Patent ID: 9576307
Date: 2017-02-21
CPC Classifications: G06Q,H04M

Claim:
1. A method, performed by an Online Charging System (OCS), for controlling an amount of signaling between the OCS and a node involved in providing a service in a communication network, comprising the steps of: the OCS accessing a system utilization indicator representing computer resource utilization of the node involved in providing the service; the OCS determining, based on at least the system utilization indicator, a service usage quota, including a determined service usage quota attribute that indicates how many units of service usage or resource usage the service is authorized to consume before the node has to send a report to the OCS, wherein the system utilization indicator represents one or more of: requests received per time unit, CPU usage, memory usage, power consumption, a degree of physical hardware failures or warnings, and system utilization during a previous time segment; the OCS reserving, for the service, the units of service usage or resource usage indicated in the service usage quota; and the OCS transmitting an answer message to a charging client including the determined service usage quota attribute of the service usage quota to be applied in controlling the service, to affect an amount of signaling between the OCS and the node involved in providing the service.