Packet radio network with charging information collected by nodes and forwarded to billing center

Abstract

In a digital mobile communication system, a packet radio system has been implemented by employing the radio interface of the mobile communication network. The packet radio system comprises packet radio support nodes (SGSN) connected to the mobile communication network, as well as gateway support nodes for providing an inter-connection to an external packet data network (15). The support nodes (SGSN, GGSN) are connected to an intra-operator packet switched backbone network (13). The serving support nodes and the gateway support nodes collect charging information on usage of the radio interface and the data network (15), respectively. The system is further provided with a billing gateway support node (BGGSN) connected to the internal backbone network (BGGSN) to receive user-specific charging information collected by the other support nodes, and to forward the charging information to a charging system.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.