Granted Patent B2

US 12,206,815 · App. 17/690,286 · Granted Jan 21, 2025

Inventors: Yong Yang (Kållered, SE); Ioannis Sapountzis (Mölndal, SE); Jiehong Yang (Mölndal, SE)

Assignee: TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET LM ERICSSON (PUBL)

H04M15/66H04M15/64H04M15/65H04M15/8207H04M15/85H04W4/24

Abstract

Claims (67)

1. A method for supporting envelope reporting, the method being performed by a control plane (CP) function and comprising:

sending a usage reporting rule (URR) to a user plane (UP) function, wherein the URR sent to the UP function comprises a reporting trigger indicator for instructing the UP function to generate a usage report after detecting a closure of an envelope;

after the closure of the envelope, receiving a usage report generated by the UP function, wherein the received usage report comprises a usage report trigger indicator indicating that the closure of the envelope triggered the UP function to generate the usage report; and

storing the envelope with a determined starting time and/or an ending time for offline or online charging.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining the starting time and/or ending time based on the received usage report.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the URR further comprises a time quota mechanism (TQM) and a measurement method indicator.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the TQM comprises a base time interval (BTI) and a BTI type being either continuous time period (CTP) or discrete time period (DTP).

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the reporting trigger indicator included in the URR is set to envelope closure for CTP and/or DTP.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the URR further comprises an inactivity detection timer (IDT) that is set to a quota consumption time (QCT) received from an online charging system (OCS).

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein

the method comprises determining the starting time for the envelope based on the received usage report, and

determining the starting time is based on a time of a first packet in each usage report after a received usage report with the usage report trigger being set to envelope closure.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein

the method comprises determining the ending time for the envelope based on the received usage report, and

determining the ending time is based on a time when a received usage report with the user report trigger set to envelope closure has been generated.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for causing a control plane function to perform the method of claim 1 .

10. A method for supporting envelope reporting in a radio communication network having a control plane (CP) function and a user plane (UP) function, the method being performed by the UP function and comprising:

receiving a usage reporting rule (URR) transmitted by the CP function, the URR comprising a reporting trigger indicator for instructing the UP function to generate a usage report after detecting a closure of an envelope;

after detecting the closure of the envelope, generating the usage report; and

sending the usage report to the CP function, wherein

the usage report comprises a usage report trigger indicator indicating that the closure of the envelope triggered the UP function to generate the usage report.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the URR further comprises a time quota mechanism (TQM).

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the TQM comprises a base time interval (BTI) and a BTI type being either continuous time period (CTP) or discrete time period (DTP).

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the received URR further comprises:

a measurement method and an inactivity detection timer (IDT), and the BTI type being CTP, and wherein the usage report comprises measurement of time, volume and/or event as instructed in the received measurement method, for a period of time containing consecutive BTIs until the IDT has expired or when detecting no usage for a BTI; or

a measurement method and the BTI type being DTP, and wherein the usage report comprises measurement of time, volume and/or event as instructed by the received measurement method, for each BTI.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for causing a user plane function to perform the method of claim 10 .

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein

detecting the closure of the envelope comprises detecting an envelope closure event, and

detecting the envelope closure event comprises:

i) detecting expiration of an inactivity period;

ii) detecting no usage for a Base Time Interval (BTI); or

iii) detecting the end of a Base Time Interval (BTI).

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein

detecting the closure of the envelope comprises detecting an envelope closure event, and

detecting the envelope closure event comprises detecting no usage for a Base Time Interval (BTI).

17. A control plane (CP) function for supporting envelope reporting, the CP function comprising:

a processor; and

a computer program product storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, causes the CP function to perform a process comprising:

sending a usage reporting rule (URR) to a user plane (UP) function, wherein the URR sent to the UP function comprises a reporting trigger indicator for instructing the UP function to generate a usage report after detecting a closure of an envelope;

receiving a usage report generated by the UP function after the closure of the envelope, wherein the received usage report comprises a usage report trigger indicator indicating that the closure of the envelope triggered the UP function to generate the usage report; and

storing the envelope with a determined starting time and/or an ending time for offline or online charging.

18. The CP function of claim 17 , further comprising further comprising determining the starting time and/or ending time based on the received usage report.

19. The CP function of claim 17 , wherein

the URR further comprises a time quota mechanism (TQM) and a measurement method indicator, and

the TQM comprises a base time interval (BTI) and a BTI type being either continuous time period (CTP) or discrete time period (DTP).

20. The CP function of claim 17 , wherein the process further includes:

setting an inactivity detection timer (IDT) in the URR to a quota consumption time (QCt) received from an online charging system (OCS).

21. The CP function of claim 17 ,

the process comprises determining the starting time for the envelope based on the received usage report, and

determining the starting time is based on a time of a first packet in each usage report after a received usage report with the usage report trigger being set to envelope closure.

22. The CP function of claim 17 , wherein

the process comprises determining the ending time for the envelope based on the received usage report, and

determining the ending time is based on a time when a received usage report with the user report trigger set to envelope closure has been generated.

23. A user plane (UP) function for supporting envelope reporting in a radio communication network having a control plane (CP) function separated from the UP function, the UP function comprising:

a processor; and

a computer program product storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, causes the UP function to perform a process that comprises:

processing a usage reporting rule (URR) transmitted by the CP function, the URR comprising a reporting trigger indicator for instructing the UP function to generate a usage report after detecting a closure of an envelope;

after detecting the closure of the envelope, generating the usage report; and

sending the usage report to the CP function, wherein

the usage report comprises a usage report trigger indicator indicating that the closure of the envelope triggered the UP function to generate the usage report.

24. The UP function of claim 23 , wherein

the URR further comprises a time quota mechanism (TQM), and

the TQM comprises a base time interval (BTI) and a BTI type being either continuous time period (CTP) or discrete time period (DTP).

25. The UP function of claim 24 , wherein the received URR further comprises:

a measurement method and an inactivity detection timer (IDT) and the BTI type being CTP, and wherein the usage report comprises measurement of time, volume and/or event as instructed in the received measurement method, for a period of time containing consecutive BTIs until the IDT has expired or when detecting no usage for a BTI, or

a measurement method and the BTI type being DTP, and wherein the usage report comprises measurement of time, volume and/or event as instructed by the received measurement method, for each BTI.

Continuity (2)

References Cited (31)