The present invention provides a solution for determining a QoS policy and/or charging policy based on network resource utilization information in an LTE network. As compared to the current 3GPP policy and charging control architecture, the solution of the present invention determines a QoS policy and/or charging policy based on network resource utilization information in combination with existing input information, thereby making policy and charging control more flexible.

There is provided a configuration function for charging an application service provider coupled to a wireless communications network, the wireless communications network arranged to enable communication for one or more application services of the application service provider, the configuration function comprising: a receiver arranged to receive a subscription for charging notifications in respect of one or more application services of the application service provider; a processor arranged to derive charging analytics for the one or more application services from recorded data, the charging analytics including a prediction of the charging of the application service provider for use of the wireless communications network in a service area, by the one or more application services of the application service provider; and the processor further arranged to determine an automated charging trigger configuration for charging the application service provider for use of the wireless communications network based on the derived charging analytics.

A radio communication control device accepts a call-up from a radio communication terminal and includes a unit configured to detect the degree of jamming in a cell, a unit configured to confirm the intention of a user of a terminal concerned as to whether the call-up is continued regardless of addition of an extra to the user's telephone call charge when the call-up has been made from a radio communication terminal in the cell concerned in a specific jammed state, a unit configured to block the call-up concerned in accordance with the confirmed intention of the user of the terminal concerned and a unit configured to change charge setting so as to add an extra to the user's telephone call charge when the call-up has not been blocked in the specific jammed state.

Systems and methods are disclosed that notify end users of mobile devices of charging rate adjustments within a mobile network. A rate notification system receives bandwidth usage data for the mobile network, and identifies a region within the mobile network having a bandwidth usage that exceeds a threshold. The bandwidth usage is processed per media type (i.e., voice calls, text messages, etc) based on the bandwidth usage data. The rate notification system then identifies a mobile device located within the region, and identifies one or more contacts of the end user of the mobile device. The rate notification system then identifies an adjusted charging rate per contact per media type for this end user, and provides the adjusted charging rates to the end user of the mobile device.

In one embodiment, a method of serving media includes receiving a delivery log of traffic use after every first time interval for an user equipment. The user equipment is part of a hot billing class of users. The traffic use comprises data usage by the user equipment during communication with a media server in a layer2 access network. A user traffic information computed from the delivery log is transmitted to a billing center. A account status information is received from the billing center. The account status information is received if the user equipment exceeds a user account metric. A session termination information based on the account status information is transmitted.

A method, an apparatus, and a system control services, where the method includes: receiving, by a PCRF, congestion state information on a cell, resource-related information on the cell, and subscriber-related information on a UE in an activated state in the cell that are sent by an access network device; generating, by the PCRF, a QoS policy and/or a charging policy for the UE in the activated state in the cell according to the congestion state information on the cell, the resource-related information on the cell, and the subscriber-related information on the UE in the activated state in the cell; sending, by the PCRF, the generated QoS policy and/or charging policy to a PCEF, so as to enable the PCEF to execute the QoS policy and/or the charging policy.

The SDN control device is configured to determine a charging plan and a corresponding routing path for a data flow of a user. The charging plan is associated with a network condition-related rate of respective SDN service device in the routing path. The SDN control device is configured to configure the charging plan for the respective SDN service device. Each of the SDN service device is configured to charge the data flow based on a network condition-related rate applicable to the SDN service device in the charging plan. The each of the SDN service device is configured to aggregate generated charging information to provide it to a charging system.

In one embodiment, a method of serving media includes receiving a request to serve a cacheable media content to a user equipment at a second media server deployed in a second layer2 access network. The request is received around when the user equipment is handed-off from a first layer2 node in a first layer2 access network to a second layer2 node in the second layer2 access network and when a streaming session of the cacheable media content to the user equipment from a first media server is terminated. The method further includes determining if the cacheable media content is stored in a cache of the second media server, and serving the cacheable media content from the cache of the second media server to the user equipment if the media content is stored in the cache of the second media server.

In one embodiment, a method of serving media includes receiving user profiles from a layer3 node in an access network, and receiving a request to serve media content to a user equipment. The user profiles include information relating to user account and/or network characteristics of the user equipment. The method further includes using an user equipment information from the user profiles, assigning a first media server from a hierarchical set of media servers to serve the user equipment if the media content to be served is cacheable. The hierarchical set of media servers include a plurality of first type of media servers deployed in a plurality of layer2 (L2) access networks. The user equipment is coupled to a content delivery network through a layer2 access network of the plurality of layer2 access networks.

This disclosure describes systems, methods, and devices related to managing egress traffic from a network to one or more peer networks. A method may include generating, using a load balancer of a network, a dynamic logical egress traffic threshold for a peer network; determining, using the load balancer, that first traffic from the network to the peer network is below the logical egress traffic threshold; directing second traffic from the network to the peer network based on the determination that the first traffic is below the logical egress traffic threshold; determining, using the load balancer, that the second traffic from the network to the peer network has reached the logical egress traffic threshold; and directing third traffic from the network away from the peer network based on the determination that the second traffic has reached the logical egress traffic threshold.