Patent ID: 8289885

Claim:
A communication network adapted to provide third party charging for SIP sessions, the communication network comprising: a session control function adapted to serve a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) session initiated between a first party and a second party; a network node adapted to identify a third party to charge for the SIP session, to include a third party identifier for the third party in a SIP message for the session, and to transmit the SIP message to the session control function; the session control function is further adapted to receive the SIP message, to generate a charging message for the session based on the SIP message, to map the third party identifier in the SIP message to the charging message, and to transmit the charging message that includes the third party identifier over a charging interface; and a charging system adapted to receive the charging message that includes the third party identifier over the charging interface, and to initiate charging for the session to the third party based on the third party identifier.