Control of billing in a communications system
First Claim
1. A method for providing services in a communications network, the method comprising the steps of receiving a service request from a client, the service request to include a subscriber identifier referring to a subscriber paying for the service and a service identifier referring to a content server, analyzing whether a credit check is required prior to delivery of the service, performing said credit check, if the step of analyzing indicates that the credit check is required, in response to a credit check, making a billing reservation for said subscriber and associating a certain monetary value with said reservation, forwarding the service request to the content server, initiating service delivery from the content server, and deciding whether billing is to be carried out according to said billing reservation.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The invention relates to the control of billing in a communications network. The objective is to accomplish a mechanism for minimizing credit losses caused by subscribers, while at the same time maintaining good performance of the system. A gateway receives service requests and filters out the requests for which the analysis performed indicates that a credit loss risk is involved. For these service requests an in-advance credit check is initiated. If the credit check indicates that the delivery is permissible, a reservation is made for the amount of money corresponding to the service price, i.e. the said sum is reserved in the subscriber account so that said sum cannot be used by another service request in the meantime. When the service has been delivered successfully, the reservation is confirmed and the said sum is debited from the balance of the subscriber account Otherwise, the reservation is cancelled.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. A method for providing services in a communications network, the method comprising the steps of
receiving a service request from a client, the service request to include a subscriber identifier referring to a subscriber paying for the service and a service identifier referring to a content server, analyzing whether a credit check is required prior to delivery of the service, performing said credit check, if the step of analyzing indicates that the credit check is required, in response to a credit check, making a billing reservation for said subscriber and associating a certain monetary value with said reservation, forwarding the service request to the content server, initiating service delivery from the content server, and deciding whether billing is to be carried out according to said billing reservation.
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17. A proxy for controlling billing in a communications network, said proxy comprising
interface means for receiving a service request from a client, the service request to include a subscriber identifier referring to a subscriber paying for the service and a service identifier referring to a content server, means for analyzing whether a credit check is required prior to delivery of the service, means for sending a credit check request and for receiving a billing reservation identifier in response, said identifier to refer to a billing reservation which is associated with said subscriber and which indicates the price of the service, and means for acknowledging service delivery to a billing server.
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22. A method for controlling billing in a proxy of a communications network, the method comprising the steps of
receiving a service request from a client, the service request to include a subscriber identifier referring to a subscriber paying for the service and a service identifier referring to a content server, analyzing whether a credit check is required prior to delivery of the service, sending a credit check request to a billing server when the step of analysing indicates that a credit check is needed, receiving a billing reservation identifier in response to said credit check request, said identifier referring to a billing reservation which is associated with said subscriber and which indicates the price of the service, and deciding whether a separate billing server is to receive acknowledgment of service delivery.
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23. A billing server for managing billing in a communications network where services are provided, the billing server comprising
first means for maintaining subscriber-specific accounts, second means for receiving credit check requests from the network, each credit check request to include an identifier referring to a certain account, third means for checking the balance of the account referred to by said identifier, fourth means, responsive to the third means, for making a billing reservation for the account to which said identifier refers, and for associating said account and a certain sum of money with the reservation, and fifth means for receiving acknowledgments from the network, each acknowledgment to include a reservation identifier referring to a certain reservation, wherein said first means are responsive to said fifth means for debiting the balance of the account associated with said reservation identifier by the sum associated with the reservation referred to in the acknowledgment.
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27. A method for managing billing in a billing server of a communications network, the method comprising the steps of
maintaining subscriber-specific accounts, receiving credit check requests from the network, each credit check request to include an identifier referring to a certain account, checking the balance of the account which said identifier refers to, in response to said checking, making a billing reservation for said account, and for associating said account and a certain sum of money with the reservation, receiving acknowledgments from the network, each acknowledgment to include a reservation identifier referring to a certain reservation, and debiting the balance of the account associated with said reservation identifier by the sum associated with the reservation referred to in the acknowledgment.
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29. A system for billing in a communications network, the system comprising
first means for receiving a service request from a client, the service request to include a subscriber identifier referring to a subscriber paying for the service and a service identifier referring to a content server, second means, responsive to the first means, for analyzing whether a credit check is required prior to delivery of the service, third means, responsive to the second means, for performing said credit check, fourth means for generating a billing reservation for said subscriber, said reservation to indicate the monetary value of said service, fifth means for deciding whether or not billing is to be carried out according to said billing reservation, and sixth means, responsive to the fifth means, for carrying out billing according to said billing reservation.
Specification