Device assisted CDR creation aggregation, mediation and billing

• US 8,634,805 B2
• Filed: 08/02/2012
• Issued: 01/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Headwater Research LLC (Greg Raleigh)
• Original Assignee: Headwater Partners I LLC (Greg Raleigh)
• Inventors: Raleigh, Gregory
• Primary Examiner(s): RUDY, ANDREW J
• Application Number:
  US13/565,720
• Publication Number:
  US 20120330829A1
• Time in Patent Office: 537 Days
• Field of Search: 455/405, 455/406, 455/407, 455/408, 455/414.1, 709/203, 709/217, 709/223, 709/224, 705/30, 705/34, 705/40
• US Class Current: 455/406
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• 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 12/1482 involving use of telephony infrastructure for billing for the transport of data, e.g. call detail record [CDR] or intelligent network infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1485 Tariff-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/20 Traffic policing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/39 Credit based
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/41 Billing record details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure of call data record [CDR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/43 Billing software details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/44 Augmented, consolidated or itemized billing statement or bill presentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/53 using mediation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/61 based on the service used
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/705 Account settings, e.g. limits or numbers or payment
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/75 Account location specifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/752 Terminal based account
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/80 Rating or billing plans; Tariff determination aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8044 Least cost routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8083 : involving reduced rates or discounts, e.g. time-of-day reductions or volume discounts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/82 : Criteria or parameters used for performing billing operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8257 : Unit based
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/85 : characterised by the type of condition triggering a notification
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0104 : Augmented, consolidated or itemised billing statement, e.g. additional billing information, bill presentation, layout, format, e-mail, fax, printout, itemised bill per service or per account, cumulative billing, consolidated billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0164 : Billing record, e.g. Call Data Record [CDR], Toll Ticket[TT], Automatic Message Accounting [AMA], Call Line Identifier [CLI], details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0172 : Mediation, i.e. device or program to reformat CDRS from one or more switches in order to adapt to one or more billing programs formats
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/2033 : WLAN
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/72 : Account specifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/7213 : Terminal based
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/74 : Rating aspects, e.g. rating parameters or tariff determination apects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/78 : Metric aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/786 : Unit based
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/7886 : Apply cheapest or best package, e.g. selection among available tariffs or packages
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 : Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 : Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 : Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

Device assisted CDR creation, aggregation, mediation and billing is provided. In some embodiments, device assisted CDR creation, aggregation, mediation and billing for a wireless network includes collecting device generated service usage information for one or more devices in wireless communication on the wireless network; and providing the device generated service usage information in a syntax (e.g., a device assisted charging data record (CDR)) and a communication protocol (e.g., 3GPP, 3GPP2, or other communication protocols) that can be used by other network devices to augment or replace network generated service usage information for the one or more devices in wireless communication on the wireless network.

Claims

1. A method, using at least a network traffic monitor, for managing allocations for network usage of a wireless access network, the method comprising:

using the network traffic monitor, monitoring wireless access network traffic associated with an end-user device to identify electronically storable wireless access network traffic data corresponding to a first service usage activity of a plurality of service usage activities available to the end-user device, wherein the first service usage activity is associated with one or more of (1) a first application on the end-user device, (2) a first network communication end-point accessible to the end-user device, and (3) a first type of data traffic the end-user device is capable of sending or receiving;

obtaining a transaction code associated with the first service usage activity;

obtaining a measure of access network usage associated with the first service usage activity;

generating a first charging data record (CDR), storable as electronically stored data, wherein the first CDR comprises data representing at least the transaction code and the measure of access network usage;

determining a bill-by-account billing offset using information from the first CDR;

determining, based on the bill-by-account billing offset, an allocation of at least a portion of the measure of access network usage to a first payer entity, the first payer entity responsible for compensating a service provider for a usage of the wireless access network associated with at least a portion of the first service usage activity; and

storing a representation of the allocation.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting, based on the bill-by-account billing offset, a second-payer-entity account, the second-payer-entity account associated with a second payer entity.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second payer entity is a user of the end-user device.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising applying a hierarchy of service usage charging rules, the hierarchy of service usage charging rules providing for allocating the at least a portion of the measure of access network usage to the first payer entity before adjusting the second-payer-entity account.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the bill-by-account billing offset to a billing system.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a billing record for billing the first payer entity for the at least a portion of the measure of access network usage, wherein generating uses the bill-by-account billing offset.

7. A billing record generated using the method of claim 6.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accounting for usage of the first service usage activity; and

generating a bill for the usage.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accounting for usage of the first service usage activity;

determining that the usage exceeds a policy limit; and

generating a bill for the usage exceeding the policy limit.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing access to the wireless access network to the end-user device in exchange for a revenue share in association with the transaction code.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising restricting bill-by-account usage of the wireless access network by the end-user device based at least in part on the first CDR.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a device user interface notification to communicate information associated with the first service usage activity.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a device user interface notification pertaining to the transaction code, the device user interface notification including a notification of service plan choices.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising categorizing monitored traffic activity by a categorization selected from the group consisting of uniform resource locator (URL) categorization, network domain categorization, website categorization, network traffic type categorization, application categorization, Internet protocol (IP) address range categorization, socket tuple categorization, and a combination of one or more of these categorizations.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising applying a first traffic control to the first service usage activity in accordance with a traffic control service policy associated with the transaction code.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising restricting the first service usage activity or allowing the first service usage activity based on a service plan.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, from a criterion selected from the group consisting of period of time, network address, service type, content type, application type, quality-of-service (QoS) class, time of day, network busy state, bandwidth, data usage, and a combination of these, whether to restrict or allow the first service usage activity; and

based on the determining whether to restrict or allow, restricting or allowing the first service usage activity.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising billing bill-by-account services to a transaction code account selected from the group consisting of a sponsored partner transaction service account, a network chatter account, a sponsored advertiser account, a service sign up account, and a combination of these.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the first payer entity is associated with a service usage account or a user service plan account.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the transaction code is selected from the group consisting of a raw device usage CDR transaction code, a bill-by-account CDR transaction code, a sub-activity CDR transaction code, a billing offset CDR transaction code, a billing credit CDR transaction code, a transaction code associated with the first payer entity, and a combination of these.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronically storable wireless access network traffic data is first electronically storable wireless access network traffic data, and the transaction code is a first transaction code, and further comprising:

identifying, within the wireless access network traffic associated with the end-user device, second electronically storable wireless access network traffic data corresponding to a second service usage activity of the plurality of service usage activities available to the end-user device, wherein the second service usage activity is associated with one or more of (1) a second application on the end-user device, (2) a second network communication end-point accessible to the end-user device, and (3) a second type of data traffic the end-user device is capable of sending or receiving; and

obtaining a second transaction code associated with the second service usage activity,

wherein the first transaction code and the second transaction code have different billing policy aspects.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the measure of access network usage is a first measure of access network usage, and the bill-by-account billing offset is a first bill-by-account billing offset, and further comprising:

obtaining a second measure of access network usage associated with the second service usage activity;

generating a second CDR comprising the second transaction code and the second measure of access network usage;

determining a second bill-by-account billing offset using information from the second CDR; and

based on the second bill-by-account billing offset, allocating the second measure of access network usage to a second payer entity.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising charging a sponsor of network access services associated with the first transaction code for the second service usage activity.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the first service usage activity comprises an ambient service.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring wireless access network traffic associated with the end-user device to identify electronically storable wireless access network traffic data corresponding to the first service usage activity of the plurality of service usage activities available to the end-user device comprises applying one or more rules, and further comprising updating at least one of the one or more rules to account for changes in the first service usage activity.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a second CDR based on the bill-by-account billing offset, the second CDR including the transaction code, wherein the second CDR assists in allocating the at least a portion of the measure of access network usage to the first payer entity.

27. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a second CDR based on the bill-by-account offset, the second CDR including the transaction code, wherein the second CDR facilitates adjusting the second-payer-entity account based on the measure of access network usage.

28. A computer program comprising computer program code means adapted to perform all the steps of claim 1 when said computer program is run on a computer.

29. The computer program of claim 28, embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium.

30. A network system comprising:

means for monitoring wireless access network traffic associated with an end-user device;

means for identifying, within the wireless access network traffic associated with the end-user device, a first service usage activity of a plurality of service usage activities available to the end-user device, the first service usage activity associated with one or more of a first application on the end-user device, a first network communication end-point accessible to the end-user device, and a first type of data traffic the end-user device is capable of sending or receiving;

means for obtaining a transaction code associated with the first service usage activity;

means for obtaining a measure of access network usage associated with the first service usage activity;

means for generating a first charging data record (CDR) comprising the transaction code and the measure of access network usage;

means for determining a bill-by-account billing offset using information from the first CDR; and

means for allocating at least a portion of the measure of access network usage to a first payer entity based on the bill-by-account billing offset, the first payer entity responsible for compensating a service provider for a use of a wireless access network associated with at least a portion of the first service usage activity.