System for providing flexible charging in a network

A charging system in a packet switched network for charging packets differently dependent on which service flow the packets belong to, the charging system comprising:

• a control system and a serving element associated with a packet forwarding system, wherein said control system comprises:
• an account function adapted to manage an account of at least one user, and
• a charging policy decision point arranged to calculate a charging policy for allowed services for the at least one user, wherein the calculated charging policy comprises at least one user rating table and a set of validity conditions,
• wherein said serving element comprises:
• a token bucket adapted to store reservations received from the account function of a user associated with the token bucket, and
• a charging policy enforcement point arranged to perform charging for a plurality of the allowed services by reducing the stored reservation of the token bucket according to the calculated charging policy.

A charging system in a packet switched network for charging packets differently dependent on which service flow the packets belong to, the charging system comprising:

• a control system and a serving element associated with a packet forwarding system, wherein said control system comprises:
• an account function adapted to manage an account of at least one user, and
• a charging policy decision point arranged to calculate a charging policy for allowed services for the at least one user,
• wherein said serving element comprises:
• a token bucket adapted to store reservations received from the account function of a user associated with the token bucket,
• a charging policy enforcement point arranged to perform charging for a plurality of the allowed services by reducing the stored reservation of the token bucket according to the calculated charging policy, and
• means for classifying the services into different service classes, said classifying means including a service filter adapted to identify the different service flows.

A control system of a charging system in a packet switched network, said control system comprising:

• an account function for managing an account of at least one user;
• and
• a charging policy decision point for calculating a charging policy for the allowed services for the at least one user;
• wherein the calculated charging policy includes:
• at least one user rating table, and
• a set of validity conditions.

A serving element residing in a packet forwarding system of a charging system in a packet switched network, said serving element comprising:

• means for receiving reservations for at least one user,
• a token bucket for storing the reservations for the user associated with the token bucket,
• means for receiving a charging policy for allowed services, and
• a charging policy enforcement point for charging for a plurality of the allowed services by reducing the stored reservation of the token bucket according to a received calculated charging policy.

A serving element residing in a packet forwarding system of a charging system in a packet switched network, said serving element comprising:

• means for receiving reservations for at least one user,
• a token bucket for storing the reservations for the user associated with the token bucket,
• means for receiving a charging policy for allowed services, wherein the charging policy includes at least one user rating table and a set of validity conditions, and
• a charging policy enforcement point for charging for a plurality of the allowed services by reducing the stored reservation of the token bucket according to a received calculated charging policy.

A serving element residing in a packet forwarding system of a charging system in a packet switched network, said serving element comprising:

• means for receiving reservations for at least one user,
• a token bucket for storing the reservations for the user associated with the token bucket,
• means for classifying the services into different service classes based on the tariff plan of the services, wherein the means for classifying the services into different service classes includes a service filter adapted to identify different service flows,
• means for receiving a charging policy for allowed services, and
• a charging policy enforcement point for charging for a plurality of the allowed services by reducing the stored reservation of the token bucket according to a received calculated charging policy.