Importance

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Abstract

A rating and charging engine (1) comprises an engine core (2), having an accounts/pots/resources/rules persistent database (3), and a provisioning system (4). The core (2) interfaces with a service supply entity (10) such as an IN (intelligent network) service control point, and with an external rating and charging entity (20). The engine (1) overcomes the `combinatorial explosion` limitation of the prior rating and charging approaches by reducing complexity. Most of the rating and charging rules are associated with pot types, and each pot has its own set of rules. The core (2) executes pot traversal rules according to at least one parameter to efficiently determine which pots cannot fulfil a service event, thus immediately narrowing down the rule base to execute. This is very important for real-time performance, where there may be in excess of tens of thousands of service events per second arriving at the core (2). This ensures many hitherto difficult requirements can be simply and rapidly implemented and provisioned, including arbitrary combinations of: cross-service bundles, single-purpose bundles, and time and volume limited bundles.

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First Claim