Controlling provision of services in a communications network
First Claim
1. A method of controlling provision of services from a network element to a subscriber, the method comprising:
- defining a credit threshold representing an amount of credit remaining to the subscriber below which services will no longer be provided to that subscriber;
responsive to a request for a first service from the subscriber, defining a quota of service units and, in the event that credit remaining to the subscriber after funding said quota falls below the credit threshold, returning a service control indication with said quota;
responsive to a subsequent request for a second service from the subscriber, returning the defined quota of service units with said service control indication; and
monitoring usage of said service units in providing the first service or the second service and when it is determined that the quota has been used up, acting on the service control indication to interrupt a service provision.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method of controlling provision of services from a network element to a subscriber comprising: defining a credit threshold representing the amount of credit remaining to the subscriber below which services will no longer be provided to that subscriber; responsive to a request for a first service from the subscriber, defining a quota of service units and, in the event that the credit remaining to the subscriber after funding said quota falls below the credit threshold, returning a service control indication with said quota; responsive to a subsequent request for a second service from the subscriber, returning a defined quota of service units with said service control indication; and monitoring usage of said service units in providing the first or second service and when it is determined that the quota has been used up, acting on the service control indication to interrupt said service provision.
87 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A method of controlling provision of services from a network element to a subscriber, the method comprising:
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defining a credit threshold representing an amount of credit remaining to the subscriber below which services will no longer be provided to that subscriber;
responsive to a request for a first service from the subscriber, defining a quota of service units and, in the event that credit remaining to the subscriber after funding said quota falls below the credit threshold, returning a service control indication with said quota;
responsive to a subsequent request for a second service from the subscriber, returning the defined quota of service units with said service control indication; and
monitoring usage of said service units in providing the first service or the second service and when it is determined that the quota has been used up, acting on the service control indication to interrupt a service provision. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. An online charging system controlling the provision of services between a network element and a subscriber in a communications network, the online charging system comprising:
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means for defining a credit threshold representing an amount of credit remaining to the subscriber below which services will no longer be provided to that subscriber;
means, responsive to a request for a first service from the subscriber, for defining a quota of service units and, in the event that credit remaining to the subscriber after funding said quota falls below the credit threshold, for returning a service control indication with said quota, said means being responsive to a subsequent request for a second service from the subscriber for returning the defined quota of service units with said service control indication. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A computer program product embodied on a computer readable medium, the computer program product comprising program code means which, when loaded into a computer, carries out the steps of:
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responsive to a request for a first service from a subscriber in a network, defining a quota of service units and, in the event that credit remaining to the subscriber after funding said quota falls below a credit threshold, returning a service control indication with said quota; and
responsive to a subsequent request for a second service from the subscriber, returning the defined quota of service units with said service control indication.
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22. A computer program product embodied on a computer readable medium, the computer program product comprising program code means which, when loaded into a computer, causes a computer to carry out a method comprising:
monitoring usage of service units in providing at least one of a first service and a second service, and when it is determined that a defined quota of service units has been used up, acting on a service control indication to interrupt a service provision.
Specification