Patent ID: 9380168
Filing Date: 2016-06-28
CPC Classification: H04M,H04W

Claim Text:
1. A charging system comprising: a charging controller that comprises a hardware element coupled to an Offline Charging System (OFCS) and an Online Charging System (OCS) over Diameter interfaces; the OCS comprises a server that provides an online charging function (OCF), an Account Balance Management Function (ABMF), and a common rating engine that is shared by the OCS and the OFCS; the OCS, through the server, receives charging data for a call over a mobile network, calculates an overall charge for the call, and generates a first rated Charging Data Record (CDR) for the call indicating the overall charge; the charging controller, through the hardware element, receives the first rated CDR for the call, processes the first rated CDR and charging rules to identify entities that have a share in revenue of the overall charge for the call, generates a charging request message for each of the entities having a revenue share in the call, and transmits the charging request messages to the OCS over one of the Diameter interfaces; the OCS, through the server, receives the charging request messages from the charging controller, identifies a profile for each of the entities having a revenue share, determines a revenue share amount for each of the entities based on their profile and a rating provided by the common rating engine, and generates a second rated CDR for each of the entities having a revenue share; wherein the second rated CDRs each indicate an identifier for an entity having a revenue share, and a revenue share amount indicating a monetary amount owed by the entity or payable to the entity.