Network charging
OwnerJerome Tassel, Robert J Briscoeinventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The invention provides a method of charging for a confederated network, such as the Internet, by the user terminals connected to the network. The network provide generates a tariff code, which is multicast to the user terminals. The user terminals then translate the tariff code to automatically generate a meter rule set that can be used to configure a network traffic meter.
Claims11
A method of charging for use by a user terminal of a communications network, the method comprising the steps of
- (a) creating a tariff for network usage
- (b) distributing said tariff to a plurality of user terminals connected to the communications network, and
- (c) translating the tariff to generate a meter rule set for calculating a charge for use by the user terminal of the communications network.
A method according to any preceding claim in which the tariff is distributed as a binary file.
A method of operating a network, the method comprising the steps of
- (a) creating a tariff for network usage,
- (b) distributing said tariff to a plurality of user terminals connected to the communications network,
- (c) additionally distributing said tariff to a network accounting server, said network accounting server translating said tariff to generate a meter rule set for calculating a charge for use by a user terminal of the communications network.
A method of operating a network, the method comprising the steps of
- (a) creating a tariff for network usage,
- (b) distributing said tariff to a network accounting server, said network accounting server translating said tariff to generate a meter rule set for calculating a charge for use by a user terminal of the communications network, and
- (c) distributing said meter rule set to a plurality of user terminals connected to the communications network.
A user terminal for connection to a communications network, the user terminal comprising;
- a network interface which receives, in use, tariff data from the communications network;
- a meter for measuring use by the user terminal of the communications network;
- storage means for storing data received from the communications network and network usage data generated by the meter;
- and
- a tariff translator to generate a meter rule set from said tariff data, said meter rule set, in use, being used to configure the meter.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.