Charging Apparatus Unified Correlation Method for IMS Networks
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Solution Overview
Problem
In IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) networks, charging apparatuses struggle to perform unified charging across application servers (ASs) with different charging capabilities, leading to user charging errors due to the inability to learn and correlate charging messages from ASs with varying online and offline capabilities.
Innovation Solution
A correlation charging method and apparatus that receives notification messages from a Call Session Control Function (CSCF) device, determines the charging capabilities of all involved ASs, and sends detection messages to missing ASs to obtain their capabilities, allowing for unified online or offline correlation charging based on received messages.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the charging apparatus receives charging messages from multiple ASs with different charging capabilities, then the charging apparatus cannot perform unified charging, but performing unified charging requires learning charging capabilities of all ASs which the apparatus cannot obtain
Solution Approach 1:
The charging apparatus sends a detection message to the AS before performing charging to preliminarily obtain the charging capability information. This preliminary action ensures that the apparatus has the necessary information about whether the AS supports online or offline charging before attempting unified charging, thereby resolving the information loss problem.
Solution Approach 2:
The AS responds to the detection message with its charging capability information, providing feedback to the charging apparatus. This feedback mechanism allows the apparatus to learn the charging capabilities of different ASs and adjust its charging strategy accordingly, enabling accurate unified charging across multiple ASs with different capabilities.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the charging apparatus performs charging based on charging messages from multiple ASs, then user charging errors occur due to incompatible charging capabilities, but avoiding charging requires a mechanism to detect and adapt to different AS capabilities
Solution Approach 1:
The charging apparatus implements a universal detection mechanism that works with both online charging and offline charging ASs. By sending a standardized detection message and interpreting the response, the apparatus can adapt to different charging capabilities without requiring separate handling logic for each AS type, thus improving adaptability while managing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The charging apparatus changes its charging parameters based on the detected AS capabilities. If the AS supports online charging, the apparatus performs online charging; if the AS supports offline charging, the apparatus performs offline charging. This parameter adaptation allows the system to handle diverse AS capabilities uniformly.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present disclosure discloses a correlation charging method and a charging apparatus. In embodiments of the present disclosure, the charging apparatus may determine, based on identifiers of a plurality of application servers in a notification message sent by a CSCF device, whether charging request messages sent by all the ASs are received; then send a detection message to a first AS whose charging request message is not received, to detect a charging capability of the first AS; and learn of the charging capability of the first AS based on a response message returned by the first AS. In this way, the charging apparatus can learn of charging capabilities of all the ASs, and charge the service based on the charging capabilities of all the ASs in a unified manner. This avoids a technical disadvantage that a user charging error is caused because in a charging method in the prior art, unified charging cannot be performed based on charging messages reported by ASs with different charging capabilities.