System and method for dynamically allocating quota for shared balances in distributed telecommunications networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10200542-B2
Application number	US-201815894140-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 12, 2018
Priority date	Jun 21, 2013
Publication date	Feb 5, 2019
Grant date	Feb 5, 2019

Abstract

Systems and computing devices may be configured to intelligently and dynamically allocate quotas for the access and use of a telecommunications network by consumers that use a shared account balance. A server computing device may be configured to intelligently allocate quota by determining an allocation time interval for allocating quota from a shared account balance, receiving a quota request message from a metering and gating component that includes information requesting allocation of a first quota to a first consumer associated with a shared account balance, determining a validity period for the first quota based on the determined allocation time interval, and allocating the first quota to the first consumer from the updated shared account balance so as to eliminate or reduce conflicts and discrepancies between different instances of the shared account balance.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of updating a local instance of a distributed datastore associated with a shared services group by a telecommunications server that is deployed in a telecommunications network in which a plurality of components update or use the distributed datastore, the method comprising:
receiving, via a processor of the telecommunications server, a change notification message from another component in the telecommunications network that updated a different instance of the distributed datastore, the received change notification message including a plurality of records, each of the plurality records including a change identifier;
selecting, via the processor, a record in the plurality records in the change notification message;
identifying, via the processor, a local record stored in memory that corresponds to the selected record;
determining, via the processor, whether the identified local record is an authoritative record;
determining, via the processor, whether the change identifier of the selected record is higher than a change identifier of the identified local record in response to determining that the identified local record is not the authoritative record; and
updating the local instance of the distributed datastore by overwriting the identified local record with the selected record in response to determining that the change identifier of the selected record is higher than the change identifier of the identified local record.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
disregarding identified local record in response to determining that the identified local record is the authoritative record.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
disregarding identified local record in response to determining that the change identifier of the selected record is not higher than the change identifier of the identified local record.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received change notification message includes a record for each component in the plurality of components that update or use the distributed datastore.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein each record in the received change notification message further includes:
a component identifier;
a total additions value;
a total deductions value;
a total allocations value; and
an estimated time of exhaustion (EToE) value.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein updating the local instance of the distributed datastore by overwriting the identified local record with the selected record in response to determining that the change identifier of the selected record is higher than the change identifier of the identified local record comprises:
updating the local instance of the distributed datastore by overwriting a change identifier, total additions value, total deductions value, total allocations value, and EToE value of the identified local record with the change identifier, total additions value, total deductions value, total allocations value, and EToE value of the selected record.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the telecommunications server implements at least a portion of a balance management component (BMC).

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the BMC is included as part of a multi-site balance management system that includes a plurality of balance management components deployed in an active-active configuration in geographically dispersed sites.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the telecommunications network includes a plurality of distributed datastores, and only a single authoritative record exists for each of the plurality of distributed datastores.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a quantity of service unit allowances of the distributed datastore based on:
the authoritative record stored in memory; and
at least one non-authoritative record stored in memory.

11. A telecommunications server deployed in a telecommunications network in which a plurality of components update or use a distributed datastore associated with a shared services group, comprising:
a processor configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations comprising:
receiving a change notification message from another component in the telecommunications network that updated a different instance of the distributed datastore, the received change notification message including a plurality of records, each of the plurality records including a change identifier;
selecting a record in the plurality records in the change notification message;
identifying a local record stored in memory that corresponds to the selected record;
determining whether the identified local record is an authoritative record;
determining whether the change identifier of the selected record is higher than a change identifier of the identified local record in response to determining that the identified local record is not the authoritative record; and
updating a local instance of the distributed datastore by overwriting the identified local record with the selected record in response to determining that the change identifier of the selected record is higher than the change identifier of the identified local record.

12. The telecommunications server of claim 11 , wherein the received change notification message includes a record for each component in the plurality of components that update or use the distributed datastore.

13. The telecommunications server of claim 11 , wherein each record in the received change notification message further includes:
a component identifier;
a total additions value;
a total deductions value;
a total allocations value; and
an estimated time of exhaustion (EToE) value.

14. The telecommunications server of claim 13 , wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that updating the local instance of the distributed datastore by overwriting the identified local record with the selected record in response to determining that the change identifier of the selected record is higher than the change identifier of the identified local record comprises:
updating the local instance of the distributed datastore by overwriting a change identifier, total additions value, total deductions value, total allocations value, and EToE value of the identified local record with the change identifier, total additions value, total deductions value, total allocations value, and EToE value of the selected record.

15. The telecommunications server of claim 11 , wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising:
determining a quantity of service unit allowances of the distributed datastore based on:
the authoritative record stored in memory; and
at least one non-authoritative record stored in memory.

16. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon processor-executable software instructions configured to cause a processor to perform operations, comprising:
receiving a change notification message from another component in the telecommunications network that updated a different instance of the distributed datastore, the received change notification message including a plurality of records, each of the plurality records including a change identifier;
selecting a record in the plurality records in the change notification message;
identifying a local record stored in memory that corresponds to the selected record;
determining whether the identified local record is an authoritative record;
determining whether the change identifier of the selected record is h

Assignees

• Openet Telecom Ltd

Inventors

• Rolfe David
• Gillick Tony
• Holland Roland
• Mulvin Barry

Classifications

• H04M15/78

  Redistributing amount between accounts · CPC title

• H04L12/1471

  splitting of costs · CPC title

• H04M15/64

  On-line charging system [OCS] · CPC title

• H04M15/765

  Linked or grouped accounts, e.g. of users or devices · CPC title

• H04M15/58

  based on statistics of usage or network monitoring · CPC title