Billing System Location-Based Rate Selection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Subscribers experience billing discrepancies due to unexpected switching between different wireless serving systems, such as macro networks, roaming partners' networks, and femtocells, leading to charges that do not align with their service expectations.
Innovation Solution
A method to dynamically determine the coverage area of a wireless serving system by analyzing signals from mobile stations and using this information to select the appropriate billing rate based on whether the mobile station was within that coverage area when served by another system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If a carrier uses multiple wireless serving systems (macro network, roaming partner network, femtocell) to provide coverage, then coverage availability is improved, but billing accuracy deteriorates due to unexpected switching between systems
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary determination of the mobile station's location relative to the coverage area before billing occurs. By pre-establishing whether the mobile station was within the coverage area when served by another system, the billing system can accurately select the appropriate billing rate, preventing billing discrepancies that would otherwise occur due to unexpected system switching.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from location determination mechanisms to continuously monitor whether a mobile station is within the coverage area of the home carrier's system. This feedback information is then used to dynamically select billing rates, ensuring that billing accurately reflects which system actually provided service, thereby resolving the contradiction between expanded coverage and billing accuracy.
2Measurement precision
If the carrier dynamically determines coverage area and selects billing rates based on location, then billing accuracy is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary billing system that acts as a mediator between the mobile station and the multiple wireless serving systems. This intermediary receives information from location determination mechanisms and automatically selects appropriate billing rates based on predetermined criteria, thereby improving billing accuracy while containing system complexity by centralizing the decision-making logic in a dedicated billing component rather than distributing complexity across all network elements.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and corresponding system for controlling billing for communication service. An area of coverage of a first wireless serving system is dynamically determined based on signals from one or more mobile stations served by the first wireless serving system. A determination is then made as to whether a mobile station was within the determined area of coverage of the first wireless serving system when the mobile station was being served with communication service by a second wireless serving system. And a billing rate, for billing for the communication service, is selected based at least in part on the determination.