Patent ID: 7860762
Filing Date: 2010-12-28
Classification: G06Q,H04L,H04M,H04W

Abstract:
1. A charging system, comprising an online charging system, an offline charging system, and a shared data center in communication with the online charging system and the offline charging system, respectively, wherein the online charging system is configured to implement online hot billing for services according to shared data related charging including user data, product data, pricing data, balance data, and accumulative quantity data; the online charging system comprises a charging control unit, an account management unit, and a rating unit; the charging control unit is configured to invoke the rating unit and the account management unit, and to work with a service bearer network to complete charging related operations, according to the shared data related charging in the shared data center, when a user is using a service; the account management unit is configured to manage account balances of the user according to user account information, requested credit line, and action type information provided by the charging control unit; and the rating unit is configured to rate according to a charging request sent by the charging control unit, and determine a charge or usable quantity according to a rating policy in the shared data center; wherein the offline charging system is configured to implement offline charging by means of call detail record (CDR) collection, and CDR processing, according the shared data related charging; the offline charging system comprises a preprocessing unit, a service identifying unit, a rating/charging unit, and an accounting unit; the preprocessing unit is configured to implement format conversion, record consolidation, and error detection/correction for CDRs collected from the service bearer network; the service identifying unit is configured to identify the type of a service, according to the CDRs; the rating/charging unit is configured to calculate charges based on the preprocessed CDRs, according to the shared data related charging in the shared data center and identification information; and the accounting unit is configured to complete posting of accounts and to generate bills, according to calculation results of the rating/charging unit; and wherein the shared data center is configured to manage the shared data related charging and synchronize the shared data related charging to the online charging system and the offline charging system, for access and use by the online charging system and the offline charging system; the shared data center comprises a data access unit, a data model converting unit, and a database; the data access unit is configured to update the shared data related charging, and to interact with the online charging system and the offline charging system; the data model converting unit is configured to implement conversion of different data between the database, and the online charging system or the offline charging system; and the database is configured to store the shared data related charging.