Method of charging in a communications network

• US 7,747,240 B1
• Filed: 06/04/1999
• Issued: 06/29/2010
• 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): Colbert; Ella
• Application Number:
  US09/674,706
• Time in Patent Office: 4,043 Days
• Field of Search: 379/131, 235/380, 705/34, 705/30, 705/39, 705/40, 705/26, 705/27, 705/44, 705/413, 705/1, 709/200, 709/219, 709/224, 709/225, 713/200, 713/201, 370/351, 370/238, 370/400, 370/389, 707/103.R, 707/1, 455/9, 455/404.2, 455/405, 455/406
• US Class Current: 455/405
• 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, use of network resources is measured locally at customer terminals, for example by counting the number of packets sent and received. The resulting data may be aggregated and sent to a network accounting object. Accounting data may subsequently be passed between network subdomains.

Claims

1. A method of operating a communications network comprising:

a) measuring at each of a plurality of customer terminals usage by the respective customer terminal of network resources;

b) calculating a network usage charge from measurement data generated by said measuring at each of the plurality of customer terminals usage by the respective customer terminal of network resources in step (a); and

c) sampling usage of the network resources by at least one of the customer terminals by performing;

(i) measuring a portion of the usage of the network resources by the at least one of the customer terminals; and

(ii) comparing data corresponding to the measurement of the network resources in step (c)(i), with respect to the sampled usage, with data corresponding to one or both of the usage of network resources measured by the at least one customer terminal in step (a) and the network usage charge calculated in step (b).

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of aggregating measurement data produced by a series of measurements at a respective customer terminal.

3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising storing the measurement data.

4. A method according to claim 3, including storing with the measurement data identifying a tariff applicable to the said measurement data.

5. A method according to claim 1 including communicating data generated by step (a) to a network accounting object controlled by a network operator.

6. A method according to claim 5, including communicating to the network accounting object a usage charge calculated from the measurement data.

7. A method according to claim 5, wherein sampling the usage in step (c) is performed by a network operator and sampling the usage in step (c) comprises sampling only part of the traffic communicated between a customer terminal and the network, comparing data corresponding to the sampled network usage with data communicated from the customer terminal to the network accounting object, and detecting any discrepancy.

8. A method according to claim 7 including penalizing a customer when a discrepancy is detected.

9. A method according to claim 1, including communicating measurement data to a system remote from the customer terminal.

10. A method according to claim 1 in which a network accounting object is configurable to receive data from a measurement object controlled by a network operator or from a customer terminal.

11. A method according to claim 10, in which a customer accounting object associated with the customer terminal is configurable to direct data to the network accounting object.

12. A method according to claim 10, including switching the network accounting object from a first configuration in which data is received from the said measurement object and another configuration in which data is received from the customer terminal in response to a control signal received at the network accounting object.

13. A method according to claim 1 further comprising communicating a tariff to each of the customer terminals, and calculating at each of the terminals from the tariff and from accounting data the network usage charge.

14. A method according to claim 1 in which the communications network is a federated data network comprising a plurality of network domains.

15. A method according to claim 14 including

communicating traffic between a customer terminal and a first network domain connected to the customer terminal;

further communicating the said traffic between the first network domain and a second network domain connected to the first network domain;

communicating network usage data from the customer terminal to a first network accounting object in the first domain; and

communicating accounting data between the first network accounting object and a second network accounting object in the second domain.

16. A method according to claim 15, including determining from a current routing table in the first network domain the identity of a second domain, wherein the second domain is communicating data with the customer terminal via the first network domain, and communicating network usage data for the customer terminal to the second domain identified by the current routing table.

17. A method according to claim 1 in which the step of measuring includes counting the quantity of data communicated in packets transmitted between the customer terminal and the communications network.

18. A method according to claim 17, including measuring packets received by the customer terminal and packets sent by the customer terminal.

19. A method according to claim 17, wherein the packets are data packets.

20. A method according to claim 17, wherein the packets are IP packets.

21. A method according to claim 17, wherein the packets are message packets.

22. A method according to claim 1, in which a payment for network usage is made to a third-party clearer.

23. A method according to claim 1, including automatically varying a tariff for network usage in dependence on loading of the network, and calculating a charge for network usage by applying the tariff to the measurement data.

24. A method according to claim 1, including transmitting packets on the network with a plurality of different classes of service.

25. A method according to claim 24, including passing the said packets through a packet router, and in the packet router determining the classes of service applicable to the packets, and scheduling packets differently depending on the respective class of service.

26. A method according to claim 25, in which a step of policing the classification of packets to determine the eligibility of a packet for a respective class of service is carried out at a location remote from the router.

27. A method according to claim 26, in which the step of policing is carried out at a customer terminal.

28. A method according to claim 27, in which the policing by the customer is randomly audited concurrently with, or subsequently to, the respective data flow.

29. A method according to claim 24, wherein the packets are data packets.

30. A method according to claim 24, wherein the packets are IP packets.

31. A method according to claim 24, wherein the packets are message packets.

32. A communications network arranged to operate by a method according to claim 1.

33. A customer terminal arranged to operate by a method according to claim 1.

34. A method of operating a communications network having network resources and including a plurality of customer terminals operable to use the network resources, the method comprising:

a) each terminal measuring the amount of network resources which said each terminal uses;

b) calculating a charge with respect to each terminal for said each terminal'"'"'s use of the network resources as determined by the respective terminal measuring the amount of network resources which said each terminal uses in step (a); and

c) performing a sampling step to check the validity of the measurement of the amount of network resources performed by each terminal, wherein at some part of the network other than at the respective terminal, only a part of the total use of network resources made by the respective terminal is measured and compared with data corresponding to either the measurements of the amount of network resources taken by the respective terminal in step (a) or the charge calculated in step (b).

35. A method of operating a communications network comprising:

measuring usage of network resources at each of a plurality of customer terminals;

sampling usage of the network resources by a customer terminal by measuring a portion of the usage of network resources by that customer terminal;

comparing data corresponding to the measured portion of the usage of network resources with data corresponding to the usage of network resources measured at the customer terminal or data corresponding to a usage charge calculated from the usage of network resources measured at the customer terminal;

wherein said sampling includes monitoring, by the network, a sample of actual network usage as a policing measure and checking that the sampled usage corresponds to the usage and/or cost reported by the corresponding customer terminal;

wherein said monitoring, by the network, does not include continuous monitoring of all of the usage by the corresponding customer terminal but does include intermittent sampling of the usage by the corresponding customer terminal, thereby checking the accuracy of the usage and/or cost reported by the corresponding customer terminal and reducing a burden on the network.