Cost management for a distributed computing environment

• US 20040044600A1
• Filed: 08/27/2002
• Published: 03/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: DOCOMO Communications Laboratories USA, Inc.
• Original Assignee: DOCOMO Communications Laboratories USA, Inc.
• Inventors: Chu, Hao-Hua, Katagiri, Masaji
• Application Number:
  US10/228,928
• Publication Number:
  US 20040044600A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A cost management system for a mobile computing environment is disclosed. The cost management system includes software routines executed by a client terminal and a server in communication via a data infrastructure. The client terminal may send a data service cost request to the server to discover a cost for accessing a data service provided by the server computer. The server may respond to the request with a data service cost response indicating this cost. The cost management system may then inform a user of the cost, and allow the user to decide whether to access the data service.

Claims

1. A cost management system for managing data services costs, comprising:

a terminal connected to an access network;

a data service server connected to said access network, wherein said data service server includes a cost-aware data service;

wherein said terminal is operable to generate a data service cost request that is transmitted to said data service server and said data service server is operable to generate a data service cost response that is transmitted to said terminal.

2. The cost management system of claim 1, wherein a cost management application on the terminal generates the data service cost response on a display on the terminal.

3. The cost management system of claim 1, wherein the data service cost request is contained in a message, wherein the message is formatted in a standard generalized markup language.

4. The cost management system of claim 1, wherein the data service cost response is an estimated cost incurred by accessing the cost-aware data service, wherein a cost management application on the terminal determines, during access to the cost-aware data service, an actual cost incurred by accessing the cost-aware data service, calculates a difference between the actual cost and the estimated cost, and alerts a user if the difference is greater than a threshold error value.

5. The cost management system of claim 1, wherein a cost management application on the terminal stores a user budget preference and determines whether accessing the cost-aware data service will violate the user budget preference.

6. The cost management system of claim 1, wherein the data service cost response represents a plurality of data service costs, each data service cost corresponding to a quality of service level.

7. The cost management system of claim 1, wherein the access network is a wireless access network and the terminal is a wireless communication device.

8. The cost management system of claim 1, wherein accessing the cost-aware data service includes the terminal receiving or sending data packets via the access network, and wherein a cost incurred by accessing the cost-aware data service is based on a number of packets communicated by the terminal via the access network.

9. The cost management system of claim 1, wherein the cost-aware data service comprises a peripheral device, wherein there is a charge associated with the terminal using the peripheral device.

10. A cost management system for managing data service costs incurred by a terminal configured to access a plurality of data services and a cost-aware portal server, the terminal is associated with the cost-aware portal server over an access network, the cost management system comprising:

a cost management application located on the terminal, wherein the cost management application is operable to generate a data service recommendation request;

a cost-aware portal application located on the cost-aware portal server, wherein the cost-aware portal application is operable to respond to the data service recommendation request with a data service recommendation; and

wherein the data service recommendation includes a plurality of access methods and a respective data service cost associated with each said access method.

11. The cost management system of claim 10, wherein the cost management application is further operable to determine a data service cost associated with accessing a respective data service.

12. The cost management system of claim 10, wherein the cost-aware portal application is further operable to receive the data service cost associated with the data service from the cost management application via an access network, and to store a profile including the data service.

13. A method for managing data service costs, comprising the steps of:

generating a data service cost request from a terminal;

transmitting the data service cost request to a data service server;

generating a data service cost response from the data service server; and

transmitting the data service cost response to the terminal.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein a cost management application on the terminal generates the data service cost request.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the terminal is a wireless communication device.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the data service cost response includes a plurality of service options that are based on a predefined quality of service.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of selecting a service option and receiving a data service based on the service option.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein each service option is based on a data transmission rate.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the data service cost response includes a data service cost that is based on a number of packets required to deliver a data service to the terminal.

20. A method of managing data service costs, comprising the steps of:

generating a data service recommendation request from a terminal;

transmitting the data service recommendation request to a cost-aware portal server;

generating a data service recommendation; and

transmitting said data service recommendation to the terminal.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the terminal is a wireless communication device.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the data service recommendation includes a plurality of data service options and a cost associated with each of the data service options.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of displaying the data service options and the cost on the terminal.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of selecting a respective data service option.