Patent ID: 9179008
Filing Date: 2015-11-03
Classification: H04L,H04M,H04W

Abstract:
1. A cellular traffic monitoring system comprising: a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) module to create a set of application detection and control (ADC) rules; a Service Data Flow (SDF) based policy charging and enforcement function (PCEF) module to enforce one or more charging rules to a cellular subscriber device, based on SDF data; an online charging system (OCS) connected to said SDF-based PCEF module and able to perform SDF-based online charging based on data received from said SDF-based PCEF module; an offline charging system (OFCS) connected to said SDF-based PCEF module and able to perform SDF-based offline charging based on data received from said SDF-based PCEF module; a traffic detection function (TDF) module, implemented as a separate module from said PCEF module; wherein the TDF module is connected directly to said OCS; wherein the TDF module is connected directly to said OFCS; wherein the TDF module is (a) to monitor cellular traffic associated with said cellular subscriber device, (b) to perform payload data inspection by using a Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technique, (c) to apply said Application Detection and Control (ADC) rules in order to detect an application running on said cellular subscriber device, (d) to generate detection output which includes at least one of: and (e) to generate application-based detection output that enables at least one of the OCS and the OFCS to apply, on per-application basis, different charging rates to different applications being used over a cellular network in which said cellular subscriber device operates; wherein a same cellular communication session is subject to both (i) SDF-based charging based on output from the PCEF module, and (ii) application-based charging based on output from the TDF module; wherein at least one of said OCS and OFCS, is to perform application-based differential charging towards said cellular subscriber device based on application-based detection output that was generated by the TDF module by using said DPI technique and by applying said ADC rules; wherein at least one of said OCS and OFCS is to perform subscriber account correlation which takes into account, for a same cellular communication session of a same subscriber account, both (i) SDF-based charging based on output from the PCEF module, and (ii) application-based charging based on output from the TDF module.