Patent ID: 7127249

Claim:
A method for enlisting one or more end users in a network environment in which selection of a wireless serving node occurs, comprising: enlisting one or more end users in a billing plan associated with network communications; generating a bill associated with one or more of the end users, the bill being based on the billing plan; and facilitating network communications for one or more of the end users in response to the end users being enlisted in the billing plan, whereby the network communications includes a protocol that comprises: receiving a wireless registration request associated with a wireless serving node, wherein a determination is made as to whether the serving node is managing a wireless session associated with the registration request; and generating a wireless session inquiry for a group of associated wireless serving nodes if the serving node is not managing a wireless session associated with the registration request, wherein a wireless session response, which contains a serving node identifier, is received and a wireless registration response containing the serving node identifier is subsequently generated, and wherein the time elapsed since generating the wireless session inquiry is determined, whereby the establishment of a wireless session is initiated if a predetermined amount of time has elapsed.