CN1968106B - Charging system and method for balance sharing - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for share balance, wherein said method is used to share the balance between account of real-time charge system and account of sub-real-time charge system; said method comprises that: managing the balances of accounts of sub-real-time charge system and real-time charge system together; offsetting the cost of user from the balance.

Description

Billing system and method for realizing balance sharing

technical field

The invention relates to the field of telecommunication, in particular to a technology of telecommunication billing. the

Background technique

In the field of telecommunications, when telecommunications users use telecommunications services, they are involved in the issue of service usage fees, and telecommunications billing is the main line throughout the development of telecommunications. It is not only directly related to the development of telecommunications enterprises, but also reflects the service level of telecommunications enterprises to the majority of telecommunications users. With the continuous development of telecommunication technology, the continuous renewal and growth of telecommunication services and the transformation of telecommunication operation mode, higher requirements are put forward for telecommunication billing. Currently, there are two payment methods for telecom users: real-time payment for prepaid users and quasi-real-time payment for postpaid users. In order to meet this service requirement, there are two ways to realize the billing system of the telecom network: through the intelligent network and the mobile data service management platform to complete the real-time billing of the telecom users and through the offline billing system to realize the quasi-real-time billing of the telecom users. the

At present, there is a billing system in which all billing operations are uniformly processed by the quasi-real-time billing system. This billing system has a single component and low cost, but its real-time performance is poor, and the deduction cycle is long, so it cannot realize real-time billing of services, and there is a high risk of arrears. the

Currently there is another charging system that can realize real-time charging processing for prepaid users and quasi-real-time charging processing for postpaid users. The real-time charging of the billing system is realized by the intelligent network service control point (SCP) and the data service management platform (MDSP) on the network side: the switching equipment (MSC/SSP) in the circuit domain is connected with the SCP, and is realized by the SCP For real-time charging of circuit domain services, the GPRS service support node (SGSN) in the packet domain is connected to the MDSP through the SCP, the charging of the bearer traffic in the packet domain is realized by the interface between the SGSN and the SCP, and the content charging is realized by the MDSP; Real-time billing is realized by the quasi-real-time billing system (Hotbilling). Hotbilling collects bills from the MSC in the circuit domain, the charging gateway (CG) in the packet domain, and the MDSP in the service network, and then bills users. the

Quasi-real-time billing includes the following steps:

Step a: The user uses the CS domain service or the PS domain service. the

Step b: After the user finishes using the service, relevant equipment such as the MSC of the circuit domain service, the CG and MDSP of the packet domain service generate a user bill. the

Step c: The quasi-real-time billing system collects bills from the relevant equipment, and bills the user. the

Real-time billing includes the following steps:

Step a: The user uses the CS domain service or the PS domain service. the

Step b: During the service process of the user, relevant equipment such as the MSC of the circuit domain service and the SGSN/SSP and MDSP of the packet domain service interact with the SCP in real time. MSC, SGSN/SSP report the user's usage status such as traffic and duration in real time, and SCP conducts pricing, deduction and reservation operations; MDSP approves the content according to the user's business usage, and then deducts the fee from SCP. the

Step c: After the user finishes using, the related equipment reports the usage status of the user to the SCP, and the MDSP directly reports the usage fee, and the SCP deducts the fee and returns a deduction confirmation message to the related equipment. the

In the billing system, the real-time billing account balance is stored by the intelligent network SCP, and the quasi-real-time billing account balance is stored by the HOTBILLING database. The real-time billing account balance and the quasi-real-time billing account balance are stored separately and have no relationship with each other. If the user subscribes to the real-time billing service and the quasi-real-time billing service at the same time, when the amount of one account is insufficient, another account with sufficient balance cannot be shared, so the user cannot use the service corresponding to the account with insufficient amount. the

Contents of the invention

The problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a billing system, device and method capable of sharing real-time billing account balances and quasi-real-time billing accounts. the

In order to solve the above technical problems, the embodiments of the present invention propose the following technical solutions:

An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for sharing balances. The method includes: performing unified management of the account balance in the quasi-real-time billing system and the account balance of the real-time billing system. The quasi-real-time billing system account balance data is obtained from the billing system database and stored in the real-time billing system database, and the real-time billing system account balance is changed accordingly according to the change of the quasi-real-time billing system account balance; The billing system deducts the cost of the real-time billing service from the database of the real-time billing system; and correspondingly according to the deduction request message or the deduction file or the message with the service fee used by the user, the fee of the quasi-real-time charging service is deducted from the database of the real-time charging system. the

The embodiment of the present invention provides a balance sharing method, which is used to share the balance between the account in the real-time billing system and the account in the quasi-real-time billing system. The method includes: combining the balance of the account in the quasi-real-time billing system with the The real-time billing system account balance is managed in a unified manner. The unified management is to store the account balance in the quasi-real-time billing system and the real-time billing system account balance in an independent balance management unit, which is managed by the balance management unit; According to the deduction request sent from the real-time charging system and quasi-real-time charging system, the balance management unit transfers the fees of the real-time charging service and quasi-real-time charging service used by the user from the account in the balance management unit deducted from the balance. the

The embodiment of the present invention also provides a billing system for balance sharing. The billing system includes: a real-time billing system, including a rating unit for calculating the cost of the real-time billing service used by the user, and a balance management unit for It is used to store and manage the balance of the user's quasi-real-time billing account and the balance of the real-time billing account. The management includes changing the balance of the stored real-time billing account according to the account balance change of the quasi-real-time billing system. The real-time billing service fee is deducted from the balance in the balance management unit; the interface unit is used to obtain the account balance of the user's quasi-real-time billing system from the quasi-real-time billing system; receive the deduction sent from the quasi-real-time billing system Request message, and deduct the corresponding fee from the balance management unit, and send the deduction to the account processing unit of the quasi-real-time billing system;

The quasi-real-time charging system includes a rating unit for calculating the cost of the quasi-real-time charging service used by the user, and the quasi-real-time charging service fee used by the user is obtained from the balance management unit in the real-time charging system Balance deduction; an account processing unit, used to process accounts generated by users using quasi-real-time charging services and real-time charging services. the

The embodiment of the present invention also provides a billing device for balance sharing. The billing device includes: an interface unit for receiving a deduction request sent from a real-time billing system and a quasi-real-time billing system; a balance management unit for It is used to store the real-time billing account balance and the quasi-real-time billing account balance uniformly, and deduct the real-time billing service and quasi-real-time billing service used by the user according to the deduction request sent from the real-time billing system and the quasi-real-time billing system Fees realize the sharing of balances between accounts in the real-time billing system and accounts in the quasi-real-time billing system. the

In summary, the embodiment of the present invention organically integrates the account balance information of the real-time billing system account and the quasi-real-time billing system, so that the account balance between the real-time billing system and the quasi-real-time billing system can be shared, which solves the problem of user The problem of not being able to use the business when one account has insufficient balance and another account has a balance. the

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is the structural diagram of the first preferred embodiment of the billing system of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is the flow chart of an embodiment of the quasi-real-time billing system account information mapped to the real-time billing system in Fig. 1 of the present invention;

Fig. 3 is the flow chart of the first preferred embodiment of billing system in Fig. 1 of the present invention;

Fig. 4 is the flowchart of the first preferred embodiment of quasi-real-time billing service deduction in Fig. 1 of the present invention;

Fig. 5 is the second preferred embodiment flowchart of quasi-real-time billing business deduction in Fig. 1 of the present invention;

Fig. 6 is the flow chart of the embodiment of user inquiry account balance of the present invention;

Fig. 7 is the structural diagram of the second preferred embodiment of the billing system of the present invention;

Fig. 8 is a structural diagram of an embodiment of the billing device of the present invention applied to a billing system. the

Detailed ways

The embodiment of the present invention provides a billing system and method for realizing balance sharing. In order to make the present invention more clear, the present invention will be described in detail below in conjunction with the embodiments and the accompanying drawings. the

Please refer to FIG. 1 , which is a structural diagram of the first preferred embodiment of the billing system of the present invention. The billing system includes a real-time billing system 10 , a quasi-real-time billing system 20 , an operation support system 30 , a customer service system 40 , a business billing point 50 and a bill collection system 60 . The real-time charging system 10 includes a preprocessing unit 11, a rating unit 12, a balance management unit 13 and an interface unit 14, wherein the interface unit 14 is used to receive the real-time charging request message sent from the service charging point 50 , and obtain the user's quasi-real-time charging account information and balance information from the quasi-real-time charging system 20, the pre-processing unit 11 is used to authenticate the real-time charging service used by the user, and the approval unit 12 It is used to evaluate and calculate the real-time charging service used by the user, and to deduct the real-time charging service and quasi-real-time charging service fees used by the user. The balance management unit 13 is used to store and manage the real-time charging service of the user. Billing account balance information and quasi-real-time billing account balance information. The quasi-real-time charging system 20 includes a rating unit 21, a balance management unit 22, and an account processing unit 23, wherein the rating unit 21 is used for rating and charging the quasi-real-time charging service used by the user For calculation, the balance management unit 22 is used to temporarily store the balance information of the user's quasi-real-time charging account, and the account processing unit 23 is used to process the accounts generated by the user using the quasi-real-time charging service and the real-time charging service. the

The operation support system 30 interacts with the quasi-real-time billing system 20 and the customer service system 40, and is responsible for the operation, maintenance and management of the telecommunication network. The service billing point 50 is a point where billing needs to be generated when value-added services are used in the telecommunication network, for example: an intelligent network, a data service management platform, a content billing gateway, and the like. When the user uses the telecommunications service, if the service charging point 50 judges that the user is a prepaid user, then initiates a real-time charging request message to the real-time charging system 10, and the preprocessing unit 11 of the real-time charging system 10 Authenticate the service used by the user, and after the authentication is passed, request the rating unit 12 to perform rating and fee calculation on the service used by the user to obtain the fee generated by the user using the real-time charging service, and obtain the fee from the balance management unit 13 of the balance is deducted to complete the real-time online billing of prepaid users; if the service billing point 50 judges that the user is a post-paid user, the service billing point 50 records the user's bill for using the service, and then the bill collection system 60 collects the bill from the service billing point 50, and sends the bill to the quasi-real-time billing system 20, and the rating unit 21 of the quasi-real-time billing system 20 performs rating and cost calculation on the bill, and Send the deduction request to the balance management unit 13 of the real-time billing system through the interface unit 14 of the real-time billing system 10, and deduct the corresponding fees from the balance management unit 13, and finally the account processing unit of the quasi-real-time billing system 20 23 Obtain the expense list of the real-time charging service and quasi-real-time charging service used by the user from the balance management unit of the real-time charging system, and complete the bill processing for the service used by the telecom user. the

The balance management unit 13 of the real-time billing system 10 is not only used for storing and managing user real-time billing system account information but also for storing user quasi-real-time billing system account information. Therefore, when the account information of the user's quasi-real-time billing system changes, the account information of the real-time billing system also changes accordingly. Please refer to Figure 2, which is a flow chart of mapping the account information of the quasi-real-time billing system to the real-time billing system, and the mapping process includes:

Step 201: The user's quasi-real-time billing system account information is changed;

Step 202: the quasi-real-time billing system writes the account information change message into the notification table between the quasi-real-time billing system and the real-time billing system;

Step 203: The real-time billing system interface program scans the notification table and finds that there is a change in account information, or the quasi-real-time billing system message notifies the real-time billing system that there is a change in account information;

Step 204: The real-time billing system interface program obtains valid account information, balance account book information, special fund account book information, and balance data information from the quasi-real-time billing system database;

Step 205: The real-time billing system interface program clears the balance data information in the quasi-real-time billing system database;

Step 206: The interface program of the real-time billing system obtains the information of the group to which the user belongs, the information of the user's subscription agreement, etc.;

Step 207: The real-time billing system calls the conversion program to convert the account-related information obtained above into the format required by the real-time billing system;

Step 208: The corresponding account information is changed in the database of the real-time billing system, and the balance data is stored in the database of the real-time billing system. the

Please refer to Fig. 3, it is a flow chart of billing for the billing system of the present invention, and the billing process includes:

Step 301: the user starts to use the telecommunications service;

Step 302: The service charging point judges whether the user is a prepaid user or a postpaid user, if it is a prepaid user, then proceed to step 303, if it is a postpaid user, then proceed to step 312;

Step 303: The service charging point sends a message of a real-time charging request to the real-time charging system;

Step 304: The real-time charging system uses the preprocessing unit and the rating unit of its own system to authenticate and rate the charging request;

Step 305: After the fee reservation is successful, the real-time charging system sends a real-time charging request response message to the service charging point;

Step 306: The service billing point monitors the real-time cost of the service used by the user according to the message content returned by the real-time billing system, so as to avoid the user's arrears;

Step 307: After the user uses the service, the service charging point reports the real-time charging request message to the real-time charging system again;

Step 308: The real-time billing system back-calculates the cost of the service used by the user this time, deducts the cost in real time, and then records the usage bill;

Step 309: The real-time charging system returns a response message of the real-time charging request to the service charging point;

Step 310: the real-time billing system transmits the real-time bill to the quasi-real-time billing system;

Step 311: The quasi-real-time billing system performs corresponding accounting processing according to the bill of the real-time billing system. the

The real-time billing process ends. the

Step 312: The service billing point records the service usage in the user's billing period, and generates a corresponding service bill;

Step 313: The service billing point transmits the bill to the quasi-real-time billing system;

Step 314: The quasi-real-time billing system uses the dialog box of the price approval unit of its own system to perform price approval and cost calculation;

Step 315: At the end of the billing cycle, the quasi-real-time billing system sends a deduction request message to the real-time billing system;

Step 316: Deduct relevant fees from the account balance of the real-time billing system according to the usage fees to be deducted in the deduction request message sent by the quasi-real-time billing system;

Step 317: The real-time billing system returns a billing response message to the quasi-real-time billing system;

Step 318: The quasi-real-time charging system completes the accounting processing of the usage of the quasi-real-time charging service. the

The quasi-real-time billing process ends. the

Please continue to refer to Fig. 4, which is a flow chart of the first preferred embodiment of the quasi-real-time billing service deduction for the present invention, and the deduction process includes:

Step 401: The quasi-real-time billing system forms a deduction file according to the user's business usage;

Step 402: The quasi-real-time billing system transmits the deduction file to the real-time billing system through the file transfer protocol;

Step 403: The real-time billing system preprocessing unit authenticates the deduction file;

Step 404: The real-time billing system calls the balance management unit to deduct the service usage fee;

Step 405: The real-time billing system returns the processing status receipt file to the quasi-real-time billing system. the

Please refer to Fig. 5, the deduction process described in the flow chart of the second preferred embodiment of the quasi-real-time charging service deduction for the present invention includes:

Step 501: The quasi-real-time billing system approves the price and calculates the service fee for the user according to the service usage of the user;

Step 502: the quasi-real-time billing system sends the message with the service fee of the user to the real-time billing system through the interface unit of the real-time billing system;

Step 503: The real-time billing system calls the balance management unit to deduct the fee according to the fee information in the message;

Step 504: After the deduction is completed, the quasi-real-time billing system is notified of the deduction situation through the interface unit. the

Please refer to Figure 6, which is a flow chart for users to query account balances. The query process includes:

Step 601: The user sends a balance query request to the quasi-real-time billing system;

Step 602: The quasi-real-time billing system sends a balance inquiry request to the real-time billing system;

Step 603: The real-time billing system balance management unit queries the user's account balance information;

Step 604: The real-time billing system returns the queried balance information to the quasi-real-time billing system through the interface unit;

Step 605: The quasi-real-time charging system returns the balance information to the user. the

Please refer to FIG. 7 , which is a structural diagram of a second preferred embodiment of the billing system of the present invention. The billing system includes a real-time billing system 100 , a quasi-real-time billing system 200 , an operation support system 300 , a customer service system 400 , a business billing point 500 , a bill collection system 600 and a balance management unit 700 . The real-time charging system 100 includes a preprocessing unit 110, a rating unit 120, and an interface unit 140, wherein the interface unit 140 is used to receive the real-time charging request message sent from the service charging point 500, and the preprocessing The unit 110 is used to authenticate the real-time charging service used by the user, and the rating unit 120 is used to perform rating and fee calculation on the real-time charging service used by the user. The quasi-real-time charging system 200 includes a rating unit 210 and an account processing unit 230, wherein the rating unit 210 is used for rating and calculating fees for the quasi-real-time charging services used by users. The transaction processing unit 230 is used to process accounts generated by users using quasi-real-time charging services and real-time charging services. The balance management unit 700 is connected to the real-time billing system 100 and the quasi-real-time billing system 200, and is used to uniformly store and manage user real-time billing account balance information and quasi-real-time billing account balance information, and perform real-time billing for users Deductions for business and quasi-real-time billing business expenses. the

When a user uses a telecommunication service, if the service charging point 500 judges that the user is a prepaid user, then a real-time charging request message is sent to the real-time charging system 100, and the real-time charging system 100 uses the The service is authenticated and approved, and then the balance management unit 700 deducts the real-time charging service used by the user to complete the real-time online charging of the prepaid user; if the service charging point 500 judges that the user is a postpaid user, The service billing point 500 records the bill of the user using the service, and then the bill collection system 600 collects the bill from the service billing point 500, and transmits the bill to the quasi-real-time billing system 200, and the quasi-real-time The billing system 200 conducts price approval and fee calculation on the dialogue bill, deducts the corresponding fees from the account balance in the balance management unit 700, and the quasi-real-time billing system 200 completes the bill processing for the services used by the telecommunications users. the

Compared with the first preferred embodiment of the billing system of the present invention, the real-time billing service fees and quasi-real-time billing service fees in the billing system are all deducted and inquired from the balance management unit 700 uniformly. the

Please refer to FIG. 8 , which is a structural diagram of an embodiment of the billing device of the present invention applied to a billing system. The billing system includes a real-time billing system 81 , a quasi-real-time billing system 82 , an operation support system 83 , a customer service system 84 , a business billing point 85 , a bill collection system 86 and a billing device 80 . The real-time charging system 81 includes a preprocessing unit 811, a rating unit 812 and an interface unit 814, wherein the interface unit 814 is used to receive the real-time charging request message sent from the service charging point 85, and the preprocessing The unit 811 is used to authenticate the real-time charging service used by the user, and the rating unit 812 is used to perform rating and fee calculation on the real-time charging service used by the user. The quasi-real-time charging system 82 includes a rating unit 821 and an account processing unit 823, wherein the rating unit 821 is used for rating and calculating fees for the quasi-real-time charging services used by users. The transaction processing unit 823 is used to process accounts generated by users using quasi-real-time charging services and real-time charging services. The billing device 80 includes an interface unit 801 and a balance management unit 802 . The billing device 80 receives the deduction request sent from the real-time billing system 81 and the quasi-real-time billing system 82 through the interface unit 801, and the balance management unit 802 is used to uniformly store and manage the user's real-time billing account balance information and The balance information of the quasi-real-time charging account, and the deduction of the real-time charging service and the quasi-real-time charging service fee for the user according to the deduction request received by the interface unit 801. the

When the user uses telecommunication services, if the service billing point 85 judges that the user is a prepaid user, then a real-time billing request message is initiated to the real-time billing system 81, and the real-time billing system 81 is used by the user The service is authenticated and approved, and the deduction request is sent to the balance management unit 802 through the interface unit 801 of the charging device 80, and the real-time charging service used by the user is deducted to complete the real-time online charging of the prepaid user ; If the service billing point 85 judges that the user is a postpaid user, the service billing point 85 records the user's bill of using the service, and then the bill collection system 86 collects the bill from the service billing point 85, and records the bill The bill is sent to the quasi-real-time billing system 82, and the quasi-real-time billing system 82 performs price approval and cost calculation on the dialogue bill, and sends the deduction request to the balance management unit 802 through the interface unit 801 of the billing device 80, and the user uses The real-time billing service is deducted, and then the deduction is sent to the account processing unit 823 of the quasi-real-time billing system 82 to complete the bill processing for the services used by the telecommunications user. the

The billing method and its system and device provided by the embodiments of the present invention organically integrate the account balance information of the real-time billing system and the quasi-real-time billing system, so that the balance between the real-time billing system and the quasi-real-time billing system can be shared , which solves the problem that the user cannot use the service when the balance in one account is insufficient and the other account has a balance. the

The billing method and its system and device provided by the present invention have been introduced in detail above. In this paper, specific examples have been used to illustrate the principle and implementation of the present invention. The descriptions of the above embodiments are only used to help understand the present invention. method and its core idea; at the same time, for those of ordinary skill in the art, according to the idea of the present invention, there will be changes in the specific implementation and application scope. Invention Limitations. the

Claims (4)

1. the method shared of a remaining sum is used in Real-time Billing System account and the quasi real time charging system between the account remaining sum and shares, and it is characterized in that, described method comprises:

Account balance in the quasi real time charging system and Real-time Billing System account balance are carried out unified management, described unified management is that Real-time Billing System obtains quasi real time charging system account balance data from the quasi real time charging system database, and deposit in the Real-time Billing System database, and the Real-time Billing System account balance changes accordingly according to the variation of quasi real time charging system account remaining sum;

Described Real-time Billing System is deducted the expense of real time billing business from described Real-time Billing System database;

And described Real-time Billing System receives that described quasi real time charging system sends deduct fees request message or the file or use the message of functional expenses with the user of deducting fees; And correspondingly according to described request message or the file or use the message of functional expenses with the user, the expense of deduction quasi real time charging business from described Real-time Billing System database of deducting fees of deducting fees.

2. the charge system that remaining sum is shared is characterized in that, described charge system comprises:

Real-time Billing System comprises:

The management of balance unit is used for unified depositing and the remaining sum of leading subscriber quasi real time charging account and the remaining sum of real time billing account, and described management comprises the remaining sum that changes the described real time billing account of depositing of change according to the account balance of quasi real time charging system;

The wholesale price unit is used for that the employed real time billing business of user is carried out expense and calculates, and obtains the expense that the user uses the real time billing business to produce, and deducts from the remaining sum of described management of balance unit;

Interface unit is for the account balance that obtains user's quasi real time charging system from the quasi real time charging system; The request message of deducting fees that reception sends from the quasi real time charging system, and carry out corresponding expense deduction from described management of balance unit, and will the situation of deducting fees be sent to the accounting processing unit of quasi real time charging system;

The quasi real time charging system comprises:

The wholesale price unit is used for that the employed quasi real time charging business of user is carried out expense and calculates, and obtains the employed quasi real time charging functional expenses of user, and deducts from the remaining sum of the management of balance unit of described Real-time Billing System;

The accounting processing unit uses the account that quasi real time charging is professional and the real time billing business produces for the treatment of the user.

3. the charge system shared of remaining sum according to claim 2, it is characterized in that, described Real-time Billing System also comprises pretreatment unit, be used for the employed real time billing business of user is carried out authentication, after authentication was passed through, the wholesale price unit of request Real-time Billing System carried out expense and calculates and deduct.

4. the charge system shared of remaining sum according to claim 3, it is characterized in that, described accounting processing unit specifically uses the expense that quasi real time charging is professional and the real time billing business produces according to the user who deducts in the Real-time Billing System management of balance unit, generates corresponding account.

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