Method and apparatus for performing credit reservations for online charging in a communication network

Abstract

A method and apparatus advantageously consider historic usage data in determining the credit reservations made against subscriber accounts during online charging operations. In particular, with respect to a communication between first and second parties that is subject to online charging, the method and apparatus use historic usage data associated with at least one of the first and second parties, to determine credit reservations against an involved subscriber account. This approach makes the credit reservation better reflect the usage pattern or history of one or both parties. In some embodiments, the historic usage data is generalized with respect to the called or contacted party. In other embodiments, the historic usage data is generalized with respect to the calling or contacting party. In still other embodiments, the historic usage data is particularized to reflect a historic usage pattern of communication between the first and second parties.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.