CN104113831A - Close range business communication charging method and system and relative device - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a billing method, system and related equipment for short-distance service communication. In the billing method provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the offline billing system receives the short-distance usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal of the communication, and checks whether the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal are consistent according to the associated identifier in the usage records , and finally charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the usage record determined after checking. Compared with the prior art, the billing method provided by the embodiment of the present invention can bill the user by checking the short-distance usage record of the terminal user, which overcomes the problem that the short-distance business communication process in the prior art does not go through the deployment of the network service provider. The technical defect of being unable to charge accurately due to network elements, satisfies the needs of network service providers for accurate charging of users.

Description

Billing method, system and related equipment for short-distance business communication

technical field

The present invention relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to a billing method, system and related equipment for short-distance service communication.

Background technique

With the popularity of social applications, proximity business becomes more and more important. The proximity-based service (Proximity-based service, ProSe) includes a proximity-based service and a proximity-based communication service. The types of short-range communication services include one sending terminal corresponding to multiple receiving terminals (one-to-many), and one sending terminal corresponding to one receiving terminal (one-to-one).

In the one-to-many communication process of the short-distance communication service in the prior art, firstly, the short-distance service function entity (ProSe function) provides the sending terminal and the receiving terminal of the short-distance service with the group ID, the second-layer of the short-distance service Group identification (ProSe layer-2 group ID), ProSe group IP multicast address (ProSe group IP multicast address) and wireless resources for short-distance communication, including parameters such as spectrum bandwidth. After the configuration is completed, the sending terminal of the communication selects an appropriate wireless resource to initiate a one-to-many short-distance service communication, and the sending terminal multicasts to the above-mentioned IP by using the short-distance service layer-2 group identifier as the destination layer-2ID Address to send IP data. At the same time, the receiving terminal of the communication listens to the wireless resources to receive one-to-many multicast IP data, thereby realizing short-distance communication services.

However, the prior art only provides a method for realizing the short-distance service, but does not provide a charging method for the short-distance service, so the prior art needs to be improved.

Contents of the invention

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and related equipment for realizing charging of short-distance service communication.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a charging method for short-distance services, including:

Receive a report message from a sending terminal and a report message from a receiving terminal in short-distance service communication, where the report message carries a usage record of the sending terminal or receiving terminal in the communication and an associated identifier of the communication;

Associating the use records of the sending terminal and the use records of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier;

Checking the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal to determine the billing information for this communication;

Charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first possible implementation manner, the checking of the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal, and determining the billing information of this communication includes:

Checking whether the usage record of the associated sending terminal is consistent with the usage record of the receiving terminal;

If the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal are consistent, it is determined that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal.

With reference to the first possible implementation of the first aspect, in a second possible implementation, the method further includes:

If the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal are inconsistent, then determine that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal, or determine that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal Use records with a large amount of usage.

In combination with the first aspect, the first possible implementation of the first aspect, or the second possible implementation of the first aspect, in the third possible implementation, the above usage records include the duration of short-distance service usage, usage At least one of the number of times and traffic used.

In combination with the first aspect, the first possible implementation of the first aspect, the second possible implementation of the first aspect, and the third possible implementation of the first aspect, in the fourth possible implementation , the association of the use record of the sending terminal and the use record of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier specifically includes:

Obtain the use records of the use records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal whose reporting time is earlier than or equal to the preset cut-off time;

According to the association identifier, associating the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal in this communication with the reporting time earlier than or equal to the preset cut-off time.

In the second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a charging method for business communication, including:

Receive a report message from a sending terminal and a report message from a receiving terminal in short-distance service communication, where the report message carries a usage record of the sending terminal or receiving terminal in the communication and an associated identifier of the communication;

Associating the use records of the sending terminal and the use records of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier;

Checking the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal to determine the billing information for this communication;

Requesting the offline charging system to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information.

With reference to the second aspect, in a first possible implementation manner, the requesting to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information includes:

Generate charging data records according to the determined charging information;

Send the charging data record to OFCS.

With reference to the second aspect and the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in the second possible implementation manner, the method further includes:

Sending the checked and determined charging information to the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the receiving terminal.

In the third aspect, the embodiment of the present invention also provides a charging method for short-distance business communication, including:

The terminal of the short-distance business communication obtains the associated identification and reporting conditions of the short-distance business communication;

When the reporting condition is satisfied, the terminal of the short-distance service communication sends a reporting message to the short-distance service function entity, and the reporting message carries the use record of the terminal in the communication and the association identifier of the communication .

With reference to the third aspect, in a first possible implementation manner, the terminal of the short-distance service communication obtains the association identifier and the reporting condition of the short-distance service include:

The short-distance service communication sending terminal generates an association identifier and a reporting condition of the short-distance service.

In combination with the third aspect and the first possible implementation of the third aspect, in the second possible implementation, the reporting conditions include:

At least one of reporting at a preset interval, reporting within a preset time, reporting after each use of the short-distance service by the user, or reporting once when the user equipment returns to the public land mobile network.

In combination with the third aspect, the first possible implementation of the third aspect, or the second possible implementation of the third aspect, in the third possible implementation, the association identifier includes a communication identifier, an IP data transmission At least one of time and IP data receiving time, application type, communication service type, reporting sequence number, and group identification.

In a fourth aspect, the embodiment of the present invention also provides an offline charging system, including:

The report receiving unit is used to receive the report message of the sending terminal and the report message of the receiving terminal in the short-distance business communication, and the report message carries the use record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal in the communication and the communication information of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal. association identification;

The first associating unit is configured to associate the use records of the sending terminal and the use records of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier;

The first checking unit is used to check the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal, and determine the billing information of this communication;

The charging unit is configured to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a first possible implementation manner, the first checking unit includes:

A checking module, configured to check whether the usage record of the associated sending terminal is consistent with the usage record of the receiving terminal;

The billing information determination module is configured to determine that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal when the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal are consistent.

In combination with the first possible implementation of the fourth aspect, in the second possible implementation,

The billing information determining module is also used to determine that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal when the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal are inconsistent, or determine that the billing information of this communication is Among the use records of the sending terminal and the use records of the receiving terminal, the use record with a large amount of use is used.

In combination with the fourth aspect, the first possible implementation of the fourth aspect, or the second possible implementation of the fourth aspect, in the third possible implementation,

The use record includes at least one of the short-distance service use duration, use times, and use traffic.

In combination with the fourth aspect, the first possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the second possible implementation of the fourth aspect, or the third possible implementation of the fourth aspect, in the fourth possible implementation ,

The first association unit includes:

The record obtaining module is used to obtain the use records whose reporting time is earlier than or equal to the preset cut-off time among the use records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal;

An associating module, configured to associate the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal in this communication with the usage records whose reporting time is earlier than or equal to the preset cut-off time according to the association identifier.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a short-distance service functional entity, including:

A message receiving unit, configured to receive a report message from a sending terminal and a report message from a receiving terminal in short-distance business communication, where the report message carries the usage records of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal in the communication and the information of the communication association identification;

The second associating unit is configured to associate the use record of the sending terminal and the use record of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier;

The second checking unit is used to check the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal, and determine the billing information of this communication;

The charging request unit is configured to request the offline charging system to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a first possible implementation manner, the charging request unit includes:

A record generating module, configured to generate charging data records according to the determined charging information;

A record sending module, configured to send the charging data record to OFCS.

With reference to the fifth aspect and the first possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in the second possible implementation manner, the short-distance service function entity further includes:

The charging information sending unit is configured to send the checked and determined charging information to the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the receiving terminal.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a short-distance business communication terminal, which includes:

An acquisition unit, configured to acquire the associated identification and reporting conditions of the short-distance business communication;

The reporting unit is configured to send a reporting message to the short-distance service functional entity when the reporting condition is satisfied, the reporting message carrying the usage record of the terminal in the communication and the communication association identifier.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in a first possible implementation manner, the obtaining by the obtaining unit of the association identifier and reporting condition of the short-distance service includes:

The obtaining unit generates an association identifier and a reporting condition of the short-distance service.

With reference to the sixth aspect and the first possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect, in a second possible implementation manner, the terminal further includes:

The data sending unit is configured to send the association identifier and the reporting condition to the receiving terminal of the short-distance business communication through IP data when the terminal is used as the sending terminal of the short-distance business communication.

In combination with the sixth aspect, the first possible implementation of the sixth aspect, or the second possible implementation of the sixth aspect, in the third possible implementation, the reporting conditions include:

At least one of reporting at a preset interval, reporting within a preset time, reporting after each use of the short-distance service by the user, or reporting once when the user equipment returns to the public land mobile network.

In combination with the sixth aspect, the first possible implementation of the sixth aspect, the second possible implementation of the sixth aspect, or the third possible implementation of the sixth aspect, in the fourth possible implementation ,

The association identifier includes at least one of communication identifier, IP data sending time and IP data receiving time, application type, communication service type, reporting sequence number, and group identifier.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a billing system for short-distance business communication, which includes the offline billing system as described in the fourth aspect and a short-distance business functional entity,

The short-distance service function entity is used to receive the reporting message of the sending terminal and the reporting message of the receiving terminal in the short-distance service communication, and send the reporting message of the sending terminal and the reporting message of the receiving terminal to the offline charging system.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a charging system for short-distance business communication, which includes the short-distance business functional entity and an offline charging system as described in the fifth aspect,

The offline charging system is configured to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the request of the short-distance service function entity.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the terminal may be...

Wherein, the communication time stamp specifically includes the session time, the sending time of the IP data packet or the receiving time of the IP data packet, the time of reporting the message, and the like.

In the billing method provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the offline billing system receives the short-distance usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal of the communication, and checks whether the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal are consistent according to the associated identifier in the usage records , and finally charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the usage record determined after checking. Compared with the prior art, the billing method provided by the embodiment of the present invention can bill the user by checking the short-distance usage record of the terminal user, which overcomes the problem that the short-distance business communication process in the prior art does not go through the deployment of the network service provider. The technical defect of being unable to charge accurately due to network elements, satisfies the needs of network service providers for accurate charging of users.

Description of drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings that need to be used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can also be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort. in:

FIG. 1 is a system architecture diagram of short-distance business communication in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a billing method for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the billing method for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 2 of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the billing method for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 3 of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of the billing method for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 4 of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of the charging method for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 5 of the present invention;

7 is a flow chart of a short-distance communication method in the short-distance business communication charging method provided by Embodiment 5 of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of another short-distance communication in the short-distance business communication charging method provided by Embodiment 5 of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of a charging method for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 5 of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a flow chart of a charging method for short-distance services provided by Embodiment 6 of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of an offline charging system provided by Embodiment 7 of the present invention;

Fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of a first checking unit in the offline charging system provided by Embodiment 7 of the present invention;

Fig. 13 is a schematic diagram of the first association unit in the offline charging system provided by Embodiment 7 of the present invention

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of a short-distance service functional entity provided by Embodiment 8 of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of a charging request unit in a short-distance service functional entity provided by Embodiment 8 of the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram of a short-distance service communication terminal provided by Embodiment 9 of the present invention;

FIG. 17 is a schematic diagram of an offline charging system provided by Embodiment 10 of the present invention;

FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram of a short-distance service functional entity provided by Embodiment 11 of the present invention;

FIG. 19 is a schematic diagram of a short-distance service communication terminal provided by Embodiment 12 of the present invention;

FIG. 20 is a schematic diagram of a billing system for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 13 of the present invention;

FIG. 21 is a schematic diagram of a billing system for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 14 of the present invention.

Detailed ways

The following will clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of them. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by persons of ordinary skill in the art without making creative efforts belong to the protection scope of the present invention.

The present invention provides a service charging method, system and related equipment, see FIG. 1 , which is a system architecture diagram of short-distance service communication in an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, user equipment UEs are connected through PC5, UE A and UE B access the evolved UMTS terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), and the equipment on the network side includes a mobility management entity (Mobility Management Entity, MME ), S/PGW, SLP, Home Subscriber Server (HSS) and ProSe Function. ProSeFunction is a logical functional entity deployed by operators to manage short-distance services. The address of the billing entity (which can be an offline billing system) is configured in ProSe Function. ProSe Function is responsible for interacting with the billing entity and can collect UE reporting messages. .

The ProSe application is installed on UE A and UE B, and the ProSe application is connected to the ProSe application server.

As shown in Figure 2, the service charging method disclosed in this embodiment includes:

Step 110, the short-distance service functional entity receives the reporting message of the sending terminal and the reporting message of the receiving terminal in the short-distance service communication, and the reporting message carries the use record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal in the communication and the communication information of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal. Association ID.

Specifically, the short-distance service functional entity corresponding to the sending terminal can receive the report message sent by the short-distance service communication sending terminal, and the short-distance service functional entity corresponding to the receiving terminal can receive the report message sent by the communication receiving terminal. The report message of the sending terminal carries the use record of the sending terminal in the communication and the association identifier of the communication. The report message of the receiving terminal carries the use record of the receiving terminal in the communication and the association identifier of the communication.

It should be pointed out that the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the sending terminal may be a short-distance service function entity at the home location, the visiting location, or the local location of the sending terminal. In general, the short-distance service functional entity corresponding to the sending terminal is the short-distance service functional entity at the home location;

If the sending terminal uses resources of a public land mobile network (PLMN, Public Land Mobile Network) other than the home public land mobile network (Home Public Land Mobile Network, VPLMN) in the non-roaming state, then the corresponding short-distance The service function entity is the short-range service function entity of the non-home PLMN, that is, the local short-distance service function entity;

If the sending terminal uses the resources of the roaming PLMN in the roaming state, the corresponding short distance service functional entity is the short distance service functional entity of the roaming place, that is, the short distance service functional entity of the visited place. The same scenario also applies to the receiving terminal.

Wherein, the use record includes at least one of the short-distance business usage time, the number of times of use, and the usage traffic, and the association identifier is used to associate this short-distance business communication. In addition, the use record also includes: one or more of the terminal identification used to identify the terminal, the user identification used to identify the network service, and the identification used to distinguish the type of the sending terminal from the receiving terminal, so as to facilitate the identification of users who use the network service for billing.

The reporting message is one of the carriers for the terminal to send the association identification and usage records. Those skilled in the art can use other messages to send the above association identification and usage records according to actual needs. The above association identification and usage records can also be sent separately to short-distance Business Functional Entity.

Step 120, the short distance service function entity sends the received reporting message to the offline charging system.

Specifically, the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the sending terminal sends the received report message to the offline charging system (Offline Charge System, OFCS) at the home of the sending terminal.

The short-distance service functional entity corresponding to the receiving terminal can send the received reporting message to the offline charging system at the receiving terminal's home, and then the receiving terminal's home offline charging system sends the received reporting message to the sending terminal's home Offline billing system. In addition, the short-distance service functional entity corresponding to the receiving terminal may also send the received reporting message to the short-distance service functional entity corresponding to the sending terminal, and then the short-distance service functional entity corresponding to the sending terminal sends the received reporting message to the sending terminal Offline billing system at the home location.

Step 130, the offline billing system receives the reporting message of the sending terminal and the reporting message of the receiving terminal in the short-distance business communication, and the reporting message carries the use record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal in the communication and the communication associated ID.

Wherein, the report message of the sending terminal received by the offline charging system at the place where the sending terminal belongs may come from the short-distance service function entity at the place where the sending terminal belongs, and the report message of the receiving terminal received by the offline charging system at the place where the sending terminal belongs may come from the receiving terminal The near-distance service functional entity at the home location of the terminal may also come from the home or visiting location of the receiving terminal or the local offline charging system, or it may also come from the short-distance service functional entity at the home location of the sending terminal.

In another embodiment, the reporting message of the receiving terminal received by the offline charging system at the receiving terminal's home location may come from the short-distance service function entity at the receiving terminal's home location, and the sending terminal's reporting message received by the offline charging system at the receiving terminal's home location The reporting message can come from the short-distance service functional entity at the home of the sending terminal, or from the home or visited place of the sending terminal or the local offline charging system, or from the short-distance service functional entity at the home of the receiving terminal.

Step 140, the offline charging system correlates the use record of the sending terminal with the use record of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier.

Among them, the offline billing system can associate the use record of the short-distance service sending terminal and the use record of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier, and establish the corresponding relationship between the use record of the sending terminal and the use record of the receiving terminal through the association identifier .

Step 150 , the offline charging system checks the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal, and determines the charging information of this communication.

Specifically, the offline charging system checks whether the usage record of the associated sending terminal is consistent with the usage record of the receiving terminal, and determines the charging information of this communication according to the checking result.

Wherein, the billing information of this communication may include the usage record determined by checking this communication.

Step 160, the offline charging system charges the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information.

Wherein, the offline billing system at the home of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal charges one or both of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal according to the billing information determined after checking and the short distance service charging policy.

It should be pointed out that the essence of charging the sending terminal or the receiving terminal in the embodiment of the present invention is to charge the user of the sending terminal or the user of the receiving terminal.

In the billing method provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the offline billing system receives the report message of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal of the communication, checks the use records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal according to the association identifier in the report message, and checks the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal according to the checked The determined charging information charges the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal. Compared with the prior art, the billing method provided by the embodiment of the present invention can accurately bill the terminal by associating and checking the short-distance usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal, which overcomes the problem that the short-distance business communication in the prior art does not go through The technical defect that network elements deployed by network service providers cannot be billed accurately satisfies the needs of network service providers for accurate billing of end users.

Referring to FIG. 3 , FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a charging method for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the billing method for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 2 of the present invention mainly includes the following steps:

Step 210, the offline billing system receives the reporting message of the sending terminal and the reporting message of the receiving terminal in the short-distance business communication, and the reporting message carries the use record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal in the communication and the communication associated ID.

Wherein, the execution process of step 210 is the same as the execution process of step 130 in the first embodiment above, and for details, refer to the description of the first embodiment above.

Step 220, the offline charging system associates the use record of the sending terminal with the use record of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier.

In this implementation, the association identifier includes one or a combination of a communication session identifier, a communication timestamp, an application type, a communication service type, a reporting sequence number, and a group identifier. Wherein, the application type is the type of the application program using the proximity service. Communication business types include one-to-one, one-to-many, etc. The reporting sequence number is used to identify the reporting message. The group ID is used to identify the group created during one-to-many.

Correspondingly, the above step 220 may be implemented as:

The offline billing system associates the use records of the short-distance service sending terminal and the use record of the receiving terminal with the same communication ID, communication time stamp, application type, communication service type, reported serial number or group ID.

Wherein, the communication time stamp specifically includes the session time, the sending time of the IP data packet or the receiving time of the IP data packet, the time of reporting the message, and the like.

In this embodiment, the step of checking the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal to determine the billing information of this communication (step 150 in Embodiment 1) specifically includes steps 230-250 .

Step 230, the offline charging system checks whether the usage record of the associated sending terminal is consistent with the usage record of the receiving terminal.

Specifically, the offline charging system checks whether the usage record of the associated sending terminal is consistent with the usage record of the receiving terminal, and if the usage records are consistent, step 240 is performed. If the usage records are inconsistent, go to step 250 .

Step 240, the offline charging system determines that the charging information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal.

In this embodiment, if the associated usage record of the sending terminal is consistent with the usage record of the receiving terminal, for example, the usage record of the sending terminal is the same as the usage record of the receiving terminal or the error is within the allowable range, it means that the sending The usage records of both the terminal and the receiving terminal are true and valid. At this time, the offline billing system determines that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal.

Step 250, the offline billing system determines that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal, or determines that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal with a larger amount of usage. Record.

In this embodiment, if the associated use record of the sending terminal is inconsistent with the use record of the receiving terminal, for example, the error between the use record of the sending terminal and the use record of the receiving terminal is not within the allowable range, it means that the sending terminal or The usage record of the receiving terminal is untrustworthy. At this time, the offline billing system determines that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal, typically in a one-to-many application scenario.

In addition, the offline billing system can also determine that the billing information of this communication is the usage record with a larger usage volume among the usage records of the sending terminal and the usage records of the receiving terminal, typically in a one-to-many application scenario .

In this embodiment, the offline charging system may also check that the usage record of the associated sending terminal is inconsistent with the usage record of the receiving terminal, and when it is judged that the communication type is one-to-many, the The use record of the sending terminal is determined as the billing information for this communication.

It should be noted that those skilled in the art may flexibly select the above two methods for determining charging information according to different scenarios, and are not limited to the above-mentioned typical scenarios.

Step 260, the offline charging system charges the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information.

Wherein, the execution process of step 260 is the same as the execution process of step 160 in the above-mentioned first embodiment. For details, refer to the description of the above-mentioned first embodiment.

In the billing method provided in Embodiment 2 of the present invention, it is checked whether the usage record of the associated sending terminal is consistent with the usage record of the receiving terminal, and then different definite billing information is given according to different situations of the check result The method enables the embodiment of the present invention to adapt to more application scenarios and has better compatibility.

Referring to FIG. 4 , FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a charging method for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the billing method for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 3 of the present invention mainly includes the following steps:

Step 310, the offline billing system receives the reporting message of the sending terminal and the reporting message of the receiving terminal in the short-distance business communication, and the reporting message carries the use record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal in the communication and the communication associated ID.

Wherein, the execution process of the above step 310 is the same as the execution process of the step 130 in the above first embodiment, please refer to the description of the above first embodiment for details.

Step 320, the offline charging system obtains the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal whose reporting time is earlier than or equal to the preset cut-off time.

Among them, the offline billing system obtains the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal whose reporting time is earlier than or equal to (including network delay and other factors approximately equal to) the preset cut-off time, and discards the usage records whose reporting time is later than the preset cut-off time. Use records.

Step 330, the offline billing system associates the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal in this communication with the usage records whose reporting time is earlier than or equal to the preset cut-off time according to the association identifier.

In this implementation, instead of associating all the usage records, the usage records whose reporting time is earlier than or equal to the preset cut-off time in the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal mentioned in this communication are related according to the association identifier, excluding Overdue reporting of usage records.

Step 340 , the offline charging system checks the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal, and determines the charging information of this communication.

Step 350, the offline charging system charges the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information.

The execution process of the above-mentioned steps 340-350 is the same as the execution process of the steps 150-160 in the above-mentioned first embodiment. For details, refer to the description of the above-mentioned first embodiment.

In the billing method provided in Embodiment 3 of the present invention, the offline billing system only correlates the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal in this communication when the reporting time is earlier than or equal to (including factors such as network delays) when associating the usage records. approximately equal to) the usage records of the preset cut-off time, excluding the usage records reported overdue. The embodiment of the present invention avoids the impact on billing caused by maliciously tampering with the usage records that are postponed or refused to report, and improves the accuracy, comprehensiveness and security of short-distance billing.

Referring to FIG. 5 , FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a charging method for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 4 of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the billing method for short-distance service communication provided by the embodiment of the present invention mainly includes the following steps:

In step 410, the terminal of the short-distance business communication acquires the association identifier and the reporting condition of the short-distance business communication.

Wherein, the method for the sending terminal of the short-distance business communication to obtain the association identifier and the reporting condition of the short-distance business communication includes generating the association identifier and the reporting condition of the proximity business, and sending the generated association identifier and the reporting condition to the receiving terminal through IP data. Specifically, the sending terminal sends the IP data including the above association identifier and reporting condition to the receiving terminal of the short distance service communication through broadcast or multicast, such as MAC address paging or cell broadcast.

Correspondingly, the method for the receiving terminal of the short-distance business communication to obtain the association identification and reporting conditions of the short-distance business communication includes: generating the association identification and reporting conditions of the short-distance business communication and the association of sending terminals receiving the short-distance business communication through IP data. Identification and reporting conditions. The above two manners can exist in the receiving terminal at the same time.

In this implementation, the association identifier includes one or a combination of communication session identifier, IP data sending time and IP data receiving time, application type, communication service type, reporting sequence number, and group identifier. Wherein, the application type is the type of the application program using the proximity service. Communication business types include one-to-one, one-to-many, etc. The reporting sequence number is used to identify the reporting message. The group ID is used to identify the group created during one-to-many.

In this embodiment, the above reporting conditions include reporting at a preset interval, reporting within a preset time, reporting after each use of the short-distance service by the user, or reporting at one time when the user equipment returns to the public land mobile network. One or more combinations take effect. The reporting condition can force the terminal to report the usage record within the specified time, so as to prevent the terminal from not reporting the usage record and missing billing.

Step 420: When the reporting condition is satisfied, the terminal of the short-distance service communication sends a reporting message to the short-distance service function entity, and the reporting message carries the use record of the terminal in the communication and the association of the communication logo.

Among them, the sending terminal sends the report message to the short-distance service function entity of the home or visiting place, and then the short-distance service function entity of the home place will forward the report message to the local short-distance service function entity, or the short-distance service function entity of the visited place The entity will forward the report message to the short-distance service function entity at the place of origin.

The receiving terminal sends the reporting message to the short-distance service functional entity at the home location or the visiting location, and then the short-distance service functional entity at the home location will forward the reporting message to the local short-distance service functional entity, or the short-distance service functional entity at the visiting location will Forward and report the message to the near-distance service functional entity at the home location.

In this embodiment, before sending the report message to the short-distance service function entity, the sending terminal or the receiving terminal requests an encryption key from the corresponding short-distance service function entity, and encrypts and sends the report message to the corresponding short-distance service function entity according to the requested encryption key. Distance business function entity. In addition, the encryption method can also use public key encryption, that is, the sending terminal or receiving terminal of the short-distance service communication sends the report message to the short-distance service functional entity through public key encryption. In the embodiment of the present invention, by encrypting and sending the reporting message to the short-distance service functional entity, the reporting message can be prevented from being maliciously received and tampered with, and the security of the short-distance charging method is improved.

The following embodiments (steps 430-460) describe the process of reporting charging information by the short distance service function entity. This process can be performed after steps 410-420 in the embodiment of FIG. 4 .

Step 430: The short-distance service function entity receives the reporting message of the sending terminal and the reporting message of the receiving terminal in the short-distance service communication, and the reporting message carries the use record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal in the communication and the Correlation ID for the newsletter.

Specifically, the reporting message of the sending terminal received by the short-range service function entity corresponding to the sending terminal may be from the sending terminal, and the report message received by the receiving terminal may be forwarded by the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the receiving terminal.

In another embodiment, the reporting message of the receiving terminal received by the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the receiving terminal may come from the receiving terminal, and the report message received by the sending terminal may be forwarded by the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the sending terminal. .

Wherein, the use record includes at least one of the short-distance business usage time, the number of times of use, and the usage traffic, and the association identifier is used to associate this short-distance business communication. In addition, the usage records may also include identifiers for identifying terminals, identifiers for identifying users using network services, and identifiers for distinguishing types of sending terminals and receiving terminals, so as to facilitate the identification of users using operator network services and/or resources. Billing.

The reporting message is one of the carriers for the terminal to send the association identification and usage records. Those skilled in the art can use other messages to send the above association identification and usage records according to actual needs. The above association identification and usage records can also be sent separately to short-distance Business Functional Entity.

Step 440: The short-distance service function entity associates the use record of the sending terminal with the use record of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier.

Among them, the short-distance service function entity can associate the use record of the short-distance service sending terminal and the use record of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier, and establish the correspondence between the use record of the sending terminal and the use record of the receiving terminal through the association identifier relation.

Step 450, the short-distance service function entity checks the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal, and determines the charging information of this communication.

Specifically, the short-distance service function entity checks whether the usage record of the associated sending terminal is consistent with the usage record of the receiving terminal, and determines the charging information of this communication according to the checking result.

In this embodiment, if the associated usage record of the sending terminal is consistent with the usage record of the receiving terminal, for example, the usage record of the sending terminal is the same as the usage record of the receiving terminal or the error is within the allowable range, it means that the sending The usage records of both the terminal and the receiving terminal are true and valid. At this time, the offline billing system determines that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal.

If the usage record of the associated sending terminal is inconsistent with the usage record of the receiving terminal, for example, the error between the usage record of the sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal is not within the allowable range, it means that the usage record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal is incorrect. At this time, the offline billing system determines that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal, typically in a one-to-many application scenario.

In addition, the offline billing system can also determine that the billing information of this communication is the usage record with a larger usage volume among the usage records of the sending terminal and the usage records of the receiving terminal, typically in a one-to-many application scenario .

In this embodiment, the offline charging system may also check that the usage record of the associated sending terminal is inconsistent with the usage record of the receiving terminal, and when it is judged that the communication type is one-to-many, the The use record of the sending terminal is determined as the billing information for this communication.

It should be noted that those skilled in the art may flexibly select the above two methods for determining charging information according to different scenarios, and are not limited to the above-mentioned typical scenarios.

Step 460, the short distance service function entity requests the offline charging system to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information.

Specifically, the short-distance service function entity generates a charging data record (Charging Data Record, CDR) according to the determined charging information and sends it to the offline charging system, and requests the offline charging system to perform a charge on the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal Billing, the offline billing system bills one or both of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal according to the CDR and short-distance service charging policies. In general, the sending terminal is charged by the offline charging system where the sending terminal belongs, and the receiving terminal is charged by the offline charging system to which the receiving terminal belongs.

In the billing method provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the short-distance service function entity receives the report message of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal of the communication, checks the use records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal according to the association identifier in the report message, and checks the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal according to the verification The later determined charging information requests the offline charging system to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal. Compared with the prior art, the billing method provided by the embodiment of the present invention can bill the terminal by associating and checking the short-distance usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal, which overcomes the problem that the short-distance business communication in the prior art does not go through the network. The technical defect that network elements deployed by service providers cannot be billed accurately satisfies the needs of network service providers for accurate billing of end users.

Referring to FIG. 6 , FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a charging method for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 5 of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the charging method for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 5 of the present invention mainly includes the following steps:

Step 510, the terminal of the short-distance business communication obtains the association identifier and the reporting condition of the short-distance business communication.

Step 520: When the reporting condition is satisfied, the terminal of the short-distance service communication sends a report message to the short-distance service function entity, and the report message carries the use record of the terminal in the communication and the association of the communication logo.

The execution process of the above-mentioned steps 510-520 is the same as the execution process of the steps 410-420 in the above-mentioned fourth embodiment. For details, refer to the description of the above-mentioned fourth embodiment.

Step 530: The short-distance service functional entity corresponding to the receiving terminal forwards the report message to the short-distance service functional entity corresponding to the sending terminal.

The short-range service function entity corresponding to the receiving terminal receives the report message sent by the receiving terminal, and sends the received report message to the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the short-distance service sending terminal according to the sending terminal information in the received report message .

Step 540, the short-distance service function entity of the sending terminal receives the reporting message of the sending terminal and the reporting message of the receiving terminal in the short-distance service communication, and the reporting message carries the use record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal in the communication The ID associated with the communication in question.

Wherein, the reporting message of the sending terminal received by the short-distance service function entity at the home of the sending terminal may be from the sending terminal, and the report message received by the receiving terminal may be forwarded from the short-distance service function entity at the home of the receiving terminal.

Step 550, the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the sending terminal associates the use record of the sending terminal with the use record of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier.

Wherein, the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the sending terminal can associate the reporting time in the use record of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier, which is earlier than or equal to (including approximately equal to the network delay and other factors) the preset time. Set the use records of the cut-off time, and exclude the use records reported overdue.

Step 560: The short-distance service function entity corresponding to the sending terminal checks the associated use record of the sending terminal and the use record of the receiving terminal, and determines the charging information of this communication.

Specifically, if the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the sending terminal checks and determines that the use records are consistent, it determines that the charging information of this communication is the use record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal. If it is checked that the usage records are inconsistent, then it is determined that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal, or it is determined that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal. Use records. In another embodiment, the near-distance service function entity may also determine that the communication type is one-to-many when checking that the usage record of the associated sending terminal is inconsistent with the usage record of the receiving terminal , determine the use record of the sending terminal as the billing information for this communication.

Step 570: The short-distance service function entity corresponding to the sending terminal requests the offline charging system to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information.

Specifically, the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the sending terminal generates a charging data record according to the determined charging information and sends it to the offline charging system at the home of the sending terminal, and requests the offline charging system to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving The terminal performs charging, and then the offline charging system charges one or both of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal according to the CDR and the short-distance service charging policy.

Step 580: The short-distance service function entity corresponding to the sending terminal sends the checked and determined charging information to the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the receiving terminal.

Specifically, the short-distance service functional entity corresponding to the sending terminal sends the billing information determined after checking to the short-distance service functional entity corresponding to the receiving terminal, so that the short-distance service functional entity corresponding to the receiving terminal can send the charging information to the offline accounting service at the place where the receiving terminal belongs. The billing system sends the billing information determined after checking, so that the offline billing system at the place where the receiving terminal belongs charges the receiving terminal.

In the short-distance charging method provided in Embodiment 5 of the present invention, the short-distance service function entity can associate the sending terminal and the receiving terminal in the current communication according to the association identifier, and the reporting time is earlier than or equal to (including Factors such as network delays are approximately equal to) the usage records of the preset cut-off time, excluding usage records reported overdue, avoiding the impact of malicious tampering on delayed or refused usage records on billing, and improving the accuracy and accuracy of short-distance billing safety. In addition, the embodiment of the present invention provides a method for charging the receiving terminal by the offline charging system of the network where the receiving terminal is located by sending the checked and determined charging information to the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the receiving terminal.

For a more detailed understanding of the present invention, a specific application scenario of the short distance charging method is given below. In this application scenario, user terminals for short-distance service communication include UE1, UE2, and UE3. Wherein, UE1 is a sending terminal, and UE2 and UE3 are receiving terminals.

Referring to FIG. 7 , FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a short-distance business communication method in the short-distance business communication charging method provided by Embodiment 5 of the present invention.

Specifically, when UE1-UE3 belong to a short-distance communication group, the short-distance service communication process between them includes:

Step 610, UE configures group context, group identifier and reporting condition.

Among them, UE1, UE2, and UE3 are pre-configured with one-to-many short-distance communication related information. The configuration process can be manually configured in the short-distance application program in UE, and the configuration file can also be automatically updated by the ProSe Function on the network side. . The configuration process and communication process of UE2 and UE3 are the same.

UE1 obtains the relevant group context through pre-configuration to transmit IP layer data transmission, and the group context includes the L2 group identifier of the short distance service and the IP multicast address of the short distance service group. UE1 also obtains related parameters of radio resources used and charging related parameters of short distance service communication, and charging related parameters include association identifier and reporting condition.

In this application scenario, the reporting conditions include the reporting time setting, and the associated identifier is specifically the reporting sequence number and communication time. The reporting conditions and association identities of the sending terminal UE1 and the receiving terminals UE2-UE3 are configured by the user equipments respectively.

Step 620, UE1 accesses wireless resources to send group communication, UE2 and UE3 monitor wireless resources to receive group communication.

Specifically, UE1 searches for a suitable wireless resource to perform one-to-many short-distance service communication, and UE2 and UE3 monitor corresponding wireless resources to receive group communication.

Step 630, UE1 initiates one-to-many short distance communication.

Specifically, UE1 sends IP data to the aforementioned IP multicast address by using the short-distance service layer-2 group identifier as the destination layer-2 ID. UE2-UE3 receive one-to-many communication data.

It should be noted that the communication process of the above steps 610-630 can be combined with the billing methods in Embodiment 1 to Embodiment 4, that is, after the short-distance communication or during the short-distance communication, the charging methods in Embodiment 1 to Embodiment 4 are executed. Describe the billing method.

Referring to FIG. 8 , FIG. 8 is a flow chart of another short-distance communication in the charging method for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 5 of the present invention.

The short-distance service communication process between UE1-UE3 includes:

Step 710, configure group context.

Wherein, UE1, UE2 and UE3 are pre-configured with one-to-many near-field communication related information, and this configuration process can be configured by a short-range application program in UE. The communication process of UE2 and UE3 is the same.

UE1-UE3 obtains the group ID and related group context through configuration to transmit IP layer data transmission, and the group context includes the L2 group identifier of the short distance service and the IP multicast address of the short distance service group.

Step 720, the sending terminal generates billing-related parameters and accesses wireless resources to send the group communication, and the receiving terminal monitors the wireless resources to receive the group communication.

Specifically, UE1 generates charging-related parameters of short-range service communication, and searches for suitable wireless resources to perform one-to-many short-distance service communication, and UE2 and UE3 monitor corresponding wireless resources to receive group communication. Charging-related parameters include association identifiers and reporting conditions.

In this application scenario, the reporting conditions include the setting of the reporting time, and the associated identification is specifically the reporting serial number and the service time of use. The receiving terminals UE2-UE3 receive the reporting condition and association identifier sent by the sending terminal UE1.

Step 730, initiate one-to-many short distance communication.

Specifically, UE1 sends the IP data to the IP multicast address by using the short-distance service layer-2 group identifier as the destination two-layer identifier to generate the short-distance service usage record. The IP data also carries charging-related parameters, including association identifiers and reporting conditions.

UE2-UE3 receive one-to-many short-distance communication data, generate a short-distance service usage record and obtain charging-related parameters, and the charging-related parameters include association identifiers and reporting conditions. The reporting conditions include the reporting time setting, and the association identifier is specifically the reporting sequence number and the sending time Event time of the sending terminal.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned communication process of steps 710-730 can be combined with the billing methods in Embodiment 1 to Embodiment 4, that is, after the short-distance communication or during the short-distance communication, execute the description in Embodiment 1 to Embodiment 4 billing method.

The process of UE1-UE3 sending the report message according to the report condition and the equipment on the network side processing the report message will continue to be described through the following figures.

Referring to FIG. 9 , FIG. 9 is a flow chart of a charging method for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 5 of the present invention.

In this embodiment, different from the interaction of ordinary signaling, the interaction of charging information between UE and ProSe Function requires a higher security level. Before reporting, UE requests authorization from ProSe Function, reports UE ID and application program ID, and applies for encryption Key and validity period, the subsequent reporting process is encrypted with the public key and/or the encryption key of this request to ensure the security of data transmission. At the same time, ProSe Function verifies the user's device and the applications used by the user.

In this embodiment, the UE is configured with a home public land mobile network (Home Public Land Mobile Network, HPLMN), so that the UE can correctly initiate a request and obtain verification authorization.

Before the Origination UE on the sending side communicates with the Destination UE on the receiving side, it can negotiate the reporting conditions (as shown in Figure 8) or preset the reporting conditions (as shown in Figure 7), so that both the sending terminal and the receiving terminal can communicate within the specified time Upload the usage information of the ProSe APP of the UE terminal.

The charging method for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 5 of the present invention mainly includes the following steps:

Step 810, UE sends a report message to the corresponding ProSe Function.

In this application scenario, UE1's home ProSe function1 provides short-distance services to UE1, and UE2 and UE3's home ProSe function2 provides short-distance services to UE2 and UE3. It should be noted that UE2 and UE3 can also correspond to different ProSe Functions, that is, different ProSe Functions provide services for UE2 and UE3.

In this embodiment, the sending terminal (Originating UE) may send the reporting message when the following reporting conditions are met. The report message carries the use record of the sending terminal in the communication and the associated identifier of the communication, and the use record includes one or more of short-distance service usage time, usage times, and usage traffic.

Triggered reporting: The reporting time interval is preset, and the ProSe APP of the sending terminal UE1 triggers the upload of all short-distance service usage records and associated identifications of short-distance business communication within the time period at a predetermined time.

The default can be that the user configures the reporting time interval on the terminal, or the HPLMN sends the configuration file through the ProSe Function, or it can be the initial reporting time interval configured by the application in the UE itself. The present invention supports the configuration mode of three parties (user terminal, application program and operator), which is common to UEs from all angles, and will not be repeated hereafter.

Appointment reporting: When negotiating the situation of uploading within N hours during communication, N hours can also indicate the situation of reporting immediately after the completion of data transmission, or the situation of reporting at the specified arrival time of N hours after the completion of data transmission and reception. Report at any time including N hours.

It should be noted that the triggered reporting and scheduled reporting can exist in the user terminal at the same time, and they are prioritized in time, and are also aimed at the reporting conditions of the receiving terminal, which will not be repeated below.

Similarly, for the receiving terminal (Destination UE), the reporting message can be sent when the following reporting conditions are met.

Triggered reporting: The reporting time interval is set in advance, and the UE will upload all usage records within the specified time period

Appointment reporting: during communication, negotiate with the sending terminal to upload within N hours. N hours can indicate the situation of reporting immediately after the completion of transmission, or it can indicate the situation of reporting at the specified arrival time of N hours after the completion of transmission and reception. Report at any time including N hours.

The number of N hours to be negotiated can be unilaterally determined by the sender, or can be negotiated through signaling interaction between the receiver and the sender before formal transmission, or the default setting value of the Group information can be configured on the sender and receiver. The specific negotiation manner is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

It should be noted that the receiving terminal may be an HPLMN or a user terminal monitored by a local public land mobile network (Local Public Land Mobile Network, LPLMN). The ways for UE2-UE3 to send the report message include:

Method 1: UE2-UE3 each report to the ProSeFunction of the PLMN of the resources they are using. If they use the resources of the home operator, they report to the ProSeFunction of their HPLMN. If they use the resources of the local non-home operator, they report to the ProSe Function of LPLMN. LPLMN then conducts inter-network settlement with HPLMN.

Method 2: UE2-UE3 are all reported to the ProSe Function of HPLMN, and the ProSe Function of HPLMN finds the corresponding ProSe Function of LPLMN, and the two perform inter-network settlement.

In addition, the user terminal provided by the embodiment of the present invention also has a delay in reporting, for example, the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal are not within the signal coverage of the operator, and cannot be registered on the operator's network because the link cannot be established. Then when the UE returns to the coverage of the operator and after registration, the ProSe APP of the UE terminal will upload the use information of the ProSe APP participating in the communication during the departure time period to the registered PLMN. For UEs that delay reporting, three reporting conditions are applicable: event-based reporting, trigger-based reporting, and scheduled reporting.

Event-based reporting: UE returns to the scope of the PLMN. After the registration is completed, all usage information is uploaded at one time, which must include the complete ProSe APP usage records and short-distance service communication identification during the complete departure time period.

Triggered reporting: The reporting time interval is set in advance, and the UE uploads all usage records and associated identifications of short-distance service communication within the specified time interval.

Appointment-based reporting: The situation of uploading within N hours is negotiated during the communication, and N hours can also indicate the situation of reporting immediately after the transmission is completed.

It should be noted that event-based reporting, trigger-based reporting, and scheduled reporting can exist in the user terminal at the same time, and the three are mutually restrictive, and whichever condition meets the priority will be used for reporting in priority.

In addition, if the delayed time of the terminal (event-type reporting time) exceeds the time required for scheduled-type reporting, the usage record can be deleted at this time without reporting. The offline billing system or ProSe Function will correlate and process the reporting messages of other terminals in the short-distance business communication at the scheduled reporting time point. If the terminal delays the reporting beyond the preset deadline, the delayed terminal can check it before sending the reporting message. Then upload, or after the delayed terminal sends the report message, the ProSe Function or the offline billing system discards the report message sent beyond the preset deadline.

In step 820, the ProSe Function corresponding to UE2 and UE3 forwards the received reporting message to the ProSe Function corresponding to UE1.

The ProSe Function 2 corresponding to UE2 and UE3 judges that it is a one-to-many communication, and it is the receiver, and forwards the received report message to the ProSeFunction 1 of the HPLMN of the sender UE1.

Step 830, the ProSe Function corresponding to UE1 forwards all reported messages to the offline charging system.

Among them, ProSe Function 1 corresponding to UE1 forwards all reported messages to the offline charging system, and the offline charging system performs correlation check.

Step 840, the offline billing system correlates the use record of the sending terminal with the use record of the receiving terminal in this communication.

Wherein, the offline charging system of the HPLMN of UE1 associates the use record of the sending terminal in this communication with the use records of multiple receiving terminals according to the association identifier. The association identifier can be a group identifier (Group ID), and the short-distance business communication time Record Time can be used to uniquely determine a short-distance communication.

Step 850, the offline charging system checks the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal, and determines the charging information of this communication.

In this embodiment, the OFCS of UE1's HPLMN checks the use records of UE1, UE2, and UE3 in this short-distance service communication. The use records of UE1 are 30M, and the use records of UE2 and UE3 are 30M and 25M respectively. The use records of UE1 and UE2 for short-distance communication this time are 30M, and the use records of UE3 are 30M (based on the sending terminal).

Step 860, the offline charging system charges the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal.

In this embodiment, the OFCS of the HPLMN of UE1 charges one or more parties of UE1-UE3 according to the determined charging information and the short distance charging policy. After billing, the OFCS of the HPLMN of UE1 can perform inter-network settlement with the OFCS of the home network of UE2 and UE3.

To sum up, the embodiment of the present invention correlates and checks the use records of multiple terminals through the offline charging system, which improves the authenticity of charging data, prevents malicious tampering of data by a third party, and improves the security of charging.

A specific application scenario of the short-distance charging method provided by the embodiment of the present invention is given below. In this application scenario, merchant 1 has signed a short-distance service, and user terminals UE5 and UE6 following the merchant will receive preferential information when they are close to the merchant, so that users can go to the merchant to purchase. In addition, the user terminal can also search for the merchant at a short distance and obtain preferential information of the merchant.

Before the merchant terminal communicates with the user terminal, it is necessary to configure group information on the merchant terminal. Users who follow the merchant configure group information in the ProSe App of the terminal. The group information includes:

Basic information and authorization information: group name merchant 1, group ID (456789), group announcement discount information, authorized PLMN. In this application scenario, the group ID is used as an associated identifier for short-distance business communication.

Billing-related information: reporting conditions (report usage records at 11:00 PM on the scheduled day).

Transmission related information: ProSe Layer-2 Group ID required for group communication, ProSe GroupIP multicast address.

After the group information is configured, preferential information, such as an advertising video, is transmitted between the merchant terminal and UE5, UE6 through wireless resources.

During data transmission, the relevant parameters carried by the IP data packet are shown in the following table:

Referring to FIG. 10 , FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a charging method for a short-distance service provided by Embodiment 6 of the present invention in the scenario where a merchant signs up for a short-distance service.

As shown in the figure, the charging method for the short-distance service provided by the embodiment of the present invention includes:

Step 910, the merchant terminal of short-distance business communication sends a report message to the corresponding ProSeFunction 3.

In this application scenario, the merchant terminal corresponds to ProSe function 3, and both UE5 and UE6 correspond to ProSe function 4. It should be noted that UE5 and UE6 can also correspond to different ProSe Functions, that is, different ProSe Functions provide services for UE5 and UE6.

The default system trigger report time set by the merchant terminal is 24:00 every day, and when sending an advertisement video, it negotiates with the user terminal to report at 23:00 on the same day, and the usage record of the advertisement video sent on 2014-06-08 will be on 2014-06-08 The 23 points are reported by the merchant terminal to its belonging ProSeFunction 3.

Step 920, UE5 and UE6 send a report message to the corresponding ProSe Function 4.

The default reporting time of UE5 and UE6 is 22:00 every day. When sending advertising videos, the merchant terminal negotiates with UE5 and UE6 to report at 23:00 on the same day. Therefore, the usage record of receiving advertising videos on 2014-06-08 will be in 2014-06 The 22 o'clock of -08 is reported by UE5 and UE6 to its assigned ProSe Function 4. If UE5 and UE6 use LPLMN resources, forward the report message to LPLMN, if the user is roaming and return to the home location, then forward the report message to the ProSe Function of the home public land mobile network HPLMN, if the user is roaming, send the report message To the ProSe Function of the Visit Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN), the ProSe Function of the visit is forwarded to the ProSe Function of the HPLMN.

Step 930, ProSe Function4 corresponding to UE5 and UE6 forwards the report message to ProSe Function3 corresponding to the merchant terminal.

The ProSe Function4 corresponding to UE5 and UE6 judges that it is a one-to-many communication, and it is the receiver, and forwards the received report message to the ProSe Function3 of the HPLMN of the sender (merchant terminal).

Step 940, associate the ProSe Function3 corresponding to the merchant terminal with the use record in this short-distance business communication.

The association identification associated with this communication includes but is not limited to: ProSe Report Sequence Number, ProSe application ID, ProSe Type, Group ID, Served IMSI, the original sending time of the sending terminal (Event Time Stamp), and the type of short-distance business communication or discovery (Record Type).

In this application scenario, the ProSe Function3 corresponding to the merchant terminal is associated with the same group, the same source sender, the same time, and the use records of the same application type as the use records of this communication.

Step 950, the ProSe Function3 corresponding to the merchant terminal checks the associated use record in this short-distance service communication, and determines the billing information of this communication.

ProSe Function3 checks whether the data traffic in the usage record is consistent after associating the usage records of this communication. If they are consistent, it means that the usage records reported by the terminal are correct, and the usage records of UE5 and UE6 are used as the billing information; Most of the same shall prevail or the merchant terminal shall determine the billing information, and subsequently control the authorization of the UE reporting false information, or configure, test, and adjust the UE.

Step 960, ProSe Function 3 corresponding to the merchant terminal requests OFCS 1 for charging according to the determined charging information.

The Home ProSe Function3 of the merchant terminal converts the aggregated billing information into a CDR, and sends the CDR to the OFCS 1 of the home network for billing. Specifically, it can be sent to OFCS 1 through the Rf, Ga or Bx interface.

Step 970, the ProSe Function3 corresponding to the merchant terminal replies the determined charging information to the ProSe Function4 corresponding to UE5 and UE6.

The HPLMN ProSe Function3 of the merchant terminal sends the determined billing information to the corresponding ProSe Function4 of UE5 and UE6, including the HPLMN ProSe Function or LPLMN ProSe Function or VPLMN ProSe Function of the user terminal UE5 and UE6.

In step 980, the ProSe Function4 corresponding to UE5 and UE6 reports the verified charging information to their respective OFCS 2.

The ProSe Function4 of the HPLMN of UE5 and UE6 converts the reported billing information into CDR, and sends the CDR to the corresponding OFCS 2 to request billing for UE5 and UE6. The Rf, Ga or Bx interface can be used for reporting.

If the user terminal roams or uses the resources of the LPLMN, the inter-network settlement between the HPLMN and the LPLMN/VPLMN is the same as the prior art.

The short distance charging method provided by the embodiment of the present invention has been introduced in detail above, and the equipment related to the above method will be introduced below.

Referring to FIG. 11 , FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of an offline charging system provided by Embodiment 7 of the present invention.

The offline billing system provided in this embodiment includes:

The report receiving unit 101 is configured to receive the report message of the sending terminal and the report message of the receiving terminal of the short-distance business communication, and the report message carries the use record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal in the communication and the communication associated ID. Wherein, the use record includes at least one of the duration of use of the short-distance service, the number of times of use, and the flow of use.

The first association unit 102 is configured to associate the use record of the sending terminal with the use record of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier.

The first checking unit 103 is configured to check the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal, and determine the charging information of this communication.

The charging unit 104 is configured to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information.

The offline charging system provided by the embodiment of the present invention can be used in the foregoing corresponding charging method embodiments 1, 2, and 3, and can be understood together with reference to the foregoing embodiments.

In the offline charging system provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the report receiving unit 101 receives the report messages of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal of the communication, and the first association unit 102 and the first checking unit 103 associate and check according to the association identifier in the report message The billing unit 104 charges the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the billing information determined after checking the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal. Compared with the existing technology, the offline billing system provided by the embodiment of the present invention can charge the terminal by checking the short-distance use records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal, which overcomes the problem that the short-distance business communication does not go through the network service in the prior art. The technical defect that the network elements deployed by the provider cannot be billed satisfies the needs of network service providers for billing end users.

Further, in the offline charging system provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned association identifier includes communication session identifier, IP data sending time and IP data receiving time, application type, communication service type, reported serial number, and group identifier. at least one;

The first associating unit 102 associating the use records of the sending terminal and the use records of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier includes:

The first associating unit 102 associates the use record of the sending terminal and the use record of the receiving terminal with the same communication session identifier, application type, communication service type, reported serial number or group identifier; or

The first associating unit 102 associates the use record of the short-distance service sending terminal and the use record of the receiving terminal for which the interval between the IP data sending time and the IP data receiving time is less than a preset time.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 12 , FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of the first checking unit in the offline charging system provided by Embodiment 7 of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the first checking unit 103 in the offline charging system specifically includes:

A checking module 1031, configured to check whether the associated usage record of the sending terminal is consistent with the usage record of the receiving terminal;

The billing information determining module 1032 is configured to determine that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal when the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal are consistent.

Further, the above billing information determination module 1032 is also used to determine that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal when the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal are inconsistent, or determine the billing information of this communication. The fee information is the usage record with a larger usage volume among the usage records of the sending terminal and the usage records of the receiving terminal.

In this embodiment, the checking module 1031 checks whether the associated usage record of the sending terminal is consistent with the usage record of the receiving terminal, and then the billing information determination module 1032 gives different determinations according to different situations of the checking result The charging information method enables the embodiment of the present invention to adapt to more application scenarios and has better compatibility.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 13 , FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of the first association unit in the offline charging system provided by Embodiment 7 of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the first association unit 102 in the offline charging system includes:

The record obtaining module 1021 is used to obtain the use records in the use records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal whose reporting time is earlier than or equal to (including network delay and other factors approximately equal to) the preset cut-off time;

The associating module 1022 is used for associating according to the associating identifier the information in the use records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal in this communication that the reporting time is earlier than or equal to (including approximately equal to the network delay and other factors) the preset cut-off time Use records.

In the offline charging system provided by the embodiment of the present invention, when associating the use records, the associating module 1022 only associates the use records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal in this communication with a report time earlier than or equal to (including network delay and other factors) Approximately equal to) the use records of the preset cut-off time, excluding the use records reported overdue. The embodiment of the present invention avoids the impact on billing caused by maliciously tampering with the usage record that is delayed and reported, and improves the accuracy and security of short-distance billing.

Referring to FIG. 14 , FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of a short-distance service function entity provided by Embodiment 8 of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the short-distance service functional entities provided by this embodiment mainly include:

The message receiving unit 201 is configured to receive the report message of the sending terminal and the report message of the receiving terminal in the short-distance business communication, the report message carries the use record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal in the communication and the communication associated ID.

Specifically, the message receiving unit 201 is specifically configured to receive the reporting message sent by the sending terminal of the short-distance service communication, and receive the reporting message of the receiving terminal sent by the short-distance service functional entity corresponding to the receiving terminal of the short-distance business communication.

The second association unit 202 is configured to associate the use record of the sending terminal with the use record of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier.

The second checking unit 203 is configured to check the associated use record of the sending terminal and the use record of the receiving terminal, and determine the charging information of this communication.

The charging request unit 204 is configured to request the offline charging system to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information.

The short-distance service function entity provided by the embodiment of the present invention can be used in the foregoing corresponding charging method embodiments 4 and 5, and can be understood together with reference to the foregoing embodiments.

In the short-distance service function entity provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the message receiving unit 201 receives the reporting message of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal of the communication, and the second associating unit 202 and the second checking unit 203 associate and After checking the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal, the charging request unit 204 requests the offline charging system to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the charging information determined after checking. Compared with the prior art, the short-distance service function entity provided by the embodiment of the present invention can charge the terminal by checking the short-distance use records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal, which overcomes the problem that the short-distance service communication in the prior art does not go through the network. The technical defect that the network elements deployed by the service provider cannot be billed meets the needs of the network service provider to charge the terminal user.

Further, the short-distance service functional entity provided in Embodiment 8 of the present invention further includes:

The charging information sending unit 205 is configured to send the checked and determined charging information to the short distance service function entity corresponding to the receiving terminal.

The charging information sending unit 205 in the embodiment of the present invention further provides an offline charging system for the receiving terminal by the offline charging system of the network where the receiving terminal is located by sending the checked and determined charging information to the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the receiving terminal. The method for billing.

Continue to refer to FIG. 15, which is a schematic diagram of the charging request unit in the short-distance service function entity provided by Embodiment 8 of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the charging request unit 204 in the short-distance service function entity mainly includes:

A record generating module 2041, configured to generate charging data records according to the determined charging information;

A record sending module 2042, configured to send the charging data record to OFCS.

In the embodiment of the present invention, by generating the CDR by the record generating module 2041 and sending the CDR to the OFCS by the record sending module 2042, it can be compatible with the existing OFCS, without any improvement to the OFCS, saving costs.

Referring to FIG. 16 , FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram of a short-distance service communication terminal provided by Embodiment 9 of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the terminal for short-distance business communication provided by the embodiment of the present invention mainly includes:

The obtaining unit 301 is configured to obtain the association identifier and reporting conditions of the short-distance service communication; wherein, the reporting conditions include: reporting at a preset interval, reporting within a preset time, and reporting after each use of the short-distance service by the user Or at least one of one-time reporting when the user equipment returns to the public land mobile network, the associated identification includes communication identification, IP data sending time and IP data receiving time, application type, communication service type, reporting sequence number, group at least one of the identities.

The reporting unit 302 is configured to send a reporting message to the short-distance service function entity when the reporting condition is satisfied, the reporting message carrying the usage record of the terminal in the communication and the communication association identifier.

Specifically, the acquiring unit 302 in the above terminal acquires the association identifier and the reporting condition of the short-distance service includes: the acquiring unit 301 generates the association identifier and the reporting condition of the short-distance service.

In the terminal provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the reporting unit 302 sends a reporting message to the short-distance service functional entity when the reporting condition is satisfied, so that the short-distance service functional entity or the offline charging system charges the terminal.

Further, the terminal provided in the embodiment of the present invention also includes:

The data sending unit 303 is configured to send the association identifier and the reporting condition to the receiving terminal of the short-distance business communication through IP data when the terminal is used as the sending terminal of the short-distance business communication.

At this time, the acquisition unit 301 in the corresponding receiving terminal acquires the association identifier and the reporting condition of the short-distance service specifically includes:

The acquisition unit 301 receives the association identifier and reporting condition sent by the sending terminal of the short-distance service communication through IP data.

Further, in the terminal provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the reporting unit 302 sending the reporting message to the short-distance service functional entity specifically includes:

The reporting unit 302 requests an encryption key from the short-distance service functional entity, and encrypts and sends a report message to the short-distance service functional entity according to the requested encryption key;

Alternatively, the reporting unit 302 sends the reporting message to the short-distance service function entity through public key encryption.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the reporting unit 302 sends the reporting message to the short-distance service functional entity through encryption, which can prevent the reporting message from being maliciously received and tampered with, and improves the security of the short-distance charging process.

Referring to FIG. 17 , FIG. 17 is a schematic diagram of an offline charging system provided by Embodiment 10 of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the offline billing system provided by this embodiment mainly includes:

The first processor 401, the first memory 402 and the first bus 403, the first memory 402 is used to store computer execution instructions, the first processor 401 and the first memory 402 pass through the first bus 403 connection, when the offline charging system is running, the first processor 401 executes the computer-executed instructions, so that the offline charging system performs the following method:

Receive a report message from a sending terminal and a report message from a receiving terminal in short-distance service communication, where the report message carries a usage record of the sending terminal or receiving terminal in the communication and an associated identifier of the communication;

Associating the use records of the sending terminal and the use records of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier;

Checking the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal to determine the billing information for this communication;

Charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information.

The offline billing system provided by the embodiment of the present invention may refer to the aforementioned corresponding billing method embodiment 1, embodiment 2, and embodiment 3 for the process and beneficial effects of performing the above method, and details are not repeated here.

In the offline charging system provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the online usage record includes at least one of the short-distance service usage time, usage times, and usage traffic.

Compared with the existing technology, the offline billing system provided by the embodiment of the present invention can charge the terminal by checking the short-distance use records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal, which overcomes the problem that the short-distance business communication does not go through the network service in the prior art. The technical defect that the network elements deployed by the provider cannot be billed satisfies the needs of network service providers for billing end users.

In the offline charging system provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned association identifier includes at least one of communication session identifier, IP data sending time and IP data receiving time, application type, communication service type, reported serial number, and group identifier .

The offline billing system executes the steps of associating the use records of the sending terminal and the use records of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier, specifically including:

The offline charging system associates the usage records of the short-distance service sending terminal and the receiving terminal with the same communication session ID, application type, communication service type, reported serial number or group ID; or

The offline billing system associates the use record of the short-distance service sending terminal and the use record of the receiving terminal for which the interval between the IP data sending time and the IP data receiving time is less than a preset time.

Referring to FIG. 18 , FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram of a short-distance service function entity provided by Embodiment 11 of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the short-distance service functional entities provided by this embodiment mainly include:

The second processor 501, the second memory 502 and the second bus 503, the second memory 502 is used to store computer execution instructions, the second processor 501 and the second memory 502 pass through the second bus 503 connection, when the short-distance service function entity is running, the second processor 501 executes the computer-executed instruction, so that the short-distance service function entity performs the following method:

Receive a report message from a sending terminal and a report message from a receiving terminal in short-distance service communication, where the report message carries a usage record of the sending terminal or receiving terminal in the communication and an associated identifier of the communication;

Associating the use records of the sending terminal and the use records of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier;

Checking the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal to determine the billing information for this communication;

Requesting the offline charging system to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information.

For the process and beneficial effects of performing the above method by the short-distance service function entity provided by the embodiment of the present invention, reference may be made to the foregoing corresponding charging method embodiment 4 and embodiment 5, and details are not repeated here.

Compared with the prior art, the short-distance service function entity provided by the embodiment of the present invention can charge the terminal by checking the short-distance use records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal, which overcomes the problem that the short-distance service communication in the prior art does not go through the network. The technical defect that the network elements deployed by the service provider cannot be billed meets the needs of the network service provider to charge the terminal user.

Further, the near-distance service function entity provided by the embodiment of the present invention performs the above charging method further includes the following steps:

Sending the checked and determined charging information to the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the receiving terminal.

The short-distance service functional entity in the embodiment of the present invention further provides an offline charging system for the receiving terminal by the offline charging system of the network where the receiving terminal is located by sending the billing information determined after verification to the short-distance service functional entity corresponding to the receiving terminal. Billing method.

Further, the execution of the short-distance service function entity provided by the embodiment of the present invention to request the offline charging system to charge the sending terminal and/or receiving terminal according to the determined charging information specifically includes:

Generate a charging data record according to the determined charging information, and send the charging data record to the OFCS.

The short-distance service function entity provided by the embodiment of the present invention can be compatible with the existing OFCS by generating and sending the CDR to the OFCS, and does not need any improvement on the OFCS, thereby saving costs.

Referring to FIG. 19 , FIG. 19 is a schematic diagram of a short-distance service communication terminal provided by Embodiment 12 of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the terminal for short-distance business communication provided by the embodiment of the present invention mainly includes:

A third processor 601, a third memory 602 and a third bus 603, the third memory 602 is used to store computer execution instructions, the third processor 601 and the third memory 602 pass through the third bus 603 connection, when the terminal is running, the third processor 601 executes the computer-executed instruction, so that the terminal performs the following method:

Obtain the association identification and reporting conditions of short-distance business communication;

When the reporting condition is satisfied, a reporting message is sent to the short-distance service functional entity, where the reporting message carries the usage record of the terminal in the communication and the communication association identifier.

Wherein, the reporting conditions include: at least one of reporting at a preset interval, reporting within a preset time, reporting after the user uses the short-distance service each time, or reporting once when the user equipment returns to the public land mobile network The association identifier includes at least one of communication identifier, IP data sending time and IP data receiving time, application type, communication service type, reporting sequence number, and group identifier.

Specifically, the step of obtaining the association identifier and reporting condition of the short-distance service by the above-mentioned terminal includes the following steps: generating the association identifier and reporting condition of the short-distance service.

In the terminal provided by the embodiment of the present invention, when the reporting condition is satisfied, the reporting message is sent to the short-distance service functional entity, so that the short-distance service functional entity or the offline charging system charges the terminal.

Further, the terminal provided in the embodiment of the present invention also performs the following steps:

When the terminal is used as the sending terminal of the short-distance business communication, the association identifier and the reporting condition are sent to the receiving terminal of the short-distance business communication through IP data.

At this time, the step for the corresponding receiving terminal to obtain the association identifier and the reporting condition of the short-distance service specifically includes: receiving the association identifier and the reporting condition sent by the transmitting terminal of the short-distance service communication through IP data.

Further, the step of sending the report message to the short-distance service function entity by the terminal provided in the embodiment of the present invention specifically includes:

Request an encryption key from the proximity service functional entity, encrypt and send the report message to the proximity service functional entity according to the requested encryption key; or send the report message to the proximity service functional entity through public key encryption.

The terminal provided by the embodiment of the present invention sends the report message to the short-distance service functional entity through encryption, which can prevent the report message from being maliciously received and tampered with, and improves the security of the short-distance charging process.

Referring to FIG. 20 , FIG. 20 is a schematic diagram of a billing system for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 13 of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the billing system for short distance service communication provided by the embodiment of the present invention includes: the offline billing system 701 provided in Embodiment 7 and a short distance service function entity 702 .

Wherein, the short-distance service function entity 702 is used to receive the reporting message of the sending terminal and the reporting message of the receiving terminal in the short-distance service communication, and send the reporting message of the sending terminal and the reporting message of the receiving terminal to the offline charging system 701 .

In the billing system for short-distance business communication provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the offline billing system 701 receives the reporting message of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal of the communication, and associates and checks the sending terminal and the receiving terminal according to the association identifier in the reporting message. According to the usage record of the terminal, charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the billing information determined after checking. Compared with the prior art, the offline billing system 701 in this embodiment of the present invention can charge the terminal by checking the short-distance usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal, which overcomes the problem that the short-distance business communication does not go through the network service in the prior art. The technical defect that the network elements deployed by the provider cannot be billed satisfies the needs of network service providers for billing end users.

Referring to FIG. 21 , FIG. 21 is a schematic diagram of a billing system for short-distance service communication provided by Embodiment 14 of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the billing system for short-distance business communication provided by the embodiment of the present invention includes:

The short-distance service functional entity 801 and the offline charging system 802 provided in the eighth embodiment above, wherein the offline charging system 802 is used to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the request of the short-distance service functional entity .

Compared with the prior art, the short-distance service functional entity 801 in the billing system provided by the embodiment of the present invention can charge the terminal by checking the short-distance usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal, which overcomes the short-distance service function entity 801 in the prior art. The technical defect that the distance service communication cannot be billed without passing through the network elements deployed by the network service provider satisfies the needs of the network service provider for charging end users.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that various aspects of the present invention, or possible implementations of various aspects, may be embodied as systems, methods or computer program products. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention, or possible implementations of various aspects, may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, etc.), or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects, described in These are collectively referred to herein as "circuits," "modules," or "systems." In addition, aspects of the present invention, or possible implementations of various aspects, may take the form of computer program products, and computer program products refer to computer-readable program codes stored in computer-readable media.

The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. Computer-readable storage media include, but are not limited to, electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor systems, devices, or devices, or any suitable combination of the foregoing, such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), Erase Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM or Flash), Fiber Optic, Portable Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM).

The processor in the computer reads the computer-readable program code stored in the computer-readable medium, so that the processor can execute the functional actions specified in each step in the flow chart, or a combination of steps; A device that performs functional actions specified in each block or a combination of blocks.

The computer readable program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a separate software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer, or entirely on the remote computer or server . It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted at the steps in the flowcharts or blocks in the block diagrams may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two steps, or two blocks shown in succession, may in fact be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved.

Those skilled in the art can appreciate that the units and algorithm steps of the examples described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented by electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are executed by hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Those skilled in the art may use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be regarded as exceeding the scope of the present invention.

The above is only a specific embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of protection of the present invention is not limited thereto. Anyone skilled in the art can easily think of changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in the present invention. Should be covered within the protection scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention should be based on the protection scope of the claims.

Claims (34)

1. A billing method for short-distance business communication, characterized in that the method comprises: Receive a report message from a sending terminal and a report message from a receiving terminal in short-distance service communication, where the report message carries a usage record of the sending terminal or receiving terminal in the communication and an associated identifier of the communication; Associating the use records of the sending terminal and the use records of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier; Checking the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal to determine the billing information for this communication; Charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the checking of the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal to determine the billing information of this communication comprises: Checking whether the usage record of the associated sending terminal is consistent with the usage record of the receiving terminal; If the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal are consistent, it is determined that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal. 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: If the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal are inconsistent, then determine that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal, or determine that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal Use records with a large amount of usage. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the use record includes at least one of the duration of use of the short-distance service, the number of times of use, and the flow of use. 5. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the associating the use record of the sending terminal and the use record of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier specifically includes: Obtain the use records of the use records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal whose reporting time is earlier than or equal to the preset cut-off time; According to the association identifier, associating the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal in this communication with the reporting time earlier than or equal to the preset cut-off time. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the association identifier includes at least one of a communication session identifier, a communication timestamp, an application type, a communication service type, a reported serial number, and a group identifier; The association of the use records of the sending terminal and the use records of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identification includes: Associating the use record of the sending terminal and the use record of the receiving terminal with the same communication session ID, communication time stamp, application type, communication service type, reported serial number or group ID. 7. A billing method for short-distance business communication, characterized in that the method comprises: receiving a report message from a sending terminal and a report message from a receiving terminal of a short-distance business communication, the report message carrying the information of the sending terminal Or the use record of the receiving terminal in the communication and the associated identification of the communication; Associating the use records of the sending terminal and the use records of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier; Checking the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal to determine the billing information for this communication; Requesting the offline charging system to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information. 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the requesting to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information comprises: Generate charging data records according to the determined charging information; Send the charging data record to OFCS. 9. The method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the reporting message of the sending terminal and the reporting message of the receiving terminal receiving short-distance service communication comprise: Receive the reporting message sent by the sending terminal of the short-distance service communication, and receive the reporting message of the receiving terminal sent by the short-distance service functional entity corresponding to the receiving terminal of the short-distance service communication. 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising: Sending the checked and determined charging information to the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the receiving terminal. 11. A billing method for short-distance business communication, characterized in that the method comprises: the terminal of the short-distance business communication obtains the associated identification and reporting conditions of the short-distance business communication; When the reporting condition is satisfied, the terminal of the short-distance service communication sends a reporting message to the short-distance service function entity, and the reporting message carries the use record of the terminal in the communication and the association identifier of the communication . 12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the acquisition of the association identifier and reporting conditions of the short-distance service by the terminal of the short-distance service communication comprises: The short-distance service communication sending terminal generates an association identifier and a reporting condition of the short-distance service. 13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising: the sending terminal of the short-distance business communication sends the association identifier and the reporting condition to the receiving terminal of the short-distance business communication through IP data; The terminal of the short-distance business communication obtains the associated identification and reporting conditions of the short-distance business including: The receiving terminal of the short-distance business communication receives the association identifier and the reporting condition sent by the sending terminal of the short-distance business communication through IP data. 14. The method according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the reporting conditions include: At least one of reporting at a preset interval, reporting within a preset time, reporting after each use of the short-distance service by the user, or reporting once when the user equipment returns to the public land mobile network. 15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the sending of the reporting message to the short-distance service functional entity by the terminal of the short-distance service communication comprises: The terminal of the short-distance service communication requests an encryption key from the short-distance service functional entity, and encrypts and sends a report message to the short-distance service functional entity according to the requested encryption key; Or the terminal of the short-distance service communication sends the report message to the short-distance service functional entity through public key encryption. 16. The method according to claim 14, wherein the associated identification includes at least one of communication identification, IP data sending time and IP data receiving time, application type, communication service type, reporting sequence number, and group identification A sort of. 17. An offline billing system, comprising: The report receiving unit is used to receive the report message of the sending terminal and the report message of the receiving terminal in the short-distance business communication, and the report message carries the use record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal in the communication and the communication information of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal. association identification; The first associating unit is configured to associate the use records of the sending terminal and the use records of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier; The first checking unit is used to check the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal, and determine the billing information of this communication; The charging unit is configured to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information. 18. The offline charging system according to claim 17, wherein the first checking unit comprises: A checking module, configured to check whether the usage record of the associated sending terminal is consistent with the usage record of the receiving terminal; The billing information determination module is configured to determine that the billing information of this communication is the usage record of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal when the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal are consistent. 19. The offline billing system according to claim 18, wherein the billing information determination module is further configured to determine the billing for this communication when the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal are inconsistent. The information is the use record of the sending terminal, or the billing information for this communication is determined to be the use record with a larger usage volume among the use records of the sending terminal and the use records of the receiving terminal. 20. The offline charging system according to claim 17 or 18, wherein the usage record includes at least one of the usage time of the short-distance service, usage times, and usage traffic. 21. The offline charging system according to claim 17 or 18, wherein the first associating unit comprises: The record obtaining module is used to obtain the use records whose reporting time is earlier than or equal to the preset cut-off time among the use records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal; An associating module, configured to associate the usage records of the sending terminal and the receiving terminal in this communication with the usage records whose reporting time is earlier than or equal to the preset cut-off time according to the association identifier. 22. The offline charging system according to claim 17 or 18, wherein the association identifier includes at least one of a communication session identifier, a communication time stamp, an application type, a communication service type, a reporting sequence number, and a group identifier A sort of; The first associating unit associating the use records of the sending terminal and the use records of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier includes: The first associating unit associates the use record of the sending terminal and the use record of the receiving terminal with the same communication session ID, communication time stamp, application type, communication service type, reported serial number or group ID. 23. A short-distance service functional entity, characterized in that it comprises: A message receiving unit, configured to receive a report message from a sending terminal and a report message from a receiving terminal in short-distance business communication, where the report message carries the usage records of the sending terminal or the receiving terminal in the communication and the information of the communication association identification; The second associating unit is configured to associate the use record of the sending terminal and the use record of the receiving terminal in this communication according to the association identifier; The second checking unit is used to check the usage record of the associated sending terminal and the usage record of the receiving terminal, and determine the billing information of this communication; The charging request unit is configured to request the offline charging system to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the determined charging information. 24. The proximity service function entity according to claim 23, wherein the charging request unit comprises: A record generating module, configured to generate charging data records according to the determined charging information; A record sending module, configured to send the charging data record to OFCS. 25. The short-distance service functional entity according to claim 23, wherein the message receiving unit is specifically configured to receive the report message sent by the sending terminal of the short-distance business communication, and the receiving terminal corresponding to the short-distance business communication The reporting message of the receiving terminal sent by the short-distance service functional entity. 26. The proximity service function entity according to any one of claims 23 to 25, further comprising: The charging information sending unit is configured to send the checked and determined charging information to the short-distance service function entity corresponding to the receiving terminal. 27. A terminal for short-distance business communication, characterized by comprising: An acquisition unit, configured to acquire the associated identification and reporting conditions of the short-distance business communication; The reporting unit is configured to send a reporting message to the short-distance service functional entity when the reporting condition is satisfied, the reporting message carrying the usage record of the terminal in the communication and the communication association identifier. 28. The terminal according to claim 27, wherein the acquisition unit acquiring the association identifier and reporting condition of the short-distance service comprises: The obtaining unit generates an association identifier and a reporting condition of the short-distance service. 29. The terminal according to claim 28, further comprising: The data sending unit is configured to send the association identifier and the reporting condition to the receiving terminal of the short-distance business communication through IP data when the terminal is used as the sending terminal of the short-distance business communication. 30. The terminal according to claim 27 or 28, wherein the reporting conditions include: At least one of reporting at a preset interval, reporting within a preset time, reporting after each use of the short-distance service by the user, or reporting once when the user equipment returns to the public land mobile network. 31. The terminal according to claim 27 or 28, wherein the reporting unit sending the reporting message to the short-distance service functional entity specifically includes: The reporting unit requests an encryption key from the short-distance service functional entity, and encrypts and sends a report message to the short-distance service functional entity according to the requested encryption key; Or the reporting unit sends the reporting message to the short-distance service functional entity through public key encryption. 32. The terminal according to claim 27 or 28, wherein the association identifier includes a communication identifier, IP data sending time and IP data receiving time, application type, communication service type, reported serial number, group identifier at least one of . 33. A billing system for short-distance business communication, characterized in that it comprises the offline billing system as claimed in claim 17 and a short-distance business functional entity, The short-distance service function entity is used to receive the reporting message of the sending terminal and the reporting message of the receiving terminal in the short-distance service communication, and send the reporting message of the sending terminal and the reporting message of the receiving terminal to the offline charging system. 34. A billing system for short-distance service communication, characterized in that it comprises the short-distance service functional entity and an offline billing system as claimed in claim 23, The offline charging system is configured to charge the sending terminal and/or the receiving terminal according to the request of the short-distance service function entity.