Usage based accounting for network deployment
AssigneeCable Television Laboratories, Inc.
InventorsVikas Sarawat, Bernard McKibben
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Usage based accounting is contemplated. The usage based accounting may be beneficial in facilitating assessment of data usage for devices connected inside of a network address translator (NAT) or other type of device having limited capabilities to associated data usage with specific user devices.
Claims18
A method of accounting data usage for a community type of wireless network where the wireless network includes a network address translator (NAT) configured to share a public address across a community of user devices, the NAT being configured to translate the public address to private addresses unique to each user device, the method comprising:
- processing a NAT usage report electronically transmitted from the NAT, the NAT usage report listing at least recently active private addresses according to user ID, used port, and usage period;
- processing an inspector usage report electronically transmitted from an inspector, the inspector usage report listing data consumption and usage period for each used port associated with the public address;
- cross-referencing the NAT usage report and the inspector report to electronically generate an accounting of data usage, the accounting listing data consumption and usage period for each user ID;
- generating the account of data usage by:
- i) matching used ports and usage periods listed in the NAT usage report to used ports and usage periods listed in the inspector usage report o generate matched consumption for the matched used ports relative to the correspondingly matched usage periods;
- and
- ii) associating each matched data consumption value with a corresponding one of the user ID's listed in the NAT usage report, thereby generating the accounting of data usage for each user ID without the inspector usage report identifying the user ID's and without the inspector usage report identifying the private addresses.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-readable code embodied therein for controlling a computing device to electronically facilitate generating data usage when a network includes a network address translator (NAT) configured to share one or more NATed addresses across a plurality of user devices, the NAT being configured to translate the NATed addresses to private addresses unique to each user device, the computer-readable code comprising instructions sufficient for:
- processing a NAT usage report electronically transmitted from the NAT, the NAT usage report including a first entry for each of a plurality of translations performed with the NAT, each first entry listing a device-port-period combination associated with the corresponding translation, each device-port-period combination identifying:
- i) one of the user devices associated with the corresponding translation;
- ii) a port on the NAT associated with the corresponding translation;
- and
- iii) a period of use for the port associated with the corresponding translation;
- processing an inspector usage report electronically transmitted from an inspector, the inspector usage report including a second entry for each of the plurality of translations performed with the NAT, each second entry listing a data-port-period combination associated with the corresponding translation, each data-port-period combination identifying:
- i) a port on the NAT associated with the corresponding translation;
- ii) a period of use for the port associated with the corresponding translation;
- and
- iii) a data usage during the period for the corresponding translation;
- and
- relating device-port-period combinations in the NAT usage report to the data-port-period combinations in the inspector usage report to identify communal entries, each communal entry matching one of the first entries to one of the second entries based on a unique commonality of ports and periods therein;
- and
- generating an account of data usage for the user devices, the accounting listing a third entry for each of the communal combinations, each third entry identifying:
- i) the user device from the first entry associated with the corresponding communal combination;
- and
- ii) the data usage from the second entry associated with the corresponding communal combination.
A networking system comprising:
- a first network address translator (NAT) having a processor and being configured for translating a plurality of private addresses to a first address, the private addresses being used to facilitate addressing for a plurality of user devices over a first network inside of the first NAT and the first address being used to facilitate addressing for the user device over a second network outside of the first NAT, the first NAT being generating a first NAT usage report sufficient to relate the user devices to the private addresses and ports of the first NAT used when facilitating addressing over the second network;
- a second NAT downstream of the first NAT, the second NAT having a processor and being configured for translating the first address to a public address to facilitate addressing for the plurality of user devices over a third network, the second NAT being generating a second NAT usage report sufficient to relate ports of the second NAT used when facilitating addressing over the third network;
- an inspector having a processor and being configured for detecting date usage outside of the second NAT over the third network, the inspector generating an inspector usage report sufficient to relate the data usage to ports of the second NAT used when facilitating addressing over the third network;
- and
- an accountant having a processor and being configured for relating the first NAT usage report, the second NAT usage report and the inspector usage report within and accounting report, the accounting report indicating data usage for each user device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.