KR20100003514A - Method of handling information-rates and apparatus thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an information service fee management method and apparatus for limiting data information provided to a user's terminal based on an information service fee limit set by a user in advance.

A method of managing an information service fee charged from a service providing server includes: (a) receiving a service request with an information service fee from the terminal; (b) determining whether the user's remaining usage balance, which is the amount of money available to the user, remains; And (c) blocking a call connection to the terminal when there is no remaining balance for the user.

Description

METHOD AND HANDLING INFORMATION-RATES AND APPARATUS THEREOF

The present invention relates to an information service fee management method and apparatus for limiting data information provided to a user's terminal based on an information service fee limit set by a user in advance.

With the rapid development of electronic and communication technologies, wireless data services using user terminals are growing rapidly, and are continuously creating new customers. Accordingly, the user may receive various services such as photographs, music, news, traffic information, etc. from the service providing server providing the corresponding service using the user's terminal.

In general, when a user receives a data service using a user's terminal, a data call fee and an information fee are charged. Data call charges, also known as packet charges, are costs incurred to access a service provider server that provides a particular service, and are charged by the mobile carrier according to the amount of packets the user uses. In addition, the information service fee is a price for a service provided by a user, and is charged by a service providing server that provides a specific service.

For example, when a user downloads a piece of music to the user's terminal using the user's terminal, the data call charge is a communication fee for connecting the user's terminal to the music providing server and downloading a piece of music. To impose. On the other hand, the information service fee is charged by the music providing server as the cost of downloading a piece of music.

In the related art, a "prepaid plan" may be used to set a limit on a payment amount to a mobile carrier in advance for a specific service, and use the service only within a predetermined limit. Specifically, the user can set a limit on the amount of money in advance for data call charges, etc., in which the mobile communication company is charged, and use the service within the fixed amount.

However, since the information service fee is not imposed by the mobile carrier, it is not possible to use a "prepaid plan" for setting a payment amount in advance, and to pay later on the amount used for a certain period of time. Therefore, there is a problem that the user can not manage the information fee in advance.

An object of the present invention is to provide an information service fee management method and apparatus for limiting data information provided to a user's terminal, based on a user's preset information service fee limit.

According to one aspect of the present invention, an information service fee management method is provided.

A method of managing an information service fee charged from a service providing server includes: (a) receiving a service request with an information service fee from a user's terminal; (b) determining whether the user's remaining usage balance, which is the amount of money available to the user, remains; And (c) blocking a call connection to the terminal when there is no remaining balance for the user.

According to another feature of the present invention, an information fee management apparatus is provided.

A system for managing an information service fee charged to a user's terminal from a service providing server, the system comprising: a mobile communication network receiving a service request with an information service fee from the terminal and performing a call connection to the terminal; When receiving a service request with an information fee from the terminal through the mobile communication network, it is determined whether or not the user balance remaining in the amount available for the information fee remains, and whether or not to perform a call connection to the terminal. Intelligent network to determine; And a service providing server for transmitting the service and the charging information for the service to the intelligent network.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an information service fee management method and system for limiting data information provided to a user's terminal based on the information service fee usage limit set by the user in advance.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art may easily implement the present invention. As those skilled in the art would realize, the described embodiments may be modified in various different ways, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. In the drawings, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted in order to clearly describe the present invention, and like reference numerals designate like parts throughout the specification.

Throughout the specification, when a part is said to "include" a certain component, it means that it can further include other components, without excluding other components unless specifically stated otherwise. In addition, the terms “… unit”, “… unit”, “module”, etc. described in the specification mean a unit that processes at least one function or operation, which may be implemented by hardware or software or a combination of hardware and software. have.

Now, an information service fee management method and apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is an overall network configuration diagram of an information service fee management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to Figure 1, the entire network of the billing processing system for the information service fee according to an embodiment of the present invention is the user terminal 100, the base station 200, the mobile switching center 300, the home location register 400, intelligent network It includes a service controller 500 and a service providing server 600. Each structure of FIG. 1 is demonstrated as follows.

The user terminal 100 receives a data service request from a user and requests a data call connection to the base station 200.

The base station 200 transmits a data call connection request received from the user terminal 100 to the mobile switching center 300.

Mobile Switching Center (MSC) 300 is a service switching point (SSP) for providing an intelligent network service, the subscriber's incoming and outgoing call processing, location registration procedure and handoff procedure processing, other network It performs the interworking function with.

In addition, the mobile switching center 300 transmits a data call connection request received through the base station 200 to the intelligent network service controller 500, establishes a session with the intelligent network service controller 500, and sets the user through the base station 200. It provides a data service to the terminal 100.

The home location register (HLR) 400 stores information such as subscription type information and intelligent network service trigger information of an intelligent network service subscriber. The home location register (HLR) 400 stores information such as registration recognition, registration deletion, and location confirmation of the user terminal 100. Perform the function.

At this time, the base station 200, the mobile switching center 300 and the home location register 400 may be referred to collectively as a mobile communication network.

An intelligent network service controller (Service Control Point, SCP, hereinafter, "intelligent network service controller" is referred to as an "intelligent network"). 500 receives a service request with an information fee from the terminal through the mobile switching center 300. Thereafter, the intelligent network 500 determines whether the user's available balance for the information service fee remains, and determines whether to perform a call connection to the terminal.

When the user remains available "use balance" for the information fee, the intelligent network 500 requests the service requested by the service providing server 600 and the billing information of the service.

The service providing server 600 transmits the service requested from the intelligent network 500 and the charging information of the corresponding service to the intelligent network 500. In this case, the service provided by the service providing server 600 may include various services such as photographs, music, news, and traffic information.

2 is a block diagram of an intelligent network 500 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the intelligent network 500 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a transceiver 510, a determiner 520, a controller 530, an information storage 540, and a billing processor 550. . Each structure of FIG. 2 is demonstrated as follows.

The transceiver 510 receives a service request with an information fee from the terminal through the mobile switching center 300. In addition, the transceiver 510 receives a service requested by the user and billing information of the corresponding service from the service providing server 600. At this time, the "billing information" refers to information on the information charging fee for the service used by the user.

The determination unit 520 determines whether the user is an information fee prepaid subscriber based on the information stored in the information storage unit 540. In addition, when the user is a subscriber to the information fee prepaid fee, the determination unit 620 determines whether or not the information fee usage balance of the user is "0".

The billing processing unit 550 receives the billing information received from the service providing server 600 through the transmission and reception unit 510, and uses the user in the information usage fee "use balance" stored in the information storage unit 540. Deduction of information service fee for service.

The information storage unit 540 stores information usage fee prepaid fee "subscriber information", information usage fee prepaid fee subscriber "set fee" information and "use balance" information. 3 is a view showing an example of the information storage unit 540 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, the information storage unit 540 includes a user terminal number 10, a usage limit 20, and a usage balance 30.

In the user terminal number 10, the terminal number of the user who subscribed to the information fee prepaid service is stored, and in the usage limit 20, the "use limit", which is a limit of the amount of information usage fee preset by the user, is stored. In addition, the usage balance 30 item stores a "use balance", which is an amount deducting the information use fee for the service used in the information use fee usage limit set by the user.

The controller 530 controls the operations of the transceiver 510, the determiner 520, and the charging processor 550.

In the above, the case where the information storage unit 540 is included in the intelligent network 500 has been described, but the information storage unit 540 is not included in the intelligent network 500 but is also connected to the intelligent network 500 separately. It can be implemented.

Now, the information service fee management method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

4 is a control flowchart of an information service fee management method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, the user terminal 100 receives a data service request from a user and transmits a data call connection request to the intelligent network 500 through the base station 200 and the mobile switching center 300 (S101).

The intelligent network 500 receiving the data call connection request from the user terminal 100 inquires the user information (S102), and determines whether the user is an information fee prepaid subscriber (S103).

If the user is not an information fee prepaid subscriber, the intelligent network 500 connects the data call to the user terminal 100 (S104), and requests the service requested by the user (S105) to the service providing server 600. Then, when the user receives the service requested by the service providing server 600, the intelligent network 500 transmits the received service to the user's terminal (S106).

If the user is determined to be a subscriber to the information fee prepaid rate, the intelligent network 500 inquires the information usage fee "use balance" of the user (S107), and determines whether the user's "use balance" is greater than "0" (S108). do.

If it is determined that the user's "use balance" is greater than "0", the intelligent network 500 connects the data call to the user terminal 100 (S109), the service requested by the user to the service providing server 600 and the corresponding service Request the charging information (S110).

When receiving the service requested by the user and the billing information of the service from the service providing server 600 (S111), the intelligent network 500 transmits the received service to the user's terminal (S112), the user's information usage fee "use balance "Subtract the information usage fee for the service used by the user (S113).

If it is determined that the user's information usage fee balance is not greater than " 0 ", the intelligent network 500 transmits information on connection failure to the user terminal 100 (S114). At this time, the intelligent network 500 transmits the information about the connection failure to the user terminal 100 (S114), the intelligent network 500 includes a message to inform the user terminal 100 that the information fee usage balance is exhausted. You may.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the remaining usage balance of the information fee prepaid subscriber is exhausted, the intelligent network 500 blocks the data call connection to the user terminal 100. Thus, the user can use the data service within the "use limit", which is the amount previously set by the user for the information fee.

In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the case in which the user subscribes to the prepaid fee service for the information service fee has been described, but this may be used by a method in which a user subscribed to another fee service additionally sets the "use limit" for the information service fee. have.

The embodiments of the present invention described above are not implemented only through the apparatus and the method, but may be implemented through a program for realizing a function corresponding to the configuration of the embodiment of the present invention or a recording medium on which the program is recorded. Implementation may be easily implemented by those skilled in the art from the description of the above-described embodiments.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications and improvements of those skilled in the art using the basic concepts of the present invention defined in the following claims are also provided. It belongs to the scope of rights.

1 is an overall network configuration of an information service fee management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram of an intelligent network 500 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a view showing an example of the information storage unit 540 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a control flowchart of an information service fee management method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (6)

In the method of managing the information fee charged from the service providing server, (a) receiving a service request with an information fee from a user's terminal; (b) determining whether the user's remaining usage balance, which is the amount of money available to the user, remains; And (c) if there is no remaining balance for the user, blocking the call connection to the terminal; How to Manage Information Fees. The method of claim 1, (d) if the remaining balance for the user remains, transmitting the service to the terminal; How to Manage Information Fees. The method of claim 2, In step (d), (i) performing a call connection to the terminal; (ii) requesting the service and billing information for the service from the server; (iii) transmitting a service received from the server to the terminal; And (iv) subtracting an information usage fee for the use of the service from the usage balance based on the charging information received from the server. How to Manage Information Fees. In the device for managing the information service fee from the service providing server, A mobile communication network receiving a service request with an information fee from a user's terminal and performing a call connection to the terminal; When receiving a service request with an information fee from the terminal through the mobile communication network, it is determined whether or not the user balance remaining in the amount available for the information fee remains, and whether or not to perform a call connection to the terminal. Intelligent network to determine; And It includes a service providing server for transmitting the service and the billing information for the service to the intelligent network. Information Fee Management System. The method of claim 4, wherein The intelligent network, A determination unit to determine whether the user is a subscriber of the prepaid rate and whether a user balance, which is an amount available for the information usage fee, remains; And On the basis of the billing information received from the service providing server, a billing processing unit for subtracting the information usage fee for the service used by the user from the user's remaining balance; Information Fee Management System. The method of claim 5, The intelligent network, The information storage unit may further include a user terminal number of the prepaid fee subscriber, a pre-determined usage amount of the prepaid fee subscriber, and a remaining balance of the prepaid fee subscriber. Information Fee Management System.

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