Embodiments of this application provide a charging session method and an apparatus. A control plane function entity determines to request a charging function (CHF) entity to establish a service-based interface (SBI) charging session for a 4G data connection. The control plane function entity requests, through the SBI charging session, to perform online charging and/or offline charging in the 4G data connection. According to the method, the SBI charging session that is requested by the control plane function entity to establish for the 4G data connection may support performing the online charging in the 4G data connection, and support performing the offline charging in the 4G data connection. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments simplify a procedure of charging online data and offline data in the 4G data connection by using different charging sessions.

Embodiments of this application provide a charging session method and an apparatus. A control plane function entity determines to request a charging function (CHF) entity to establish a service-based interface (SBI) charging session for a 4G data connection. The control plane function entity requests, through the SBI charging session, to perform online charging and/or offline charging in the 4G data connection. According to the method, the SBI charging session that is requested by the control plane function entity to establish for the 4G data connection may support performing the online charging in the 4G data connection, and support performing the offline charging in the 4G data connection. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments simplify a procedure of charging online data and offline data in the 4G data connection by using different charging sessions.

A policy control and resource function (PCRF) is subscribed (at a network entity) to receive notifications of events for a first set of presence reporting areas (PRAs) associated with a packet data network (PDN) connection involving a user equipment. An online charging system (OCS) is subscribed (at the network entity) to receive notifications of events for a second set of PRAs associated with the PDN connection involving the user equipment. The network entity notifies an off-line charging system (OFCS) in response to a first event occurring at one or more first PRAs that are in the first set of PRAs.

Embodiments of this application provide a charging session method and an apparatus. A control plane function entity determines to request a charging function (CHF) entity to establish a service-based interface (SBI) charging session for a 4G data connection. The control plane function entity requests, through the SBI charging session, to perform online charging and/or offline charging in the 4G data connection. According to the method, the SBI charging session that is requested by the control plane function entity to establish for the 4G data connection may support performing the online charging in the 4G data connection, and support performing the offline charging in the 4G data connection. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments simplify a procedure of charging online data and offline data in the 4G data connection by using different charging sessions.

A method and apparatus are provided for presenting multimedia content to a caller and/or a called party in association with a telephone call. Content may be presented pre-ring (before the called party's telephone rings), in-call, and/or post-call. Content presented to a party may be related to another party participating in the call or may be related to a third party (e.g., an advertiser that paid for the ability to have its content presented). Presented content may be actuable, to allow a caller to change the destination of a call, take advantage of an offer presented to him or her, redeem a coupon, schedule or queue a subsequent call, etc. To find a desired destination party, a caller may initiate a manual or automatic search of his or her local contacts (on his telephone) and/or a central or global directory or contact list.

An architecture to allow Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) billing and charge tracking, is disclosed. In an example, a tracking process, such as is performed by an edge computing apparatus, includes: receiving a computational processing request for a service operated with computing resources of the edge computing apparatus from a connected edge device within the first access network, wherein the computational processing request includes an identification of the connected edge device; identifying a processing device, within the first access network, for performing the computational processing request; and storing the identification of the connected edge device, a processing device identification, and data describing the computational processes completed by the processing device in association with the computational processing request.

There is provided mechanisms for granting network resources for maintaining a communication session for a subscriber in a network. A method is performed by a CTF node. The method includes obtaining, from a gateway in the network, a request for network resources for maintaining the communication session for the subscriber, and requesting, from an OCF node and in response thereto, credit units corresponding to the network resources. The method includes obtaining a grant of the credit units as well as an advance credit indication of additional credit units for the communication session from the OCF node. The method further includes storing the advance credit indication for the communication session and providing, to the gateway, a grant for the network resources for maintaining the communication session in accordance with the obtained grant.

Aspects described herein relate to various methods, systems and apparatuses that can be used to configure and manage a network slice based on billing rate information. By selecting a network slice based on billing rate information, the system may further be able to respond to billing rate changes by reselecting network slices. For example, changes in the usage of the network slice or the usage of the overall network infrastructure may cause a change to a billing rate associated with the network slice. These aspects, and others described herein, may result in improved network performance by, for example, offloading extra usage from an overloaded network slice to a network slice that is currently less used.

The present disclosure relates a method performed in a first Radio network node, serving a first service area, of notifying a Core Network node, CN, of a change of service area for a User Equipment, UE. The method comprises detecting that the UE has changed location between the first service area and a second service area served by at least a second Radio network node, wherein the first and second service areas are being associated with a respective service charge, and providing a notification to the Core Network Node informing about the change of service area for the UE, the indication enabling a CN function to change the service charge for the UE.

Included are an outgoing call detection unit configured to detect an outgoing call from a first communication terminal to a second communication terminal, a connection control unit configured to cause the outgoing call detected by the outgoing call detection unit to arrive at the second communication terminal, a call duration measurement unit configured to measure a time from when a phone call is started, which is a duration of the phone call, between the first communication terminal and the second communication terminal, and a notification unit configured to transmit, when the duration measured by the call duration measurement unit exceeds a predetermined duration before the phone call ends, a predetermined notification to a third communication terminal.