Patent ID: 9032056
Filing Date: 2015-05-12
Classification: H04L,H04M

Abstract:
1. A processing device for a network equipment element in a communication network, the communication network equipped with an accounting and billing management module, wherein the processing device comprises: processing means within the processing device, said processing device within the network equipment element, determining from values representing selected local parameters of said equipment element and of selected traffic streams received by said equipment element associated with an identifier of at least one customer of said network, usage data with respect to resources of the network corresponding to said customer identifier, in accordance with dedicated policy rules enforced by said associated network equipment element, wherein the dedicated policy rules can be modified at the network equipment element; wherein the dedicated policy rules are transmitted to the network equipment element directly in the form of commands which conform to a simple network management protocol (SNMP), or via an application programming interface (API), or via the management information base (MIB); wherein said processing means are arranged to store some of said determined values in a memory so as to aggregate these determined values with values previously determined, to compare each aggregation of values with a threshold level defined by certain of said policy rules, and in the event of said threshold level being exceeded, to order said associated network equipment element to interrupt the traffic associated with the values which have been exceeded; and wherein the processing device transmits said usage data and the associated identifier to said accounting and billing management module for billing of each customer designated by said identifier.