Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Usage measurement
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-03
2002-05-07
Hunter, Daniel (Department: 2684)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Usage measurement
C455S405000, C455S406000, C455S404200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06385444
ABSTRACT:
The invention relates to a method and device for checking whether call data records in telecommunication systems have been created correctly and fully, specifically in mobile telephony networks, including the review of the data basis in the billing system, which is used to bill for the usage of the communications service.
Ragnar Huslende, in the printed publication ERICSSON Review, Vol. 72, No. 1, 1995, Stockholm, SE, pages 13-21, has described a way of measuring quality in public telecommunication networks. It is proposed that a number of review units be arranged in the telecommunication networks, which act like normal subscriber units and communicate with each other automatically via the network. During the communications connection, quality parameters, e.g., signal
oise distance are measured and routed to a central station where they are analyzed.
A similar method has also become known from the magazine TEC, Das technische Magazin von Ascom, 3/95, Bern, CH, pages 30-34, in an article by Heinz Lüthi. The article also proposes that communications connections, specifically voice connections, be established in a communications network via automated review stations, and that the respective voice quality of the review connections be analyzed and evaluated. The evaluation of the voice quality takes place with the use of neural diagnosis technology.
The present invention relates less to the review of the voice quality of a communications connection but rather to reviewing sets of communications data. Call data records are generated, saved and used to prepare the billing files in every telecommunication network. In digital mobile telephony networks, for example, these call data records are generated and saved in the mobile switching centers (MSC) and forwarded to a billing center, where the billing is handled jointly for all mobile telephony subscribers.
The creation of the call data records at the switching centers is purely software-driven and controlled via corresponding software parameters. Errors in the software and/or hardware and/or incorrectly adjusted software parameters can lead to malfunctions in the creation of the call data records, with the result that incomplete or defective call data records are created, or no call data records are created at all. If errors occur, they are usually identified only very late because the review of the call data records for correctness has so far been possible only in the form of spot checks, only for portions of the telecommunication network, and with a great deal of manual work.
It is in the interest of the customer and the operating company that the call data records are created correctly and that a correct billing takes place.
It is, therefore, the object of the invention to propose a method and device for checking whether call data records in a telecommunication system, or intercommunicatively in a plurality of telecommunication systems, have been created correctly and fully, whereby the accurate creation of call data records is reviewed permanently and automatically.
This object is met with a method according to the technical teaching of claim
1
and a device according to claim
23
.
It is the principal feature of the invention that communications connections, which are oriented at the customer behavior or predefined by the operating company, are performed in the telecommunication network which is being reviewed by means of an automatic review system, in such a way that the communication parameters are recorded independently from each other and independently from the network, both at the calling station and at the called station. The call data records and billing data that are recorded by the telecommunication network itself are subsequently verified based on the reference data recorded by the review system. The special feature is that the reference data required for the verification are created by the system itself. These reference data are 100% qualitatively verified pairs of real call data records. The review encompasses all billing-relevant parameters, which are, among others:
Date,
Start time/end time of the call,
Duration of the call,
Location of the call, origin of the call,
Call destination, destination telephone number,
Utilized telecommunication service.
The review of the telecommunication network is performed during active operation, i.e., checking whether call data records are created correctly takes place under operating conditions. All elements of the telecommunication network are included, from the customer interface, the telecommunication end unit to the data basis in the telecommunication system's billing system, which (for billing purposes) contains all billing-relevant call data records. It is also possible to check individual segments of the telecommunication network. The method is intended to provide the following functions:
Verification of telecommunication connections
The review system can be used to verify that a corresponding telecommunication connection did exist. The connection parameters are recorded both at the calling party and at the caller's, and a check is performed whether a corresponding call data record for this connection was recorded in the telecommunication network itself. Both, end-to-end communications connections (customer interface to customer interface) as well as connections between any partial segments of the communications system (customer interface to operating company interface, or operating company interface to operating company interface) are reviewed.
Verification of call data records
The call data records that are created by the review system, in the following also referred to as reference data records, are compared to the call data records created by the telecommunication network.
Verification of the usability of the telecommunication connection
A determination is made, via the review system, to which extent a telecommunication connection was usable. During the review connection, review information is transmitted from both, the calling party and the called party to the respective opposite station. The review system determines the utilization of the telecommunication connection based on the received review information.
The advantage of the system according to the invention lies in the fact that a review of the call data records can now be performed automatically and permanently. The review can extend across one or multiple telecommunication networks.
It is furthermore possible to perform a cause-oriented error analysis for defective call data records based on the recorded network signaling data.
The method and device are explained in detail below, based on the example of a mobile telephony network. The method essentially comprises 5 process areas:
1. Creation of the customer-behavior oriented or operating-company oriented review scenarios for the call data records,
2. Generation of reference data records,
3. Generation of call data records by the telecommunication system,
4. Review of the telecommunication system's call data records based on the reference data records, and review of the usability of the telecommunication connection,
5. Adaptation of the customer-behavior oriented or operating-company oriented call data record review scenarios, based on the indications of errors and error/cause analysis of the defective call data records.
1. Creation of customer-behavior oriented or operating-company oriented review scenarios for the call data records:
In order for the review of the call data records of the mobile telephony network to cover, to the fullest extent possible, the scope of services as they are also used by customers, a review scenario must be created that resembles the customer behavior. A statistically representative, anonymized customer call data record profile of, e.g., 10,000 data records is, therefore, generated from all customer-generated call data records of the active mobile telephony network, both with and without billing relevance. From these 10,000 data records, the review scenarios for the call data records are generated according to the
Anderlohr Stefan
Jacot Jean-Pierre
Peschel Dietmar
Schenker Martin
Schonfeld Mark
Browdy and Neimark
DeTeMobil Deutsche Telekom MobilNet GmbH
Hunter Daniel
Iqbal Khawar
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