side network element, where the radio side network element includes the following One: base station, home base station, radio network controller RNC, offload gateway, offload function entity, home base station gateway.

The method according to claim 3, wherein the mobility management entity comprises one of the following: a mobility management entity MME, a mobile switching center MSC, a serving general packet radio service supporting node SGSN, and a home base station gateway.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein before the offload gateway sends the continuity information and/or the IP offload information to the charging system, the method further comprises: a policy and a charging rule function. The PCRF sends the continuity information and/or the IP offload information to the offload gateway.

The method according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein the offload gateway comprises one of: separate local gateway general packet radio service support nodes L-GGSN, L-GGSN and service local general grouping The wireless service support node L-SGSN is combined, the separate local packet data network gateway L-PGW, the L-PGW, and the local service gateway L-SGW are combined, and the data offloading function entity.

The method according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein the offload gateway comprises a offload access gateway and/or a offload service gateway, wherein the offload access gateway is an L-PGW or an L-GGSN The offloading service gateway is an L-SGW or an L-SGSN. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the continuity information includes the following

Whether the IP connection supports mobility/business continuity;

Whether the packet data network PDN connection supports mobility/business continuity;

Access Point Name Whether the APN supports mobility/business continuity. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the IP offload information includes the following

Whether the IP connection is an IP offload connection;

Whether the PDN connection is an IP offload connection;

Whether the APN is an IP offload connection. An IP data charging device includes:

a receiving module, configured to receive continuity information and/or IP offload information;

The charging module is configured to charge the IP data according to the continuity information and/or the IP offload information.