Patent ID: 7680481

Claim:
A method of processing multi-leg calls in a communication network, the method comprising: receiving a call for a user at a first entity in the network; establishing a first call leg to a second entity; generating a first charging data record with at least one field, wherein the field contains a charging identifier for the first call leg; receiving a response from the second entity; establishing a second call leg to a third entity; generating a second charging data record with at least two fields, wherein the first field contains a charging identifier for the second call leg and the second field contains a copy of the charging identifier for the first call leg, wherein the charging identifier for the first call leg defines a linked charging identifier that may be used by all subsequent entities in the network to identify at least one charging event associated with the call; sending the charging data records to a fourth entity; and forwarding the charging data records from the fourth entity to a billing domain, wherein the billing domain recreates charging events that occurred during the call in their correct sequence by examining the charging data records for previous charging identifiers, wherein each of the charging identifiers comprises an IMS Charging Identifier (ICID).