Composite Service Identifier for Telecommunications Billing
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Solution Overview
Problem
In telecommunications networks, the billing system struggles to accurately charge users for composite services, as existing technologies lack a mechanism to uniquely identify and correlate constituent services within a composite service, leading to unclear pricing and potential overcharging for users.
Innovation Solution
A correlation mechanism is introduced that generates a unique composite service identifier, allowing the service supervision function to identify and correlate all components of a composite service instance, enabling accurate pricing and quality management by providing context information to the charging system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If separate service processing is used for billing, then each service can be billed independently, but the end user cannot understand the connection between component services and the composite service they ordered
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the service identification process by creating a composite service identifier that is distinct from individual service identifiers. This allows the billing system to separately track component services while maintaining a unified view through the composite identifier, resolving the contradiction between independent service processing and billing transparency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a nested identification structure where component service identifiers are contained within the composite service identifier framework. The composite service identifier encapsulates information about its constituent services, enabling the billing system to drill down from the composite level to individual component levels, thus providing both independent processing capability and unified billing transparency.
2Loss of information
If a composite service identifier is created to enable correlation, then billing transparency is improved, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The composite service identifier serves multiple functions: it uniquely identifies the composite service, correlates component services, enables billing transparency, and provides context information for quality management. This multi-functional approach consolidates what would otherwise require multiple separate mechanisms, reducing overall system complexity while preventing information loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The composite service identifier acts as an intermediary between the service composition function and the service supervision function. It mediates the correlation between component services and the composite service, enabling information flow without requiring direct complex interactions between all system components, thus managing complexity while preserving context.
3Device complexity
If existing service identifiers like SIP session ID are used, then service correlation is simplified, but the same identifier may be used for services not part of the composite service
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by making the identifier specific to its context. The composite service identifier is uniquely tailored to identify a specific composite service instance and its components, rather than using a generic identifier like SIP session ID that may be reused across different services. This contextual specificity ensures reliable correlation without increasing overall system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention refers to a method of correlating a plurality of service instances by a service composition entity, wherein the services are performed by one or a plurality of servers of a telecommunications network. Thereto, the service composition entity performs the steps of invoking a composite service instance corresponding to the service request, and generating a composite service identifier identifying this composite service instance, contacting the one or a plurality of application servers for invoking the plurality of component service instances, wherein the plurality of component service instances are associated to the composite service instance, and sending a first service report comprising an information about the composite service instance to a service supervision system, wherein this information enables the service supervision system to identify reports about the component service instances as being associated to the composite service instance. The invention further proposes a service composition entity for correlating the plurality of service instances, and a service supervision system for monitoring, supervising or controlling the composite service instance.