JPH07131558A - Charging system for intelligent network - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a charging system which enables a subscriber to know the communication charge of his own telephone set or terminal equipment by calculating the communication charges in each prescribed period and storing the data in a data base. CONSTITUTION:A charging engine 32 calculates the communication charges for each charging destination and also for each end of a single call and in each prescribed period of a single month. A service control point SCP 30 stores the data on the communication charges calculated by the engine 32 in a data base 31. Then an access means with which a subscribed included in a service management system SMS 40 has an access to the base 31 confirms the access right of the subscribed after a request is received from the subscribed for report of his communications charge. Then the access means transmits the charge data to the subscriber for the time band requested by the base 31. As a result, both calling and called subscribers can know their own communication charges at each optical time point. Then the service quality is improved in the charging system for an intelligent network.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a billing method in an intelligent network (hereinafter referred to as IN) in which a plurality of types of communication fee calculation methods and payers are determined, including toll-free numbers and information providers.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The basic structure of IN is as shown in FIG.
A service switching point (hereinafter referred to as an SSP) having nodes as switching stations 10 and 20 to which data terminals 12 and 22 and subscriber telephones 11 and 21 are connected, and an SSP1.
A service control point (hereinafter referred to as SCP) 30 that performs number conversion and service according to a request from 0, 20 and SC
Service management system (hereinafter referred to as SMS) that supports P30 service provision and manages the entire network 4
It consists of 0 and. The telephone 21 and the data terminal 22 are IN
The device of the subscriber to which the service call is connected. SCP1
Nos. 0, 20 and SMS 40 are data communication networks of the integrated service communication network ISDN and No. 20 respectively. It is connected to SSP10,20, etc. by a common signal network of 7 signal system, and
It has databases 31 and 41 in which huge amounts of data for number conversion and IN service processing are stored.

As a representative of services provided by IN,
A service called toll-free service or toll-free phone will be described. Toll-free is a system in which the called party normally bears the communication charge that the calling party bears. For example, the SSP 10 sends 0120-
When the dial number XXX is received, this number is transferred to the SCP 30. The SCP 30 uses the database to convert this special number for toll-free dialing into the normal telephone number of the subscriber telephone set 21 registered in advance, and notifies the SSPs 10 and 20 of the telephone number of the calling party. 11 is connected to the subscriber telephone 21 of that number. The call charge is added to the frequency counter of the called subscriber 21 and is not added to the frequency counter of the calling subscriber 11.

In addition, in the IN service call, a plurality of subscriber numbers are provided for the same toll-free number, and the incoming call is distributed by distinguishing the subscriber number to be converted by calling area or by time. However, it is also possible to collect the communication charges collectively and charge one subscriber.

In the case of an information provider such as the dial Q2, a charge for the information provided to the caller is charged as a communication charge, and the stored charge is divided by the communication network provider and the information provider at a predetermined ratio. And has received it.

In the toll-free system as well, when the called subscriber is connected through the international gateway office (GE), there is a billing control system for preventing double billing for international calls. No. 2,920,54. As shown in FIG. 4, this charging control system is a caller 1, an SSP station 3, an SCP 4, an international gateway station (GE) 8, and an I gateway station connected to an international gateway station (GE) 8.
It is composed of a called party 9 of N service and an EDP center 2 for totaling billing information from the SSP station 3 and the GE 8.

When the predetermined telephone number obtained by converting the called party telephone number is an international call, this called party telephone number is transferred to the SSP station 3 having a database for this IN service call. Then, the telephone number is converted into a predetermined telephone number registered in advance, and the connection to the terminal 9 is performed. When the billing information is output to the service subscriber 9 after the call connection, the telephone number of the calling party 1 is converted into a specific dummy telephone number by the SSP station 3, and the dummy telephone number is exchanged with the international gateway. Send to station 8.

[0008] These communication charges are calculated by periodically extracting the charging source information for each call recorded in each SSP 3 on a predetermined date, transferring it to the EDP center 2 outside the system, and totalizing it for each subscriber. It was sent to each subscriber as a book.

[0009]

However, all of the above-mentioned conventional charging methods are performed by offline batch processing, and the subscriber is not aware of the communication charge until receiving a bill or the like. However, there is a drawback that it is difficult to obtain detailed information such as regional information.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks and to provide an IN charging system by which a subscriber can know the communication charge for his or her own telephone or terminal at any time.

[0011]

According to the IN charging system of the present invention, charging information including a calling subscriber number, a called subscriber number, a call start time and a call end time, a service type, and a charge unit price for each call. A charging information collecting means for collecting the communication charge, a calculating means for calculating the communication charge for each predetermined period according to the charging destination based on the charging information, and communication charge data calculated by the calculating means in a database of either SCP or SMS. It has means for storing and means for accessing a database storing communication charges from the calling subscriber or the called subscriber.

[0012] Further, it is preferable that the calculation means is such that the logic of the charging process is in the form of spreadsheet and is provided in the SCP or SMS.

[0013]

[Operation] The communication charge is calculated for each call termination and for each predetermined period within one month, and stored in the database.
And the calling or called party can access this database at any time.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a table diagram of a calculation table by the charging engine 32.

In FIG. 1, the IN of the present invention is a SC having a database 31 and a charging engine 32, which is a charge calculating means, connected to each other, and means for storing the data of the communication charge calculated by the charging engine 32 in the database 31.
P30, means for accessing a database 31 of the SCP 30 in which communication charges are stored from a calling subscriber or a called subscriber, and an SMS 40 having a database 41 in which data associated with addition, change and deletion of services is stored. Subscriber telephone 11, data terminal 12, IN service subscriber telephone 21, subscriber terminal 22, etc., and calling subscriber number, called subscriber number, call start time and end time of each call, and service type A charging information collecting means similar to the conventional one for collecting charging information including
It is composed of SSPs 10 and 20 which are exchange nodes that execute a call connection operation according to the instruction of 0.

The charging engine 32 of the present invention uses the SCP 30.
Although it is connected to the SMS40, it may be connected to the SMS40, and the SMS40 or the SCP3 as one process of the internal program.
0 may be included in the internal program. The charging engine 32 is set in a spreadsheet format as shown in FIG. That is, for example, the charge B2 yen when the service type is toll-free in the second line, the calculation formula is B in column B.
2 = C2 * D2, C column 2 obtained from billing information
It shows that it is the product of the call time C2 seconds in the row and the charge unit price D2 yen / second in the second row of column D, and the calling party E column shows the charge amount B2 * 0%, that is, 0 yen F2 in the F column
* It is shown to charge 100%, that is, the full amount. By thus registering the billing calculation logic in the form of a table, a new billing system can be easily established or changed. In addition, this calculation is set to be performed every 5 minutes, every 1 hour, every 6 hours, every day, every week, every 10 days, every month, etc. , Total charges are calculated and the result is database 31
Can be stored in.

When the subscriber's access means for the database 31 stored in the SMS 40 receives a fee notification request from the subscriber, the access means of the subscriber is confirmed, and then the fee for the time zone requested by the database is confirmed. Send the data of. Therefore, a subscriber may, at any time,
The communication charge of N service can be known from a telephone or a terminal.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, the charging information collecting means for collecting the charging information, the calculating means for calculating the communication charge, the means for storing the data of the calculated communication charge in the database, and the generating means. By providing means for accessing a database storing communication charges from the calling subscriber or called subscriber, the calling subscriber and the called subscriber can know their own communication charges at any time, It has the effect of improving the quality of service. Further, by using a spreadsheet method as the calculation means, there is an effect that the calculation means can be easily changed due to a new addition of an IN service call or a change in the charge method.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a calculation table.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a conventional basic intelligent network.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example of a conventional charging system.

[Explanation of symbols]

1,9,11,21 Telephone 12,22 Data terminal 3,10,20 Service switch point, S
SP 4,30 Service Control Point, SC
P 31,41 Database 32 Billing Engine 40 Service Management System, SMS 8 International Gateway, GE 2 EDP Center

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A service switching point of a switching node, a database having a network service processing program and service control data stored therein, and a service control point for sending a call connection operation instruction to the service switching point, In a billing method of an intelligent network, which has a database of service control data addition, change, and deletion functions, and a service management system that supports the operation of the service control point, a calling subscriber number and a called party for each call Billing information collecting means for collecting billing information including subscriber number, call start time and call end time, and service type; and by the billing information, each call end for each billing destination and every predetermined period within one month Calculate the communication charge Calculating means; means for storing the data of the communication charge calculated by the calculating means in a database of either the service control point or the service management system; and the communication charge of the communication charge from the calling subscriber or the called subscriber. And a means for accessing a stored database, an accounting processing method for an intelligent network. 2. The accounting processing method for an intelligent network according to claim 1, wherein the calculation means has a accounting processing logic in a spreadsheet format and is provided in the service control point or the service management system.