The present disclosure relates to the field of communication technologies. In one example charging method, a gateway manages, by using customer as a granularity, charging information of a plurality of devices of a customer that are currently connected to the gateway, and establishes one customer-level charging session or customer level Charging Data Record (CDR) for each customer.

Techniques and mechanisms for asynchronously initiating online charging triggers in mobile networks are described. A control plane gateway or “GW-C” may obtain from a mobility management entity (MME) a create session request associated with an attach request for a user equipment (UE). The GW-C may send to an online charging system (OCS) a Gy credit-control request for requesting a quota of units (e.g. a resource usage quota) associated with a subscriber of the UE. Prior to sending the Gy credit-control request or obtaining a Gy credit-control answer, the GW-C may send to the MME a create session response which prompts an attach accept or reject of the attach request. The Gy credit-control request may be sent to the OCS during an attach procedure associated with the attach request for the UE or, alternatively, in response to receiving a user data packet of the session as a notification.

Techniques for allowing access based online charging in cases of multiple user agents (multi-UAs) scenarios where the instances are registered to different telephony application servers (TASs) are discussed herein. For example, a user device may support a native number and multiple virtual numbers linked via a user account. When servicing a call, the user device may determine a served number to service the call from. If the served number is not the native number but a virtual number, the native-line server may handle the call session, but the online charging session will be handled by the virtual-line server. The native-line server may use session initiation protocol (SIP) information to send updated information for charging parameters to the virtual-line server, including network access transfer for accuracy in online charging logic.

Charging operations carried out in relation to service consumption by users of a communication network reduce signaling overhead and memory or storage requirements by adopting a bifurcated approach to structuring and accessing the data containers used for controlling and tracking service consumption by individual users commonly governed by the same consumption control information. With bifurcation, a parent data container holds the common consumption control information commonly applicable to each user, while an individual child data container for each user holds consumption-tracking information specific to the user. The approach reduces signaling overhead inasmuch as operations involving only the consumption control information need not retrieve or access the child data containers, and the approach reduces overall storage requirements by eliminating redundant inclusion of the common information in the child data containers.

Systems and methods are provided for generating announcement information at a communication node. The method includes: generating a first announcement information associated with a first user; generating a second announcement information associated with a second user; and transmitting the first and second announcement information to a telephony application server, wherein the first announcement information and the second announcement information include at least one different element of data, further wherein both the first and second announcement information are used to generate or select announcements which are transmitted to the first and second users during a call between the first and second users.

Disclosed is a method performed by an IP Multimedia System, IMS (140), of a communication network. The method comprises receiving information of a call initiation or a call reception by a wireless communication device (110), the information comprising an ID indicative of a subscriber of the wireless communication device (110). The method further comprises sending information of the initiated or received call to an online charging system, OCS (150), the information comprising the ID indicative of the subscriber of the wireless communication device (110), receiving, from the OCS (150) and in response to the sending, a pointer referring to a notification picture, and sending the pointer to the wireless communication device (110). Hereby it is possible for an operator to send notification pictures to its subscribers. Disclosed are also methods performed by the OCS (150) and the wireless communication device (110).

Systems, methods, and software of managing bandwidth allocated to User Equipment (UE). In one embodiment, a bandwidth management system collects cell load information for a plurality of cells within a Radio Access Network (RAN), and processes the cell load information to determine a cell load status for each of the cells. The system performs bandwidth throttling for the UE by determining a location of the UE, identifying the cell load status for one or more cells in a region of the RAN corresponding with the location of the UE, determining whether the region of the RAN is overloaded based on the cell load status, and controlling a downgrade of bandwidth allocated to the UE in the RAN responsive to a determination that the region is overloaded.

A charging function (CHF) receives, from a policy control function (PCF), a first request for charging policy information for a packet data unit (PDU) session of a wireless device. The charging policy information is determined for the PDU session of the wireless device. The charging policy information indicates a charging method comprising one or more of: online charging; offline charging; and converged charging. A message comprising the charging policy information is sent to the PCF. The CHF receives from a session management function (SMF), a second request to establish a charging session. The second request comprises the charging method. A confirmation for the charging method is sent to the SMF.

It is provided a method, comprising monitoring if a request for granting a requested quota for a subscriber is received; calculating a quota consumption speed based on a consumption of a previous quota granted to the subscriber and a duration during which the previous quota is consumed; determining a determined quota size based on the quota consumption speed; granting a granted quota to the subscriber in response to the received request, wherein the granted quota has the determined quota size.

A method for reducing wireless network congestion including receiving an initial request for network access from a mobile device and determining a customer support time period associated with an initial location. In response to receiving the initial request for network access, the method includes transmitting a request to a network node and receiving, from the network node, a rejection message denying access to the network. The method includes denying the initial request based on the rejection message. The method includes receiving a subsequent request for network access that includes a subsequent location. The method includes determining that identifying information associated with the subsequent request matches identifying information associated with the initial request. The method includes denying the subsequent request when the subsequent location is the same as the initial location and a request time of the subsequent request is outside the customer support time period.