CN100550747C - Content charging method and charging system for data service - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a content charging method of data service, which customizes the charging rule as a charging rule component, and when a user executes data service, the corresponding charging rule component is used for charging the content according to the type of the data service, the user information and the content charging record information obtained by an Internet content provider/service provider (ICP/SP). The invention also discloses a content charging system of the service, which is realized by a special content charging server and comprises an Operation Support System (OSS) interface module, an ICP/SP interface module, a content charging module and a payment interface module. The content charging method and the charging system thereof have the characteristics of independence, flexibility, expandability, openness and distributivity, realize charging according to the content of the data service, and meet the flexible and various charging requirements in the data service.

Description

A content charging method and charging system for data services

technical field

The invention relates to charging technology for data services, in particular to a content charging method for data services and a charging system thereof.

Background technique

At present, according to the analysis of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Forum Report 9, 3G data services are divided into two categories: content connection and mobility. Content connection can be divided into: mobile Internet access and enterprise intranet/extranet access; The mobility category can be divided into: customized information and entertainment; multimedia message services; location-based services; in addition, there are 6 types of services including enhanced voice.

These 6 types of services represent the main demands of 3G services. The field of mobile communication dominated by voice today will definitely be an environment centered on data services in the future. The content that can be connected to the Internet at any time and any place will clearly become an important task of 3G.

3G billing is an important part of the 3G solution. Although 3G services are diverse and the prospects are attractive, if there is no corresponding billing solution and a corresponding value chain system is not established, that is, operators cannot operate, then everything is empty talk.

At present, the traditional billing system is designed for voice services, and the billing is generally based on factors such as the duration of the call and the distance between the calling party and the called party. That is, traditional billing is related to the call duration and the location of the calling party and the called party, but has nothing to do with the service content consumed.

The current 3G billing system still focuses on the billing of voice services, and its billing strategy is generally hard-coded, that is, the billing formula is hard-coded in the code. Once the billing rate table is determined, its billing algorithm It is correspondingly fixed.

The main disadvantages of the hard-coded method are code reusability and poor flexibility. If new requirements are added, a large number of codes need to be changed, the coupling between codes is large, the modification involves a wide range, it is not easy to maintain, and it is not conducive to the stability of the billing system. Aiming at the requirement of 3G service on billing flexibility, this kind of realization obviously cannot satisfy.

Another method is to use scripts to solidify billing policies, and use scripting languages to implement billing formulas. Although the script language can be used to add new billing policies very flexibly, and there is no need to modify the code when modifying the billing formula, but because the billing formula is generally more complicated, it is very difficult to use scripts to implement and the readability is poor. In addition, the interpretation of the scripting language will also have a certain impact on system performance.

The existing 3G charging system is realized by integrating the original equipment of the mobile communication system, that is, the charging function is integrated in the SSP or SCP, and the SSP/SCP completes the charging function for users.

Traditional voice service billing has nothing to do with the content consumed by the user, but is only related to the duration (the user's call time) and distance (local call or long-distance call), so there is no need to report service information or content attributes, and it does not care about the user's consumption service traffic and times, only the user’s call time needs to be counted on the SSP/SCP side. After the SSP/SCP completes the billing function for the user, the camp account system will generate a user bill according to the billing result, and submit it to the user when the user needs it. user.

The most attractive part of 3G is the "always-on" service, that is, as long as you turn on the mobile phone, you can enjoy a variety of business content. Therefore, the traditional billing system limited to voice services obviously cannot meet the diverse demands brought by diversified services. demand for content billing. Therefore, traditional voice billing cannot meet the needs of content billing.

And because the billing system of the prior art is realized through the integration of the original equipment of the mobile communication system, the resources of the mobile communication system are occupied, the billing process is cumbersome, the flexibility is poor, and it cannot adapt to the ever-growing rich and diverse data business plan. fee required.

Contents of the invention

In view of this, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a content charging method for data services, which implements charging according to service content and meets flexible and diverse charging requirements in data services.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a content billing system for data services, which saves resources in the mobile communication system, implements billing based on service content, and meets flexible and diverse billing requirements in data services.

According to one aspect of the above purpose, the present invention provides a content charging method for data services, the method comprising the following steps:

1) Customize one or more charging rule components, and each charging rule component stores different charging rules according to different data service types;

2) Pre-save the user information of the user who subscribed to the data service; the user information at least includes: user account opening information, payment type, user attributes, and arrears records;

3) According to the type of data service, take out the corresponding charging rule in the corresponding charging rule component, and then use the The billing rule performs content billing; and judges whether the user’s payment type is prepaid, and if it is prepaid, sends the billing result to the prepaid processing device, and the prepaid processing device withdraws from the user’s account according to the billing result Deduct the fee; otherwise, it is a postpaid user, and the billing result is sent to the camping system.

Wherein, the step 1) may further include: setting a charging factor for each charging rule component, and realizing combined charging of multiple charging rules by combining the charging factors. When charging the mobile data service, the prepaid processing device may be a service control node SCP. The method may further include that the billing result obtained in step 4) is used by the camping system to generate user bills according to user needs.

According to another aspect of the above purpose, the present invention provides a content billing system, the system includes a dedicated content billing server, and the content billing server includes at least:

The OSS interface module of the operation support system connects the OSS to the content billing module, obtains the user information of the contract data service user from the OSS, and sends it to the content billing module;

The Internet content provider/service provider ICP/SP interface module connects the ICP/SP to the content billing module, and the ICP/SP sends the content billing record information to the content billing module;

The content billing module charges the data service according to the data service type, the user information of the data service user, and the content billing record, and generates a billing result according to the payment type;

The payment interface module is connected with the content charging module, and sends the charging result to the corresponding payment processing device according to the payment type. The payment interface module can include:

The prepaid interface module connects the prepaid processing device with the content charging module, and sends the charging result of the prepaid user generated by the content charging module to the prepaid processing device.

The call bill interface module connects the content billing module with the camping system; sends the billing result of the post-paid user generated by the content billing module to the camping system.

Wherein, the prepaid interface module may be: a service control node SCP interface module, which connects the SCP to the content charging module, and sends the charging result of the prepaid user generated by the content charging module to the SCP.

The content billing module can at least include:

The billing engine is connected to the OSS and ICP/SP respectively, obtains the user information of the subscriber who subscribes to the data service from the OSS, receives the content billing record information sent by the ICP/SP, and sends the user information and content billing record information to the batch price parts;

Appraisal component, which saves the basic rates of different data service types, takes out the corresponding charging rules from the charging rule component according to the data service type, user information of data service users, and content charging records, and charges data services , and generate billing results according to the payment type;

The charging rule component stores different charging rules according to different types of data services.

The user information may at least include: user account opening information, payment type, user attributes, and arrears records; the content billing record information may at least include: data service type, execution time of the data service, execution time of the data service The data flow of the service, and the number of execution times of the data service.

The bill interface module may be a bill interface machine, which transmits information with the content billing module in a file format.

The content billing server and OSS can be a real-time synchronous message interface, or data transmission in the form of files; the content billing server and ICP/SP, and the content billing server and SCP can be in accordance with the operator interface specification to connect.

The content charging server and the ICP/SP can interact by means of messages or files; the content charging server and the SCP can interact by using the Extended Mobile Point-to-Point Protocol EMPP protocol messages.

Bill interface module and camping system can use file transfer protocol FTP or file transfer to access and manage FTAM transmission information, and camping system gets billing result from content billing server through bill interface module when user needs.

The content charging server may include more than one server; the charging engine and charging rule components are distributed on different server hosts.

It can be seen from the technical solution of the present invention that the content billing system and its billing method of the present invention customize billing rules as billing rule components, and when a user executes a data service, the content is provided according to the data service, user information and Internet content. Based on the content charging record information obtained by the ICP/SP, use the corresponding charging rule components to carry out content charging, realize charging according to the content of data services, and meet the needs of flexible and diverse accounting in data services fee request.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is the realization block diagram of content billing of a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is an implementation block diagram of the content charging module in the embodiment shown in Fig. 1 .

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 embodiments and accompanying drawings.

The content charging method of the data service in the present invention is to meet the characteristics of 3G services, and adopts the method of charging according to the service content. And according to the flexibility of billing requirements, customize different billing rules. That is to say, the present invention can customize different charging formulas according to charging rules, realize flexible combination of charging policies, discount policies, etc., and be easy to expand.

The content billing method for this data service of the present invention firstly customizes one or more billing rule components according to different billing rules of different data service types; Including: user account opening information, payment type, user attributes, arrears records, etc.

Among them, the following factors are referred to when customizing the billing rule components:

A. Different ICP/SP may have different billing policies;

B. Different businesses may have different pricing strategies, such as games, different games may have different fees;

C. Support billing according to the length of time, such as games, the charges are different for the length of time;

D. Support content-based traffic billing, such as downloading pictures, billing according to traffic, but the rate varies according to different pictures;

E. Support billing by usage times (including billing by article, by page, and by billing), such as downloading pictures, MP3, ringtones, etc.;

F. Support different billing strategies based on time periods or dates; such as free promotions on certain dates, certain discounts for certain time periods of the day, etc.;

G. Support flat billing, support contract fee (monthly rent) + billing strategies based on usage times or duration or traffic;

H. Support user personalized billing, different users can choose different tariffs or billing strategies according to their own conditions;

I. Support adopting different billing strategies according to different usage (duration, traffic, times), which is similar to file skipping;

J. Advertising business, which supports users to access ICP’s advertising fee service, which can be divided into two types: gift usage fee and gift usage amount;

K. Support access to different data networks and adopt different billing strategies, considering factors such as QoS;

L. It supports the use of different billing strategies in different regions or regions, and it is possible to charge users differently in each "hotspot area". For example, a lower fee can be charged for the "living area" compared to the concept of "office area";

M. Support capping fees.

In addition, discounts are a very important means for SPs and network operators to attract users. Whether it is traditional voice services or 3G-oriented mobile data services, discounts play an important role. There are various discount methods, and the currently commonly used discount methods mainly include the following:

a. Discounts for time periods—retain the existing daily, weekly, and holiday discount methods. This method can also be extended to the billing mode of billing by traffic.

b. Cumulative discounts—including 4 discount methods, including duration cumulative discounts, traffic cumulative discounts, item cumulative discounts, and amount cumulative discounts.

c. One-time cumulative discount—discount according to the total amount of one-time use and the total amount of one-time use

d. User discounts—unified discounts for certain group users. Can be multiplied on top of all discounts.

e. Business discounts - uniform discounts for certain businesses.

In the specific implementation of the present invention, a plurality of billing rule components are customized according to the above factors. The charging of a service can be realized through the rating component and one or more charging rule components. The billing rule component can perform combined billing, and at the same time set a billing factor for a combination, and use the basic rate and billing factor in the batch price part to realize the combined billing of various additional billing rules in the actual billing process fee.

In practical applications, the billing policy for data services can be described by the "basic rate information stored in the rating component + charging factor information in the additional charging rule component".

For example: corresponding to the short message service of the Internet content provider, its basic rate information may be as shown in Table 1, which is a simple rate table for the short message service.

Rate ID billing mode unit of charging rate value 1 1 (pay-per-view) 1 time) 10 points)

Table I

The meaning of Table 1 is that for pay-per-view services, 10 cents will be charged each time.

The additional charging factors for different users may be different. If the user is required to enjoy the cumulative discount and the time discount at the same time, the charging factor information can be shown in Table 2, which is a table of charging factors for short message services.

Billing factor ID discount logo discount index discount parts 0 3 (represents cumulative discount) 0 Cumulative discount

0 5 (represents time discount) 1 time discount

Table II

Table 2 corresponds to two discounts, which is equivalent to combining the two discounts into one billing factor.

The above two tables are basic information, and the table structure in practical application is not limited to this.

Corresponding to the cumulative discount, as shown in Table 3, Table 3 is the cumulative discount table.

Discount ID Lower discount limit discount type Discount value 0 (corresponds to the "discount index" field in the billing factor table) 30 0 (for percentage discount) 80

Table three

The meaning of Table 3 is that when users accumulatively use the service for 30 times, they can enjoy a 20% discount. Similarly, as shown in Table 4, Table 4 is the time discount table.

discount index start time End Time discount type Discount value 1 22:00:00 23:59:59 0 (for percentage discount) 50

Table four

Table 4 means that users who use the service between 22:00 and 23:59 can enjoy a 50% discount.

Combining the basic tariff information with the billing factor information yields a billing policy, and such a billing policy can be bound to a service. See Table 5, Table 5 is a billing strategy for the SMS service.

Business ID rate index Billing factor index 8888 1 0

Table five

Among them, the service whose ID is 8888 represents the SMS service, and its billing strategy is: pay-per-use service, each charge is 10 cents, and if the user accumulatively uses more than 30 times, he can enjoy a 20% discount. : Enjoy business between 59 and 50% off.

If a user has used the service 30 times and uses the service at 22:30, then the user's actual charge = 1 (time) * 10 (minutes) * 0.8 * 0.5 = 4 (minutes)

If the demand changes and requires adding a user discount in addition to the above two discounts, then the billing factor description table only needs to be modified, and the revised billing factor description table is shown in Table 6.

Billing factor ID discount logo discount index discount parts 0 3 0 Cumulative discount 0 5 1 time discount 0 6 2 user discount

Table six

In this way, by activating the user discount component, it is easy to dynamically add a discount type without modifying the code at all, and truly achieving the purpose of dynamically and flexibly configuring billing rules. 6 of which represent user discounts.

For example: an individual mobile user signs up for the short message service of an Internet content provider. When the user receives a short message, the Internet content provider sends a content billing record to the content billing server, which includes whether the user executes the short message service, sends The number of text messages, sending time and other information. After the content billing server receives the content billing record, it takes out the user's personal information stored in the content billing server by the OSS in advance, including the user's account opening information, payment type (for example, the user is a prepaid user), the User attributes include information such as individual user, the user has no arrears record, and the user has paid. The content billing server judges that the user should enjoy the service described in Table 6 based on the fact that the user is performing short message service, the time of sending short messages, the number of sent short messages has exceeded the predetermined quota, and the user is an individual user and has no arrears records. There are three kinds of discounts, so the billing factor whose ID number is 0 in Table 6 is used for billing, and then the content billing server sends the billing result to the SCP, and the SCP deducts the corresponding fee from the user's account.

When the user executes the data service, according to the data service, user information and the content charging record information obtained by the Internet content provider/service provider (ICP/SP), use the corresponding charging rule component to perform content charging. The content charging record information may include: the type of data service, the execution time of the data service, the data flow of the execution of the data service, and the number of execution times of the data service.

The content billing can be implemented by the following steps:

Step A, according to the type of data service, take out the corresponding charging rule in the corresponding charging rule component, and then use the calculation according to the execution time of the data service, the data flow of the execution of the data service, and the number of execution times of the data service. Billing according to the fee rules;

Step B, judge whether this user payment type is prepayment, if be prepayment then billing result is sent to prepayment processing equipment, be service control node (SCP) for mobile data service, prepayment processing equipment is from according to billing result The fee is deducted from the user's account; otherwise, it is a postpaid user, and the billing result is sent to the camping system.

Step C, the billing system fetches the billing result according to the needs of the user, and generates a user bill.

Referring to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is a block diagram of content charging implementation in a preferred embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the mobile data service is charged. Wherein the content billing system is realized by a dedicated content billing server 110, and the content billing server 110 is connected to the OSS 101, ICP/SP 102, SCP 104 and the tent system respectively. The content billing server 110 and OSS 101 are real-time synchronous message interfaces, or data transmission in the form of files, and the ICP/SP 102 and SCP 104 are connected according to the operator interface specifications. Wherein, the content charging server 110 and the ICP/SP 102 interact by means of messages or files; the content charging server 110 and the SCP 104 interact by using EMPP protocol messages. The interfaces in this embodiment are all designed according to the operator's interface specifications, which is beneficial to the connection with other external devices.

The content billing server 110 in this embodiment includes:

Operation support system (OSS) interface module 111, OSS 101 is connected with content billing module 113, obtains the user information of the contracted mobile data service user from OSS 101, sends to content billing module 113;

Internet content provider/service provider (ICP/SP) interface module 112 is connected 113 with ICP/SP 102 and content billing module, and ICP/SP 102 sends content billing record information to content billing module 110.

The content charging module 113 is a main functional module of content charging, see FIG. 2 , which is a block diagram of the implementation of the content charging module in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 . The content billing module 113 includes: a billing engine 201, which is connected to the OSS 101 and the ICP/SP 102 respectively through the OSS interface module 111 and the ICP/SP interface module, obtains the user information of the mobile data service subscriber from the OSS 101, and receives the ICP/SP SP 102 sends the content charging record information, and sends the user information and content charging record information to the evaluation component 202.

Appraisal component 202 stores the basic tariff rates of different mobile data service types, and takes out corresponding rates from one or more charging rule components 203 according to the mobile data service type, user information of mobile data service users, and content charging records. Billing rules for mobile data services, and generate billing results based on payment types.

The content charging server 110 of this embodiment pre-customizes a plurality of charging rule components 203, which respectively store different charging rules according to different types of mobile data services. The charging rule component 203 can be added, deleted and modified at any time according to the change of the mobile data service. It can be seen that the content billing system in this embodiment is implemented in the form of components, adding new requirements is equivalent to adding new components, and has no impact on the original code. At the same time, each component can provide an open interface to the outside world, which is easy to expand.

In short, the content charging module 113 charges the mobile data service according to the mobile data service type, user information of the mobile data service user, and content charging records, and generates a charging result according to the payment type.

Service control node (SCP) interface module 115, SCP 104 is connected with content billing module 113, the billing result of the prepaid user that content billing module 113 produces is sent to service control node 104;

The bill interface module 114 connects the content billing module 113 to the camping system 103 ;

The service control node (SCP) interface module 115 and bill interface module 114 in the present embodiment constitute the payment interface module, and the charging result is sent to the corresponding charging processing device—the service control node 104 according to the payment type of the data service Or tent system 103.

The bill interface module 114 and the billing system transmit information by FTP or FTAM, and the billing system gets the billing result from the content billing server 110 through the bill interface module 114 when the user needs it. The call bill interface module 114 can be implemented by an independent call bill interface machine, which transmits information with the content billing module 113 in a file format.

In the charging process of the content charging server 110 in this embodiment, user information and content charging record information are important information in charging, and the user information may specifically include: user account opening information, payment type, user attributes, arrears Record; the content charging record information may specifically include: the type of mobile data service, the execution time of the mobile data service, the data flow of the execution of the mobile data service, and the number of execution times of the mobile data service.

In addition, the content charging server 110 of this embodiment can be realized by multiple servers; wherein, the charging engine 201 can be realized by a dedicated server, and the rating component 202 and the charging rule component 203 are distributed in other dedicated servers on the host. In this way, the charging engine 201 and the charging rule component 203 are distributed on different hosts, which can ensure the performance of the content charging system.

The content billing system of this embodiment is implemented using a dedicated server, and does not depend on other devices. The interaction with other devices uses a message mechanism or an API function call mechanism, so that the content billing module has a high degree of independence and can perform Independent testing reduces the workload of development and testing and is easy to maintain.

At the same time, this embodiment can dynamically add or modify the combination of billing rule components without modifying codes or restarting the billing system, which has great flexibility and satisfies the flexible and changeable characteristics of billing requirements to the greatest extent.

It can be seen from the above-mentioned embodiments that the content billing method of the data service and its billing system of the present invention have the characteristics of independence, flexibility, scalability, openness and distribution, and realize the charging according to the content of the data service. Billing is performed to meet flexible and diverse billing requirements in data services.

Claims (14)

1, a kind of content charging method of data service is characterized in that, this method may further comprise the steps:

1) customize one or more charging rule parts, each charging rule parts is stored different charging regulations respectively according to the different pieces of information type of service;

2) preserve the user profile of subscription data service-user in advance; Described user profile comprises at least: user open an account information, payment type, user property and arrearage record;

3) according to the type of data service, in corresponding charging rule parts, take out corresponding charging regulation, the number of times of the time of carrying out according to this data service, the data traffic of carrying out this data service and this data service execution uses this charging regulation to carry out content charging again; And, judge whether this user charges type is pre-payment, if pre-payment then sends to charging result the pre-payment treatment facility, the pre-payment treatment facility deducts the fee from this user's account by charging result; Otherwise be the postpaid service user, charging result is sent to accounting system.

2, content charging method as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that, described step 1) further comprises: for each charging rule parts is provided with a charging factor, realize that by the combination to the charging factor combination of multiple charging regulation is chargeed.

3, content charging method as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that: when mobile data services were chargeed, described pre-payment treatment facility was a service control node SCP.

4, content charging method as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that: this method comprises that further the charging result that step 4) obtains generates subscriber's account by accounting system according to user's needs.

5, a kind of content accounting system of data service is characterized in that, this system's content accounting server, and this content charging server comprises at least:

OSS OSS interface module links to each other OSS with the content charging module, obtain the user profile of subscription data service-user from OSS, sends to the content charging module;

ICP/service provider ICP/SP interface module links to each other ICP/SP with the content charging module, ICP/SP sends to the content charging module with the content charging recorded information;

The content charging module is chargeed to the data business according to data service type, data service user's user profile and content charging record, and is generated charging result according to payment type;

The paying interface module links to each other with the content charging module, according to payment type charging result is sent to corresponding payment process equipment.

6, content accounting system as claimed in claim 5 is characterized in that, described paying interface module comprises:

The pre-payment interface module links to each other the pre-payment treatment facility with the content charging module, the prepaid user's that the content charging module is produced charging result sends to the pre-payment treatment facility.

The ticket interface module links to each other the content charging module with accounting system; The postpaid service user's that the content charging module is produced charging result sends to accounting system.

7, content accounting system as claimed in claim 6, it is characterized in that, described pre-payment interface module is: the service control node SCP interface module, SCP is linked to each other with the content charging module, and the prepaid user's that the content charging module is produced charging result sends to SCP.

8, content accounting system as claimed in claim 5 is characterized in that, described content charging module comprises at least:

Accounting engine links to each other respectively with ICP/SP with OSS, obtains the user profile of subscription data service-user from OSS, receives the content charging recorded information that ICP/SP sends, and user profile and content charging recorded information are sent to the wholesale price parts;

The wholesale price parts, preserve the base rate of different pieces of information type of service, user profile and content charging record according to data service type, data service user take out corresponding charging regulation from charging rule parts, the data business is chargeed, and generate charging result according to payment type;

Charging rule parts is according to the different charging regulation of different pieces of information type of service storage.

9, content accounting system as claimed in claim 5 is characterized in that, described user profile comprises at least: user open an account information, payment type, user property and arrearage record; Described content charging recorded information comprises at least: the number of times that time, the data traffic of carrying out this data service and this data service that data service type, this data service are carried out carried out.

10, content accounting system as claimed in claim 6 is characterized in that, described ticket interface module is a Bill Recorder Interface, and itself and content charging module are transmitted information by file format.

11, content accounting system as claimed in claim 7 is characterized in that: described content charging server and OSS are real-time synchronization message interface, or carry out transfer of data with document form; All be connected between content charging server and ICP/SP and content charging server and the SCP according to operator's interface specification.

12, content accounting system as claimed in claim 11 is characterized in that, described content charging server and ICP/SP adopt message or file mode to carry out alternately; Adopt Extended Mobile Point to Point EMPP protocol message to carry out alternately between content charging server and the SCP.

13, content accounting system as claimed in claim 6, it is characterized in that: ticket interface module and accounting system are with file transfer protocol (FTP) FTP or File Transfer Access and Management FTAM transmission information, and accounting system is got charging result by the ticket interface module to the content charging server when the user needs.

14, content accounting system as claimed in claim 8 is characterized in that, described content charging server comprises an above server; Accounting engine is distributed on the different server hosts with charging rule parts.

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