Communications network

• US 7,426,471 B1
• Filed: 06/04/1999
• Issued: 09/16/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Briscoe, Robert J, Rizzo, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Vig; Naresh
• Application Number:
  US09/674,720
• Time in Patent Office: 3,392 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/52, 379/63
• US Class Current: 705/1.1
• 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 12/1414 in real-time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1453 Methods or systems for payment or settlement of the charges for data transmission involving significant interaction with the data transmission network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1485 Tariff-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1489 dependent on congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/30 the meter or calculation of charges not being controlled from an exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/70 Administration or customization aspects; Counter-checking correct charges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/73 Validating charges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8027 based on network load situation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/81 Dynamic pricing, e.g. change of tariff during call
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/83 Notification aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0112 Dynamic pricing, e.g. change of tariff during call
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/22 Bandwidth or usage-sensitve billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/32 Involving wireless systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/70 : Administration aspects, modify settings or limits or counter-check correct charges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/7072 : Validate charges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/7428 : Load situation, e.g. Current network load, traffic load or available resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/82 : Advice-of-Charge [AOC], i.e. notify subscriber of charges/cumulative charge; meter at the substation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/92 : Autonomous calculations of charges in terminal, i.e. meter not controlled from exchange

Abstract

In a communications network, loading of network resources is detected locally at a customer terminal, and a tariff for network usage is varied automatically depending on the usage.

Claims

1. A method of operating a communications network having a customer terminal which has a tariff at least temporarily stored therein, including:

automatically varying at the customer terminal, depending on network loading as detected at the customer terminal, the tariff for network usage by the customer terminal, the network loading being indicative of a current status of network congestion as detected at the customer terminal; and

calculating a charge for the network usage by the customer terminal using the tariff.

2. A method according to claim 1, further including detecting at the customer terminal a network performance parameter which depends on network loading, and varying the tariff depending on the network performance parameter.

3. A method according to claim 2, in which the network is a packet network and the network performance parameter is the number of packets lost in transmission between a data source and the customer terminal.

4. A method according to claim 1, further including detecting a congestion signal at the customer terminal and varying the tariff in response to the congestion signal.

5. A method according to claim 4, further including reading a congestion signal at the customer terminal from a data packet received at the customer terminal.

6. A method according to claim 4, further including generating a congestion signal at a router in the network in response to the detection of congestion at the router.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein automatically varying the tariff at the customer terminal includes making a first relatively smaller increase in the tariff when congestion is first detected, and making at least one further, relatively larger increase, if the congestion persists.

8. A method according to claim 1, further including programming a decision agent at the customer terminal with user-determined price criteria, and comparing a price calculated using the tariff with the price criteria.

9. A method according to claim 1, further including distributing a tariff algorithm via the communications network to a plurality of terminals and calculating at each terminal, using the tariff, a charge for network usage by the terminal.

10. A method according to claim 9, further comprising steps, carried out by a network operator, of:

intermittently sampling traffic between the customer terminal and the network, and as part of the sampling, recording network loading affecting the customer terminal; and

for the sampled traffic, comparing a charge calculated by the customer terminal and an expected charge and detecting thereby any discrepancy.

11. A method according to claim 1, in which when the customer terminal detects congestion in data transmitted to the customer terminal from a data source via the network, the customer terminal returns a congestion notification signal to the data source.

12. A method according to claim 1, further including at a customer terminal, selecting a period of time for which the tariff is to be fixed and paying a premium depending on the duration of the period.

13. A method according to claim 1, in which the tariff is varied only if the terminal fails to reduce its output in response to detected congestion.

14. A method as in claim 1, wherein the customer terminal is one of a mobile telephone, an intelligent phone and a personal computing device.

15. A method according to claim 1, wherein:

said communications network has a global amount of networking loading;

said network loading detected at the customer terminal comprises a local observation of the network loading, the local observation of the network loading being indicative of the current status of network congestion as perceived by the customer terminal; and

said automatically varying the tariff includes automatically varying the tariff based on said local observation.

16. A method as in claim 15, wherein the customer terminal one of a mobile telephone, an intelligent phone and a personal computing device.

17. A method as in claim 15, wherein said detecting the local observation includes the customer terminal counting the number of data packets sent or received across a network interface with the customer terminal.

18. A communications network including:

means for detecting network loading locally at a customer terminal, the network loading being indicative of a current status of network congestion as detected locally at the customer terminal;

means responsive to the means for detecting arranged automatically to vary a tariff for network usage by the customer terminal, the tariff being at least temporarily stored by the customer terminal; and

means for calculating a charge for the network usage by the customer terminal using the tariff.

19. A method communication network as in claim 18, wherein the customer terminal is one of a mobile telephone, an intelligent phone and a personal computing device.

20. A customer terminal for use in a communications network, the customer terminal including:

means for detecting a local amount of loading of a network, which is indicative of a current status of network congestion perceived by the customer terminal, to which, in use, the customer terminal is connected;

means responsive to the means for detecting and arranged automatically to vary a tariff for network usage by the customer terminal, the tariff being at least temporarily stored by the customer terminal;

means for calculating a charge for the network usage by the customer terminal using the tariff.

21. The customer terminal in claim 20, wherein the customer terminal is one of a mobile telephone, an intelligent phone and a personal computing device.

22. A customer terminal for use in a communications network, the customer terminal including one or more processors arranged to carry out the following steps in sequence:

detecting a local amount of loading of resources in a network, which is indicative of a current status of network congestion perceived by the customer terminal, to which the customer terminal is connected; and

automatically varying in dependence on the detected loading a tariff for network usage by the customer terminal, the tariff being at least temporarily stored by the customer terminal;

calculating a charge tbr the network usage by the customer terminal using the tariff.

23. The customer terminal as in claim 22, wherein the customer terminal is one of a mobile telephone, an intelligent phone and a personal computing device.