Handling charging information in interworking structure of mobile communication and wireless local area networks

• US 20040132427A1
• Filed: 10/10/2003
• Published: 07/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Yeo, Woon-Young, Cho, Ki-Hyoung, Lee, Wan-Yeon
• Granted Patent: US 7,221,929 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/406
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/28 Pre-payment schemes, e.g. "pay before"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/16 for devices exhibiting advertisements, announcements, pictures or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1446 inter-operator billing
• 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 15/53 using mediation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/55 for hybrid networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8228 Session based
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/854 Available credit
• 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 2215/0172 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 2215/2033 WLAN
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/2046 Hybrid network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/22 Bandwidth or usage-sensitve billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/44 Charging/billing arrangements for connection made over different networks, e.g. wireless and PSTN, ISDN, etc.
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/7833 Session based
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/8166 Available credit

Abstract

When interworking two or more networks, such as a wireless local access network (WLAN) and a mobile communication network, user billing and service charging should be accurately collected and processed. To do so, certain types of service usage and charging information for certain users can be deleted depending upon the type of service provided to the user. Also, service usage and charging information can be periodically collected depending upon the type of service being provided. Furthermore, WLAN wireless access service usage and charging information, as well as mobile communication network service charging information can be collected upon correlation therebetween.

Claims

1. A method for billing a user for using a data service provided by an interworking network structure including a first network and a second network, the method comprising:

receiving by a first network a request to access a data service provided by the second network;

determining whether the service to be provided requires payment from the user;

approving the request to access the service;

providing the service to the user based upon the determination of payment and approval of the request;

collecting charging information from the first and second networks based upon the determination of payment and the service being provided;

processing the collected charging information; and

billing the user in accordance with the processed charging information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network is a wireless local area network (WLAN).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second network is a mobile communication network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step determines whether the service to be provided requires pre-payment, post-payment, flat rate payment, or no payment.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step comprises:

establishing a period for sending charging information based upon a type of charging method applied to the user; and

periodically sending charging information to the user in accordance with the established period.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing step comprises:

correlating the charging information for services provided by the first network and the charging information for services provided by the second network; and

creating correlated charging information to be used in billing the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the service is an additional service provided by the second network, the additional service comprising Internet protocol (IP) multimedia service (IMS), multimedia message service (MMS) or other multimedia service.

8. A method of collecting charging information for an interworking network including a wireless local area network (WLAN) and a mobile communication network, the method comprising:

correlating a charging identifier for a service of the WLAN in one session with a charging identifier for an additional service of the mobile communication network in the same session; and

collecting the correlated charging information to allow the additional service to be provided to a user via the WLAN.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the charging identifier is a session identifier.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the charging identifier of the WLAN service and the charging identifier of the mobile communication network service are the same.

11. The method of claim 8, the charging identifier of the mobile communication network service includes the charging identifier of the WLAN service.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the charging identifier of the mobile communication network includes a data bit that indicates whether the charging information is from the WLAN or from the mobile communication network.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

sending the charging identifier of the WLAN service to the mobile communication network;

mapping the charging identifier of the WLAN service to generate a charging identifier for the mobile communication network service; and

collecting charging information for a session by using the generated charging identifier for the mobile communication network service and the charging identifier of the WLAN service as standard values.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the charging identifier of the WLAN service is copied into the charging identifier of the mobile communication network service.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

copying the charging identifier of the WLAN service into a portion of the charging identifier of the mobile communication network service, if the length of the charging identifier of the WLAN service is less than the length of the charging identifier of the mobile communication network; and

inserting specific values into any remain bits of the charging identifier of the mobile communication network.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein a particular bit of the charging identifier of the mobile communication network service is used to distinguish between the charging information provided from the WLAN and the charging information provided from the mobile communication network.

17. A method for collecting charging information in an interworking network including a wireless local access network (WLAN) and a mobile communication network, the method comprising:

transferring a WLAN service charging ID to the mobile communication network;

mapping the WLAN service charging ID to create a mobile communication network service charging ID; and

collecting charging information for a identical session by using the created mobile communication network service charging ID and the WLAN service charging ID as standard values.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the WLAN service charging ID is a session ID.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the WLAN service charging ID is transferred when an additional service of the mobile communication network is requested.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the charging ID creating step comprises:

comparing the lengths of the charging IDs for the mobile communication network service and the WLAN service, respectively; and

copying the WLAN service charging ID into the mobile communication network service charging ID if the compared lengths are the same.

21. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

copying the WLAN service charging ID into a portion of the mobile communication network service charging ID, if the length of the WLAN service charging ID is less than the length of the mobile communication network service charging ID; and

inserting specific values into any remain bits of the mobile communication network service charging ID.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the mobile communication network charging ID includes a specific data bit that identifies whether the charging information is from the WLAN or from the mobile communication network.

23. An interworking network structure including a first network and a second network for billing a user for using a data service, the network comprising:

a first network access point to receive a request to access a data service provided by the second network;

an authentication, authorization, accounting (AAA) server in the second network and connected to the first network access point to determine whether the service to be provided requires payment from the user upon cooperation with a home subscriber system/home location register (HSS/HLR) connected to the AAA server, and to approve the request to access the service, and to provide the service to the user based upon the determination of payment and approval of the request;

a charging gateway/charging collection function (CGw/CCF) element connected to the AAA server to collect charging information from the first and second networks based upon the determination of payment and the service being provided performed at the AAA server; and

a second network element connected with the first network access point to process the collected charging information; and

to bill the user in accordance with the processed charging information.

24. The network of claim 23, wherein the first network is a wireless local access network (WLAN) and the second network is a mobile communication network.

25. The network of claim 23, wherein the steps performed by the second network element are performed by the AAA server.

26. The network of claim 23, wherein the second network element is a mobile communication network additional service provision node.

27. A method for handling charging information of a user for using services provided by an interworking network structure including a first network and a second network, the method comprising:

determining whether the service to be provided requires payment from the user;

providing the service to the user based upon the determination of payment and approval of the request; and

processing charging information from the first and second networks based upon the determination of payment and the service being provided.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the determining step is performed by a charging information collection element to transmit charging information upon determining whether the service to be provided requires pre-payment, post-payment, flat rate payment, or no payment.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the determining step comprises:

establishing a period for sending charging information based upon a type of charging method applied to the user; and

periodically sending, by a charging information collection element, charging information in accordance with the established period.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the processing step comprises:

correlating the charging information for services provided by the first network and the charging information for services provided by the second network; and

creating correlated charging information to be used in billing the user.