Techniques for correlation of charges in multiple layers for content and service delivery

• US 8,560,463 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2006
• Issued: 10/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Maes, Stephane H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, George
• Application Number:
  US11/475,280
• Publication Number:
  US 20070297340A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,668 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1.1, 705 711- 736, 705400-412, 705/30, 705/304, 709/201
• US Class Current: 705/400
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/145 Payments according to the detected use or quantity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1428 Invoice generation, e.g. customization, lay-out, database processing, algorithms for calculating the bill or formatting invoices as WWW pages invoicing in general G06Q30/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1446 inter-operator billing

Abstract

In a method for correlating charges in a service layer and a network layer, first charging data is determined for a service layer based on content or a service purchased for a user. Second charging data for a network layer is determined based on transmission for the content or service. The first and second charging data, with any respective metadata, are correlated in order to generate a single bill for the user. This bill may be for the transmission as well as the purchase of the content or service. In the correlation, charges for the network layer and/or the service layer may be changed based on the correlation. For example, duplicative charges such as charging for the content and the traffic used to download the content may be correlated and one of the charges may be changed or removed.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having sets of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a machine, cause that machine perform the steps of:

determining first charging information for a service based on a request for content or a service, wherein the content or service is rendered on a client device;

determining second charging information for a network layer based on transmission related to the requested service or content, wherein the transmission is over a network medium;

determining metadata for the service and the network layer;

based on the metadata for the service and the network layer, sending from a network layer smart router to a correlator a request into a charging enabler to generate billing events for a billing system, wherein the billing events are associated with the first charging information and the second charging information;

correlating, at the correlator, the billing events, the metadata for the service, the metadata for the network layer, the first charging information, and second charging information;

based on the correlation, generating a single charge for an overall transaction, the overall transaction including activity at the service and the network layer, wherein the single charge for the overall transaction is configured to provide non-duplicative charging of both the service or content and the transmission of traffic used to download the service or content;

determining that the request for content or a service is associated with a download error, wherein;

downloading the content or service was comprised of a first download session and a second download session, wherein;

the first download session is associated with a first network layer charge; and

the second download session is associated with a second network layer charge;

the first download session did not result in downloading the content or service functional for its intended purpose; and

the second download session resulted in downloading the content or service functional for its intended purpose;

adjusting a charge generated for the service and a charge generated for the network layer based on the correlation information and in response to at least one charging overlap between the service charges and the network layer charges, wherein the overlap comprises at least one charge for the requested service or content and a charge for the transmission over the network medium; and

adjusting the charge generated for the network layer based on the correlation information, wherein the at least a portion of the first network layer charge is adjusted based on the determination that the first download session did not result in downloading the content or service functional for its intended purpose.

2. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the single charge is generated for the content purchased and the transmission of the content.

3. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the single charge is generated for the service purchased and transmission related to the service.

4. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first charging information and the second charging information is changed based on the correlation.

5. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first download session failed to completely download the content or service.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first download session downloaded unplayable content.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first download session downloaded unrequested content or services.

8. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having sets of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a machine, cause that machine perform the steps of:

receiving first charging information and associated first metadata from a service based on a request for content or a service;

determining second charging information and associated second metadata for the network layer based on transmission for the requested content or service through the network layer; and

based on the metadata for the service and the network layer, sending from a network layer smart router to a correlator a request into a charging enabler to generate billing events for a billing system, wherein the billing events are associated with the first charging information and the second charging information;

correlating, at the correlator, the billing events, the first charging information and the associated first metadata with the second charging information and the associated second metadata;

based on the correlation, generating a single total charge for the request for content or a service and the transmission for the content or service based on the results of the correlating step, wherein the single charge for the overall transaction is configured to provide non-duplicative charging of both the service or content and the transmission of traffic used to download the service or content;

determining that the request for content or a service is associated with a download error, wherein;

downloading the content or service was comprised of a first download session and a second download session, wherein;

the first download session is associated with a first network layer charge; and

the second download session is associated with a second network layer charge;

the first download session did not result in downloading the content or service functional for its intended purpose; and

the second download session resulted in downloading the content or service functional for its intended purpose;

adjusting a charge generated for the service and a charge generated for the network layer in response to at least one charging overlap between the service charges and the network layer charges, wherein the overlap comprises at least one charge for the requested service or content and a charge for the transmission over the network layer; and

adjusting the charge generated for the network layer based on the correlation information, wherein the at least a portion of the first network layer charge is adjusted based on the determination that the first download session did not result in downloading the content or service functional for its intended purpose.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the single total charge is generated by a network billing system.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the generated single total charge is generated to cover a first charge for the purchase of the content or service and a second charge for the transmission related to the content or service.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the service is associated with a first entity and the network layer is associated with a second entity different from the first entity.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the generating of a single total charge includes using at least one of a payment system and a billing system.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the step of generating a single total charge supports payment models selected from the group consisting of pre-paid and post-paid payment models.

14. A non-transitory computer program product embedded in a computer readable medium, comprising:

computer program code for determining first charging information for a service based on a request for content or a service;

computer program code for determining second charging information for a network layer based on transmission related to the requested service or content; and

computer program code for determining metadata for the service and the network layer;

based on the metadata for the service and the network layer, computer program code for sending from a network layer smart router to a correlator a request into a charging enabler to generate billing events for a billing system, wherein the billing events are associated with the first charging information and the second charging information, wherein the single charge for the overall transaction is configured to provide non-duplicative charging of both the service or content and the transmission of traffic used to download the service or content; and

computer program code for correlating at the correlator, the billing events, the metadata for the service, the metadata for the network layer, the first charging information and second charging information;

based on the correlation, computer program code for generating a single charge for an overall transaction, the overall transaction including activity of the service and at the network layer;

computer code for determining that the request for content or a service is associated with a download error, wherein;

downloading the content or service was comprised of a first download session and a second download session, wherein;

the first download session is associated with a first network layer charge; and

the second download session is associated with a second network layer charge;

the first download session did not result in downloading the content or service functional for its intended purpose; and

the second download session resulted in downloading the content or service functional for its intended purpose;

computer program code for adjusting a charge generated for the service and a charge generated for the network layer based on the correlation information and in response to at least one charging overlap between the service charges and the network layer charges, wherein the overlap comprises at least one charge for the requested service or content and a charge for the transmission over the network layer; and

computer program code for adjusting the charge generated for the network layer based on the correlation information, wherein the at least a portion of the first network layer charge is adjusted based on the determination that the first download session did not result in downloading the content or service functional for its intended purpose.