Patent ID: 8019841
Filing Date: 2011-09-13
Classification: H04L,H04M,H04W

Abstract:
1. A method for establishing zone-based pricing for a service transported over a network, the method comprising: partitioning the network into zones; associating the service with one of the zones to establish an extent to which packets of service traffic belonging to the service are permitted to traverse the network for a given price; receiving, at a node connected to the network at a boundary of the zone associated with the service, a packet of service traffic belonging to the service, the packet having an Ethernet VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) tag; reading, by the node, the Ethernet VLAN tag from the packet of service traffic; identifying, by the node, the zone associated with the service to which the packet of service traffic belongs from the Ethernet VLAN tag read from the packet; and restricting the packet, by the node, from traversing beyond the zone identified from the Ethernet VLAN tag into an unauthorized zone.