Patent ID: 8880023

Claim:
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 bearer binding and event reporting function (BBERF) module to perform bearer binding and to detect a service data flow (SDF) associated with communications of a cellular subscriber device; an SDF-based policy charging and enforcement function (PCEF) module to enforce one or more charging rules to said 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; a billing domain module, connected to said OCS and said OFCS; wherein the TDF module is (a) to monitor cellular traffic associated with a 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, and (d) to generate detection output which includes at least one of: a type of an application associated with said cellular traffic of said cellular subscriber device, and a type of said cellular traffic of said cellular subscriber device; 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 rate 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 (b) 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 (b) application-based charging based on output from the TDF module; wherein said PCRF module is to define a for said cellular subscriber device an increased charging rate based on detection, by the TDF module, that said cellular subscriber device is utilizing a particular application.