Patent ID: 8793714

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, at a content distribution device that delivers content to multiple customer premises, data packets having a destination address of a customer device, the content distribution device forwarding the data packets over a data link to the customer device via a first logical data service flow identifier of a plurality of logical data service flow identifiers; examining packet headers of the data packets received at the content distribution device; in response to identifying a stream of data packets including predetermined information indicating that transmission of the stream of data packets is to be excluded from a consumption-based data billing plan, forwarding the stream of data packets to the customer device via a second logical data service flow identifier instead of the first logical data service flow identifier; and transmitting a usage record to a billing system that processes billing for the customer device, the usage record indicating a first data consumption count, the first data consumption count representing a billable conveyance of data over the data link to the customer device; wherein the usage record indicates a second data consumption count of data forwarded via the second logical data service flow identifier; wherein the billing system ignores the second data consumption count when processing data usage corresponding to the customer device, the usage record includes naming conventions to respectively identify each logical data service flow and wherein the billing system utilizes the naming conventions of respective logical data service flows to determine which data service flow to be counted or not towards data usage corresponding to the customer device; the method further including: assigning the stream of data packets the second logical data service flow identifier in response to detecting that the stream of data packets represents content that is alternatively available to the particular customer device as part of a cable service agreement, the second logical data service flow identifier indicating that the transmission of the data packets is not to be included as part of the first data consumption count; and excluding the stream of data packets from the first data consumption count.