Charging interval authorizations according to the techniques disclosed herein provide for credit reservation and charging of whole charging intervals across two or more credit containers(36) in or linked to a subscriber account (34), without the need for redefining the charging interval size, even where the types of credit units differ between or among the credit containers (36) used to authorize the charging interval. Among the various advantages, the disclosed techniques preserve the original charging interval size, which may be defined for reasons of signaling efficiency, while simultaneously allowing the reservation or consumption of credit units from credit containers (36) having insufficient remaining credit for authorization of the full charging interval.

A data volume exchange server includes a terminal IF unit configured to receive an exchange request for a contract data volume of an own country and a contract data volume of another country from terminals of subscribers having contract data volumes of telecommunication carriers of countries different from each other, a data volume exchange unit configured to perform matching of a pair in which another country that requests a contract data volume in one of the received exchange requests matches the own country that provides a contract data volume in another of the received exchange requests, and a server IF unit configured to instruct the communication servers of the telecommunication carriers in the countries to transfer a contract data volume of a matched subscriber of the own country as an exchanged data volume of a subscriber of the other country who is a matching partner.

Various embodiments disclosed herein are related to a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. In some embodiments, the medium includes instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to identify, at an edge network, resource consumption data including a status that indicates whether a service hosted on a cluster of nodes on the edge network is powered on, a type of a resource being consumed by the service, a quantity of the resource being consumed by the service, and a time stamp associated with the resource being consumed by the service and provide, to a remote server in communication with the edge network, the resource consumption data. In some embodiments, the remote server meters resource consumption based on the resource consumption data.

A method, system, and computer program product for implementing mobile device roaming optimization is provided. The method includes receiving a selection for services associated with a first mobile device provider for activation during travel to a location associated with mobile device roaming attributes with respect to a mobile device of a user. A blockchain structure and a hash masking sensitive data of the user are generated. It is detected that the user and mobile device have traveled to the location and access to the blockchain structure is enabled. Roaming usage attributes of the mobile device are determined. Subsequently, operational functionality of the mobile device at the geographical location is enabled via roaming usage of a network of the second mobile device provider and second hash of consumption related information compliant with data residency is transmitted to the first mobile device provider to facilitate resolution of disputes across entities.

A policy transmission method, a policy control function (PCF) network element, and a computer storage medium, where the method includes: obtaining, by a PCF network element, a connection management state of a terminal apparatus, where the connection management state includes a connected mode or an idle mode; and sending, by the PCF network element, policy rule information to the terminal apparatus when the connection management state of the terminal apparatus is the connected mode.

Systems and methods are provided for use in identifying an entity's location based on device-level location data. One example computer-implemented method includes, for an entity associated with an unconfirmed location, transmitting, to a mobile device, a request to identify a physical location of the entity and receiving, from the mobile device, a response including at least (i) an identifier associated with the entity and/or a user associated with the mobile device and (ii) a location of the mobile device at the physical location of the entity. The method also includes matching the location of the mobile device to a transaction record for a transaction at the entity based on the transaction record including the identifier from the response and, in response to a match, assigning the location to the entity and publishing the assigned location of the entity.

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, obtaining roaming agreement data related to roaming agreements that are between a wireless provider and a respective one of a plurality of wireless roaming providers; obtaining, for each wireless subscriber of the wireless provider, respective roaming usage data, all of the respective roaming usage data comprising collective roaming usage data; training, based upon the collective roaming usage data, a set of one or more models, the one or more models comprising one or more statistical models, one or more machine learning models, or any combination thereof, the one or more models being trained with multiple iterations of feedback loops, and the training resulting in one or more trained models; estimating for each wireless subscriber, based upon the one or more trained models, respective projected location information for a future time, all of the respective projected location information comprising collective projected location information; obtaining, for each of a plurality of wireless coverage areas of the plurality of wireless roaming providers, respective real-time network quality measurement data, all of the respective real-time network quality measurement data comprising collective real-time network quality measurement data; modeling a plurality of scenarios for the future time based upon the roaming agreement data, based upon the collective real-time network quality measurement data and based upon the collective projected location information, each of the scenarios identifying for each of a plurality of projected future wireless roaming subscribers a respective one of the wireless roaming providers to communicate with at the future time, each of the scenarios further identifying a respective cost to the wireless provider, and the modeling being performed via use of a plurality of model constraints; selecting from the scenarios, as a selected scenario, a scenario that has associated therewith a lowest total cost to the wireless provider also satisfying one or more of the plurality of model constraints based upon the collective roaming agreement data; and sending recommendations, to a plurality of steering mechanisms, in order to implement the selected scenario. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Systems and methods are provided for billing of metadata in a network of moving things.

Various embodiments disclosed herein are related to a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. In some embodiments, the medium includes instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to receive, at a server, from a cluster of nodes on an edge network in communication with the server, a resource consumption data of a service hosted on the edge network, determine, based on a metering policy, a unit of measurement, and calculate a resource consumption quantity according to the unit of measurement.

Method and apparatus for improving the flexibility of supporting service continuity are disclosed. A method comprises receiving a PCC rule containing a traffic steering control information per AF request which includes an indication on whether service continuity for offload traffic is supported or not; and performing a PSA relocation based on the information.