Apparatus, methods and computer programs for metering and accounting for services accessed over a network

A computer system for metering usage of services which are accessed via a network, said system comprising:

• a memory that stores charging models for a composite service,
• wherein said composite service comprises service composition pairs, in which a higher level service invokes a lower level service and a charging model of said higher level service determines said charging model of said service composition pair, said service composition pairs comprising:
• a transaction service over a resource-centric service, in which metering information for a lower resource-centric service, including resource consumption metrics, and for a higher transaction service, including transaction usage metrics, is charged per transaction;
• a composite resource-centric service, in which metering information for a lower resource-centric service, including lower resource consumption metrics, and for a higher resource-centric service, is charged for composite resource consumption;
• a composite transactional service, in which metering information for a lower transactional service, including lower transaction usage metrics, and for a higher transaction service, including higher transaction usage metrics, is charged for composite transaction usage;
• and
• a resource-centric over a transaction service, in which metering information for a lower transaction service, including lower transaction usage metrics, and for a higher resource-centric service, including higher resource consumption metrics, is charged for resource consumption;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• request said composite service by a user program;
• generate partial metering records for all services requested by said composite service, said partial metering records corresponding to each requested service, including identities of each higher and lower service of said service composition pair, and an appropriate charging model;
• send said partial metering records to an accounting service;
• and
• correlate said partial metering records, by said accounting service, based on a hierarchical-tree of said service composition pairs, to create a complete metering record of said requested composite service.

A computer system for metering usage of composite services which are accessed via a network, said system comprising:

• a memory that stores charging models for at least one composite service,
• wherein said at least one composite service comprises a corresponding at least one service composition pair, in which a higher level service invokes a lower level service and a charging model of said higher level service determines said charging model of said at least one composite service, wherein a service composition pair comprises any one of:
• a transaction service over a resource-centric service, in which metering information for a lower resource-centric service, including resource consumption metrics, and for a higher transaction service, including transaction usage metrics, is charged per transaction;
• a composite resource-centric service, in which metering information for a lower resource-centric service, including lower resource consumption metrics, and for a higher resource-centric service, is charged for composite resource consumption;
• a composite transactional service, in which metering information for a lower transactional service, including lower transaction usage metrics, and for a higher transaction service, including higher transaction usage metrics, is charged for composite transaction usage;
• and
• a resource-centric over a transaction service, in which metering information for a lower transaction service, including lower transaction usage metrics, and for a higher resource-centric service, including higher resource consumption metrics, is charged for resource consumption;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• request said at least one composite service by a user program;
• generate partial metering records for services requested by said at least one composite service, said partial metering records corresponding to each at least one requested service, including identities of each higher and lower service of said at least one service composition pair, and an appropriate charging model;
• send said partial metering records to an accounting service;
• and
• correlate said partial metering records, by said accounting service, based on a hierarchical-tree of said service composition pairs, to create a complete metering record of at least one requested composite service.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by said computer to perform a method for metering usage of composite services which are accessed via a network, the method comprising:

• requesting at least one composite service by a user program,
• wherein said at least one composite service comprises a corresponding at least one service composition pair, in which a higher level service invokes a lower level service and a charging model of said higher level service determines said charging model of said at least one composite service, a service composition pair comprising any one of:
• a transaction service over a resource-centric service, in which metering information for a lower resource-centric service, including resource consumption metrics, and for a higher transaction service, including transaction usage metrics, is charged per transaction;
• a composite resource-centric service, in which metering information for a lower resource-centric service, including lower resource consumption metrics, and for a higher resource-centric service, is charged for composite resource consumption;
• a composite transactional service, in which metering information for a lower transactional service, including lower transaction usage metrics, and for a higher transaction service, including higher transaction usage metrics, is charged for composite transaction usage;
• and
• a resource-centric over a transaction service, in which metering information for a lower transaction service, including lower transaction usage metrics, and for a higher resource-centric service, including higher resource consumption metrics, is charged for resource consumption;
• generating partial metering records for all service requested by said at least one composite service, said partial metering records corresponding to each requested service, including identities of each higher and lower service of said at least one service composition pair, and an appropriate charging model;
• sending said partial metering records to an accounting service;
• and
• correlating said partial metering records, by said accounting service, based on a hierarchical-tree of said at least one service composition pair, to create a complete metering record of an at least one requested composite service.