Separate billing system for BYOD service and separate billing method for data service

• US 9,402,001 B2
• Filed: 05/14/2014
• Issued: 07/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: nTels Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: nTels Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Kwon, Chong Wook, Kim, Yae Ho, Shim, Jae Hee, Kim, Seong Ju
• Primary Examiner(s): Orgad, Edan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ko, Sithu
• Application Number:
  US14/277,165
• Publication Number:
  US 20140341083A1
• Time in Patent Office: 804 Days
• Field of Search: 370/259, 455/408, 455/432.1, 726/4
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 15/52 for operator independent billing system
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/68 Payment of value-added services

Abstract

A separate billing system for BYOD service includes a business service server configured to provide a business service, a terminal configured to request a business service from the business service server, a billing policy server configured to store billing policy information, a BYOD service gateway configured to control the terminal to transmit and receive data with the business service server via an access device, and generate billing data according to the transmission and reception, and a separate billing server configured to analyze the billing data based on the billing policy information, and generate separate billing information.

Claims

1. A separate billing system comprising:

a business service server configured to provide a business service;

a terminal configured to request a business service from the business service server;

a billing policy server configured to store billing policy information;

a bring your own device (BYOD) service gateway configured to control the terminal to transmit and receive data with the business service server via an access device, and generate billing data based on information from the terminal and the service server to distinguish a private service from a BYOD service; and

a separate billing server configured to analyze the billing data based on the billing policy information for determining a subject to be charged, and generate separate billing information including the subject and a charge for the subject,

wherein the billing data includes at least one of a type of an access device, a service name, a terminal ID, a business service server ID, a service domain, a time for providing services, a data size, a network operator ID, and a billing data unique ID,

wherein the BYOD service gateway authorizes the terminal, and if the authorization is successful, sets a session between the terminal and the business service server.

2. The separate billing system of claim 1, wherein the access device is a mobile telecommunication network provided by a mobile network operator or a WiFi network.

3. The separate billing system of claim 1, wherein the separate billing server generates the separate billing information from one or a combination of at least two of billing criteria including the terminal ID, the type of the access device, a business ID, a type of a business service, and the subject to be charged.

4. The separate billing system of claim 1, wherein the billing policy information includes at least one of service information and user information.

5. The separate billing system of claim 4, wherein the service information includes at least one of the service domain, an access port number, a type of a service, a business ID, a billing criterion variable, a subject to be serviced, the subject to be charged, a QoS ranking, and a billing rate ranking.

6. The separate billing system of claim 4, wherein the user information includes at least one of identification information of a company, organization identification information of a company, identification information of a user, identification information of a user network, protocol information, identification information of an application executed by a user, identification information of content requested by a user, and location information of a user.

7. The separate billing system of claim 1, wherein the billing policy server comprises:

an interface unit configured to receive billing policy information from the user or an additional server; and

a policy transmitting unit configured to transmit the received billing policy information to at least one of the BYOD service gateway and the separate billing server,

wherein the interface unit and the policy transmitting unit are each implemented via at least one processor.

8. The separate billing system of claim 7, wherein the interface unit includes:

a subscriber information managing unit configured to manage subscriber information of a subscriber who receives a business service;

a service information managing unit configured to manage business service information and business information;

a service policy managing unit configured to manage a QoS ranking according to services and a security ranking according to services; and

a database processing unit configured to receive the billing policy information from an external server and store the received billing policy information,

wherein the subscriber information managing unit, the service information managing unit, the service policy managing unit, and the database processing unit are each implemented via at least one processor.

9. The separate billing system of claim 7, wherein the interface unit further includes a sponsor information managing unit configured to manage sponsor information to charge an additional sponsor other than a user of the terminal or a business that provides the business service, and

wherein the sponsor information managing unit is implemented via at least one processor.

10. The separate billing system of claim 1, wherein the separate billing server comprises:

a separate billing managing unit configured to generate separate billing information for each of a user of the terminal, a business providing the business service, and a sponsor other than the user and the business, according to the billing policy information; and

a billing information transmitting unit configured to transmit the separate billing information generated by the separate billing managing unit to a billing system of the network operator,

wherein the separate billing managing unit and the billing information transmitting unit are each implemented via at least one processor.

11. The separate billing system of claim 10, wherein the billing policy information includes at least one of service information and user information, wherein the service information includes at least one of service domain, an access port number, a type of a service, business information, billing criterion information, a subject to be serviced, the subject to be charged, a QoS ranking, and a billing rate ranking, and the user information includes at least one of identification information of a company, organization identification information of a company, identification information of a user, identification information of a user network, protocol information, identification information of an application executed by a user, identification information of content requested by a user, and location information of a user.

18. The separate billing system of claim 1, wherein the separate billing server determines the subject among a user of the terminal, a service provider of the data service and a sponsor according to the billing policy information.

12. A separate billing method for data service in a system for receiving a data service through a mobile communication network or a WiFi network by a terminal, the separate billing method comprising:

transmitting, at a billing policy server, service information to a bring your own device (BYOD) service gateway and transmitting billing policy information to a separate billing server;

requesting, by the terminal, the data service from the BYOD service gateway;

authorizing, by the BYOD service gateway, the terminal, and if the authorization is successful, setting a session between the terminal and a service server providing the data service;

transmitting, by the BYOD service gateway, billing data on the data service that is generated by use of the service information to the separate billing server, the billing data being generated by the BYOD service gateway based on information from the terminal and the service server for the data service to distinguish a private service from a BYOD service;

generating, by the separate billing server, separate billing information for determining a subject to be charged by use of the billing data and the billing policy information; and

transmitting, by the separate billing server, the separate billing information to a billing system of a network operator,

wherein the billing data includes at least one of a type of the access device, a service name, a terminal ID, a business service server ID, a service domain, a time for providing a service, a data size, a network operator ID, and a billing data unique ID.

13. The separate billing method for data service of claim 12, wherein the service information includes:

a subject related service information including at least one of the service domain, a type of a service, a business ID, and the business service server ID; and

subscriber information including at least one of service subscription, service cancellation, service activation, and service inactivation for each of a user of the terminal and a business.

14. The separate billing method for data service of claim 12, wherein the billing policy information includes at least one of the service information and user information, wherein the service information includes at least one of service domain, an access port number, a type of a service, business information, a billing criterion information, a subject to be serviced, the subject to be charged, a QoS ranking, and a billing rate ranking, and the user information includes least one of identification information of a company, organization identification information of a company, identification information of a user, identification information of a user network, protocol information, identification information of an application executed by a user, identification information of content requested by a user, and location information of a user.

15. The separate billing method for data service of claim 12, wherein in the generating of the separate billing information, the separate billing information is generated from one or a combination of at least two of billing criteria including the terminal ID, the type of the access device, a business ID, a type of a business service, and the subject to be charged.

16. The separate billing method for data service of claim 12, wherein in the setting of the session, the authorization of the terminal is performed by the BYOD service gateway by use of information of the terminal through an authentication authorization accounting (AAA) server interworking with a system providing the data service.

17. The separate billing method for data service of claim 12, wherein in the transmitting of the billing data to the separate billing server, the BYOD service gateway periodically transmits the billing data to the separate billing server while the session is maintained.

19. The separate billing method for data service of claim 12, wherein the separate billing server determines the subject among a user of the terminal, a service provider of the data service and a sponsor according to at least one of a service ID, the service name, the terminal ID, the business service server ID and the time.

20. A separate billing system comprising:

a service server configured to provide a data service;

a terminal configured to request a data service from the service server; and

a bring your own device (BYOD) service gateway configured to control data transfer between the terminal and the service server, and generate billing data based on information from the terminal and the service server,

wherein the billing data includes at least one of a type of an access device, a service name, a terminal ID, a business service server ID, a service domain, a time for providing services, a data size, a network operator ID, and a billing data unique ID,

wherein the billing data is used for determining a subject to be charged among an user of the terminal, a service provider of the data service and a sponsor, and for determining a charge for the data service in a billing server,

wherein the BYOD service gateway authorizes the terminal, and if the authorization is successful, sets a session between the terminal and the service server.