SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PEER-TO-PEER TRANSFER OF MULTIMEDIA CONTENT AND RECONCILIATION THEREOF

• US 20100178864A1
• Filed: 01/13/2009
• Published: 07/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Joul, Christoper H., Chow, Paulo S.T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,116,729 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/3.60
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/57 for mobile receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/22 per use
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/80 characterised by transmission among terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/92 for local area
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• 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 15/57 for integrated multimedia messaging subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8228 Session based
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/93 using near field or similar technologies
• 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 2215/208 IMS, i.e. Integrated Multimedia messaging Subsystem
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/7833 Session based
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

A system and method to enable a transfer of multimedia content between mobile telecommunication devices while maintaining the multimedia traffic within a wireless local network. Multimedia content may be sent from one of the mobile telecommunication devices and delivered to another one or more of the mobile telecommunication devices. The multimedia transfer is facilitated and monitored by a secure agent located within the local network. The secure agent maintains a record of the multimedia content sessions and transmits such information to a billing component. The billing component utilizes the record of content transfer to assess a fee or other charge on the sending device, the receiving device(s), or both sending and receiving devices. In some embodiments, such a charge may include a credit or other reward that is provided to sending devices or receiving devices for implementing a local transfer of multimedia content.

Claims

1. A system for establishing sessions to share multimedia content between two or more mobile devices across a wireless local network and record shared multimedia content for charging purposes, the system comprising:

a local Call Session Control Function (CSCF) component associated with a telecommunications carrier and coupled to a single wireless access point, the local CSCF component configured to;

receive a request from a sending mobile device via the single wireless access point to establish a multimedia communication session with one or more receiving mobile devices;

determine whether the one or more receiving mobile devices are communicatively coupled to the single wireless access point;

establish a multimedia communication session between the sending mobile device and one or more receiving mobile devices that are coupled to the single wireless access point such that multimedia transmitted during the multimedia communication session is substantially transmitted via the wireless local network generated by the single wireless access point; and

monitor a characteristic of the multimedia communication session; and

a secure billing agent coupled to the local CSCF component and configured to;

store the monitored characteristic of the multimedia communication session in a session record; and

transmit the session record to the telecommunications carrier to enable charges to be levied for the multimedia communication session that occurred over the wireless local network.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitored characteristic of the multimedia communication session is a length of the session.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitored characteristic of the multimedia communication session is an amount of data transmitted during the session.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitored characteristic of the multimedia communication session is an identity of one or more pieces of multimedia content transmitted during the session.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the local CSCF component determines whether the one or more receiving mobile devices are communicatively coupled to the single wireless access point by querying a registry that contains a list of mobile devices accessible for communication via the single wireless access point.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the registry is located remotely from the local CSCF component.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the secure billing agent is further configured to encrypt the session record.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the charges are levied by the telecommunications carrier against the sending mobile device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the charges are levied by the telecommunications carrier against the receiving mobile device.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the charges levied by the telecommunications carrier reflect a discount over charges that would be levied by the telecommunications carrier for a multimedia communication session that does not occur over the wireless local network.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the secure billing agent automatically transmits the session record to the telecommunications carrier.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the secure billing agent transmits the session record to the telecommunications carrier in response to receiving a query from the telecommunications carrier.

13. A method for establishing sessions to share multimedia content between two or more mobile devices across a wireless local network and record shared multimedia content for charging purposes, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a sending mobile device via a single wireless access point to establish a multimedia communication session with one or more receiving mobile devices;

determining whether the one or more receiving mobile devices are communicatively coupled to the single wireless access point;

establishing a multimedia communication session between the sending mobile device and one or more receiving mobile devices that are coupled to the single wireless access point such that multimedia transmitted during the multimedia communication session is substantially transmitted via the wireless local network generated by the single wireless access point;

monitoring a characteristic of the multimedia communication session;

storing the monitored characteristic of the multimedia communication session in a session record; and

transmitting the session record to a telecommunications carrier to enable charges to be levied by the telecommunications carrier for the multimedia communication session that occurred over the wireless local network.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the monitored characteristic of the multimedia communication session is a length of the session.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the monitored characteristic of the multimedia communication session is an amount of data transmitted during the session.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the monitored characteristic of the multimedia communication session is an identity of one or more pieces of multimedia content transmitted during the session.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein determining whether the one or more receiving mobile devices are communicatively coupled to the single wireless access point comprises querying a registry that contains a list of mobile devices accessible for communication via the single wireless access point.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the registry is located remotely from the access point.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising encrypting the session record.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the charges are levied by the telecommunications carrier against the sending mobile device.

21. The method of claim 13, wherein the charges are levied by the telecommunications carrier against the receiving mobile device.

22. The method of claim 13, wherein the charges reflect a discount over charges for a multimedia communication session that does not occur over the wireless local network.

23. The method of claim 13, wherein the session records are automatically transmitted to the telecommunications carrier.

24. The method of claim 13, wherein the session records are transmitted to the telecommunications carrier in response to receiving a query from the telecommunications carrier.

25. A method of charging for multimedia communication sessions that were conducted between two or more mobile devices across a wireless local network, the method comprising:

receiving one or more local session records, each of the local session records reflecting a monitored characteristic of a multimedia communication session between a sending mobile device and a receiving mobile device across a wireless local network;

receiving one or more core session records, each of the core session records reflecting a monitored characteristic of a multimedia communication session between a sending mobile device and a receiving mobile device across a core network;

applying a first service plan to the one or more core session records to determine charges that should be levied on the sending mobile device and the receiving mobile device associated with each core session record based on the monitored characteristic; and

applying a second service plan to the one or more local session records to determine charges that should be levied on the sending mobile device and the receiving mobile device associated with each local session record based on the monitored characteristic, wherein the charges applied by the second service plan are less than the charges applied by the first service plan for a multimedia communication session having comparable monitored characteristics.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the monitored characteristic is a length of the multimedia communication session, an amount of data transmitted during the multimedia communication session, or an identity of one or more pieces of multimedia content transmitted during the multimedia communication session.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising decrypting the one or more local session records.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the charges are only levied on receiving mobile devices.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein the charges are only levied on sending mobile devices.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein the local session records are automatically received.

31. The method of claim 25, further comprising transmitting a request to receive local session records associated with a wireless local network prior to receiving the one or more local session records.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the request is transmitted to a local IMS server.