Design and Modeling Billing solution to Next Generation Networks

Next generation networks (NGN) services are assumed to be a new revenue stream for both network operators and service providers. New services especially focused on a mobile telecommunications that would be used not only as a communication de vice but also as a personal gateway to order or consume a variety of services and products [1]. This type of advanced services can be accomplished when the adaptability of the packet-networks (Internet) and the quality of service of the circuit switched networks are combined into one network [2]. New challenges appear in the billing of this heterogeneous multi services network. Some examples of such a services and possible solutions about charging and billing are examined in this paper. The first steps of mathematical model for billing are also considered.

💡 Research Summary

The paper addresses the emerging billing challenges posed by Next Generation Networks (NGN), which integrate the flexibility of packet‑based Internet with the quality‑of‑service (QoS) guarantees of traditional circuit‑switched networks. In this converged environment, mobile devices evolve from simple communication endpoints into personal gateways that can request and consume a wide variety of services—high‑definition video streaming, real‑time gaming, location‑based advertising, cloud storage, and more. Each service class has distinct QoS requirements (bandwidth, latency, loss tolerance) and generates multidimensional usage patterns (connection duration, data volume, QoS level, service switching frequency).

The authors first outline representative NGN service scenarios and identify three core billing requirements: (1) classification of traffic by service type and QoS level to enable differentiated pricing; (2) real‑time collection of network metrics and user behavior data for accurate cost calculation; and (3) inclusion of mobile‑device resource consumption (battery, storage) in the overall charge model.

To meet these needs, an initial mathematical framework is proposed. For each service flow (S_i) with QoS vector (\mathbf{q}_i) and usage amount (U_i), the cost is expressed as

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