Patent ID: 9209982
Filing Date: 2015-12-08
Classification: G06Q,H04L,H04M

Abstract:
1. A method, comprising: receiving an attempt from an entity to access a network; exchanging a packet with a server to determine an IP address for the entity; identifying a flow based on the IP address; placing the data packet into one of a plurality of queues, based on a particular code of a Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP); receiving, at an intermediate network node, statistics data indicating a first amount of data from the flow forwarded at a contracted quality of service level in a first queue of the plurality of queues, and a second amount of data from the flow forwarded at a delivered quality of service level in a second queue of the plurality of queues, the first queue having a higher priority than the second queue; determining a credit for the flow based on a difference between the contracted quality of service level and the delivered quality of service level; inserting credit data indicating the credit into a data field in a charging message; and sending the charging message to a billing server, the charging message including the IP address and the credit data.