Roaming Cost Optimizer Service for Multi-Access Billing

The patent introduces an AAA server as an intermediary component that centralizes the tracking and management of data usage across multiple RAN environments. The AAA server receives accounting information from different service providers and RAN types, standardizes the data format, and maintains a unified data usage record. This intermediary approach allows the control center to achieve accurate multi-network billing without directly managing the complexity of each individual network interface, thereby resolving the contradiction between billing accuracy and system complexity.

The patent applies segmentation by dividing data usage into distinct categories based on service provider and radio access technology type. The AAA server creates separate data usage records for each combination of service provider and RAT type (e.g., WiFi, LTE, 5G). This segmentation enables the system to apply different cost rates to different categories of data usage, achieving cost optimization. The automated categorization process, while adding processing steps, uses standardized protocols and predefined rate structures to manage the complexity efficiently.

The patent merges multiple data usage tracking functions into a single centralized AAA server. Instead of maintaining separate tracking systems for each service provider and RAN type, the AAA server consolidates all accounting information into a unified data structure. This merging approach maintains high billing precision by preserving detailed usage information while reducing the overall information processing load through centralized management and standardized data formats. The control center then retrieves pre-processed billing information from the AAA server, further reducing processing requirements.