Systems and methods for reducing signalling in an internet protocol telephony system
AssigneeVonage Network LLC
InventorsKEVIN HUANG, JAYA MEGHANI, ZHIYU GUO, BOAZ ZEHAVI
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for charging a prepaid account for telephony services reserves portions of a balance of the prepaid account to pay for telephony services that have been requested by a user. Once the final charges for providing the telephony services are known, the balance is reduced by the amount of the actual charges, and any portion of the reserved amount is released.
Claims20
A method of managing a prepaid account used to purchase telephony services, comprising:
- receiving a request to reserve a first portion of a balance of a prepaid account which is to be used to pay for a first requested telephony service;
- reserving the first portion of the balance of the prepaid account;
- receiving information that is indicative of a first charge to be applied for the first telephony service after the first telephony service has been provided;
- reducing the balance of the prepaid account by the amount of the first charge;
- and
- releasing any portion of a previously reserved amount for the first requested telephony service that exceeds the amount of the first charge.
A system for managing a prepaid account used to purchase telephony services, comprising:
- means for receiving a request to reserve a first portion of a balance of a prepaid account which is to be used to pay for a first requested telephony service;
- means for reserving the first portion of the balance of the prepaid account;
- means for receiving information that is indicative of a first charge to be applied for the first telephony service after the first telephony service has been provided;
- means for reducing the balance of the prepaid account by the amount of the first charge;
- and
- means for releasing any portion of a previously reserved amount for the first requested telephony service that exceeds the amount of the first charge.
A system for managing a prepaid account used to purchase telephony services, comprising:
- a reservation unit configured to receive a request to reserve a first portion of a balance of a prepaid account which is to be used to pay for a first requested telephony service and that reserves the first portion of the balance of the prepaid account;
- a charging unit configured to receive information that is indicative of a first charge to be applied for the first telephony service after the first telephony service has been provided, that reduces the balance of the prepaid account by the amount of the first charge, and that releases any portion of a previously reserved amount for the first requested telephony service that exceeds the amount of the first charge.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.