Method for billing a subscriber for data transmitted in a signaling system

• US 20040078349A1
• Filed: 10/14/2003
• Published: 04/22/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Siren, James Tapani, Koskinen, Juha-Pekka, Vallinen, Juha R., Greis, Marc, Syrjala, Jari, Martin, Markus
• Application Number:
  US10/415,821
• Publication Number:
  US 20040078349A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/412
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1403 Architecture for metering, charging or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1467 involving prepayment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1482 involving use of telephony infrastructure for billing for the transport of data, e.g. call detail record [CDR] or intelligent network infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1485 Tariff-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• 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 15/41 Billing record details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure of call data record [CDR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/43 Billing software details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/56 for VoIP communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/63 based on the content carried by the session initiation protocol [SIP] messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/67 Transmitting arrangements for sending billing related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8214 Data or packet based
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8292 Charging for signaling or unsuccessful connection
• 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 2215/0164 Billing record, e.g. Call Data Record [CDR], Toll Ticket[TT], Automatic Message Accounting [AMA], Call Line Identifier [CLI], details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/2013 : Fixed data network, e.g. PDN, ATM, B-ISDN
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/202 : VoIP; Packet switched telephony
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/2026 : Wireless network, e.g. GSM, PCS, TACS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/204 : UMTS; GPRS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/22 : Bandwidth or usage-sensitve billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/32 : Involving wireless systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/48 : Sending information over a non-traffic network channel or another connection than the one actually used, e.g. signalling, D-channel, data and voice
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/782 : Data or packet based
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 : Accounting or billing

Abstract

The present invention proposes a method for billing a subscriber (A, B) for data transmission in a communication network (NW; AN, CN) said communication network comprising at least one call control entity (CSCF) for controlling calls to be established from a subscriber (A, B) to a communication destination (B, A), said method comprising the steps of: forwarding a signaling message from said subscriber (A) to said destination (B), said signaling message comprising a message header and a message body, said message header including information descriptive for a content carried in the message body, analyzing said signaling message header at said call control entity (CSCF), and generating billing information based on the result of analysis.

Claims

1. A method for billing a subscriber (A, B) for data transmission in a communication network (NW;

AN, CN)

said communication network comprising at least one call control entity (CSCF) for controlling calls to be established from a subscriber (A, B) to a communication destination (B, A),

said method comprising the steps of;

forwarding a signaling message from said subscriber (A) to said destination (B),

said signaling message comprising a message header and a message body, said message header including information descriptive for a content carried in the message body,

analyzing said signaling message header at said call control entity (CSCF), and

generating billing information based on the result of analysis.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein

said communication network is operated using the Session Initiation Protocol SIP.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein

said signaling message is a SIP message.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein

said message header comprises a content type field.

5. A method according to claim 3, wherein

said message header comprises a content length field.

6. A method according to claim 4, wherein

said message header comprises a content length field.

7. A method according to claim 4, wherein

said billing information is generated dependent on said content type.

8. A method according to claim 5 or 6, wherein said billing information is generated dependent on said content length.

9. A method according to claim 6, wherein said billing information is generated dependent on said content type and said content length.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein

said content carried in said message body is a Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) type content.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein said MIME type content is at least one of at least the following:

text, image, audio, video, compressed file, application data, HyperText Markup Language (HTML) data, e-mail data.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein

said billing information generated is a Call Detail Record (CDR).

13. A method according to claim 3, wherein said SIP message is a SIP request message of SIP INVITE, SIP ACK, SIP BYE, SIP CANCEL, SIP OPTIONS, SIP REGISTER.

14. A method according to claim 3, wherein said SIP message is a SIP response message of 1xx Informational, 2xx Success, 3xx REDIRECTION, 4xx CLIENT ERROR, 5XX SERVER ERROR, 6XX GLOBAL FAILURE.

15. A method according to claim 3, wherein

said message header comprises a subject field.

16. A method according to claim 15, wherein

said billing information is generated dependent on the presence of said subject field.

17. A method according to claim 16, wherein said billing information is generated dependent on the usage of said present subject field.