DISSEMINATION OF BILLING INFORMATION IN A DISTRIBUTED MESSAGING ENVIRONMENT

• US 20100279650A1
• Filed: 05/04/2009
• Published: 11/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: ASAWA, Manjari, COOPER, Bradley D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,483,657 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/406
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1403 Architecture for metering, charging or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1425 involving dedicated fields in the data packet for billing purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/063 Content adaptation, e.g. replacement of unsuitable content
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

A messaging system for a wireless network may be constructed using a gateway architecture in which a number of messaging servers are connected to external networks through the gateway. In one implementation, a method implemented in the system may include receiving a message that is communicated as part of a messaging protocol for delivering text or multimedia messages to user devices and altering the message to include a billing identifier describing how the message should be billed. The message may be altered by the gateway and may be transmitted to a messaging server for extraction of the billing information.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a messaging server in a service provider network, a text or multimedia message destined for a device external to the service provider network and generated by a user of the service provider network;

transmitting to a messaging gateway, by the messaging server, a request to deliver the message;

receiving, by the messaging server and from the gateway, a response to the request to deliver the message, the response including a billing identifier describing how the message should be billed, the billing identifier having been inserted into the response by the gateway;

extracting, by the messaging server, the billing identifier from the response received from the gateway; and

storing the billing identifier as part of a billing record for the user.

2. The method of claim 1, where the messaging server includes a Short Message Service Center (SMSC) or a Multimedia Message Service Center (MMSC).

3. The method of claim 1, where the text or multimedia message is a Simple Message Service (SMS) message or a Multimedia Message Service (MMS) message, respectively.

4. The method of claim 1, where the response to the request to deliver the message is generated by the device external to the service provider network.

5. The method of claim 4, where the response to the request to deliver the message indicates whether the message was successfully delivered.

6. The method of claim 1, where the request and the response are based on a message delivery protocol and the billing identifier is included in a field of the response that would normally not be used in the message delivery protocol.

7. The method of claim 6, where the message delivery protocol includes the Short Message Peer-to-Peer (SMPP) protocol.

8. The method of claim 1, where the request and the response are based on a message delivery protocol and the billing identifier is included in a field of the response that would normally not be present in the message delivery protocol.

9. A method comprising:

receiving, at a messaging gateway in a service provider network, a communication that is part of a messaging protocol for delivering a text or multimedia message to a user device;

altering, by the messaging gateway, the communication to include a billing identifier describing how the message should be billed; and

transmitting, by the messaging gateway, the altered communication to a messaging server used in the delivering of the message to the user device.

10. The method of claim 9, where the communication that is altered includes a communication originated by an entity external to the service provider network and requesting the text or multimedia message be delivered within the service provider network.

11. The method of claim 9, where the communication that is altered includes a communication originated by an entity external to the service provider network in response to a request to deliver the text or multimedia message from within the service provider network to a device external to the service provider network.

12. The method of claim 9, where the messaging server includes a Short Message Service Center (SMSC) or a Multimedia Message Service Center (MMSC).

13. The method of claim 9, where the text or multimedia message delivered to the user devices includes Simple Message Service (SMS) messages or Multimedia Message Service (MMS) messages.

14. The method of claim 9, where the billing identifier is included in a field of the communication that would normally not be used in the messaging protocol.

15. The method of claim 14, where the messaging protocol includes the Short Message Peer-to-Peer (SMPP) protocol.

16. The method of claim 9, where the billing identifier is included in a field of the message that would normally not be present in the messaging protocol.

17. The method of claim 9, where the messaging gateway looks up the billing identifier in a data structure based on a short code or destination of the text or multimedia message.

18. A messaging system comprising:

a plurality of messaging servers to provide services relating to the delivery of text or multimedia messages for a network service provider; and

at least one gateway to provide connectivity to external messaging servers that are located outside of a network of the network service provider, the at least one gateway altering communications that are communicated as part of a messaging protocol for the delivery of the text or multimedia messages to include a billing identifier describing how the text or multimedia messages should be billed to subscribers of the network service provider;

where the at least one gateway device forwards the altered communications to the messaging servers for extraction of the billing identifier.

19. The system of claim 18, where the communications that are altered includes requests originated by an entity external to the service provider network and requesting the text or multimedia message be delivered within the service provider network.

20. The system of claim 18, where the communication that is altered includes a response originated by an entity external to the service provider network in response to a request to deliver the text or multimedia message from within the service provider network to a device external to the service provider network.

21. The system of claim 18, where the messaging server includes a Short Message Service Center (SMSC) or a Multimedia Message Service Center (MMSC).

22. The system of claim 18, where the billing identifier is included in fields of the communications that would normally not be used in the messaging protocol.

23. The system of claim 18, where the billing identifier is included in a field of the communications that would normally not be present in the messaging protocol.

24. A computer-readable medium containing instructions executable by a processor, the computer-readable medium storing one or more instructions for:

receiving, at a messaging gateway in a service provider network, a communication that is communicated as part of a messaging protocol for delivering text or multimedia messages to user devices;

altering, by the messaging gateway, the communication to include a billing identifier describing how the text or multimedia message should be billed; and

transmitting, by the messaging gateway, the altered communication to a messaging server used in the delivering of the text or multimedia message to the user devices.