SYSTEM AND METHOD OF USING DIAMETER BASED SIGNALING TO SUPPORT BILLING MODELS FOR VISUALLY RENDERED SERVICES

• US 20100041369A1
• Filed: 08/12/2008
• Published: 02/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Nielsen, Mark D., Ramanathan, Sri, Trevathan, Matthew B., Terry, Matthew A., NARAYAN, Pramodh D., Perera, Lasith G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,543,088 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/408
• 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 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

A system and method of using Diameter based signaling is provided to track usage to support multiple billing models for visually rendered revenue generating services in an IP Multimedia subsystem based network. The system includes a computer system includes first program instructions to provide usage information to an accounting platform for processing charging information for visually rendered services in an IP Multimedia subsystem based network. The computer system also comprises a computer readable media which stores the first program instructions and a central processing unit to execute the first program instructions.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

first program instructions to provide usage information to an accounting platform for processing charging information for visually rendered services in an IP Multimedia subsystem based network;

a computer readable media which stores the first program instructions; and

a central processing unit to execute the first program instructions.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the first program instructions provides for integration of charging capabilities for internet based services into a carrier charging platform based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem based network.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the first program instructions uses diameter based signaling to dynamically control the charging information.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the first program instructions consolidates user profile data from a common Home Subscriber Service (HSS).

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first program instructions monitors or tracks usage of the visually rendered services and terminates the visually rendered services when a user prepaid subscription has expired.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the first program instructions renders the visually rendered services to a user based on stored user profile information.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the stored user profile information is at least subscription information.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the monitoring or tracking includes at least one of type of service rendered, size of content and activities of a user.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the first program instructions sends a Diameter based message, which includes a user'"'"'s usage and subscription information, to an accounting platform information, the accounting platform is configured to process the usage and subscription information and send it to a charging platform.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the accounting platform validates a credit and sends a message to the first program instructions to terminate usage of the visually rendered services.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the accounting platform supports multiple billing models for the visually rendered services using a Sh sub-protocol and is operable to handle authorization via Diameter based signaling protocol.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein at least the first program instructions is at least one of maintained, deployed, created and supported on a computing infrastructure by a service provider.

13. A method to charge for rendering visual services, comprising:

providing a computer infrastructure being operable to;

receive a request for visually rendered services;

request profile information using Sh message set with Diameter protocol from an HSS;

render the visually rendered services to a user;

track or monitor usage information of the visually rendered services to determine a fee for the rendering; and

provide the usage information to an accounting platform using the Diameter protocol to calculate the fee for the rendering.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the computer infrastructure is at least one of maintained, deployed, created and supported on a computing infrastructure by a service provider.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the computer infrastructure is operable to:

determine a prepaid subscription of the user; and

terminate the visually rendered services when the user has met or exceeded the prepaid subscription.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing the fee to a charging platform using the Diameter protocol.

17. A system, comprising a services plane comprising a rendering agent configured to render visually rendered services in an IP Multimedia subsystem based network to a user in a user plane, the rendering agent further configured to track or monitor usage of the visually rendered services and provide the usage information to an accounting platform in a control plane using Sh message set with Diameter protocol.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the accounting platform calculates a charge for the visually rendered services.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the system includes a computer infrastructure having software and hardware elements.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the computer infrastructure is at least one of maintained, deployed, created and supported on a computing infrastructure by a service provider.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the rendering agent is configured to terminate the visually rendered services when a prepaid subscription has been met or exceeded.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the rendering agent is configured to provide profile information of the user to the accounting platform.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein the rendering agent is configured to request profile information from an HSS.

24. The system of claim 17, wherein the control plane further comprises:

a Diameter Server that acts as a conduit for communication between an HSS and the rendering agent and a generic SIP A/S, and

a CSCF (Call Session Control Function) and media gateway, the CSCF provides session control for subscribers accessing services within an IMS network.

25. A computer program product for generating charging information for rendering visual services, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable medium;

first program instructions to receive a request for visually rendered services, request profile information from an HSS using Sh message set with the Diameter based signaling protocol and track usage of the visually rendered services; and

second program instructions which receives the tracked usage from the first program instructions via the Diameter based signaling protocol, calculates a fee based on the tracked usage, and sends the calculated fee to a charging platform,

wherein the first and second program instructions are stored on the computer readable media and executed on a computer infrastructure.