Patent ID: 8213411

Claim:
A system, comprising: a charging database (CDB) to store charging information concerning an internet protocol (IP) multimedia core network subsystem (IMS) user, the charging information being stored in a charging record in the CDB, the charging record including a charging class of service (COS) identifier, the CDB employing the charging COS identifier as a primary key; and a user database to store user information concerning an IMS user, the user information being stored in a user record in the user database, the user record including a charging COS entry, wherein the charging COS entry includes the charging COS identifier; the CDB and the user database being operably connectable via a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) hardware logic to a call session control function (CSCF) hardware logic, wherein the FESS hardware logic to: retrieve the user record from the user database; retrieve charging information concerning the user from the CDB using the charging COS identifier provided in the user record to select the charging record associated with the charging COS identifier from the charging database; and configure the CSCF hardware logic for charging the user based, at least in part, on the charging information retrieved from the CDB.