A charging method, device and system

Abstract

The present invention relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a billing method, apparatus and system for use in a scenario where the same customer has multiple devices. In a billing method, a gateway manages the billing information of multiple devices of a customer currently connected to the gateway at the customer granularity, and only establishes a customer-level billing session or a customer-level CDR (Charging Data Record) for each customer. The message reporting the customer's billing information sent in the customer-level billing session or the customer-level CDR contains the customer's identifier and the billing information of one or more devices of the customer. The solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention reduces the maintenance cost of the billing session on the gateway side, reduces the consumption of network resources, and improves the performance of the gateway; at the same time, simplifies the processing of the online billing system and the offline billing system, and improves the processing performance of the online billing system and the offline billing system.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a billing method, device and system applied to a scenario where a same customer owns multiple devices. Background Art

[0002] In the communication system, each customer has one or more accounts in the billing system, and the account pays for the customer's equipment. When a customer has multiple devices at the same time, the account pays for the customer's multiple devices, that is, multiple devices share a customer account (account number). At the same time, each customer's device has an independent and unique access number (or identification information, or user identification, such as IMSI, etc.), which is used for access authentication, billing information collection, location management, etc. The current billing mechanism of operators is that in the case of online billing, the communication system establishes a billing session and allocates a billing quota for each IP-CAN (IP Connectivity Access Network) bearer or IP-CAN session that each device accesses the network; in the case of offline billing, the communication system creates a billing bill for each IP-CAN bearer or IP-CAN session that each device accesses the network.

[0003] With the development of technologies such as 5G and IoT (Internet of Things), the communication system will usher in a fully connected era of the Internet of Everything. The number of connections of devices or terminals will grow exponentially, and there will be a large number of scenarios where one customer has multiple devices. According to the current billing mechanism, when the number of connections surges, billing sessions and billing bills will grow exponentially, and each billing session or billing bill may only process or contain a small amount of billing information for a single device. This will cause the fragmentation of billing information and billing quotas, resulting in high-cost quota management and billing information management. At the same time, a large number of billing sessions and billing bills will greatly reduce the performance and processing efficiency of the gateway and billing system. Therefore, a solution is needed to solve the problem of fragmentation of billing information and billing quotas caused by establishing a billing session or billing bill for each device in the prior art when a customer has multiple devices, as well as the performance degradation of the gateway and billing system caused by such fragmentation. Summary of the invention

[0004] The embodiments of the present invention describe a billing method, apparatus and system, which avoid the fragmentation problem of billing information and billing quota in a scenario where a customer has multiple devices, reduce the performance consumption of the gateway and the billing system, and make the billing information and billing quota of the same customer in the gateway and the billing system easier to maintain.

[0005] In the first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a billing method, which is applicable to a scenario where a customer has multiple devices. In the method, the gateway manages the billing information of multiple devices of the customer currently connected to the gateway at the customer granularity, and only establishes a customer-level billing session or a customer-level CDR (Charging Data Record) for each customer. The message reporting the customer billing information sent in the customer-level billing session or the customer-level CDR contains the customer's identification and the billing information of one or more devices of the customer. The billing information of each device can be used as a billing information unit, and each billing information unit contains the device's identification and billing information. The billing method provided by the embodiment of the present invention can be applied to multiple billing scenarios such as online billing, offline billing Rf interface mode (referring to the way in which the gateway performs offline billing through the Rf interface), and offline billing CDR mode (referring to the way in which the gateway generates CDR for offline billing). The connection between the device and the gateway in the embodiment of the present invention refers to the bearer established between the device and the gateway for transmitting service data or service flow, such as PDN (Packet Data Network) connection. The following describes the method for different scenarios:

[0006] Online charging scenario:

[0007] In a possible design, when a certain device of a customer establishes a connection with a gateway, the gateway determines whether a customer-level billing session of the customer has been established on the current gateway. If a customer-level billing session of the customer already exists on the gateway, the gateway uses the customer-level billing session to report the billing information of the device; if the customer-level billing session of the customer does not exist on the gateway, the gateway creates a customer-level billing session for the customer. It should be noted that the "customer-level billing session" mentioned in the embodiment of the present invention refers to a billing session with customer-level granularity created by the gateway. The request to create the billing session carries the customer's identifier. The online billing system uses the customer's identifier to identify which customer's billing information is reported in the customer-level billing session; the customer-level billing session can be shared by multiple devices of the same customer. The gateway reports the customer's billing information in a customer-level billing session. The gateway includes the customer's identifier and the billing information of one or more devices currently connected to the gateway by the customer in the message reporting the customer's billing information. Through the solution provided by the embodiment of the present application, the gateway only needs to maintain one customer-level billing session for one or more devices of the same customer that are currently connected to the gateway at any time, which reduces the maintenance cost of the billing session on the gateway side, reduces the consumption of network resources, and improves the gateway performance; in the customer-level billing session, the gateway can report the billing information of multiple devices, so that the online billing system obtains the billing information of multiple devices of the same customer in one billing session, avoids collecting and merging billing information in different billing sessions of multiple devices of the same customer, simplifies the processing of the online billing system, and improves the processing performance of the online billing system.

[0008] In one possible design, when a customer's device is disconnected from the gateway, in order to ensure that the customer-level billing session used by the device can continue to be used by other devices of the customer that are currently connected to the gateway, the gateway determines whether the connection to be disconnected is the customer's last connection on the gateway. If so, it means that no other device is connected to the gateway and there is no need to continue using the customer-level billing session, then the gateway disconnects the customer's customer-level billing session. If not, it means that there are other devices of the customer that are currently connected to the gateway and the customer-level billing session still needs to be used, then the gateway retains the customer-level billing session of the customer.

[0009] In the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, since the billing session is created and maintained at the customer-level granularity, that is, multiple devices of the same customer share one customer-level billing session, in a possible design, similarly, the billing quota and billing event are also allocated and used at the customer-level granularity, that is, multiple devices sharing the same customer-level billing session share the quota and billing event. Specifically, after a certain device of the customer establishes a connection with the gateway, the gateway reuses or creates a new customer-level billing session, and the gateway determines whether it has applied for quota and billing event to the online billing system for the rate group to which the device belongs. If not, the gateway applies for quota for the rate group; if so, the quota and billing event are used. The request message for the gateway to apply for a quota carries the customer's ID. When the online billing system receives this message, it allocates a quota to the rate group based on the customer's granularity, and returns the quota and corresponding billing events of the rate group to the gateway; the quota and billing event are at the customer level, that is, the subsequent connection with the gateway is established, and the customer-level billing session is shared, and other devices of the customer using the same rate group can use the quota and billing event. When the connection between a certain device of the customer and the gateway is disconnected, the quota used by the device continues to be used by other devices in the customer-level billing session that use the same rate group. It can be seen that the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention solves the problem of billing quota fragmentation for multiple devices owned by the same customer. The online billing system allocates quotas based on the customer's granularity, and the gateway side uses and maintains quotas based on the customer's granularity, which improves billing accuracy and reduces the performance consumption of the online billing system and the gateway.

[0010] In one possible design, when one or more devices using any rate group meet the conditions of a billing event, the gateway reports a billing message to the online billing system, where the billing message includes the customer's identifier and billing information of one or more devices of the customer that meet the billing event.

[0011] In one possible design, the billing information of each device can be used as a billing information unit, which includes the identification and billing information of a device currently connected to the gateway. The device identification can be IMSI, IP address, IMEI, SIP address or other identification.

[0012] Offline charging Rf interface scenario:

[0013] In the offline billing Rf interface mode, in the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the customer-level billing session established by the gateway is a session between the gateway and the CDF (Charging Data Function) on the Rf interface; the process of creating or using the customer-level billing session on the Rf interface on the gateway side is the same as the process of creating or using the customer-level billing session between the gateway and the online billing system in the online billing mode; the way the gateway reports the billing information in the customer-level billing session is the same as the way the gateway reports the billing information in the customer-level billing information in the online billing mode, both of which are in a customer-level billing session, including the customer's identification and the billing information of one or more devices. Different from the online billing scenario, in the offline billing mode, the gateway does not need to apply for a quota for the rate group, and the billing event corresponding to the rate group is statically configured on the gateway. The gateway directly collects the billing information of multiple devices of the same customer and reports the billing information of multiple devices of the customer in the customer-level billing session. Through the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, there is no need for the gateway and CDF to create or maintain multiple billing sessions for multiple devices of a customer, but only one customer-level billing session needs to be created or maintained, thereby saving network overhead and improving the processing performance of the gateway and CDF; since the CDF can directly obtain the billing information of multiple devices of the same customer in one billing session, the problem of billing information fragmentation is solved, the billing information processing of the CDF is simplified, and the processing performance of the CDF is improved.

[0014] In one possible design, the gateway establishes the customer-level billing session with the CDF functional entity; the billing event of a certain rate group configured on the gateway is applied to one or more devices of the customer that share the customer-level billing session and use the rate group; when one or more devices using any rate group meet the conditions of the billing event, the gateway reports a billing message to the CDF, and the billing message includes the customer's identifier and the billing information of one or more devices that meet the billing event.

[0015] In one possible design, the billing information of each device can be used as a billing information unit, which includes the identification and billing information of a device currently connected to the gateway. The device identification can be IMSI, IP address, IMEI, SIP address or other identification.

[0016] Offline billing CDR mode scenario:

[0017] In the offline billing CDR mode, in the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the gateway creates a customer-level CDR for multiple devices of the same customer, and the customer-level CDR records the customer's identification and the billing information of one or more devices of the customer. Through the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the gateway records the billing information of multiple devices of the same customer in one CDR and reports it to the offline billing system, which solves the problem of fragmentation of billing information, simplifies the processing of the offline billing system, and improves the billing processing performance and processing efficiency of the offline billing system; at the same time, since the gateway does not need to create and maintain multiple CDRs for multiple devices, the billing information of multiple devices can be reported to the offline billing system in one CDR file, saving the gateway's overhead and improving the gateway's processing performance.

[0018] In one possible design, when a device of a customer establishes a connection with a gateway, if a customer-level CDR of the customer to whom the device belongs does not exist on the gateway, the gateway creates a customer-level CDR for the customer to record the billing information of the device; if a customer-level CDR of the customer exists on the gateway, the gateway uses the customer-level CDR to record the billing information of the device.

[0019] In one possible design, when the connection between a certain device of a customer and the gateway is disconnected, when the connection to be disconnected is the last connection between the customer and the gateway, the gateway closes the customer-level CDR; when the connection to be disconnected is not the last connection between the customer and the gateway, the gateway continues to use the customer-level CDR to record the billing information of other devices of the customer.

[0020] In one possible design, a billing event of any rate group of the customer is configured on the gateway, and the billing event is applicable to one or more devices of the customer using the rate group. The gateway detects the billing event and records the billing information of one or more devices of the customer that meet the billing event in the customer-level CDR.

[0021] In a possible design, the billing information of each device can be used as a billing information unit, which includes an identifier of a device and billing information. The identifier of the device can be IMSI, IP address, IMEI, SIP address or other identifiers.

[0022] In one possible design, the gateway is configured with customer-level CDR reporting conditions, such as when the CDR recording duration reaches a specified duration, or when the CDR capacity or size reaches a specified capacity or size, etc. When the customer-level CDR reporting conditions are met, the gateway sends the customer-level CDR to the offline billing system.

[0023] It should be noted that the gateway can execute the billing method of sharing customer-level billing sessions or sharing customer-level CDRs provided in this application on all customer devices; it can also execute the solution provided in this application only on some customer devices. For example, after the device establishes a connection with the gateway, the gateway can query the local configuration based on the device's identifier, or query other entities that store customer data, or obtain information about the device based on the policy information of the device issued by the PCRF to determine whether the device needs to share a customer-level billing session or a customer-level CDR.

[0024] It should also be noted that the gateway can obtain the device identification and the customer identification in a variety of ways, which are not limited in the embodiments of the present invention. For example, the gateway can obtain the device identification and the customer identification of the device in the request to establish a connection, and can also obtain the device identification or the customer identification through local configuration, and can also obtain the customer identification of the device by querying the subscription relationship storage entity.

[0025] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a gateway for an online charging scenario, wherein the gateway has the function of implementing the gateway behavior in the online charging scenario in the method described in the first aspect. The function can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions.

[0026] In one possible design, the gateway includes a device communication module, a judgment module, a billing communication module and an execution module. The device communication module is used to send messages to the device or receive messages from the device, and establish a connection with one or more devices of the customer; the judgment module is used to determine whether there is a customer-level billing session of the customer with the online billing system after the device communication module establishes a connection with the customer's device; the billing communication module is used to communicate with the online billing system, send billing-related messages generated by the execution module to the online billing system, and receive messages sent by the online billing system; the execution module is used to generate a request to establish a customer-level billing session to the online billing system when the judgment module determines that there is no customer-level billing session of the customer, and the request includes the customer's identifier; it is also used to generate a request message to apply to the online billing system for a quota of any rate group of the customer and a corresponding billing event, and the request message includes the customer's identifier; it is used to bill the customer's device according to the quota and billing event allocated by the online billing system received by the billing communication module, and generate a message to report the billing information of one or more devices of the customer, and the message to report the billing information includes the customer's identifier; the above-mentioned various billing-related messages generated by the execution module are sent to the online billing system through the billing communication module.

[0027] In a possible design, the gateway includes a processor, a memory, a bus, and a communication interface. The memory is used to store computer-executable instructions, the processor and the memory are connected via the bus, and when the device is running, the processor executes the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory, so that the gateway executes the method for implementing charging in the online charging scenario of the first aspect.

[0028] In a third aspect, the present invention provides a gateway for offline charging in an Rf interface scenario, the gateway having a function of implementing the gateway behavior in the offline charging Rf interface scenario in the method described in the first aspect. The function can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions.

[0029] In a possible design, the gateway includes a device communication module, a judgment module, a billing communication module and an execution module. The device communication module is used to send messages to the device, or receive messages from the device, and establish a connection with one or more devices of the customer; the judgment module is used to determine whether there is a customer-level billing session of the customer with the CDF after the device communication module establishes a connection with the customer's device; the billing communication module is used to communicate with the online billing system and send billing-related messages generated by the execution module to the online billing system; the execution module is used to generate a request to establish a customer-level billing session to the CDF when the judgment module determines that there is no customer-level billing session of the customer, and the request contains the customer's identifier; the device of the customer is charged according to the billing event, and a message is generated to report the billing information of one or more devices of the customer, and the message reporting the billing information contains the customer's identifier; the above-mentioned various billing-related messages generated by the execution module are sent to the CDF through the billing communication module.

[0030] In a possible design, the gateway includes a processor, a memory, a bus, and a communication interface. The memory is used to store computer-executable instructions, the processor and the memory are connected through the bus, and when the device is running, the processor executes the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory, so that the gateway executes the method for implementing charging in the offline charging Rf interface scenario of the first aspect.

[0031] In a fourth aspect, the present invention provides a gateway for offline charging CDR mode scenario, the gateway having the function of implementing the gateway behavior in the offline charging CDR mode scenario in the method described in the first aspect. The function can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions.

[0032] In a possible design, the gateway includes a device communication module, a judgment module, a billing communication module and an execution module. The device communication module is used to send messages to the device, or receive messages from the device, and establish a connection with one or more devices of the customer; the judgment module is used to determine whether there is a customer-level CDR of the customer after the device communication module establishes a connection with the customer's device; the billing communication module is used to report the customer's customer-level CDR to the offline billing system; the execution module is used to create a customer-level CDR when the judgment module determines that there is no customer-level CDR, and is also used to bill the customer's device according to the customer's billing event, and write the billing information of the customer's one or more devices into the customer's customer-level CDR, and the customer-level CDR also contains the customer's identification.

[0033] In a possible design, the gateway includes a processor, a memory, a bus, and a communication interface. The memory is used to store computer-executable instructions, the processor and the memory are connected through the bus, and when the device is running, the processor executes the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory, so that the gateway executes the method for implementing billing in the offline billing CDR method scenario of the first aspect.

[0034] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides an online charging system entity, which has the function of implementing the online charging system behavior in the method described in the first aspect. The function can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions.

[0035] In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a system for online charging, the system comprising a gateway in the method embodiment of the online charging scenario described in the first aspect or in the device embodiment of the second aspect, and an online charging system entity in the method embodiment of the online charging scenario described in the first aspect or in the device embodiment of the fifth aspect.

[0036] In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium, wherein the computer-readable storage medium stores instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the gateway method in the online charging scenario in the method described in the first aspect.

[0037] In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which instructions are stored. When the computer-readable storage medium is run on a computer, the computer executes the gateway method in the offline billing Rf interface scenario in the method described in the first aspect.

[0038] In a ninth aspect, the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium, wherein instructions are stored in the computer-readable storage medium. When the computer-readable storage medium is run on a computer, the computer executes the gateway method in the offline billing CDR scenario in the method described in the first aspect.

[0039] In a tenth aspect, the present invention provides a computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the gateway method in the online charging scenario in the method described in the first aspect.

[0040] In the eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the gateway method in the offline charging Rf interface scenario in the method described in the first aspect.

[0041] In a twelfth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the gateway method in the offline billing CDR scenario in the method described in the first aspect.

[0042] In addition, the technical effects brought about by the devices, systems, computer-readable storage media or computer program products described in the second to twelfth aspects can be referred to the technical effects brought about in different scenarios in the method described in the first aspect, and will not be repeated here.

[0043] It should also be noted that in order to clearly illustrate the technical solution provided by the present invention, the above-mentioned aspects describe the gateway in different scenarios. Ordinary technicians in this field should understand that the functions of the gateway in different scenarios in the technical solution of the present invention can also be combined as needed, and can also produce good technical effects. For example, a gateway can simultaneously support a method for sharing customer-level billing sessions in an online billing scenario and a method for sharing customer-level CDRs in an offline billing scenario. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0044] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention, the accompanying drawings required for use in the description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the accompanying drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other accompanying drawings can be obtained based on these accompanying drawings without paying creative labor.

[0045] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a possible application scenario of an embodiment of the present invention;

[0046] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a process of sharing a client-level billing session in an online billing mode provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0047] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of a structure for recording billing information of one or more devices of a customer provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0048] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of a process of sharing a client-level billing session in another online billing mode provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0049] Figure 5 A schematic diagram of a process of sharing a client-level billing session in an offline billing Rf interface mode provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0050] Figure 6 A schematic diagram of a process of sharing a customer-level CDR in an offline charging CDR mode provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0051] Figure 7 A schematic diagram of a computer device provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0052] Figure 8 A schematic diagram of a gateway structure provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0053] Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of another gateway structure provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0054] Fig.10 A schematic diagram of another gateway structure provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0055] Fig.11 A schematic diagram of the structure of an online charging system provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0056] Fig.12 A schematic diagram of a system for implementing a shared client-level billing session provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0057] Fig.13 A schematic diagram of another system for implementing shared client-level billing sessions provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0058] Fig.14 A schematic diagram of a system for implementing shared customer-level CDR provided by an embodiment of the present invention; DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0059] The technical solution in the embodiment of the present invention will be described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in the embodiment of the present invention. The network architecture and business scenarios described in the embodiment of the present invention are intended to more clearly illustrate the technical solution in the embodiment of the present invention, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present invention. A person of ordinary skill in the art will know that with the evolution of the network architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present invention is also applicable to similar technical problems. Those skilled in the art are capable of designing flexible and diverse communication network implementation solutions based on the contents of the embodiment of the present invention. The following only uses several instantiated solutions to illustrate some possible implementation methods of the embodiment of the present invention in the communication network. No matter how the names, locations, and interactive relationships of these network elements change in the future, as long as they have the functions of the communication network in the embodiment of the present invention, they are all within the protection scope of the present invention.

[0060] In this application, a customer refers to a person or organization that signs a service subscription relationship with an operator, who usually pays for the subscribed services and has one or more accounts in the operator's billing system; a customer owns one or more devices, such as user equipment (UE); the device has an identifier assigned to it by the operator, and the operator network identifies the device through the identifier of the device. The identifier of the device described in this application may specifically be one or more of an IMSI, an IP address, a SIP address or other identifiers; the customer's one or more devices share the customer's account balance.

[0061] In this application, the customer's devices can be all the customer's devices or the device group specified in the subscription relationship. For example, a customer subscribes to an IoT service and specifies which IoT devices belong to a user device group (i.e., share a billing session). The customer's other devices (such as mobile phones, etc.) may still have separate billing sessions for control.

[0062] The technical solution described in the embodiment of the present invention can be applied to Figure 1 The communication system shown in the figure has a large number of customers with multiple devices, and these devices share a billing account. Multiple devices of a customer are connected to one or more gateways according to geographical location or device type or system configuration. Figure 1It is only a schematic diagram of the network architecture. The gateway in the figure may have different forms under a specific network architecture or network deployment, corresponding to different network elements. For example, in a GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) network, the gateway may be a GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node), and in an EPC (Evolved Packet Core) network, the gateway may be a PDN GW (Packet Data Network Gate Way). In the future 5G network, due to the separation of the control plane and the user plane, the gateway responsible for user equipment access and billing may be a gateway, or it may be composed of a control plane gateway and a user plane gateway. For example, the control plane gateway is responsible for billing session establishment and quota management, while the user plane gateway is responsible for traffic billing. The control plane and the user plane jointly implement the billing function. Since the 5G network architecture has not yet been determined, the gateways in all the figures in this article are for the purpose of describing logical functions and do not represent specific physical forms.

[0063] The gateway establishes a customer-level billing session or creates a customer-level CDR (Charging Data Record) for the customer to report or record the billing information of multiple devices of a customer. For online billing, the quota is allocated at the customer granularity, that is, the quota allocated to a certain rate group of a certain customer is used by all devices of the customer on the gateway that use the rate group. The billing system mentioned in the embodiment of the present invention can be OCS (Online Charging System) or OFCS (Offline Charging System). It should also be noted that the billing information of the device reported in the customer-level billing session or recorded in the customer-level CDR can be in a variety of forms. The embodiment of the present invention does not limit the implementation form. For example, the identification of each device and its billing information can be recorded in the information record table, or the identification of each device and its corresponding billing information can be recorded in the form of AVP (attribute value pair); but no matter which method is used, the billing information of each device can be abstracted into a billing information unit. In order to identify which device's billing information is recorded in the billing information unit, the billing information unit must contain the device's identification. The billing information unit described in the embodiment of the present invention is an abstract logical concept, specifically referring to a collection of data or information that includes the identification of the device and the billing information of the device. In actual product design and implementation, those skilled in the art can design specific cells and fields to explicitly represent the billing information unit, or they can explicitly or implicitly represent the device identification and the collection of the device's billing information in other ways.

[0064] like Figure 1 As shown in the figure, customer A has multiple devices, device 1 to device 5, of which device 1 to device 3 are connected to gateway 1, and device 4 to device 5 are connected to gateway 2. Customer A has an account in the billing system and pays for all of customer A's devices. According to the current billing mechanism:

[0065] In online billing mode, when any device establishes a connection with the gateway, the gateway will establish a billing session with the OCS. That is, when devices 1 to 5 establish a connection with gateway 1 or gateway 2 at the same time, there will be three billing sessions between gateway 1 and the OCS system, and there will be two billing sessions between gateway 2 and the OCS system. Each billing session corresponds to a different device of customer A, and OCS needs to allocate different billing quotas to each device.

[0066] In the offline charging mode, the gateway records the charging information of each access device in a different CDR (Charging Data Record), and needs to establish a different charging session to send the CDR of each device to OFCS separately.

[0067] It can be seen that under the existing billing model, when a customer has multiple devices and when there are a large number of such customers in the system, it will cause fragmentation of billing quotas and fragmentation of billing information, which will in turn reduce the performance and processing efficiency of the gateway and billing system.

[0068] The technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention is to solve the problem of fragmentation of billing quota or billing information, and its impact on network performance, such as occupying more billing session resources, reducing the performance and processing efficiency of gateways and billing systems, etc. Figure 1 In the system shown, the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention is adopted:

[0069] In the online billing mode, taking gateway 1 as an example, only one billing session is established between gateway 1 and the OCS system. This billing session is a customer-level billing session, that is, gateway 1 reports the billing information of all devices of customer A that are currently connected to the gateway in this billing session. The quota allocated by OCS to gateway 1 can be used by one or more device connections of the customer. Specifically: OCS allocates a quota corresponding to a certain rate group to gateway 1, and multiple user device connections of the customer use this rate group, then these multiple user devices can use this quota. In one case, when device 1-device 3 are connected to gateway 1 at the same time and use the same rate group, there is only one billing session and one quota on gateway 1, and the billing session and quota are shared by the three devices;

[0070] In offline billing mode, taking gateway 2 as an example, when device 4 and device 5 are connected to gateway 2 at the same time, gateway 2 only opens one CDR and records the billing information of the two devices in one CDR. When the CDR reporting conditions are met, gateway 2 only needs to establish a connection with OFCS to report the CDR.

[0071] It can be seen that through the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the number of connections between the gateway and the billing system is reduced, and the gateway and the billing system do not need to save multiple billing quotas or billing information for multiple devices of the same customer, thereby reducing the performance consumption of the gateway and the billing system, making it easier to maintain the billing information and billing quotas of the same customer in the gateway and the billing system.

[0072] The embodiments of the present invention are further described below in conjunction with more drawings.

[0073] Embodiment 1: In the online charging mode, multiple devices of the same customer share a charging session, and the multiple devices share a charging quota of a rate group.

[0074] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a shared charging session flow in an online charging mode provided by an embodiment of the present invention. In all embodiments of the present invention, it is assumed that device 1, device 2 and device 3 all belong to client A.

[0075] In step 201, device 1 establishes a connection with gateway 1. Establishing a connection is a prerequisite for the device to perform any service. For example, in the EPC network, the device must first establish a PDN connection with the PDN GW before performing a session, data reporting or any other service. Device 1 carries the device identifier in the request message for establishing a connection. The device identifier can be IMSI, IP address, IMEI, SIP address or other identifier that enables the gateway to uniquely identify the device. Before establishing a charging session with the online charging system, gateway 1 also needs to obtain the device-related charging policy, including information such as the rate group used by the device. The process of obtaining the charging policy and rate group is not within the scope of the solution provided by the present invention, and the embodiment of the present invention is not described and limited in detail. In one possible way, during the process of establishing a connection between the device and gateway 1, gateway 1 can send a policy request message to PCRF (Policy and Charging Rules Function), and PCRF sends the device-related QoS policy and charging policy to the gateway. In this embodiment, it is assumed that device 1 is designated as rate group 1 by PCRF. It should be noted that the method for sharing a billing session described in the embodiment of the present invention can be applied to all customers and their devices in the network, or can be applied only to some customers and their devices through contract signing or configuration. The embodiment of the present invention does not limit this. When not all customers and their devices in the network need to share a billing session, the gateway 1 needs to confirm whether the device needs to share a billing session before establishing a billing session, that is, whether the device needs to share a billing session with other devices of the customer to which it belongs. For example, the gateway 1 can learn whether the device needs to share a billing session from the billing policy issued by the PCRF, or can locally configure which devices need to share a billing session in the gateway 1. The gateway 1 can also query other entities (such as a subscription relationship storage entity) based on the device's identifier whether the device needs to share a billing session.

[0076] In step 202, if the device does not need to share the billing session, the gateway 1 establishes a billing session for the device 1 according to the current existing technology; if the device 1 needs to share the billing session, and there is no customer-level billing session of customer A on the gateway 1, the gateway 1 establishes a customer-level billing session for customer A, and the customer-level billing session will be shared by multiple devices of customer A. The gateway 1 adds a customer identifier to the session establishment request message sent to the online billing system, indicating that this billing session is a customer-level billing session. The gateway 1 can obtain the customer identifier in a variety of ways, which are not limited in the embodiment of the present invention. For example, the gateway 1 can obtain the customer identifier corresponding to the device identifier through local configuration, or obtain the customer identifier in the connection request message sent by the device, or obtain the customer identifier by querying the subscription relationship storage entity. Since this billing session is associated with the customer identifier, if other devices of customer A are subsequently connected through the gateway 1, the gateway 1 does not need to establish a billing session for other devices of customer A, and other devices can directly use this billing session, which reduces the message interaction between network elements, saves network resources, and improves the processing performance of the gateway 1 and the online billing system.

[0077] In step 203, gateway 1 applies for a billing quota for device 1. In addition to the rate group and other information of the device, the quota application message also carries the customer ID, indicating that this application is a customer-level quota application, and the applied quota can be shared by all rate group 1 devices of customer A. If a CCR (Credit-Control-Request) message is used to apply for a quota, gateway 1 can set the Subscription-Id in the CCR message to the customer ID. Similar to the effect of the customer-level billing session in step 202, the customer-level rate application in step 203 also avoids the subsequent gateway from repeatedly applying for quotas for multiple devices using the same rate group. Multiple devices in the same rate group of the same customer share one quota, reducing the interaction between network elements in applying for quotas and improving the efficiency of the network and network elements.

[0078] In step 204, the online billing system issues a customer-level quota and a billing event corresponding to the quota for rate group 1. A billing event can be understood as a trigger condition for reporting billing information, such as a timed reporting cycle, or when the remaining quota is below a certain level, or when the location of the device changes. Since this billing session is a customer-level billing session, and gateway 1 applies for a customer-level quota, the billing event corresponding to the quota also applies to all devices of customer A using rate group 1. For any subsequent device that is connected to the gateway and shares the customer-level billing session, if rate group 1 is used, gateway 1 will report the billing information of the device once the billing event corresponding to rate group 1 is met. This billing event can be understood as a billing event applicable to the customer level.

[0079] In step 205, gateway 1 reports the billing message of client A according to the triggering condition of the billing event when device 1 meets the triggering condition, such as Figure 3 As shown, it contains the identifier of customer A and one or more billing information units of customer A, and each billing information unit is used to report the billing information of a device. Since only device 1 is connected to gateway 1 and uses this customer-level billing session at this time, in step 205, the billing message of customer A reported by gateway 1 contains only one billing information unit, which is used to report the billing information of device 1. The billing information unit of device 1 contains the identifier of device 1 and the billing information of the device, wherein the identifier of the device can specifically be one or more of IMSI, IP address, IMEI, SIP address or other identifiers. If the billing information is reported using a CCR message, gateway 1 can set the Subscription-Id in the CCR message to the customer identifier, carry multiple PS-Informations in Service-Information, and each PS-Information is used as a billing information unit, wherein the Subscription-Id in the PS-Information is set to the identifier of a certain device of the customer, which is used to identify the billing information of which device the billing information unit is. In the embodiment of the present invention, a billing message reported by the gateway can carry the billing information of multiple devices of the customer, which not only saves network overhead, but also facilitates the billing system to merge the billing information of multiple devices of the same customer. The billing system can directly obtain the billing information of multiple devices of the customer in a reported customer-level billing message. It is easy to think and understand that since the billing information unit contains the device identifier to distinguish which device identifier is recorded, according to specific business scenarios and business needs, such as Figure 3 In the billing message of the customer shown in , the billing information of the same device can also be included in multiple billing information units, such as Figure 3 The billing information unit 1 and the billing information unit 2 can both be used to record the billing information of device 1.

[0080] In step 206, device 2 establishes a connection with gateway 1. Similar to the description in steps 201 and 202, gateway 1 obtains information related to device 2, such as the device ID and the customer ID to which it belongs, and the billing policy of device 2. In this embodiment, it is assumed that device 2 also uses rate group 1. Gateway 1 confirms that device 2 needs to share a billing session, and there is a customer-level billing session of customer A on gateway 1, then gateway 1 no longer creates a billing session for device 2, and device 2 uses the customer-level billing session of customer A created in step 2. Since device 2 also uses rate group 1, the quota and corresponding billing events of rate group 1 issued by the billing system in step 4 are also applicable to device 2.

[0081] In step 207, gateway 1 detects that device 1 and device 2 simultaneously meet the triggering conditions of the billing event, and reports a billing message of customer A, which includes the customer identifier of customer A and two billing information units. The two billing information units contain the billing information of device 1 and device 2, respectively. For possible specific implementations, please refer to the description in step 205, which will not be repeated here. It should be noted that in a customer-level billing session, during the process of device 1 and device 2 using the quota, if the quota is insufficient, the gateway needs to reapply for the quota. The request message for applying for the quota needs to carry the customer's identifier. The process of reapplying for the quota is the same as the description in step 203, which will not be repeated here. It should also be noted that device 1 and device 2 may meet the triggering conditions of the billing event multiple times, and gateway 1 may have to report the billing message multiple times. The process shown in this embodiment is only for illustration and does not impose any limit on the number of times the gateway reports the billing message.

[0082] In step 208, the connection between device 1 and gateway 1 is disconnected due to device offline or service termination or other network reasons. According to the prior art, gateway 1 needs to disconnect the billing session of device 1. However, since the billing session used by device 1 is a customer-level billing session and is shared by multiple devices, gateway 1 needs to determine whether there are other devices currently sharing this customer-level billing session. Since device 2 is still connected to the gateway and is using this billing session, gateway 1 needs to retain this customer-level billing session, and retain the previously applied quota and corresponding billing session.

[0083] In step 209, device 3 establishes a connection with gateway 1. Similar to the process in step 206, since there is still a customer-level billing session for customer A, device 3 uses this customer-level billing session. Assuming that device 3 uses rate group 1, device 2 and device 3 share the quota.

[0084] In step 210, gateway 1 detects that device 2 and device 3 simultaneously meet the triggering conditions of the billing event, and reports the billing message of client A, which includes the client identifier of client A and two billing information units. The two billing information units respectively include the billing information of device 2 and device 3. For possible specific implementations, please refer to the description in step 205, which will not be repeated here.

[0085] In step 211, the connection between device 2 and gateway 1 is disconnected, and only device 3 is left to use the client-level billing session.

[0086] In step 212 , gateway 1 reports the billing information of device 3 , and the reported billing message includes the identifier of client A and the billing information unit of device 3 .

[0087] In step 213, the connection between device 3 and gateway 1 is disconnected. Gateway 1 confirms that there is no other connection with customer A's device on the current gateway. The connection to be disconnected is the last connection between customer A and the gateway. Gateway 1 then disconnects the customer-level billing session at the same time in step 214.

[0088] In this embodiment, the gateway does not need to establish three billing sessions for three devices, but only needs to establish one billing session; the gateway does not need to apply for quotas for the three devices separately, but only needs to apply for quotas once; the billing events corresponding to the quotas are applicable to the three devices at the same time, and when the three devices meet the triggering conditions of the billing events, the gateway can report the billing information of multiple devices in one billing message. It can be seen that the solution of the embodiment of the present invention solves the problem of fragmentation of billing information and billing quotas when a customer has multiple devices, and improves the performance of the gateway and the billing system.

[0089] Example 2: In online billing mode, multiple devices of the same customer share a billing session, and multiple devices use different rate groups

[0090] In Example 1, it is assumed that the three devices of customer A use the same rate group. When the devices of customer A use different rate groups, gateway 1 needs to allocate quotas for different rate groups. Assume that device 1 of customer A uses rate group 1, and devices 2 and 3 use rate group 2. Figure 4 A schematic flow chart of possible billing session creation and billing message reporting is given. Figure 2 The difference is that after device 2 establishes a connection with gateway 1 in step 406, gateway 1 learns that device 2 uses rate group 2. Although device 2 can share a customer-level billing session with device 1, since the gateway currently does not apply for a quota for rate group 2, gateway 1 needs to apply for a quota for rate group 2 in step 407. The request message for applying for a quota in step 407 carries the customer ID of customer A. The quota and the billing event corresponding to the quota obtained in step 408 are applicable to all devices of customer A that use rate group 2. That is, after device 3 establishes a connection with the gateway, gateway 1 no longer needs to apply for a quota for device 3. Figure 4 For other steps, see Figure 2 The steps described in are not repeated here.

[0091] Example 3: Multiple devices of the same customer share a billing session in offline billing Rf interface mode

[0092] The solution provided by this method embodiment is not only applicable to online billing, but also to offline billing. Figure 5A possible implementation of the present invention using the Rf interface mode of offline charging is given. The Rf interface is the interface between the PCN (Packetswitched Core network Node) network element (such as PDN GW) and the CDF (Charging Data Function). In this mode, the PDN GW reports the charging information to the CDF, and the CDF generates a CDR (Charging Data Record) and finally reports it to the offline charging system. That is, in Figure 1 In the network architecture, a CDF entity is inserted between the gateway and the offline billing system, which is responsible for generating CDRs and reporting CDRs to the offline billing system. Under the offline billing Rf interface mode, the gateway does not need to apply for a quota, and directly reports billing information to the CDF according to the billing events corresponding to the locally configured rate group. In this embodiment, the same steps and methods as those in the previous embodiments are no longer repeated, such as how the gateway obtains device-related information (such as the device identifier, the customer identifier, the billing policy and the rate group, whether a shared billing session is required, etc.). Here we only focus on how multiple devices of the same customer share a billing session under the offline billing Rf mode, and report the billing information of multiple devices in one billing message.

[0093] In step 502, gateway 1 sends an Accounting Request [start] message to CDF, which carries the customer identifier, to start a customer-level billing session between the gateway and CDF. CDF receives the Accounting Request [start] message and opens a CDR for customer A to record the billing information of customer A's device.

[0094] In step 503, after device 2 establishes a connection with gateway 1, gateway 1 determines that a billing session has been established for customer A, and no longer sends an Accounting Request [start] message to CDF. Device 2 and device 1 share a customer-level billing session.

[0095] In step 504, device 1 and device 2 respectively meet the billing events corresponding to their respective rate groups, and gateway 1 reports the billing information of device 1 and device 2 in the Accounting Request [Interim] message. The Accounting Request [Interim] message contains the customer ID of customer A and two billing information units, and the two billing information units contain the IDs of device 1 and device 2 and their billing information respectively. After receiving the Accounting Request [Interim] message, the CDF writes the billing information of device 1 and device 2 into customer A's CDR.

[0096] In steps 505 and 508, when the connection between a device and gateway 1 is disconnected, gateway 1 determines that there are other connections of customer A, and retains the billing session between customer A and CDF. After other devices of customer A come online, this billing session continues to be used to report the billing information of other devices, such as in step 507, gateway 1 reports the billing information of device 2 and device 3, and in step 509, gateway 1 reports the billing information of device 3.

[0097] In step 511, when the last connection between customer A and gateway 1 is disconnected (i.e., the connection between device 3 and the gateway is disconnected), gateway 1 sends an Accounting Request [Stop] message to disconnect the billing session of customer A between gateway 1 and CDF. After receiving this message, CDF closes the CDR of customer A.

[0098] It can be seen that using the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, in the offline billing Rf interface mode, multiple devices of the same customer connected to the gateway share a billing session, and the billing message reported by the gateway to the CDF contains the billing information of multiple devices. Therefore, the gateway does not need to establish multiple billing sessions with the CDF, and the CDF does not need to open multiple CDRs for the same customer, which saves network overhead and simplifies the billing processing on the gateway side and the CDF side.

[0099] Embodiment 3 describes a flow chart of multiple devices sharing a billing session in a scenario where the CDF function is deployed separately from the gateway. When the gateway itself has the CDF function, the gateway locally records and maintains the customer's CDR and reports the CDR to the offline billing system according to the predefined rules.

[0100] Example 4: Multiple devices of the same customer share CDR in offline billing CDR mode

[0101] Figure 6 A flow chart of how multiple devices of the same customer share CDR in the gateway offline billing CDR mode is given.

[0102] In step 601, after device 1 establishes a connection with gateway 1, gateway 1 determines that there is no other connection with customer A at present, and then opens the CDR of customer A, and records the customer ID of customer A in the CDR. Gateway 1 counts the billing information of device 1 (such as network resources and data traffic usage information), and writes the billing information of device 1 into the CDR when device 1 meets the billing event configured locally in the gateway. It should be noted that the method of sharing CDR under offline billing mode can be applied to all customers and their devices in the network, or only to some customers and their devices through contract signing or configuration. The embodiment of the present invention does not limit this. When not all customers and their devices in the network need to share CDR, gateway 1 only executes the method of sharing CDR described in the embodiment of the present invention for the devices that need to share CDR. If the device does not need to share CDR, gateway 1 opens a CDR for each device connected to it according to the prior art. Gateway 1 can learn whether the device needs to share CDR from the billing policy issued by PCRF, and can also locally configure which devices need to share CDR. Gateway 1 can also query other entities (such as subscription relationship storage entity) whether the device needs to share CDR based on the device's identification.

[0103] In steps 602 and 604, when other devices establish a connection with gateway 1, since gateway 1 has already opened a CDR for customer A, no new CDR will be opened, and multiple devices will share this customer-level CDR. When any device meets the billing event, gateway 1 writes the billing information of the device into the CDR as a billing information unit, and the billing information unit contains the identifier of the device.

[0104] In steps 603 and 605, when a device disconnects from gateway 1, since the CDR is still used by other devices, gateway 1 will not close the CDR, but will continue to use the CDR to record the billing information of other devices.

[0105] In step 606, when the last connection between client A and gateway 1 is disconnected, gateway 1 will close client A's CDR.

[0106] In step 607, when the conditions for CDR reporting are met, such as the CDR recording duration reaches the limit, or the CDR capacity reaches the capacity limit, gateway 1 reports the CDR, which contains the customer ID of customer A and the billing information of multiple devices of customer A.

[0107] The above mainly introduces the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention from the perspective of the interaction between various network elements. It can be understood that in order to realize the above functions, each network element, such as UE, base station, core network entity, etc., includes a hardware structure and / or software module corresponding to the execution of each function. It should be easy for those skilled in the art to realize that, in combination with the units and algorithm steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed in this article, the present invention can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is executed in the form of hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to exceed the scope of the present invention.

[0108] Embodiment 5: Computer device embodiment

[0109] like Figure 7 As shown, the gateway, online charging system and offline charging system described in Embodiment 1 to Embodiment 4 can be Figure 7 It is implemented by means of a computer device (or system) in the computer system.

[0110] Figure 7 The computer device 700 includes at least one processor 701 , a communication bus 702 , a memory 703 and at least one communication interface 704 .

[0111] The processor 701 may be a general purpose central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the program of the present invention.

[0112] The communication bus 702 may include a path to transmit information between the above components. The communication interface 704, using any transceiver or other device, is used to communicate with other devices or communication networks, such as Ethernet, Radio Access Network (RAN), Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), etc.

[0113] The memory 703 may be a read-only memory (ROM) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, a random access memory (RAM) or other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and instructions, or an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compressed optical disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, Blu-ray disc, etc.), a magnetic disk storage medium or other magnetic storage device, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store the desired program code in the form of an instruction or data structure and can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited thereto. The memory may be independent and connected to the processor via a bus. The memory may also be integrated with the processor.

[0114] The memory 703 is used to store the application code for executing the solution of the present invention, and the execution is controlled by the processor 701. The processor 701 is used to execute the application code stored in the memory 703, thereby realizing the functions of the gateway, online billing system or offline billing system in the method of the present invention.

[0115] In a specific implementation, as an embodiment, the processor 701 may include one or more CPUs, such as Figure 7 CPU0 and CPU1 in.

[0116] In a specific implementation, as an embodiment, the computer device 700 may include multiple processors, such as Figure 7 701 and processor 708 in the embodiment of the present invention. Each of these processors may be a single-CPU processor or a multi-CPU processor. The processor herein may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and / or processing cores for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions).

[0117] In a specific implementation, as an embodiment, the computer device 700 may further include an output device 705 and an input device 706. The output device 705 communicates with the processor 701 and may display information in a variety of ways. For example, the output device 705 may be a liquid crystal display (LCD), a light emitting diode (LED) display device, a cathode ray tube (CRT) display device, or a projector. The input device 706 communicates with the processor 701 and may receive user input in a variety of ways. For example, the input device 706 may be a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen device, or a sensor device.

[0118] The computer device 700 may be a general-purpose computer device or a special-purpose computer device. In a specific implementation, the computer device 700 may be a desktop computer, a portable computer, a network server, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a wireless terminal device, a communication device, an embedded device, or a computer with a plurality of CPUs. Figure 7 The embodiment of the present invention does not limit the type of the computer device 700.

[0119] Embodiment 6: Embodiment of a gateway device for online charging scenario

[0120] The embodiment of the present invention can divide the gateway in embodiment 1 and embodiment 2 into functional modules. For example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiment of the present invention is schematic and is only a logical functional division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation.

[0121] For example, when each functional module is divided into corresponding functional modules, Figure 8 A possible structural diagram of a gateway for implementing a shared charging session involved in the above embodiment is shown. The device 800 includes: a device communication module 801 , a judgment module 803 , an execution module 805 , and a charging communication module 809 .

[0122] Device communication module 801, used to send messages to devices, or receive messages from devices, and establish connections with one or more devices of the client;

[0123] A determination module 803, which is used to determine whether a customer-level billing session of the customer exists between the online billing system and the device communication module 801 after the device communication module 801 establishes a connection with the customer's device;

[0124] The charging communication module 809 is used to communicate with the online charging system, send the charging-related message generated by the execution module 805 to the online charging system, and receive the message sent by the online charging system;

[0125] The execution module 805 is used to generate a request to establish a customer-level billing session to the online billing system when the judgment module 803 determines that there is no customer-level billing session for the customer, and the request includes the customer's identifier; it is also used to generate a request message to apply for a quota of any rate group of the customer and a corresponding billing event to the online billing system, and the request message includes the customer's identifier; it is used to bill the customer's equipment according to the quota and billing event allocated by the online billing system received by the billing communication module 809, and generate a message to report the billing information of one or more devices of the customer, and the message to report the billing information includes the customer's identifier; the above-mentioned various billing-related messages generated by the execution module 805 are sent to the online billing system through the billing communication module 809.

[0126] All relevant contents of each step involved in Example 1 and Example 2 can be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional modules, and will not be repeated here.

[0127] The above functional modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional modules. In a simple embodiment, those skilled in the art can imagine that the gateway 800 can be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional modules. Figure 7 For example, Figure 8 The judgment module 803 and the execution module 805 in Figure 7 The processor 701 in the memory 703 calls the code to implement; Figure 8 The device communication module 801 and the billing communication module 809 can be Figure 7 The communication interface 704 is used to implement the present invention, and the present invention does not impose any limitation on this.

[0128] Embodiment 7: Offline charging Rf interface mode scenario device embodiment

[0129] The embodiment of the present invention can divide the gateway in Example 3 into functional modules. For example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiment of the present invention is schematic and is only a logical functional division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation.

[0130] For example, when each functional module is divided into corresponding functional modules, Fig. 9 A possible structural diagram of a gateway for implementing a shared charging session involved in the above embodiment is shown. The device 900 includes: a device communication module 901 , a determination module 903 , an execution module 905 , and a charging communication module 909 .

[0131] Device communication module 901, used to send messages to devices, or receive messages from devices, and establish connections with one or more devices of the client;

[0132] A determination module 903, which is used to determine whether a customer-level billing session of the customer exists between the device communication module 901 and the customer's device after the connection is established between the device communication module 901 and the customer's device;

[0133] A charging communication module 909, configured to communicate with the online charging system and send a charging-related message generated by the execution module 805 to the online charging system;

[0134] Execution module 905 is used to generate a request to establish a customer-level billing session to CDF when judgment module 903 determines that there is no customer-level billing session for the customer, and the request includes the customer's identifier; it is used to bill the customer's device according to the billing event and generate a message to report the billing information of one or more devices of the customer, and the message to report the billing information includes the customer's identifier; the above-mentioned various billing-related messages generated by execution module 905 are sent to CDF via billing communication module 909.

[0135] All relevant contents of each step involved in Example 3 can be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module and will not be repeated here.

[0136] The above functional modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional modules. In a simple embodiment, those skilled in the art can imagine that the gateway 900 can be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional modules. Figure 7 For example, Fig. 9 The judgment module 903 and the execution module 905 in Figure 7The processor 701 in the memory 703 calls the code to implement; Fig. 9 The device communication module 901 and the billing communication module 909 can be Figure 7 The communication interface 704 is used to implement the present invention, and the present invention does not impose any limitation on this.

[0137] Embodiment 8: Offline charging CDR mode scenario device embodiment

[0138] The embodiment of the present invention can divide the gateway in Example 4 into functional modules. For example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiment of the present invention is schematic and is only a logical functional division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation.

[0139] For example, when each functional module is divided into corresponding functional modules, Fig.10 A possible structural diagram of a gateway for implementing a shared charging session involved in the above embodiment is shown. The device 1000 includes: a device communication module 1001 , a determination module 1003 , an execution module 1005 , and a charging communication module 1009 .

[0140] Device communication module 1001, used to send messages to devices, or receive messages from devices, and establish connections with one or more devices of the client;

[0141] A determination module 1003, configured to determine whether there is a customer-level CDR of the customer after the device communication module 1001 establishes a connection with the customer's device;

[0142] The charging communication module 1009 is used to report the customer-level CDR of the customer created and recorded by the execution module 1005 to the offline charging system;

[0143] Execution module 1005 is used to create a customer-level CDR when judgment module 1003 determines that there is no customer-level CDR; it is used to bill the customer's equipment according to the customer's billing events, and write the billing information of one or more devices of the customer into the customer-level CDR of the customer; the customer-level CDR also includes the customer's identification.

[0144] All relevant contents of each step involved in Example 4 can be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module and will not be repeated here.

[0145] The above functional modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional modules. In a simple embodiment, those skilled in the art can imagine that the gateway 1000 can be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional modules. Figure 7 For example, Fig.10 The judgment module 1003 and the execution module 1005 in Figure 7 The processor 701 in the memory 703 calls the code to implement; Fig.10 The device communication module 1001 and the billing communication module 1009 can be Figure 7 The communication interface 704 is used to implement the present invention, and the present invention does not impose any limitation on this.

[0146] Embodiment 9: Functional device embodiment of online charging system

[0147] The embodiment of the present invention can divide the online charging system or CDF in Embodiment 1 to Embodiment 4 into functional modules. For example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiment of the present invention is schematic and is only a logical functional division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation.

[0148] For example, when each functional module is divided into corresponding functional modules, Fig.11 A possible structural diagram of a gateway for implementing a shared charging session involved in the above embodiment is shown. The device 1100 includes: a receiving module 1101 , an executing module 1102 , and a sending module 1103 .

[0149] The receiving module 1101 is used to receive messages from the gateway, including a request message for establishing a client-level charging session, a client-level quota application message, and a client-level charging message report.

[0150] The execution module 1102 is used to record the content of the request message after receiving the request message from the gateway, and generate a corresponding response message. For example, after receiving the request message for establishing a customer-level billing session, record the customer identifier in the request message, mark the billing session as the customer-level billing session of the customer, and generate a response message; when receiving a customer-level quota application message, allocate a customer-level quota, and generate a response message; when receiving a customer-level billing message reported by the gateway, record one or more billing information units contained in the billing message, and generate a response message.

[0151] The sending module 1103 is used to send the response message generated by the execution module to the gateway.

[0152] All relevant contents of each step involved in Example 1 and Example 2 can be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional modules, and will not be repeated here.

[0153] The above functional modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional modules. In a simple embodiment, those skilled in the art can imagine that the online charging system 1100 can be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional modules. Figure 7 For example, Fig.11 The execution module 1102 in Figure 7 The processor 701 in the embodiment calls the code in the memory 703 to implement, and the embodiment of the present invention does not impose any limitation on this.

[0154] Embodiment 10: System embodiment for implementing shared customer-level charging sessions or shared customer-level CDRs

[0155] Fig.12 A charging system for implementing a shared client-level charging session in an online charging mode involved in the above embodiment is provided. The system includes a gateway and an online charging system.

[0156] The gateway is used to send a request message to the online charging system to establish a customer-level charging session, request a customer-level quota from the online charging system, receive the customer-level quota granted by the online charging system, and report a customer-level charging message to the online charging system, including the customer's identifier and one or more charging information units.

[0157] The online billing system is used to receive a request message for establishing a customer-level billing session sent by a gateway and record the customer-level billing session; receive a customer-level quota application message for a certain customer sent by a gateway, allocate a customer-level quota to the customer, and return it to the gateway through a response message; receive a customer-level billing message sent by a gateway and record one or more billing information units contained in the message.

[0158] Fig.13 A charging system for implementing a shared customer-level charging session in an offline charging Rf interface mode involved in the above embodiment is provided. The system includes a gateway and a CDF.

[0159] The gateway is used to send a request message for establishing a customer-level charging session to the CDF, and report a customer-level charging message including the customer's identifier and one or more charging information units to the online charging system.

[0160] CDF is used to receive a request message for establishing a customer-level billing session sent by a gateway and record the customer-level billing session; receive a customer-level billing message sent by a gateway and record one or more billing information units contained in the message.

[0161] Fig.14 A billing system for implementing shared CDR in an offline billing CDR mode involved in the above embodiment is provided. The system includes a gateway and an offline billing system.

[0162] The gateway is used to record the billing information of multiple devices in the same customer-level CDR, which contains the customer's identification and multiple billing information units, and send the customer-level CDR to the offline billing system.

[0163] The offline charging system is used to receive the customer-level CDR sent by the gateway and record one or more charging information units of a certain customer contained in the message.

[0164] All relevant contents of each step involved in Example 1 to Example 4 can be referred to each entity in the system and will not be repeated here.

[0165] The steps of the method or algorithm described in conjunction with the disclosure of the present invention can be implemented in hardware or by a processor executing software instructions. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, and the software modules can be stored in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, register, hard disk, mobile hard disk, CD-ROM or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. Of course, the storage medium can also be a component of the processor. The processor and the storage medium can be located in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC can be located in a user device. Of course, the processor and the storage medium can also be present in the user device as discrete components.

[0166] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that in one or more of the above examples, the functions described in the present invention may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, the functions may be stored in a computer-readable medium or transmitted as one or more instructions or codes on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media include computer storage media and communication media, wherein communication media include any media that facilitates the transmission of a computer program from one place to another. The storage medium may be any available medium that a general or special-purpose computer can access.

[0167] The specific implementation methods described above further explain in detail the purpose, technical solutions and beneficial effects of the present invention. Those skilled in the art should understand that the above description is only a specific implementation method of the present invention and is not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present invention. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. made on the basis of the technical solution of the present invention should be included in the scope of protection of the present invention. In the claims, "including" does not exclude other components or steps, and "one" or "an" does not exclude multiple situations. A single processor or other unit can implement several functions listed in the claims. Certain measures are recorded in different claims, but this does not mean that these measures cannot be combined to produce good results.

Claims

1. A charging method, characterized in that: The gateway establishes a first billing session, wherein the first billing session is associated with the identification of the customer, the first billing session is a customer-level billing session, and the first billing session is shared by the first device of the customer and the second device of the customer; The gateway sends a quota application message, the quota application message carries the customer identifier, the quota application message is used to apply for a quota shared by the first device and the second device for the customer; The gateway sends a first message in the first billing session, the first message including the identifier of the customer, a first billing information unit and a second billing information unit, the first billing information unit including the identifier of the customer's first device and the billing information of the first device, the second billing information unit including the identifier of the customer's second device and the billing information of the second device.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The gateway establishes the first charging session with the online charging system, the quota applied for the client and shared by the first device and the second device is a quota of the first rate group of the client, and the method further includes: The gateway receives the quota of the first rate group and the corresponding charging event issued by the online charging system; The gateway charges the first device and the second device based on the quota and charging events of the first rate group.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The first rate group also includes a third device of the customer. After the gateway obtains the quota and billing events of the first rate group, the method further includes: The gateway establishes a connection with a third device of the client; The gateway charges the third device based on the quota and charging events of the first rate group; The gateway sends a second message in the first charging session, the second message includes the identification of the customer and a third charging information unit, the third charging information unit includes the identifications of the three devices and the charging information of the third device.

4. The method according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that The gateway detects a charging event, and in the first charging session, the gateway reports the charging information of one or more devices of the customer that meet the reporting condition of the charging event.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The gateway requests to establish the first charging session with a CDF (Charging Data Function) entity.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that The gateway is configured with a billing event for any rate group of the customer, and the billing event is applicable to one or more devices using the rate group.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that The gateway detects a charging event, and in the first charging session, the gateway reports the charging information of one or more devices of the customer that meet a reporting condition of the charging event.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1-3, 5-7, characterized in that: The gateway establishes a first charging session, specifically including: The gateway establishes a connection with any device of the client; The gateway determines whether a billing session of the customer exists; When the billing session of the customer does not exist on the gateway, the gateway establishes a first billing session for the customer; The request for the gateway to establish the first charging session includes the identifier of the customer.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1-3, 5-7, characterized in that: The method further comprises, When the gateway is to remove the connection with any device of the client, the gateway determines whether the connection to be removed is the last connection with the client; When the connection to be removed is the last connection with the client, the gateway removes the first charging session; When the connection to be torn down is not the last connection with the client, the gateway retains the first charging session.

10. A charging method, characterized in that: The online charging system receives a charging session establishment request sent by the gateway, wherein the request includes an identification of the client; The online charging system establishes a first charging session corresponding to the customer with the gateway, wherein the first charging session is a customer-level charging session and is shared by the first device of the customer and the second device of the customer; The online charging system sends a quota application message in the first charging session, the quota application message carries the customer identifier, and the quota application message is used to apply for a quota shared by the first device and the second device for the customer; the online charging system allocates a quota to the customer; Receive a message in which the gateway reports billing information, wherein the message reporting the billing information includes an identifier of the customer, a first billing information unit, and a second billing information unit, wherein the first billing information unit includes an identifier of a first device of the customer and billing information of the first device, and the second billing information unit includes an identifier of a second device of the customer and billing information of the second device.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that The method further comprises, The online charging system receives a request from the gateway to apply for a quota, wherein the request from the gateway to apply for a quota includes an identifier of the customer; The online charging system returns the quota and the corresponding charging event to the gateway.

12. A gateway, characterized in that: The gateway comprises a communication interface, a memory and a processor, wherein the processor is connected to the memory and the communication interface, and when the gateway is running, the processor executes the computer execution instructions stored in the memory so that the gateway executes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

13. An online charging system entity, characterized in that: The method comprises a communication interface, a memory and a processor, wherein the processor is connected to the memory and the communication interface, and when the online charging system entity is running, the processor executes the computer execution instructions stored in the memory, so that the online charging system entity executes the method according to claim 10 or 11.

14. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 11.

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