Patent ID: 8797859

Claim:
A Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) node for use in a wireless access communications system in which Usage Monitoring Control is used, the PCEF node comprising: a processor and a memory, said memory containing instructions executable by said processor whereby said PCEF node is operative to: transmit information to and receive information from a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) node in the system, the information to and from the PCRF node being transmittable over an interface, wherein the received information that the PCEF node is configured to receive includes: (1) one or more Monitoring Keys for a user (UE) in the system, (2) an allowed usage threshold per Monitoring Key for the UE, (3) a reset point corresponding to a point in time at which the PCEF node resets a counter regarding an amount of a defined service in the system used by the UE during a defined period of time, and (4) a reporting point for the PCEF node to transmit reports to the PCRF node regarding the amount of the defined service in the system used by the UE during the defined period of time, wherein the information regarding the reporting point is transmitted before the reset point, and wherein the reporting point is after the reset point; count the amount of the defined service in the system which is used by the UE during the defined period of time per Monitoring Key; take a defined course of action when the amount of the defined service used by the UE reaches the allowed usage threshold; reset the count to zero for each Monitoring Key at the reset point; and transmit the reports to the PCRF node at the reporting point.