CN100341277C - Implementation method for improving online charging based on traffic data steam - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a method for realizing online charging based on perfect service data flow. The method includes: the charging rule functional entity CRF provides input information related to credit control to the online charging system OCS; The relevant input information determines the credit; the OCS provides the credit to the transport plane functional entity TPF. According to the method proposed by the present invention, the OCS determines the credit according to the obtained input information related to the credit control, and then provides the credit for the charging rules to the TPF, which makes little changes to the existing online charging structure based on the FBC mechanism; and, The present invention provides multiple implementation modes, perfects the implementation scheme of real-time charging in the existing FBC charging mechanism, and has flexible options.

Description

A Realization Method of Improving Online Charging Based on Service Data Flow

technical field

The invention relates to the charging field, in particular to an implementation method for perfecting online charging based on service data flow.

Background technique

With the gradual widespread application of packet data services, how to charge packet data services accurately and reasonably has become a common concern of operators.

In the current general packet radio service (GPRS, General Packet Radio Service) billing system, only the access point name (APN) and the packet data protocol context (PDP Context, Packet Data Protocol Context) can be identified for the service data flow of the user This level, therefore, can only be billed according to APN and PDP Context. However, in practical applications, multiple parallel service data streams are likely to be carried by the same PDP Context, and different services may require different charging methods for charging. The current GPRS charging system cannot meet this requirement. need. For example, if a user performs streaming media service and multimedia messaging service at the same time, these two services are carried in the same APN and PDP Context at the same time, but the charging rules of these two services are completely different. The traffic or the duration of the service is charged. The multimedia message service needs to be charged according to the event. The event can be sending or receiving a multimedia message. In order to use the same charging scheme for different types of packet data services, it is necessary to propose a new charging method for the current GPRS charging system, and adopt a general charging mechanism based on data flow.

In view of the above situation, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP, The 3rd Generation Partnership Project) is currently discussing how to implement Internet Protocol (IP) data flow-based charging (FBC, Flow Based Charging). For a packet data service, the amount of data consumed by users when using the service is called Service Data Flow, which is a collection of multiple IP data flows. Multiple different packet data services can be carried in one APN and PDP Context. In this way, the billing granularity based on IP data flow is far smaller than the billing granularity based on a PDP Context, and the billing granularity based on IP data flow can more truly reflect the occupation of resources by a service data flow. Therefore, IP-based The billing of the data flow can provide operators or service providers with richer billing methods.

3GPP has described the system structure, functional requirements and message interaction process of FBC. The FBC system structure supporting online charging is shown in Figure 1A. The customized application (CAMEL, Customized Application for The service control point (SCP, Service Control Point) 101 of Mobile Network Enhanced Logic and the credit control function entity (CC, Service Data Flow Based Credit Control Function) 102 based on service data flow charging constitute an online charging system (OCS, Online Charging System) 106. The CC 102 is connected to a service data flow based charging rule function entity (CRF, Service Data Flow Based Charging Rule Function) 103 through the Ry interface, and the CRF 103 is connected to the application function entity (AF, Application Function) 104 through the Rx interface, The CRF 103 is connected to the transmission plane functional entity (TPF, Traffic Plane Function) 105 through the Gx interface, and the CC 102 is connected to the TPF 105 through the Gy interface.

The structure of the FBC system supporting offline charging is shown in Figure 1B. The CRF 103 is connected to the AF 104 through the Rx interface, the CRF 103 is connected to the TPF 105 through the Gx interface, and the TPF 105 is connected to the charging gateway functional entities (CGF, Charging Gateway Function) 107 is connected to charging collection function entity (CCF, Charging Collection Function) 108.

The functions realized by each functional entity are described below according to the current 3GPP's division of FBC functional entities.

TPF 105 is a functional entity carrying business data streams, which can distinguish packet data packets belonging to different packet data business processes, and is used to collect offline charging information and perform online credit control. When the bearer of business data streams changes, such as During the process of bearer establishment, bearer modification, bearer deletion, etc., TPF 105 requests charging rules from CRF 103 through the Gx interface, and the information related to users and terminals, bearer characteristics and network-related information can be carried in the message requesting charging rules. The information related to the user and the terminal may be the International Mobile Station Integrated Services Network Number (MSISDN), the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), etc., and the information related to the bearer characteristics may be the Quality of Service (QoS) parameter, APN, the information related to the network may be Mobile Network Code (MNC), Mobile Country Code (MCC) and so on. TPF 105 performs packet data filtering and charging information collection on the corresponding service data flow according to the charging rules returned by CRF 103. One TPF 105 can be served by one or more CRFs 103, when there are multiple CRFs 103 serving the same TPF 105, the corresponding CRF 103 can be selected to interact with it according to the terminal identification. TPF 105 supports predefined charging rules and predefined service data flow filters.

CRF 103 is a functional entity that stores charging rules, and supports dynamic and static charging rules. Dynamic billing rules refer to billing rules that are generated in real time according to packet data service criteria and are applied to service data streams. Static billing rules refer to billing rules that remain unchanged during the process of using packet data services. Static billing rules can be It is dynamically activated by the process of using the packet data service by the user. CRF 103 can select appropriate charging rules according to the information provided by TPF 105, AF 104 or OCS 106, and when TPF 105 requests charging rules from it or when a specific event occurs, CRF 103 will provide the selected charging rules to TPF 105. One CRF 103 can correspond to multiple TPF 105.

AF 104 represents all application-related functional entities, and AF 104 can be the operator's own network entity or a third-party service provider's network entity. AF 104 provides corresponding information to CRF 103, so that CRF 103 can select or configure corresponding charging rules based on the information. The information provided by AF 104 to CRF 103 includes: identification information of service data flow and information for selecting charging rules . The identification information of the service data flow, which can identify the aggregation of multiple IP flows through wildcards; the information used to select the charging rule, including application/service identification, application/service charging rule trigger event, type of service data flow, service Information such as the rate of data flow. The identification information of the service data flow can be wildly matched; the type of the service data flow can be video, audio, etc., the type of the service data flow is an optional parameter, and the rate of the service data flow is also an optional parameter. One AF 104 can correspond to multiple CRFs 103, and when one CRF 103 corresponds to the same AF 104, the corresponding CRF 103 can be selected to interact with it according to the user terminal identifier.

CC 102 is a functional entity that performs credit control and is only used in the online charging system, which can be realized by adding new functions to the existing OCS 106. The CC 102 in the OCS 106 can provide relevant information for selecting charging rules to the CRF 103 through the Ry interface.

CGF 107/CCF 108 is a functional entity applied to the offline charging system, which can follow the implementation method in the existing GPRS charging system.

If the bearer network is a GPRS network, then the TPF 105 is located at the Gateway General Packet Radio Service Support Node (GGSN, Gateway GPRS Support Node), and the AF 104 is a service gateway or a service server in the packet data network (PDN, Packet Data Network). When the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS, IP Multimedia Subsystem) is carried on the GPRS network, the AF 104 is a Proxy Call Session Control Function entity (P-CSCF, Proxy Call Session Control Function), and the CRF 103 is a newly added logical entity.

The above charging mechanism can also be applied to the network architecture of 3GPP2.

In order to realize charging based on the FBC mechanism, the functional entity CRF 103 is added to the communication network. CRF 103 is a functional entity that stores charging rules and supports decision-making and implementation of dynamic charging rules and static charging rules. In order to support the decision-making and implementation of dynamic charging rules, CRF 103 is connected to AF 104, OCS 106 and TPF 105 respectively, and CRF 103 obtains input information related to applications/services through the Rx interface with AF 104; The Ry interface between OCS 106 obtains the input information related to credit control in the online charging process; when the bearer is established, modified and deleted, the CRF 103 obtains the user identification, bearer characteristics, and The information related to the communication network is used to select the input information of the charging rules, and the CRF 103 selects the appropriate charging rules according to these input information, and provides them to the TPF 105 through the Gx interface.

Figure 2A is a flow chart of online charging when a bearer is established. As shown in Figure 2A, the implementation process of online charging when a bearer is established includes the following steps:

Step 201A: The user equipment (UE) sends a bearer establishment request (Establish BearerService Request) to the TPF, and in the GPRS network, the GGSN receives a PDP Context creation request (Create PDP Context Request).

Step 202A: After receiving the bearer establishment request, the TPF sends a charging rule request (Request Charging Rules) to the CRF, and the charging rule request carries input information for the CRF to determine the charging rules.

Step 203A～Step 204A: After receiving the charging rule request, the CRF selects an appropriate charging rule according to the input information carried in the charging rule request and the relevant input information provided by the AF, and then returns the provisioning charging rule to the TPF. Provision Charging Rules, the provision charging rules may carry the selected charging rules.

Step 205A～Step 206A: After receiving and providing the charging rules, the TPF performs corresponding operations on the charging rules, and then returns a bearer establishment response (Establish Bearer Service Accept) to the UE, accepts the bearer establishment request initiated by the UE, and continues the subsequent bearer Create a process.

Figure 2B is a flow chart of online charging during bearer modification. As shown in Figure 2B, the implementation process of online charging during bearer modification includes the following steps:

Step 201B: The UE sends a bearer modification request (Modify Bearer ServiceRequest) to the TPF, and in the GPRS network, the GGSN receives a PDP Context update request (UpdatePDP Context Request).

Step 202B: After receiving the bearer modification request, the TPF sends a charging rule request to the CRF, and the charging rule request carries input information for the CRF to determine the charging rule.

Step 203B to Step 204B: After receiving the charging rule request, the CRF selects an appropriate charging rule according to the input information carried in the charging rule request and the relevant input information provided by the AF, and then returns the provisioning charging rule to the TPF. charging rule, the charging rule provided may carry the selected charging rule.

Step 205B～Step 206B: After receiving and providing the charging rules, the TPF performs corresponding operations on the CRF charging rules, and then returns a bearer modification response (Modify Bearer Service Accept) to the UE, accepts the bearer modification request initiated by the UE, and continues the subsequent Host modification process.

Figure 2C is a flow chart of online charging when a bearer is deleted. As shown in Figure 2C, the implementation process of online charging when a bearer is deleted includes the following steps:

Step 201C: The UE sends a bearer deletion request (Remove Bearer ServiceRequest) to the TPF, and in the GPRS network, the GGSN receives a PDP Context deletion request (DeletePDP Context Request).

Step 202C: After receiving the bearer deletion request, the TPF sends a charging rule request to the CRF, and the charging rule request carries input information for the CRF to determine the charging rule.

Step 203C～Step 204C: After receiving the charging rule request, the CRF selects an appropriate charging rule according to the input information carried in the charging rule request and the relevant input information provided by the AF, and then returns the provisioning accounting rule to the TPF. charging rule, the charging rule provided may carry the selected charging rule.

Step 205C～Step 206C: After receiving and providing the charging rules, the TPF performs corresponding operations on the charging rules, and then returns a bearer delete response (Remove Bearer Service Accept) to the UE, accepts the bearer delete request initiated by the UE, and continues the subsequent bearer Delete process.

Figure 3 is a flow chart of CRF actively issuing charging rules to TPF. As shown in Figure 3, the implementation process of CRF actively issuing charging rules to TPF includes the following steps:

Step 301: The CRF receives information about an internal or external trigger event (Internal or External Trigger Event) and information related to the event, such as the event that the AF sends charging rule selection input information to the CRF.

Step 302: The CRF selects an appropriate charging rule according to the acquired input information. These input information can be the input information related to the application/service provided by AF, for example, the user uses a certain service provided by AF, and the service has special requirements for charging, such as the charging rate and the charging rate of other services Different, therefore, the AF provides the charging input information related to the service to the CRF; it can also be the charging related input information provided by the TPF.

Step 303 - Step 304: If the charging rule changes, the CRF sends the provisioning charging rule to the TPF, and the provisioning charging rule may carry the selected charging rule. After receiving and providing the charging rules, the TPF performs corresponding operations on the charging rules.

The charging rules mentioned above include information such as charging mechanism, charging type, charging key, service data flow filter, and charging rule priority. Among them, the billing mechanism can be online billing or offline billing; the billing type can be billing based on time length or data traffic; billing keys, parameters related to billing rates; business data The filter is used to instruct the TPF which IP data flow to filter, and then the TPF charges the filtered IP data flow according to the charging rule. A traffic data filter may contain an IP5 tuple.

It can be seen from the above description that the information exchange process between TPF and CRF is very important in the charging based on the service data flow. Therefore, in the charging implementation process based on the FBC mechanism in the 3GPP specification, the implementation process of this part is emphatically described; During the implementation of online charging, the charging scheme based on the FBC mechanism only mentions that CRF can obtain input information related to credit control during online charging from OCS, which is used for CRF to select and configure appropriate charging After the CRF provides the selected charging rules to the TPF, how the TPF applies different charging rates to the OCS, so that the OCS can implement credit control, and then control the implementation of online charging.

In addition, after the AF receives the packet data service request sent by the UE, it will provide the CRF with input information related to the application/service. These input information may lead to changes in the charging rules, thereby changing the credit control in online charging. Furthermore, it will also affect the implementation of online charging, which is not described in the charging method based on the FBC mechanism.

To sum up, the existing charging scheme based on the FBC mechanism does not provide a complete description for the implementation process of online charging, and the online charging based on the service data flow cannot be realized according to the existing charging scheme based on the FBC mechanism.

Contents of the invention

In view of this, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a method for implementing online charging based on business data flow, which improves the implementation process of online charging based on business data flow, so that the online charging process based on business data flow can be successfully completed.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method for perfecting online charging based on service data flow, the method includes the following steps:

A1. The charging rule functional entity CRF provides input information related to credit control to the online charging system OCS;

B1. The OCS determines credit according to the input information related to credit control;

C1. The OCS provides the credit to the transport plane functional entity TPF.

The step C1 is: the OCS actively provides the credit to the TPF.

Further comprising after the step A1:

The TPF sends a credit request to the OCS, and the OCS executes the step B1 after receiving the credit request.

The credit request carries user account identification information.

The method further includes: the OCS returns to the CRF a response confirming receipt of the input information related to credit control.

After receiving the trigger event information, the CRF executes the step A1.

The method further includes: the CRF determines that it is necessary to provide the charging rule to the TPF according to the received trigger event information, and then the CRF provides the charging rule to the TPF;

Alternatively, after the credit is provided to the TPF in step C1, the CRF provides charging rules to the TPF.

The trigger event information includes but not limited to: the TPF sends a charging rule request to the CRF, or the application function entity AF provides application/service input information to the CRF, or the trigger event information configured inside the CRF.

After the step C1, it further includes: the TPF returns a response confirming the receipt of the credit to the OCS.

The input information related to credit control includes but not limited to: service key, billing key, service event identifier, user identifier, media type, data rate, billing rule identifier, TPF address information.

The method further includes: pre-configuring trigger point information in the OCS; the step C1 is: when the trigger point is triggered, the OCS provides the TPF with credits corrected according to the trigger point information.

The method further comprises the steps of:

a2. Configure trigger point information in OCS in advance;

b2. When the trigger point is triggered, the OCS provides input information for determining the charging rule to the CRF.

The step A1 is: CRF provides input information related to credit control to OCS through TPF;

The input information related to credit control provided by the CRF in step A1 to the OCS through the TPF is:

A11. The CRF provides online charging information to the TPF, and the TPF determines the input information related to credit control according to the online charging information;

A12. The TPF provides the determined input information related to credit control to the OCS.

The online charging information includes, but is not limited to: business key, charging key, business event ID, user ID, media type, data rate, and charging unit.

After receiving the trigger event information, the CRF executes the step A11.

When the CRF determines that charging rules need to be provided to the TPF according to the received trigger event information, the step A11 further includes: the CRF provides the charging rules to the TPF while providing the online charging information to the TPF.

The trigger event information includes but not limited to: the TPF sends a charging rule request to the CRF, or the AF provides application/service input information to the CRF, or the trigger event information configured inside the CRF.

After providing the charging rule to the TPF in step A11, it further includes: the TPF returns a response confirming receipt of the charging rule to the CRF.

The input information related to credit control is carried in the credit request sent by the TPF to the OCS.

After the step C1, it further includes: the TPF returns a response confirming the receipt of the credit to the OCS.

The method further comprises the steps of:

a3. Configure trigger point information in OCS in advance;

b3. When the trigger point is triggered, the OCS provides input information for determining the charging rule to the CRF.

According to the method proposed by the present invention, during the online charging implementation process, the CRF can directly provide the input information related to credit control to the OCS, and then the OCS actively issues credits to the TPF, or the TPF requests new credits from the OCS, so that these The input information related to credit control does not need to be carried in the message sent by the TPF to the OCS, which reduces the message load between entities; the CRF can also provide the TPF with the input information related to online charging through the information carried in the charging rules. And the input information is likely to be part of the billing rules, and then the TPF uses the input information to initiate a credit request to the OCS. The above implementation process has minimal changes to the existing online charging structure based on the FBC mechanism.

The present invention provides a variety of implementations, and any one of the implementations can be used independently to solve the problem of credit request and issuance in online charging, so that the online charging process based on business data flow can be successfully completed, thereby It improves the real-time billing implementation scheme in the existing FBC billing mechanism, and has flexible options.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1A is a schematic structural diagram of an FBC system for online charging;

FIG. 1B is a schematic structural diagram of an FBC system for offline charging;

FIG. 2A is a flow chart of online charging when a bearer is established;

Figure 2B is a flow chart of online charging when the bearer is modified;

Figure 2C is a flow chart of online charging when the bearer is deleted;

Figure 3 is a flow chart of the CRF actively issuing charging rules to the TPF;

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of Embodiment 1 in the present invention;

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

Detailed ways

In order to make the object, technical solution and advantages of the present invention clearer, the present invention will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

In the present invention, the OCS determines the credit according to the obtained input information related to the credit control, and then provides the credit for the charging rule to the TPF.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of Embodiment 1 of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 4, in this embodiment, the implementation process of online charging based on service data flow includes the following steps:

Step 401 to Step 403: UE sends a bearer establishment request to TPF. After receiving the bearer establishment request, the TPF requests the charging rule from the CRF, and provides input information for determining the charging rule to the CRF. After the CRF receives the charging rule request, according to the input information carried in the charging rule request and the relevant input information provided by the AF, it can determine that the charging mode of the current packet data service is online charging, and select an appropriate charging rule charging rule, and then return the selected charging rule and online charging indication to the TPF, and the online charging indication is used to notify the TPF that the current charging mode of the packet data service is online charging.

Step 404: After the TPF receives the charging rule, it performs corresponding operations on the charging rule, and according to the online charging instruction, the TPF determines that it needs to request credit from the OCS, and then sends a credit request to the OCS. The credit request carries information related to the credit control Relevant input information, such as the billing key in the billing rule.

Steps 405 to 406: After receiving the credit request, the OCS determines the credit according to the input information provided by the TPF, and then returns a credit response to the TPF. If the OCS determines the credit for the charging rule, the credit response carries the credit, and the TPF After receiving the credit response carrying the credit, it can return the bearer establishment response to the UE, notify the user to accept the bearer establishment request initiated by it, and continue the subsequent bearer establishment process. During the subsequent processing, step 406 can be continued; if the OCS cannot provide credit, the credit response may carry an error cause value, and after receiving the credit response carrying the error cause value, the TPF may return a bearer setup response to the UE and reject the bearer setup request initiated by the user.

Step 407: The CRF receives information about an internal or external trigger event, for example, the AF sends application/service-related input information to the CRF according to the application of the packet data service, or the bearer modification request sent by the TPF to the CRF, or The trigger point configured by the CRF itself is triggered, etc.

Step 408: After the CRF determines that the credit control needs to be modified according to the received information, it provides the input information related to the credit control to the OCS, such as service key, billing key, service event ID, user ID, media type, and service data rate , related charging rule identifiers, related TPF address information, and so on. If the CRF determines that the charging rule has changed, it selects an appropriate new charging rule, and then provides the new charging rule and online charging instruction to the TPF, and the TPF performs corresponding operations on the received charging rule; if the CRF determines that the charging rule If the charging rule has not changed, the charging rule with empty content can be sent to the TPF.

In the subsequent online charging process, either step 409A-step 410A or step 409B-step 410B can be executed. Step 409A-step 410A and step 409B-step 410B are two parallel subsequent processing modes.

Step 409A～Step 410A: OCS re-determines the credit for the charging rule according to the input information provided by the CRF. If the OCS determines the credit for the charging rule, it provides the current credit to the TPF and allows the user to use the packet data service. TPF After receiving the credit provided by the OCS, return a response to the OCS, informing the OCS that the credit it sent has been received; if the OCS cannot provide the credit, such as the credit is not enough to support the implementation of the current packet data service, then provide the error cause value to the TPF, TPF After receiving the error cause value provided by the OCS, it can also return a response to the OCS to confirm the received information.

Step 409B～Step 410B: The TPF sends a credit request to the OCS according to the online charging instruction. Since a large amount of service information has been provided to the OCS by the CRF in step 404, the input information related to credit control carried in the credit request It can be simplified, and it is only necessary to carry information that can identify the user account, and it is no longer necessary to carry information related to the service. After receiving the credit request, OCS re-determines the credit for the charging rule according to the input information provided by the CRF. If the OCS determines the credit for the charging rule, it provides the current credit to the TPF and allows the user to use the packet data service; if OCS cannot provide credit, if the credit is not enough to support the implementation of the current packet data service, it will provide error cause value to TPF, and the user is not allowed to use the packet data service. After receiving the relevant information provided by the OCS, the TPF may return a response to the OCS for confirming the received information.

After step 408, the OCS may return a response to the CRF. There is no clear time sequence between the response and the step 409A~step 410A or step 409B~step 410B. After receiving the input information provided by the CRF, the OCS may Return a response to the CRF to notify the CRF that it has received the information it sent; it can also return a response to the CRF after receiving the response from the TPF to confirm the receipt of the information. At this time, if the CRF has not provided the TPF with Charging rules, then CRF can provide TPF with new charging rules after OCS successfully provides credit to TPF. When the user's credit is not enough to support the implementation of the current packet data service, CRF can not provide TPF with charging rules. A charging rule whose content is empty may also be provided to the TPF.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of Embodiment 2 of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5, in this embodiment, the implementation process of online charging based on service data flow includes the following steps:

Steps 501 to 507 are the same as steps 401 to 407.

Step 508: After the CRF determines that the credit control needs to be modified according to the received information, if the CRF determines that the charging rule has changed, it selects an appropriate new charging rule, and then provides the new charging rule and online charging rule to the TPF. For relevant information, the TPF performs corresponding operations on the received charging rules; if the CRF determines that the charging rules have not changed, it can send online charging related information to the TPF. Online charging-related information may include service key, charging key, business event ID, user ID, media type, data rate, chargeback unit, etc. Online charging-related information is used when TPF requests credit from OCS.

Step 509: After the TPF receives the information provided by the CRF, if it receives the charging rules, it will perform corresponding operations on the charging rules. Regardless of whether the TPF receives the charging rules or not, according to the online charging instructions, the TPF determines that it needs to report to the OCS After requesting credit, send a credit request to OCS. The credit request carries input information related to credit control, including the deduction unit, the charging key related to the rate, the service key related to the current packet data service, and the user ID and other information.

Step 510: After receiving the credit request, the OCS re-determines the credit for the charging rule according to the input information provided by the CRF. If the OCS determines the credit for the charging rule, it provides the current credit to the TPF and allows the user to use packet data. business; if the OCS cannot provide credit, such as the user's credit is not enough to support the implementation of the current packet data service, then provide the error cause value to the TPF, and the user is not allowed to use the packet data service. After receiving the relevant information provided by the OCS, the TPF may return a response to the OCS for confirming the received information.

The TPF can return a response to the CRF to confirm the received information. In this step, the TPF can immediately return the response to the CRF after receiving the information provided by the CRF; The CRF returns a response; it can also return a response to the CRF at any time between receiving the information provided by the CRF and before receiving the credit returned by the OCS.

During the processing of the above two embodiments, if the credit in the OCS changes, it may directly affect the charging rules, such as the charging rules also need to be modified accordingly. At this time, according to the configuration information stored by the OCS, Such as the trigger point information, when the trigger point is triggered, the OCS will actively report the input information related to credit control to the CRF, and the CRF can select an appropriate new charging rule based on the input information, and then provide it to the TPF. The TPF can request credit from the OCS; further, when the OCS reports input information related to credit control to the CRF, it will also provide credit to the TPF. The trigger point information configured in the OCS can be configured on the OCS by the CRF through the Ry interface. The trigger point information may provide other functional entities with input information related to credit control to the OCS, for example, the AF provides input information related to credit control to the OCS.

In a word, the above descriptions are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims (22)

1. A method for perfecting online billing based on service data flow, characterized in that the method comprises the following steps: A1. The charging rule functional entity CRF provides input information related to credit control to the online charging system OCS; B1. The OCS determines credit according to the input information related to credit control; C1. The OCS provides the credit to the transport plane functional entity TPF. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step C1 is: the OCS actively provides the credit to the TPF. 3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: after the step A1, the TPF sends a credit request to the OCS, and the OCS executes the step B1 after receiving the credit request. 4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the credit request carries user account identification information. 5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: the OCS returns a response to the CRF confirming receipt of the input information related to credit control. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the CRF executes the step A1 after receiving the trigger event information. 7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that the method further comprises: the CRF determines that it is necessary to provide charging rules to the TPF according to the received trigger event information, and then the CRF provides the charging rules to the TPF; Alternatively, after the credit is provided to the TPF in step C1, the CRF provides charging rules to the TPF. 8. The method according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the trigger event information includes but not limited to: TPF sends a charging rule request to CRF, or application function entity AF provides application/service input information to CRF, Or trigger event information configured inside the CRF. 9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: after the step C1, the TPF returns a response confirming the receipt of the credit to the OCS. 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the input information related to credit control includes but not limited to: business key, billing key, business event ID, user ID, media type, data rate, meter Toll rule identifier, TPF address information. 11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: configuring trigger point information in OCS in advance; The step C1 is: when the trigger point is triggered, the OCS provides the TPF with the credit corrected according to the trigger point information. 12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the following steps: a2. Configure trigger point information in OCS in advance; b2. When the trigger point is triggered, the OCS provides input information for determining the charging rule to the CRF. 13. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step A1 is: CRF provides input information related to credit control to OCS through TPF. 14. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that in step A1, the CRF provides the OCS with the input information related to credit control through the TPF as follows: A11. The CRF provides online charging information to the TPF, and the TPF determines the input information related to credit control according to the online charging information; A12. The TPF provides the determined input information related to credit control to the OCS. 15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the online charging information includes but not limited to: business key, billing key, business event ID, user ID, media type, data rate, and charging unit. 16. The method according to claim 14, wherein the CRF executes the step A11 after receiving the trigger event information. 17. The method according to claim 16, wherein when the CRF determines that it is necessary to provide charging rules to the TPF according to the received trigger event information, the step A11 further comprises: At the same time as charging information, it provides charging rules to the TPF. 18. The method according to claim 16, wherein the trigger event information includes but is not limited to: TPF sends a charging rule request to CRF, or AF provides application/service input information to CRF, or internal configuration of CRF Trigger event information. 19. The method according to claim 17, characterized in that after providing the charging rules to the TPF in step A11, the method further comprises: the TPF returns a response confirming receipt of the charging rules to the CRF. 20. The method according to claim 13, wherein the input information related to credit control is carried in the credit request sent by the TPF to the OCS. 21. The method according to claim 13, further comprising: after the step C1, the TPF returns a response confirming the receipt of the credit to the OCS. 22. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of: a3. Configure trigger point information in OCS in advance; b3. When the trigger point is triggered, the OCS provides input information for determining the charging rule to the CRF.

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