Method and arrangement for supporting charging in a communications network
AssigneeTelefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (publ)
InventorDavid Möllersten
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Method and arrangement in a charging function to support charging for services in a communications network. When receiving a request for charging information from a session control node serving a communication device, the charging function determines at least one characteristic of the device, e.g. by fetching it from a device characteristics repository where such device characteristics are maintained for devices in the network. The charging function then sets a charging level for a service requested or consumed by the device, based on the characteristic(s) of the device, and sends a response with the set charging level to the session control node, to enable device characteristic dependent charging for the requested or consumed service.
Claims16
A method in a charging function for supporting charging for services in a Communications network, the method comprising:
- receiving a request for charging information from a session control node serving a communication device in the Communications network, the request referring to a service requested or consumed by the communication device,
- determining at least one capability of said communication device by fetching the at least one capability of said communication device from a device characteristics repository associated with the Communications network,
- setting a charging level for the requested or consumed service pertaining to the communication device, based on said at least one capability of the communication device, and
- sending a response to said request to the session control node based on said set charging level, to enable device capability dependent charging for the requested or consumed service.
An arrangement in a charging function configured to support charging for services in a Communications network, the arrangement comprising:
- a receiving module adapted to receive a request for charging information from a session control node serving a communication device in the Communications network, the request referring to a service requested or consumed by the communication device,
- a rating module adapted to determine at least one capability of said communication device by fetching the at least one device capability from a device characteristics repository associated with the Communications network, and to set a charging level for the requested or consumed service pertaining to the communication device, based on said at least one capability of the communication device, and
- a sending module adapted to send a response to said request to the session control node based on said set charging level, to enable device capability dependent charging for the requested or consumed service.
The arrangement according to claim 9, wherein said device capability pertain to any of:
- communication protocols, installed applications, encoding and decoding schemes, storing capacity, processing capacity, display, camera, and audio system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.