Implementation of charging in a telecommunications system

• US 6,047,051 A
• Filed: 06/24/1997
• Issued: 04/04/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Telecommunications Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Ginzboorg, Philip, Ekberg, Jan-Erik, Yla-Jaaski, Antti
• Primary Examiner(s): LOOMIS, PAUL A
• Application Number:
  US08/881,391
• Time in Patent Office: 1,015 Days
• Field of Search: 379/111-120, 379/140, 379/207, 379/91.01, 379/201, 379/229, 379/230, 379/130, 370/385, 705/40-43, 380/4, 235/375, 235/380, 235/380.5, 235/381
• US Class Current: 379/130
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks

Abstract

The invention concerns a method for the implementation of charging in a telecommunications system including customer terminals used by customers for ordering services and servers for providing services to customers. In order to implement the charging of services easily especially in a multimedia environment, at least one separate billing server is used in the network so that each customer terminal has a dedicated billing server. A contract message is sent to the customer terminal stating that the customer must make a contract on the selected service, and the customer'"'"'s acceptance of the contract is sent from the customer terminal to the billing server in the network. The billing servers of the network are used for transferring charging records to the billing system so that the transfer of the charging record(s) concerning the selected service involves at least one billing server.

Claims

1. A method for implementing charging in a telecommunications network including customer terminals, used by customers for ordering services, servers for offering services to the customers, and billing means for forming bills to the customers, the method comprising the steps of:

providing the network with at least one separate billing server in such a way that each customer terminal is assigned a billing server;

selecting a service by means of the customer terminal;

sending, in response to selection of the service, information identifying at least the customer who made the selection and the selected service from the server providing the service to a predefined billing server of the network;

negotiating terms of the service with the customer terminal;

making a delivery in accordance with the selected service to the customer;

generating at least one charging record (CDR) in the customer terminal when the customer accepts the terms of the service;

sending the at least one charging record generated by the customer terminal to a billing server; and

using the billing servers to transfer the at least one charging records to the billing means in such a way that at least one predefined billing server participates in transferring the at least one charging record of the selected service, regardless of which one of the servers offers the service.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein negotiating terms of service includes sending a contract message via the network to the customer terminal to notify the customer to make a contract concerning the selected service, and returning a customer'"'"'s acceptance of the contract as a separate accepting message from the customer terminal via said network to the billing server.

3. A method according to claim 2, further comprising introducing an identifier for identifying the accepted contract into said at least one charging record.

4. A method according to claim 2, further comprising sending the charging records generated in the customer terminal from the customer terminal directly to the billing server assigned to that customer terminal.

5. A method according to claim 2, wherein the contract message includes information about charging parameters for the selected service, whereby the customer terminal generates charging records in accordance with the received charging parameters.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the charging records generated in the customer terminal are provided with digital signatures, which are verified by the billing server.

7. A method according to claim 1, further comprising sending, in response to selection of the service, information identifying at least the customer who made the selection and the selected service from the server providing the service via the customer terminal to the billing server assigned to the customer terminal.

8. A method according to claim 1, further comprising sending, in response to selection of the service, information identifying at least the customer who made the selection and the selected service from the server providing the service via the network directly to the billing server assigned to the customer terminal.

9. A method according to claim 7, wherein the server provides the information transferred with a digital signature, and the billing server identifies the information transferred with a digital signature and received from the customer terminal.

10. A method according to claim 5, further comprising sending the charging parameters of the service to the customer terminal as an unsigned charging record message (CDR) containing the charging parameters to be used.

11. A method according to claim 10, further comprising returning, in response to the customer'"'"'s acceptance of the contract, the received charging record from the customer terminal to the billing server of the network as a digitally signed message.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein the billing server gives to a service providing server, in response to reception of said charging record, a command to start service delivery.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein the command to start the delivery of the service is given to a server other than the server used for service selection.

14. A method according to claim 1, further comprising storing the charging records both in a memory associated with the billing server and in a network mass memory providing temporary storage for the charging records before being transferred to the billing means.

15. A method according to claim 1, further comprising sending the information identifying the customer who made the selection and the selected service from the server to a predefined first billing server and forwarding the information from the predefined first billing server to the billing server assigned to the customer terminal.

16. A method according to claim 1, further comprising sending the charging records from the customer terminal to the nearest billing server for storage and sending the charging records stored on the nearest billing server to the billing server assigned to the customer.

17. A method according to claim 1, further comprising generating a charging record at telecommunications network switches and, within the framework of a single contract, collecting the charging records generated by both the customer terminal and telecommunications network switches.

18. A method according to claim 1, wherein making the delivery in accordance with the selected service comprises sending information to the customer terminal simultaneously from several network servers.

19. A method according to claim 1, further comprising generating new charging records from the charging records received by the billing server for sending to the billing means.

26. A method according to claim 1, wherein said predefined billing server is the same as said assigned billing server.

27. A method according to claim 1, wherein said predefined billing server is a server other than said assigned billing server.

20. A method for implementing charging in a telecommunications network including customer terminals, used by customers for ordering services, servers for offering services to the customers, and billing means for forming bills to the customers, the method comprising the steps of:

providing the network with at least one separate billing server in such a way that each customer terminal is assigned a billing server;

selecting a service by means of the customer terminal;

negotiating terms of the service with the customer terminal;

making a delivery in accordance with the selected service to the customer;

generating at least one charging record (CDR) in the customer terminal when the customer accepts the terms of the service;

generating a charging record at telecommunications network switches;

collecting the charging records generated by the customer terminal and the network switches;

sending the charging records generated by the customer terminal and the network switches to a billing server; and

using the billing servers to transfer the charging records to the billing means in such a way that at least one predefined billing server participates in transferring the at least one charging record of the selected service, regardless of which one of the servers offers the service.

21. A method for implementing charging in a telecommunications network including customer terminals, used by customers for ordering services, servers for offering services to the customers, and billing means for forming bills to the customers, the method comprising the steps of:

providing the network with at least one separate billing server in such a way that each customer terminal is assigned a billing server;

selecting a service by means of the customer terminal;

negotiating terms of the service with the customer terminal;

making a delivery in accordance with the selected service to the customer, including sending information to the customer terminal simultaneously from several network servers;

generating at least one charging record (CDR) in the customer terminal when the customer accepts the terms of the service;

sending the at least one charging record generated by the customer terminal to a billing server; and

using the billing servers to transfer the at least one charging records to the billing means in such a way that at least one predefined billing server participates in transferring the at least one charging record of the selected service, regardless of which one of the servers offers the service.

22. A method according to claim 21, further comprising generating new charging records from the charging records received by the billing server for sending to the billing means.

23. A system for implementing charging in a telecommunications network including servers for offering services to customers, the system comprising:

customer terminals connected to the network for selecting the services from the servers,

at least one separate billing server connected to the network, a billing server being assigned to each customer terminal,

means for generating charging records in response to the service provided to the customer, said means being adapted to the customer terminals for sending the generated charging records via the network to a predefined billing server; and

a billing system connected to the network for receiving the charging records;

wherein the billing servers handle the transmission of charging records to the billing system and at least one of the customer terminals includes a service player connected to the means for generating charging records, for stopping the generation of charging records when the quality of the signal received by the service player falls below a pre-determined level.

24. A system according to claim 23, wherein the customer terminal includes means for adding a digital signature to the generated charging record, and the billing server includes means for verifing the digital signature.

25. A system according to claim 23, wherein each customer terminal and respectively assigned billing server include interactive elements, whereby

the billing server commands the customer terminal to open a contract window dialog box to present information about a service and an acceptance button for accepting a contract for the service, and

the customer terminal sends, in response to activation of the acceptance button, contract information and a signature to the billing server.

28. A system according to claim 23, wherein said predefined billing server is the same as said assigned billing server.

29. A method according to claim 23, wherein said predefined billing server is a server other than said assigned billing server.