Patent ID: 8345676

Claim:
A method, comprising: selecting a charging policy based on offered services, subscriber information, and a network element type that the selected charging policy will be enforced against; causing the selected charging policy to be distributed to a network element of the network element type, wherein the charging policy is to be enforced at the network element for charging of data reaching the network element during a packet data protocol context; enforcing the charging policy at the network element, wherein the charging policy is applied to a data flow of data packets reaching the network element during the packet data protocol context, the packet data protocol context comprising a plurality of data flows including the data flow, wherein each data flow of the plurality of data flows is distinguishable by a set of flow parameters, wherein the set of flow parameters includes a flow identifier that distinguishes flows having a common destination address, source address, source port, destination address, destination port, and a protocol and wherein said charging policy defines charging rules for the data flow; observing the data packets reaching said network element; detecting the data flow from flow parameters included in the data packets, wherein the flow parameters indicate the charging policy to be enforced on the data flow; mapping the data packets to the data flow in accordance with the at least one flow parameter included in a respective data packet; matching the data flow to the charging policy; and applying said charging policy to said data flow to generate charging information.