Cost control in a telecommunications system

• US 20010023181A1
• Filed: 03/14/2001
• Published: 09/20/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Savolainen, Jarmo Juhani
• Granted Patent: US 6,892,063 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/411
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/47 Fraud detection or prevention means
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/49 Connection to several service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8038 Roaming or handoff
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/88 Provision for limiting connection, or expenditure
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 17/00 Prepayment of wireline communication systems, wireless communication systems or telephone systems using a coded card to authorise calls from a telephone set H04M1/675
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0116 Provision for limiting expenditure, e.g. limit on call expenses or account
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0148 Fraud detection or prevention means
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0188 Network monitoring; statistics on usage on called/calling number
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/22 Bandwidth or usage-sensitve billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/32 Involving wireless systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/34 Roaming
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/46 Connection to several service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/7442 Roaming
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements

Abstract

A method of monitoring the chargeable activities of a user in a mobile telecommunications network. The method comprises monitoring one or more conditions on which charging may be based and normalising the or each monitored condition so that the condition(s) can be compared against a standard value and/or used for calculating a charge.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring the chargeable activities of a user in a mobile telecommunications network, the method comprising:

monitoring one or more conditions on which charging may be based; and

normalising the or each monitored condition so that the condition(s) can be compared against a standard value and/or used for calculating a charge.

2. A method according to

claim 1

, wherein said conditions include time based and data transfer volume based conditions.

3. A method according to

claim 1

, wherein said steps of monitoring one or more conditions and of normalising the or each monitored condition are carried out at the serving node for the user.

4. A method according to

claim 3

, wherein said network is a GSM network and said serving node is a Mobile Switching Centre (MSC) or a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN).

5. A method according to

claim 1

, wherein the normalising values are transferred from a charge control function of said network, or of another network to which the user is a subscriber, either upon initiation of a chargeable activity or prior to such initiation.

6. A method according to

claim 5

, wherein a standard value which defines a cost limit up to which the user is authorised, and against which a monitored condition or combination of monitored conditions is compared, is transferred from said charge control function to said serving node.

7. A method according to

claim 1

, wherein said user is a subscriber of a home GSM network and is roaming in a foreign GSM network, and the normalising values are transferred from the home network to the serving node of the foreign network using the CAMEL protocol.

8. A method according to

claim 1

, wherein a normalised monitored condition, or a combination of normalised monitored conditions, is compared against a standard value which defines a cost limit up to which the user is authorised, and, if the condition or combination of conditions reaches the standard value, the serving node sends an authorisation request to a charge controlling node.

9. A node of a mobile telecommunications network which provides in use a serving node for one or more mobile users, the apparatus comprising:

means for monitoring one or more conditions on which charging may be based; and

means for normalising the or each monitored condition so that the condition(s) can be compared against a standard value and/or used for calculating a charge.