Control of billing in a communications system

• US 20040133486A1
• Filed: 02/11/2004
• Published: 07/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Loimuneva, Tero, Andersson, Olli, Fuchs, Harald G., Markki, Outi
• Granted Patent: US 8,527,410 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing

Abstract

The invention relates to the control of billing in a communications network. The objective is to accomplish a mechanism for minimizing credit losses caused by subscribers, while at the same time maintaining good performance of the system. A gateway receives service requests and filters out the requests for which the analysis performed indicates that a credit loss risk is involved. For these service requests an in-advance credit check is initiated. If the credit check indicates that the delivery is permissible, a reservation is made for the amount of money corresponding to the service price, i.e. the said sum is reserved in the subscriber account so that said sum cannot be used by another service request in the meantime. When the service has been delivered successfully, the reservation is confirmed and the said sum is debited from the balance of the subscriber account Otherwise, the reservation is cancelled.

Claims

1. A method for providing services in a communications network, the method comprising the steps of

receiving a service request from a client, the service request to include a subscriber identifier referring to a subscriber paying for the service and a service identifier referring to a content server,

analyzing whether a credit check is required prior to delivery of the service,

performing said credit check, if the step of analyzing indicates that the credit check is required,

in response to a credit check, making a billing reservation for said subscriber and associating a certain monetary value with said reservation,

forwarding the service request to the content server,

initiating service delivery from the content server, and

deciding whether billing is to be carried out according to said billing reservation.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said step of analyzing includes selecting a payment method from a group of different payment methods.

3. A method according to claim 2, further comprising the steps of

using in said group at least one payment method which directly indicates that the credit check is not required,

assigning certain intermediate steps to each of said payment methods,

in response to said step of analyzing, performing the intermediate steps assigned to the payment method selected in said step, the forwarding step being performed in response to said intermediate steps.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein the intermediate steps include contacting an external server.

5. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of determining whether a client-confirmed contract concerning the service is required.

6. A method according to claim 5, further comprising the step of negotiating said contract with the client.

7. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of maintaining user-specific accounts in a billing server.

8. A method according to claim 2, wherein the step of analyzing includes the selection of a first payment method in which the service is to be paid from an account with pre-deposited money for the service.

9. A method according to claim 7, wherein said credit checks are performed for service requests for which said first payment method is selected in the step of analyzing.

10. A method according to claim 7, wherein said step of deciding includes

carrying out billing according to said billing reservation when the service delivery succeeds and

canceling said reservation when the service delivery fails, whereby no billing is carried out.

11. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of analyzing includes

retrieving service profile data relating to said service and subscriber profile data relating to said subscriber and

using said profile data for deciding whether a credit check is required.

12. A method according to claim 7, wherein the step of maintaining further comprises the steps of

maintaining a primary balance and a local balance for a subscriber-specific account, the local balance being maintained in one part of the billing server and the primary balance being maintained in another part of the billing server, and

sending balance update messages between the first part and the second part.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein the local balance contains a cumulative sum of charges generated since the latest balance update between the first part and the second part.

14. A method according to claim 12, further comprising the steps of

transferring money from the primary balance to the local balance,

comparing the local balance to the said monetary value, and

making said billing reservation on the basis of said comparison.

15. A method according to claim 12, further comprising the step of controlling the frequency of said balance updates.

16. A method according to claim 15, wherein said controlling comprises the step of generating trigger values indicating the moment for performing the next balance update.

17. A proxy for controlling billing in a communications network, said proxy comprising

interface means for receiving a service request from a client, the service request to include a subscriber identifier referring to a subscriber paying for the service and a service identifier referring to a content server,

means for analyzing whether a credit check is required prior to delivery of the service,

means for sending a credit check request and for receiving a billing reservation identifier in response, said identifier to refer to a billing reservation which is associated with said subscriber and which indicates the price of the service, and

means for acknowledging service delivery to a billing server.

18. A proxy according to claim 17, further comprising means for receiving acknowledgments of service delivery, the means for acknowledging service delivery being responsive to said means.

19. A proxy according to claim 17, wherein the means for acknowledging service delivery are adapted to send an acknowledgment message containing said billing reservation identifier to the billing server.

20. A proxy according to claim 17, wherein the means for acknowledging service delivery are controllable from said billing server.

21. A proxy according to claim 17, wherein said means of analysis include selection means for selecting a payment method from a group of different payment methods.

22. A method for controlling billing in a proxy of a communications network, the method comprising the steps of

receiving a service request from a client, the service request to include a subscriber identifier referring to a subscriber paying for the service and a service identifier referring to a content server,

analyzing whether a credit check is required prior to delivery of the service,

sending a credit check request to a billing server when the step of analysing indicates that a credit check is needed,

receiving a billing reservation identifier in response to said credit check request, said identifier referring to a billing reservation which is associated with said subscriber and which indicates the price of the service, and

deciding whether a separate billing server is to receive acknowledgment of service delivery.

23. A billing server for managing billing in a communications network where services are provided, the billing server comprising

first means for maintaining subscriber-specific accounts,

second means for receiving credit check requests from the network, each credit check request to include an identifier referring to a certain account,

third means for checking the balance of the account referred to by said identifier,

fourth means, responsive to the third means, for making a billing reservation for the account to which said identifier refers, and for associating said account and a certain sum of money with the reservation, and

fifth means for receiving acknowledgments from the network, each acknowledgment to include a reservation identifier referring to a certain reservation,

wherein said first means are responsive to said fifth means for debiting the balance of the account associated with said reservation identifier by the sum associated with the reservation referred to in the acknowledgment.

24. A billing server according to claim 23, further comprising service profile data relating to the services provided in the network and subscriber profile data relating to subscribers of the services.

25. A billing server according to claim 23, wherein the first means comprise a payment server for maintaining local balances of said subscriber-specific accounts and an account management system for maintaining primary balances of said subscriber-specific accounts.

26. A billing server according to claim 23, wherein the fifth means are adapted to control a separate proxy for controlling the flow of said acknowledgments.

27. A method for managing billing in a billing server of a communications network, the method comprising the steps of

maintaining subscriber-specific accounts,

receiving credit check requests from the network, each credit check request to include an identifier referring to a certain account,

checking the balance of the account which said identifier refers to,

in response to said checking, making a billing reservation for said account, and for associating said account and a certain sum of money with the reservation,

receiving acknowledgments from the network, each acknowledgment to include a reservation identifier referring to a certain reservation, and

debiting the balance of the account associated with said reservation identifier by the sum associated with the reservation referred to in the acknowledgment.

28. A method according to claim 27, wherein step of maintaining includes maintaining primary and local balances of said subscriber-specific accounts, whereby the step of checking includes checking at least the local balance.

29. A system for billing in a communications network, the system comprising

first means for receiving a service request from a client, the service request to include a subscriber identifier referring to a subscriber paying for the service and a service identifier referring to a content server,

second means, responsive to the first means, for analyzing whether a credit check is required prior to delivery of the service,

third means, responsive to the second means, for performing said credit check,

fourth means for generating a billing reservation for said subscriber, said reservation to indicate the monetary value of said service,

fifth means for deciding whether or not billing is to be carried out according to said billing reservation, and

sixth means, responsive to the fifth means, for carrying out billing according to said billing reservation.