Patent ID: 8488597
Filing Date: 2013-07-16
Classification: H04L,H04M

Abstract:
1. A charging method for data service in a wireless network, the method comprising: receiving, at a protocol distribution processing module within a proxy device, first service data from a mobile Station (MS) via a gateway service node, wherein the proxy device is located between a gateway service node and a packet switched domain network and the first service data comprises at least one of the following: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) service data, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) service data, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) service data or Real Time Protocol/ Real Time Session Protocol (RTP/RTSP) service data; classifying the received first service data according to a protocol type of the first service data; distributing the classified first service data to one of a plurality of protocol processing modules within the proxy device according to the classified protocol type; at the one of the plurality of protocol processing modules, extracting charging information of the classified first service data, wherein the charging information comprises the protocol type of the first service data; sending the charging information to a charging system for charging; transmitting, from the one of the plurality of protocol processing modules, the respective classified first service data transparently to the packet switched domain network; wherein when a service server has collected charging information of second service data, wherein the second service data has a second protocol type, and the second service data has been charged based on one charging mode according to the collected charging information of the second service data at the service server by the charging system, the method further comprises: determining, by the charging system, if the first service data from which the charging information is extracted at the proxy device has the same protocol type as the second service data from which the charging information is extracted at the service server according to the charging information of the first service data collected by the proxy device; if the first service data has a different protocol type than the second service data, at the charging system, charging the first service data by a charging mode corresponding to the protocol type of the classified service data received at the proxy device, wherein the first service data is classified by the protocol type, wherein the charging modes of data services include a volume based charging mode and a content based charging mode; and if the first service data has the same protocol type as the second service data, the charging system does not charge for the first service data according to the charging information of the first service data collected at the proxy device.