US Patent 7957719 Method for reducing load of traffic plane function

Disclosed is a method for reducing the load of Traffic Plane Function (TPF). According to the obtained indication on whether to perform charging, the TPF determines whether to perform charging operation for the service data flow using appropriate charging rules, if yes, the TPF performs the charging operation for the counting result of the service data flow and submits the charging information to the charging associated entities; otherwise, the TPF does not perform the charging operation for the counting result of the service data flow. Operation in the TPF is optimized such that the TPF only needs to perform necessary charging instead of performing charging operation for the service data flow not needing to be charged. As a result, the load of the TPF and network devices are reduced, system efficiency is improved, and waste of network resources from various operator charging policies, e.g., free of charge policy, is avoided.