Patent ID: 7831489

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving data for a flow at a correlating network element in a bearer path, the bearer path being a path in which the data are sent for the flow to a node through the correlating network element; sending, from the correlating network element, the data for the flow to the node; determining, at the correlating network element, a plurality of billing entries, wherein a first billing entry in the plurality of billing entries is received from a second network element in the bearer path, the first billing entry including traffic altering information for the data sent by the second network element for the flow; correlating information in the plurality of billing entries into a correlated billing entry for the node using the first billing entry, the correlating network element using the traffic altering information from the first billing entry to determine a second data volume sent for the flow from a first data volume specified by a second billing entry in the plurality of billing entries for the data sent for the flow, wherein the traffic altering information is used to alter the first data volume to determine the second data volume based on how data being sent by the second network element was altered by the second network element; and sending the correlated billing entry including the second data volume to a billing system from the correlating network element through a link from the correlating network element to the billing system, wherein the second billing entry is not sent to the billing system.