Application specific M2M billing reconciliation

• US 10,389,887 B2
• Filed: 10/02/2017
• Issued: 08/20/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aeris Communications Inc.
• Original Assignee: Aeris Communications Inc.
• Inventors: Balakrishnan, Subramanian, Shah, Alpa
• Primary Examiner(s): Hamza, Faruk
• Assistant Examiner(s): Voltaire, Jean F
• Application Number:
  US15/722,462
• Publication Number:
  US 20180027128A1
• Time in Patent Office: 687 Days
• Field of Search: 455406
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/12 Discriminative metering , charging or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/24 preventing metering of tax-free calls to certain lines, e.g. to fire or ambulance stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/41 Billing record details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure of call data record [CDR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/44 Augmented, consolidated or itemized billing statement or bill presentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/725 by the operator
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/73 Validating charges
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

The present invention is directed toward networks and more particularly to a method and system for providing information related to reconciliation billing in such networks. In one more embodiments, the computer implemented method for identifying discrepancies in billable events includes receiving application usage information regarding the one or more billable activities for one or more devices from an application provider core by a billing and analytic system; receiving cloud service usage information regarding the one or more billable activities for the one or more devices from a cloud operator providing cloud services by a billing and analytic system; comparing the received application usage information and the received cloud service usage information for one or more discrepancies in relation to one or more billable activities by a reconciliation engine; and reporting one or more identified discrepancies in accordance with the one or more billable activities.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for use in machine to machine (M2M) network;

the method comprising;

receiving application usage information regarding one or more billable activities for one or more devices from an application provider core by a billing and analytic system;

receiving cloud service usage information regarding the one or more billable activities for the one or more devices from a cloud operator providing cloud services by a billing and analytic system;

comparing the received application usage information and the received cloud service usage information for one or more discrepancies in relation to one or more billable activities by a reconciliation engine; and

reporting one or more identified discrepancies in accordance with the one or more billable activities.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the received application usage information and the received cloud service usage information further comprises:

rating the received application usage information in a predetermined order and comparing the rated application usage information with the received cloud service usage information in accordance with the predetermined order.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the predetermined order is associated with one or more billable events.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the predetermined order includes rating the one or more billable events by a predetermined hierarchy for arranging the one or more billable activities in relation thereto.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the method further comprises providing the report to a customer.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of comparing is performed by a reconciliation engine.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the method further includes updating a price plan system in response to the report.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the updated price plan system includes billing updates to reduce leakage errors regarding customer billing.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the report is generated by a report generator.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the application provider core comprise any type of server, device, appliance, terminal, remote device, or wireless asset.

11. A system for use in an machine to machine (M2M) network, the system comprising:

a reconciliation engine comprising a data processor, wherein the reconciliation engine compares received application usage information regarding one or more billable activities and received cloud service usage information regarding one or more billable activities for one or more discrepancies in relation to one or more billable activities; and

a billing and analytics system including at least one storage database and one or more data processors wherein the billing and analytics system i) receives the application usage information from an application service provider and the received cloud service usage information from cloud service provider and ii) generates one or more reports in response to the reconciliation engine identifying one or more discrepancies.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the application provider core comprise any type of server, device, appliance, terminal, remote device, or wireless asset.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the billing and analytics system produces reports for the customer based upon the usage of the one or more applications in relation to the one or more billable events.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the billing and analytics system includes a rating engine for rating the received application usage information in relation to one or more billable activities in a predetermined manner.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the predetermined manner is associated with one or more billable events.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the report is provided to one or more customers.

17. A computer program product stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium for use in machine to machine (M2M) network for Internet of Things (IoT);

containing program instructions for;

receiving application usage information regarding one or more billable activities for one or more devices from an application provider core by a billing and analytic system;

receiving cloud service usage information regarding the one or more billable activities for the one or more devices from a cloud operator providing cloud services by a billing and analytic system;

comparing the received application usage information and the received cloud service usage information for one or more discrepancies in relation to one or more billable activities by a reconciliation engine; and

reporting one or more identified discrepancies in accordance with the one or more billable activities.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 which includes rating the received application usage information in a predetermined order and comparing the rated application usage information with the received cloud service usage information in accordance with the predetermined order.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, further including a customer function, an accounting function, and a price plan system, wherein the report provides reconciliation information to an accounts department function and the accounts function provides for modifying the price plan system to optimize the one or billable events for the customer function.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the application provider core comprise any type of server, device, appliance, terminal, remote device, or wireless asset.

21. A computer implemented method for use in machine to machine (M2M) network;

the method comprising;

receiving customer usage information regarding one or more billable activities from one or more network elements in relation to devices used on the associated network by a billing and analytic system;

linking the received customer usage information to at least one application provisioned on the device;

receiving cloud service usage information for the devices from a cloud operator providing cloud services;

comparing the linked customer usage information from one or more network elements and the received cloud service usage information from the cloud operator providing cloud services for one or more discrepancies in relation to the one or more billable activities by a reconciliation engine; and

reporting one or more identified discrepancies in accordance with the one or more billable activities.

22. The computer implemented method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving application usage information regarding the one or more billable activities for one or more devices from an application provider core by a billing and analytic system; and

comparing the received application usage information, the linked customer usage information from one or more network elements, and the received cloud service usage information for one or more discrepancies in relation to one or more billable activities by a reconciliation engine.