Telephonic communications – With usage measurement – Call traffic recording by computer or control processor
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-05
2003-10-21
Kuntz, Curtis (Department: 2643)
Telephonic communications
With usage measurement
Call traffic recording by computer or control processor
C379S112070, C379S112080
Reexamination Certificate
active
06636589
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method and an exchange for cascade accounting of connection-oriented communication sessions which are maintained between a first and a second subscriber station of a telecommunication system operating with connection-oriented services. The telecommunication system comprises a first network serving a plurality of said first subscriber stations, at least one transit network and a second network serving a plurality of said second subscriber stations. Each network comprises at least one exchange having a plurality of incoming communication resources and outgoing communication resources for respectively handling forward signalling messages and backward signalling messages sent in the direction from the first subscriber station to the second subscriber station and in the direction from the second subscriber station to the first subscriber station.
The class of telecommunication systems considered by the present invention relates to connection-oriented telecommunication systems in which a respective connection-oriented communication session between a first and second subscriber station is typically conducted in two stages. In a first stage communication request and communication confirmation messages are exchanged between the first and second subscriber station to negotiate and set in each exchange of the first network, the transit network and the second network communication data which clearly define the path (a logical pipe) between all incoming and outgoing communication resources of the respective exchanges. In the second phase the actual transfer of data messages (and other signalling messages) is carried out only along this predefined logical path. Only the communication request message contains routing data and an identification of the called subscriber station. Optionally, the connection confirmation might as well can contain such data types.
Since a connection (path) is predefined by the exchange of the request and confirmation messages, such communication sessions are called “connection-oriented”. By contrast, in connectionless communication sessions each signalling message of the communication session contains routing data and identifications of the called subscriber station such that each message may be routed through a different path such that each signalling message may use different sets of incoming and outgoing communication resources. Since for each signalling message the transfer path may change, such communication sessions are called “connectionless” i.e. without a preset connection.
In both types of telecommunication systems the transit network (and also the first and the second network) must carry out accounting procedures of the signalling traffic received from the first and second network in order to appropriately charge both networks for the routing of the signalling messages. The counting is typically done by counting the number of routed signalling messages and/the number of octets (the amount of data) transferred by each message. Since in a connection-less telecommunication system each signalling message contains the routing data as well as the called party identification the transit network has no problems to relate each received and transmitted signalling message to a particular communication session. Thus, an accurate accounting relating the respective signalling traffic to the correct communication session can be performed.
However, in connection-oriented telecommunication systems used nowadays, only the connection request and optionally the request confirmation message contains the routing data and called party identification (for setting the logical path) and the subsequent messages lack this information such that only the first messages of the communication session can be used for accounting purposes. Thus, the accounting is not very accurate. The present invention in particular addresses the problem how an accurate accounting can be provided for the signalling traffic in a connection-oriented telecommunication system.
Although hereinafter the background of the invention will be described in terms of the Connection-Oriented service offered by the Signalling Connection Control Part (hereinafter denoted with SCCP) of the Signalling System Number 7 (hereinafter denoted SS7) similar considerations hold for any other connection-oriented telecommunication system.
In the telecommunication networks which make use of the “Signalling System Number 7” different network operators are given the means to charge each other for the use of own network resources and also to verify by themselves that they are correctly charged by other network operators. However, as generally mentioned above for general connection-oriented telecommunication systems, also the SCCP SS7 telecommunication system suffers from the fact that the accounting is not very accurate. This will be explained below with more details regarding the background of the invention.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Currently existing telecommunication networks, both wireline and wireless related networks, still make use of the “Common Channel Signalling System Number 7 (hereinafter SS7) protocol stack to implement layers lower than the application layer according to the OSI model.
Said SS7 protocol stack consists of different parts, standardised by ITU-T and ANSI Recommendations. For the purpose of the present invention, just one of them, the Signalling Connection Control Part (hereinafter SCCP), is affected.
Under said SCCP there must be an appropriate protocol stack to build up the Physical, Link and Network layers. Traditionally, the Message Transport Part described by ITU-T and part of SS7, provided these lower three layers above. Nowadays, and justified by the wide growth of Internet, other protocol means can replace the older MTP for this purpose such as the Transmission Control Protocol (hereinafter TCP), or User Datagram Protocol (hereinafter UDP), or the recently suggested Simple Control Transmission Protocol (hereinafter SCTP) over the Internet Protocol (hereinafter IP).
As already explained above for a general connection-oriented system, from a signalling transmission point of view, two different sorts of services are also provided by SCCP, namely Connectionless and Connection-Oriented services.
As above mentioned, the main difference to outline between both services, for the purpose of the present invention, is that all the individual signalling exchanged within the connectionless service contains routing data and identifiers of the Called Party. However, this is not the case within the Connection-Oriented service wherein just the initial Connection Request message contains routing data and identifiers of the Called Party. For the sake of clarity it should be noticed that the Connection Confirm message could also contain routing data and identifiers of the Called Party, however, since these parameters are optional in said Connection Confirm message, other standard mechanisms apply as routing such messages.
Well-known functionalities of the SCCP Connectionless service are the Mobile Application Part used by GSM and the Intelligent Network Application Part, whereas well-known functionalities of the Connection-Oriented service are the Base Station System Application Part, also used by GSM, and the Radio Access Network Application Part used by UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System).
An important concept for the purpose of the present invention, is the meaning of Accounting and, more specifically, the SCCP Accounting. Accounting basically relates to the necessity that the different SS7 network operators have to charge each other for the use of own network resources as well as have to verify themselves that they are correctly charged by other operators. Both features together are referred to as Accounting. Given that these features, charging and verification, are taken into consideration when transferring signalling between different network operators, the invocation of such features is absolutely depending on the routing analysis result. A
Escobar Gonzales Florencio
Garzon Herrero Isidoro
Kuntz Curtis
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
Taylor Barry W
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ)
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