Billing device and processing method

• US 8,756,126 B2
• Filed: 08/07/2009
• Issued: 06/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: KT Corporation
• Original Assignee: KT Corporation
• Inventors: Choi, Byoung-Cheol, Kim, Jae-Sung, Jeon, Seog-Cheon, Kim, Min, Won, Yoo-Hoon
• Primary Examiner(s): CRAWLEY, TALIA F
• Application Number:
  US12/538,037
• Publication Number:
  US 20090299885A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,775 Days
• Field of Search: 705/34, 709/219
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/325 using wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing

Abstract

A billing device and processing method is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes i) collecting a billing log according to performing a biz template at the business logic processing unit, ii) verifying validity of the collected billing log, iii) performing a standardizing process on the verified billing log, iv) generating billing data by applying a predetermined billing policy according to the standardized billing log, v) generating a billing file (MDR) to transmit to a billing legacy system of a mobile communication system using the generated billing data and vi) transmitting the generated billing file (MDR) to the billing legacy system.

Claims

1. A billing device for a mobile communication system to be cooperated in an open mobile business supporting system, the billing device comprising hardware that defines:

a business logic processor configured to store, manage, and perform a biz template formed of at least one biz object arranged according to a flow of a corresponding biz logic, wherein the biz template is a standardized biz logic that is defined by selecting low-level functions which can be grouped as a unit function and performed in the mobile communication system among service logics provided from a content provider/service provider (CP/SP), wherein the at least one biz object includes at least one of a first biz object associated with a first function requiring to cooperate with a corresponding legacy system of the mobile communication system and a second biz object associated with a second function performing a comparison and determination operation based on the result of cooperating, and wherein the standardized biz logic is defined based on frequency of use and reusability of corresponding functions by at least one CP/SP;

an open interface processor configured to receive a request of performing a predetermined biz logic from the CP/SP through a network, request the business logic processor to perform a biz template corresponding to the requested biz logic, receive the result of the request, and transfer the received result to the CP/SP through the network;

a legacy cooperation processor configured to relay a request from a predetermined legacy system and return the result to the predetermined legacy system while performing a biz template by relaying interworking between the business logic processor and a legacy system of the mobile communication system;

an infra channel provider configured to receive a request of performing a biz object from a legacy system of the mobile communication system, perform the biz object by cooperating with another legacy system through the legacy cooperation processor, and transfer the result to a corresponding legacy system; and

a billing processor configured to collect billing logs generated by performing a biz template at the business logic processor or by performing a biz object in the infra channel provider, process the collected billing logs, and transfer the processed billing log to the billing legacy system,

wherein the billing processor cooperates with the business logic processor through a message queue.

2. The billing device according to claim 1, wherein the billing processor comprises:

a billing log parser configured to collect billing logs generated by performing a biz template at the business logic processor, check a validity of the collected billing logs, and standardize the valid billing logs;

a billing policy DB configured to store a plurality of billing policies and billing data;

a billing policy processor configured to inquire a billing policy to be applied to the standardized billing log from the billing database;

a billing file generator configured to generate a billing file (MDR) for transmitting to the legacy system of the mobile communication system using the billing data; and

a billing data transmitter configured to transmit the generated billing file (MDR) to the billing legacy system.

3. The billing device according to claim 2, wherein the billing policy processor further comprises an authentication processor configured to perform a user authentication operation.

4. The billing device according to claim 2, wherein the billing policy processor comprises:

a log receiver configured to receive a billing log standardized and process from the billing log parser;

a log transferring processor configured to filter overlapped billing logs in the collected billing logs and transmit the filtered billing logs to a billing processing table; and

a billing sub-processor configured to perform a billing process by applying a predetermined billing policy according to a billing log transferred from the billing process table, and generate billing data.

5. The billing device according to claim 2, wherein the billing processor further comprises a prepay and pre-subtracting billing processor configured to request a pre-payment pre-subtraction billing legacy system to perform a prepay and pre-subtracting billing process, which receives a prepay and pre-subtracting billing request from the business logic processor, receive the result thereof, and transfer the received result.

6. The billing device according to claim 5, wherein the billing log parser is configured to verify a validity of a predetermined billing log with the prepay and pre-subtracting billing process requested, and standardize the billing log transferred from the prepay and pre-subtracting billing processor.

7. The billing device according to claim 2, wherein the billing processor further comprises a policy manager configured to register, modify, and delete at least one of billing policies selected from billing information synchronization of biz template and content, event management, billing verification, billing policy synchronization, and a billing policy backup from the repository DB when the billing policy is requested, and respond to the request.

8. The billing device according to claim 2, wherein the billing processor further comprises a load manager configured to manage common log formats of the billing processor, creation and record of a system log, processing completed log files.

9. The billing device according to claim 2, wherein the billing processor further comprises a DB manager configured to access the database from the billing processor, manage the access thereof, and release the accesses by cooperating with a predetermined database.

10. The billing device according to claim 2, wherein the billing processor further comprises a configuration manager configured to inquire and manage a setup file and a unique setup file commonly used in a system.

11. The billing device according to claim 2, wherein the billing processor further comprises an operating and management system (OMS) manager for collecting, transmitting, and managing operating and managing (O&

M) of the billing processor managed from the OMS manager by cooperating with a predetermined O&

M system.

26. The billing device according to claim 1, wherein the biz template includes at least one of an attribute of each biz object, an operation order of the at least one biz object, description of conditional branch, input parameter information for operating the at least one biz object, a data controlling method, output parameter information derived by operating the biz template, and operation time-out setup information.

12. A billing processing method for processing a billing based on performing a biz template, in a billing processing device comprising:

collecting, by a billing log parser including a hardware processor, a billing log generated according to performing a biz template formed of at least one biz object at a business logic processing module, wherein the biz template is a standardized biz logic that is defined by selecting low-level functions which can be grouped as a unit function and performed in a mobile communication system among service logics provided from a content provider/service provider (CP/SP);

wherein the at least one biz object includes at least one of a first biz object associated with a first function requiring to cooperate with a corresponding legacy system of the mobile communication system and a second biz object associated with a second function performing a comparison and determination operation based on the result of cooperating;

wherein the standardized biz logic is defined based on frequency of use and reusability of corresponding functions by at least one CP/SP; and

wherein a billing processing module cooperates with the business logic processing module through a message queue to collect the billing log;

verifying, by the billing log parser, validity of the collected billing log;

performing, by the billing log parser, a standardizing process on the verified billing log;

generating, by a billing policy module, billing data by applying a predetermined billing policy according to the standardized billing log;

generating, by a billing file generator, a billing file (MDR) to transmit to a billing legacy system of the mobile communication system using the generated billing data; and

transmitting, by a billing data transmitter, the generated billing file (MDR) to the billing legacy system.

13. The billing processing method according to claim 12, wherein the collecting further comprises collecting a billing log for content or a user provided from the CP/SP.

14. The billing processing method according to claim 12, wherein, in the verifying, the collected billing logs are classified by a type, and the validity thereof is verified.

15. The billing processing method according to claim 12, wherein the generating further comprises performing a user authentication process corresponding to a billing log.

16. The billing processing method according to claim 12, wherein the generating billing data comprises:

inquiring a billing policy to be applied to the standardized billing log from a predetermined billing policy database;

generating billing data by applying the inquired billing policy to the billing log; and

generating a billing file (MDR) based on the generated billing data.

17. The billing processing method according to claim 12, wherein, in the generating, the billing file (MDR) is generated to be suitable for a file transport protocol (FTP) based on the billing processed billing data.

18. The billing processing method according to claim 12, wherein, in the transmitting, the generated billing file is transmitted to the billing legacy system using FTP.

19. The billing processing method according to claim 12, wherein the verifying comprises:

receiving a request of performing a prepay and pre-subtracting billing process for a billing log received from the business logic processing module;

requesting a predetermined prepay and pre-subtracting billing process, which performs a prepay and pre-subtracting billing process in response to the request, to perform the prepay and pre-subtracting billing process; and

receiving a response to the request.

20. The billing processing method according to claim 12, wherein the billing policy comprises at least one of a prepay billing process, a service based billing process, an event based billing process, and a biz template based billing process.

21. The billing processing method according to claim 12, further comprising:

after the collecting;

registering, modifying, and deleting at least one selected from billing polices including biz template and content billing data synchronization, event management, billing verification, billing policy synchronization, and billing policy backup to/from a predetermined repository; and

reading the billing polices from the repository when the billing policy is requested, and responding to the request.

22. The billing processing method according to claim 12, further comprising, after the collecting, managing a common log format of the billing processing module, creating and recording system logs, and managing processed log file.

23. The billing processing method according to claim 12, further comprising, after the collecting, inquiring and managing setting files commonly used in a system and a unique setting file.

24. The billing processing method according to claim 12, further comprising, after the collecting, collecting and managing operating and managing data of the billing processing module, which are managed at an operating and managing system by cooperating with the operating and managing system.

25. A billing device for processing a billing based on performing a biz template comprising:

a parsing module, including a hardware processor, configured to;

(a) collect a billing log according to the performing the biz template formed of at least one biz object at a business logic processing module, wherein the biz template is a standardized biz logic that is defined by selecting low-level functions which can be grouped as a unit function and performed in a mobile communication system among service logics provided from a content provider/service provider (CP/SP);

wherein the at least one biz object includes at least one of a first biz object associated with a first function requiring to cooperate with a corresponding legacy system of the mobile communication system and a second biz object associated with a second function performing a comparison and determination operation based on the result of cooperating;

wherein the standardized biz logic is defined based on frequency of use and reusability of corresponding functions by at least one CP/SP; and

wherein a billing processing module cooperates with the business logic processing module through a message queue to collect the billing log;

(b) verify validity of the collected billing log; and

(c) perform a standardizing process on the verified billing log;

a billing policy module configured to generate billing data by applying a predetermined billing policy according to the standardized billing log;

a generating module to configured to generate a billing file (MDR) to transmit to a billing legacy system of a mobile communication system using the generated billing data; and

a transmitting module configured to transmit the generated billing file (MDR) to the billing legacy system.