Consolidated billing in a wireless network

• US 20020160748A1
• Filed: 04/27/2001
• Published: 10/31/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Rahman, Mohamed Anisur, LaBombard, Bruce M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,392,035 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/406
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• 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 15/44 Augmented, consolidated or itemized billing statement or bill presentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/46 Real-time negotiation between users and providers or operators
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/53 using mediation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/68 Payment of value-added services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/745 Customizing according to wishes of subscriber, e.g. friends or family
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/7655 shared by technologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/772 per service, e.g. prepay or post-pay
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/773 per technology, e.g. PSTN or wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8016 based on quality of service [QoS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0104 Augmented, consolidated or itemised billing statement, e.g. additional billing information, bill presentation, layout, format, e-mail, fax, printout, itemised bill per service or per account, cumulative billing, consolidated billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0108 Customization according to wishes of subscriber, e.g. customer preferences, friends and family, selecting services or billing options, Personal Communication Systems [PCS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0168 On line or real-time flexible customization or negotiation according to wishes of subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0172 Mediation, i.e. device or program to reformat CDRS from one or more switches in order to adapt to one or more billing programs formats
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0196 Payment of value-added services, mainly when their charges are added on the telephone bill, e.g. payment of non-telecom services, e-commerce, on-line banking
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/22 Bandwidth or usage-sensitve billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/32 Involving wireless systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/56 : On line or real-time flexible agreements between service providers and telecoms operators
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/725 : Shared by technologies, e.g. one account for different access technologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/7263 : per service, e.g. prepay and post-pay
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/7268 : per technology, e.g. PSTN or wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/7414 : QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 : Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 : Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 : Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

Consolidated billing in a wireless network is achieved by employing a processing node having storage capabilities for facilitating service creation and/or negotiation, and billing for those services in a wireless network, by associating user information and/or service information with network information. User information, service information, and network information, and their associated billing information, are provided periodically and dynamically into the storage. Using the processing node, user information and/or service information are associated with network information without having to access various network elements located throughout the network, to facilitate service creation and/or negotiation, and billing of services, to thus minimize network processing and network resources.

Claims

1. A system of billing in a user configurable wireless network, comprising:

a base station controller to establish and maintain communication between a wireless unit and the wireless network;

a home location register in operative communication with the base station controller to support applications and services;

a service data node module in operative communication with the base station controller and the home location register to coordinate the applications and services supported by the home location register;

a user end in operative communication with the service data node, allowing the user to implement service creation and service negotiation without service provider intervention; and

a billing manager in operative communication with the service data node module, to bill the user based on the user implemented service creation and service negotiation.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the service data node module further comprises:

a database to store quality of services;

a dynamic billing information processor in operative communication with the database, to determine actual use of a service on a call-by-call or session-by-session basis; and

a radius accounting server in operative communication with the dynamic billing information processor, to correlate the determined actual use from the dynamic billing information processor.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the billing manager further comprises:

a billing mediator in operative connection with the service data node to receive and distribute data from the service data node;

a billing processor in operative connection with the billing mediator to process the data from the billing mediator;

a billing order manager in operative connection with the billing processor to manage the processed data from the billing processor; and

a customer information processor in operative connection with the billing order manager to process customer information.

4. A system allowing service creation and negotiation in a wireless network, comprising:

a receiver to receive a request from a user to create or negotiate a service; and

a central processing node to process the request by comparing the request with user information, service information and network information dynamically stored therein, and to provide the requested service to the user based upon the comparison.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the central processing node further comprises a first database having the network information dynamically stored therein.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the central processing node further comprises a second database having the user information dynamically stored therein.

7. The system of claim 4, further comprising a first database having the network information dynamically stored therein.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising a second database having the user information dynamically stored therein.

9. The system of claim 4, wherein the central processing node compares the network information and the user information without having to access any other portions of the wireless network.

10. The system of claim 4, wherein the central processing node periodically updates the network information and the user information.

11. A system allowing service creation and negotiation in a wireless network, comprising:

at least a first database storing network information and user information; and

a central processing node processing user requests by accessing the first database, comparing the requests with the network information and the user information dynamically stored in the first database, and providing the requested services to the users based upon the comparisons.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first database has the network information and the user information dynamically stored therein, the network information being wireless network information.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

a second database having Web-based network information dynamically stored therein; and

wherein

the central processing node compares the requests with the network information and the user information stored in the first and second databases.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the central processing node accesses the first database without having to access any other portions of the wireless network.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the central processing node periodically updates at least the first database with updated network and user information.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the first database has a plurality of portions being physically distributed throughout the entire wireless network, the distributed portions being connectively linked with the central processing node.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the central processing node includes the first database.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the logically linked dynamic storage is dynamically updated in accordance with the user and network information.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of providing the requested service is performed by accessing the logically linked dynamic storage without having to access any other portions of the network to minimize signal overloading.

18. A method of billing for service creation and/or negotiation in a wireless network, comprising:

receiving a request for service creation or negotiation;

accessing a logically linked dynamic storage in accordance with the request;

obtaining, from the storage, user information associated with the request;

obtaining, from the storage, network information associated with the user information;

comparing the request with the user information and the associated network information;

providing the requested service based on the comparison; and

billing for the requested service.

21. A method of billing for service creation and/or negotiation in a wireless network, comprising:

receiving a request for service creation or negotiation;

accessing a logically linked dynamic storage in accordance with the request;

obtaining, from the storage, service information associated with the request;

obtaining, from the storage, user information associated with the service information;

obtaining, from the storage, network information associated with the user information;

comparing the service information and user information with the associated network information;

providing the requested service based on the comparison; and

billing for the requested service.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the logically linked dynamic storage is dynamically updated in accordance with the user, service and network information.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of providing the requested service is performed by accessing the logically linked dynamic storage without having to access any other portions of the network.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

periodically obtaining user, service and network information; and

dynamically updating the storage by periodically storing the periodically obtained user, service and network information.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the dynamic storing includes storing network information into at least a first database.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the dynamic storing includes storing user information into a second database.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein the accessing step is performed without having to access any other portions of the wireless network.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising a step of dynamically storing the network information and the user information into the first database, the network information being wireless network information.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising a step of dynamically storing Web-based network information into a second database.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein the accessing step is performed without having to access any other portions of the wireless network.

33. The method of claim 30, further comprising the step of periodically updating at least the first database with updated network and user information.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the billing is based on a wireless packet call of the selected service.

36. The method of claim 34, wherein the billing is based on a quality of service of the selected service.

37. The method of claim 34, wherein the billing is based on a profile change of the user.

38. The method of claim 34, wherein the selected service comprises content push services.

39. The method of claim 34, wherein the selected service comprises transaction based services.

40. The method of claim 34, wherein the billing is performed on a call-by-call or session-by-session basis.

24. A method of billing for service creation and negotiation in a wireless network, comprising:

receiving a request from a user to create or negotiate a service;

accessing a storage having user information, service information and network information stored therein;

comparing the request with the user information, the service information and the network information;

providing the data service to the user based upon the comparison; and

billing the user for the provided data service.

29. A method of user configurable service creation and negotiation in a wireless network, comprising:

receiving a request from a user to create or negotiate data services;

accessing at least a first database having network information and user information stored therein;

comparing the requests with the network information and the user information;

providing the data services to the user based upon the comparison; and

billing the user for the provided data service.

34. A method of billing in a wireless network communications system, the method comprising:

establishing a database in the wireless network;

providing services into the database;

allowing a user to select a service by accessing the database without service provider intervention; and

billing the user based on the selected service.