Patent Grant
8964954
The present invention relates to a communication network, and more particularly to a processing method and apparatus for re-rating in the communication network.
Currently, most operators need to maintain two separated charging systems, i.e. an IT based postpaid charging system and an intelligent-networks based prepaid charging system. The postpaid charging system employs an offline charging manner, and it periodically collects Call Detail Records (CDRs) over network, determines the expense for a call according to the information (e.g. the call duration for a user, caller information, callee information, position information, etc.) included in the call detail record, and determines the tariff based on the call detail record after the call. Therefore it is impossible to achieve a real-time control for a user's call. The prepaid charging system employs an online charging manner, and it determines in real time a duration for a user to make a call in accordance with the balance of the user's account. When the user runs out of the balance of his account, the call will be cut off immediately. The prepaid charging system needs to monitor and control the call of the user in real time.
For an operator, maintaining two charging systems means a high cost and furthermore some functionalities of one system cannot be implemented or cannot be implemented well in the other system. For example, re-rating is a functionality of the postpaid charging system, which can re-rate the expense for the call detail record in accordance with changes of the service price. However, it is difficult for the real-time prepaid charging system to realize re-rating because the prepaid charging system needs to monitor a user's call request in real time and to update the user's account profile in real time and cannot make recalculation on the user's account profile as if it was rolled back to a previous stage. Specifically, for the prepaid charging system, before each call is established, the system will read the user's account profile, and if the account profile is updated at this time, it is impossible for the system to read the current account profile for the current call request or read a wrong account profile.
More and more operators and market analyzers recognize that a charging system converging both the postpaid charging system and the prepaid charging system will be the future developing trend, and such a converged charging system not only can reduce the cost but also can provide users with blended services. Most operators urgently demand such converged charging system provided by the vendors.
However, as stated above, re-rating is a functionality of the postpaid charging system and it is difficult to be implemented in the prepaid charging system. How to implement the re-rating function for the converged charging system will be a challenge. Thus, an approach to implement the re-rating function for the prepaid charging system is needed.
In order to solve the above problems in the prior art, a method and an apparatus for re-rating prepaid users is proposed in the present invention.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a method for re-rating a prepaid user implemented in a first apparatus (2a) is provided, the method including: rating a call detail record included in a received online charging request to generate a rated call detail record, and updating account profile of the user at the same time; and sending to a second apparatus (2b) a rating information transmission request message including the rated call detail record;
the method further including: periodically storing the account profile, and sending to the second apparatus (2b) an account profile transmission request message including the stored account profile;
the method further including: updating the locally stored account profile in accordance with the updated account profile included in an account profile update request received from the second apparatus (2b).
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a method for re-rating a prepaid user implemented in a second apparatus (2b) is provided, the method including: receiving from a first apparatus (2a) a rating information transmission request message including a rated call detail record, and extracting the rated call detail record; receiving from the first apparatus (2a) an account profile transmission request message including an account profile, and extracting the account profile;
the method further including: triggering re-rating and determining a re-rating rule; a re-calculating step for generating a re-rated call detail record in accordance with the re-rating rule; and updating a corresponding account profile in accordance with the re-rated call detail record, and sending to the first apparatus (2a) an account profile update request including the updated account profile.
Preferably, the re-calculating step further includes: determining a start point of re-rating, updating the account profile for the start point of re-rating in accordance with the re-rating rule, and sending to a third apparatus (2c) a start point account profile transmission request including the updated account profile for the start point of re-rating; determining call detail records to be re-rated; sending to the third apparatus (2c) a re-rating request message including one or more call detail records to be re-rated; and receiving from the third apparatus (2c) a re-rating reply message including one or more re-rated call detail records.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, a method for re-rating a prepaid user implemented in a third apparatus (2c) is provided, the method including: receiving from a second apparatus (2b) a start point account profile transmission request including the updated account profile for a start point of re-rating, and extracting a rating rule for re-rating therefrom; receiving from the second apparatus (2b) a re-rating request including one or more call detail records to be re-rated, and extracting the call detail records to be re-rated; re-rating the call detail records to be re-calculated in accordance with the rating rule for the re-rating to generate re-rated call detail records; and sending to the second apparatus (2b) a re-rating reply message including one or more re-rated call detail records.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a first apparatus (2a) for re-rating a prepaid user is provided, the apparatus including: a rating means configured to rate call detail records included in a received online charging request to generate rated call detail records and to update account profile of the user at the same time; and a rating information transmitting means configured to send to a second apparatus (2b) a rating information transmission request message including the rated call detail records;
the apparatus further including: an account backing up means configured to periodically store the account profile, and to send to the second apparatus (2b) an account profile transmission request message including the stored account profile;
the apparatus further including: a first account updating means configured to update the locally stored account profile in accordance with the updated account profile included in an account profile update request received from the second apparatus (2b).
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, a second apparatus (2b) for re-rating a prepaid user is provided, the apparatus including: a rating information receiving means configured to receive from a first apparatus (2a) a rating information transmission request message including rated call detail records, and to extract the rated call detail records; and an account profile receiving means configured to receive from the first apparatus (2a) an account profile transmission request message including account profile, and to extract the account profile;
the apparatus further including: a triggering means configured to trigger re-rating and to determine a re-rating rule; a re-calculating means configured to generate re-rated call detail records in accordance with the re-rating rule; and a second account updating means configured to update a corresponding account profile in accordance with the re-rated call detail records, and to send to the first apparatus (2a) an account profile update request including the updated account profile.
Preferably, the re-calculating means further includes: a start point account updating means configure to determine the start point of re-rating and to update the account profile for the start point of re-rating in accordance with the re-rating rule, and to send to a third apparatus (2c) a start point account profile transmission request including the updated account profile for the start point of re-rating; a determining means configured to determine call detail records to be re-rated; a re-rating request sending means configured to send to the third apparatus (2c) a re-rating request message including one or more call detail records to be re-rated; and a re-rating reply receiving means configured to receive from the third apparatus (2c) a re-rating reply message including one or more re-rated call detail records.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, a third apparatus (2c) for re-rating a prepaid user is provided, the apparatus including: a start point account profile receiving means configured to receive from a second apparatus (2b) a start point account profile transmission request including the updated account profile for a start point of re-rating, and to extract a rating rule for re-rating therefrom; a re-rating request receiving means configured to receive from the second apparatus (2b) a re-rating request including one or more call detail records to be re-rated, and to extract the call detail records to be re-rated; a re-rated record generating means configured to re-rate the call detail records to be re-rated in accordance with a rating rule for re-rating to generate re-rated call detail records; and a re-rating reply sending means configured to send to the second apparatus (2b) a re-rating reply message including one or more re-rated call detail records.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, a system for re-rating a prepaid user is provided, including: the aforesaid first apparatus (2a), the aforesaid second apparatus (2b) and the aforesaid third apparatus (2c).
By using the method and apparatus of the present invention, the re-rating function can be implemented for prepaid users without affecting the real-time use by the prepaid users. Thus, operators may converge the prepaid charging system and the postpaid charging system into one charging system, which not only can efficiently reduce operators' operation and maintenance cost but also can provide users with unified blended services, wherein the same charging function can be applicable to both prepaid users and postpaid users at the same time.
Other features, objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent with reference to the following detailed description to the nonrestrictive embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Firstly, explanations are made to the following concepts used in this text:
Call Detail Record (CDR) refers to information related to a certain call, at least including information such as calling and called numbers, call date, call time and call duration.
Rated call detail record refers to the expense information of a certain call calculated in accordance with the call detail record of the call and the current rating rule, at least including information such as calling and called numbers, call date, call time, call duration and call expense of the call.
Re-rated call detail record refers to the expense information of a certain call recalculated in accordance with the call detail record of the call and the rating rule for re-rating, at least including information such as calling and called numbers, call date, call time, call duration and recalculated call expense of the call.
Account profile refers to information related to an account of a prepaid user, at least including the current balance of the account and the rating rule for the subscribed telecommunication service.
It can be seen that, since the prepaid charging system needs to update account profile in real time, the re-rating function cannot be implemented. For example, if the current date is February 15, then the balance in the current account profile is the balance at the current time on February 15. When it is necessary to re-rate the calls from 0 am on February 2 to the current time on February 15 in accordance with a new rating rule, the system needs the balance of the account of 0 am on February 2, but this information cannot be obtained from the current system.
Thus, to solve the above problem, an approach for re-rating for prepaid users is proposed in the present invention. In the following, the method will be described in more detail with reference to
Here, the online charging apparatus 2a, the re-rating management apparatus 2b and the offline charging apparatus 2c are all functional entities, and they may exist in a same network server or in different network servers. For example, the online charging apparatus 2a, the re-rating management apparatus 2b and the offline charging apparatus 2c may respectively exist in three different network servers; or the online charging apparatus 2a exists in one network server while the re-rating management apparatus 2b and the offline charging apparatus 2c exist in another network server; or the online charging apparatus 2a, the re-rating management apparatus 2b and the offline charging apparatus 2c exist in a same network server.
Compared with
The method starts at Step S201 where the online charging apparatus 2a receives an online charging request from Network 201, and the online charging request includes detailed information of a call to be rated. For this request, the online charging apparatus 2a will execute the following actions:
In addition, the online charging apparatus 2a will periodically back up the current account profile, e.g. storing the current account profile at 0 am every day. Then Step S203 shown in
It needs to be pointed out that there is no necessary sequence between Step S202 and Step S203. Step S202 is triggered by the online charging apparatus 2a upon receiving an online charging request while Step S203 is triggered periodically.
The re-rating management apparatus 2b, after receiving the rating information transmission request from the online charging apparatus 2a, will extract the rated call detail record therefrom and store it locally.
The re-rating management apparatus 2b, after receiving the account profile transmission request from the online charging apparatus 2a, will extract the backed up account profile and store it locally.
The re-rating management apparatus 2b triggers the re-rating and determines the re-rating rule in accordance with external or internal conditions, i.e. executing Step S204 shown in
Then, the re-rating management apparatus 2b will execute a re-calculating step, i.e. generating a rated call detail record in accordance with the re-rating rule, wherein the re-rated call detail record includes the call expense re-calculated for the call.
Specifically, one embodiment of the re-calculating step is as follows:
After receiving the start point account profile transmission request (as shown in Step S205 of
After receiving the re-rating request message (as shown in Step S206 of
Then, the offline charging apparatus 2c re-rates the call detail records to be re-calculated in accordance with the rating rule for re-rating to generate re-rated call detail records. For example, the call detail records to be re-rated are shown in the following Table 1:
Assuming that the current tariff for the system is 1 yuan/per minute and the tariff for re-rating is 0.6 yuan/per minute, the re-rated call detail records obtained by the offline charging apparatus 2c are shown in the following Table 2:
After obtaining the re-rated call detail records, the offline charging apparatus 2c will execute Step S207 shown in
After receiving the re-rating reply message, the re-rating management apparatus 2b updates a corresponding account profile in accordance with the re-rated call detail record included therein. In case of multiple re-rating reply messages, the re-rating management apparatus 2b will update corresponding account profile after receiving all re-rated call detail records. For example, if the system needs to re-rate the calls from 0 am on February 2 to the current time on February 15, the re-rating management apparatus 2b reads the account balance in the account profile at 0 am on February 2 and then reads the records of February 2 in the re-rated call detail records, calculates the account balance at 0 am on February 3, and updates the account profile at 0 am on February 3. It will be understood that the rating rule for the account profile on February 3 will also be updated. On the analogy of this, the re-rating management apparatus 2b calculates respective account balances from February 3 to the current date and updates corresponding account profile.
Then, the re-rating management apparatus 2b will send to the online charging apparatus 2a an account profile update request, as shown in Step S208 of
After receiving the account profile update request, the online charging apparatus 2a updates the locally stored account profile in accordance with the account profile included therein, e.g. updating the locally stored account profiles from February 2 to the current date to the corresponding account profiles in the account profile update request.
Now, the charging system of the present invention finishes the re-rating process for prepaid users, achieves re-rating of the call detail records, and timely updates the corresponding account profile without affecting the real-time use by users.
In the following, the operating process of the online charging apparatus 2a will be described in more detail with reference to
Firstly, the rating means 301 receives the online charging request from Network 201, as shown in Step S201 of
Thereafter, the rating information transmitting means 302 sends the rating information transmission request to the re-rating management means 2b, as shown in Step S202 of
In addition, the account backing up means 303 will periodically back up the current account profile, e.g. storing the current account profile at 0 am every day, and then executes Step S203 shown in
It needs to be pointed out that there is no necessary sequence between Step S202 performed by the rating information transmitting means 302 and Step S203 performed by the account backing up means 303. Step S202 is triggered by the rating means 301 upon receiving the online charging request while Step S203 is triggered periodically.
The first account updating means 304 is adapted to receive the account profile update request from the re-rating management apparatus 2b, as shown in Step S208 of
In the following, the operating process of the re-rating management apparatus 2b will be described in more detail with reference to
The rating information receiving means 401 receives the rating information transmission request from the online charging apparatus 2a, as shown in Step S202 of
The account profile receiving means 402 receives the account profile transmission request from the online charging apparatus 2a, as shown in Step S203 of
The triggering means 403 triggers re-rating and determines a re-rating rule in accordance with external or internal conditions, i.e. executing Step S204 shown in
Then, the re-calculating means 404 will execute the re-calculating step, i.e. generating the re-rated call detail record in accordance with the re-calculating rule, wherein the re-rated call detail record includes the re-calculated call expense for a call.
Preferably, the re-calculating means 404 further includes a start point account updating means 404a, a determining means 404b, a re-rating request sending means 404c and a re-rating reply receiving means 404d.
The start point account updating means 404a is configured to determine a start point of re-rating, e.g. if the current date is February 15, and the operator wants to re-rate the calls from 0 am on February 2 to the current time in a new tariff, the re-rating management apparatus 2b will determine the start point of re-rating as 0 am on February 2. Then the start point account updating means 404a updates the account profile of the start point of re-rating in accordance with the re-rating rule, e.g. updating the rating rule for locally stored account profile at 0 am on February 2 from 1 yuan/per minute to 0.6 yuan/per minute. Then the start point account updating means 404a sends to the offline charging apparatus 2c a start point account profile transmission request including the updated account profile at the start point of re-rating.
The determining means 404b determines the call detail record to be re-rated in accordance with the re-rating rule, e.g. if the current date is February 15, and the operator wants to re-rate all of the calls from February 2 to the current date in a new tariff, the determining means 404b will determine that the call detail records to be re-rated are all calls from February 2 to the current date. If the operator wants to re-rate the calls for a user A from February 2 to the current date in a new tariff, the determining means 404b will determine that the call detail records to be re-rated are the calls for the user A from February 2 to the current date.
The re-rating request sending means 404c sends a re-rating request message to the offline charging apparatus 2c, as shown in Step S206 of
The re-rating reply receiving means 404d is configured to receive a re-rating reply message from the offline charging apparatus 2c, as shown in Step S207 of
After the re-rating reply receiving means 404d receives the re-rating reply message, the second account updating means 405 updates a corresponding account profile in accordance with the re-rated call detail record included therein. In case of multiple re-rating reply messages, the second account updating means 405 will update corresponding account profile after receiving all re-rated call detail records. For example, if the system needs to re-rate the calls from February 2 to February 15, the second account updating means 405 reads the account balance in the account profile at 0 am on February 2 and then reads the records of February 2 in the re-rated call detail records, calculates the account balance at 0 am on February 3, and updates the account profile at 0 am on February 3. It will be understood that the rating rule for the account profile on February 3 will also be updated. On the analogy of this, the second account updating means 405 calculates respective account balances from February 3 to the current date and updates corresponding account profile.
Then, the second account updating means 405 will send to the online charging apparatus 2a the account profile update request, as shown in Step S208 of
In the following, the operating process of the offline charging apparatus 2c will be described in more detail with reference to
The start point account profile receiving means 501 receives the start point account profile transmission request from the re-rating management apparatus 2b, as shown in Step S205 of
The re-rating request receiving means 502 receives the re-rating request message from the re-rating management apparatus 2b, as shown in Step S206 of
Then, the re-rated record generating means 503 re-rates the call detail records to be re-calculated in accordance with the rating rule for re-rating to generate re-rated call detail records. For example, the call detail records to be re-rated are as shown in the above Table 1. If the current tariff of the system is 1 yuan/per minute while the tariff of re-rating is 0.6 yuan/per minute, the re-rated call detail records obtained by the offline charging apparatus 2c are as shown in the above Table 2.
After the re-rated record generating means 503 has generated the re-rated call detail record, the re-rating reply sending means 504 will execute Step S207 as shown in
As described above, the online charging apparatus 2a, the re-rating management apparatus 2b and the offline charging apparatus 2c are all functional entities, and they should not necessarily be understood by those skilled in the art to be physical network entities.
For those skilled in the art, the present invention is obviously not limited to the details of the illustrative embodiments, and it can be carried out in other specific forms without departure from the spirit or basic features of the present invention. Therefore, no matter from which point of view, the embodiments shall be regarded as illustrative and non-restrictive. The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims rather than the above explanations, and thus the present invention intends to include all variants within the meaning and scope of equivalent elements of the claims. In addition, the word “include” obviously does not exclude other units or steps, and the singular form does not exclude the plural form. The wordings of first, second, etc. are used to represent names rather than any specific sequence.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 1 0085155 | Mar 2011 | CN | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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| PCT/IB2012/000733 | 3/13/2012 | WO | 00 | 9/24/2013 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2012/127324 | 9/27/2012 | WO | A |
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