Patent ID: 8812349

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a wireless node, charging policies for data offloading; performing, by the wireless node, data offloading with respect to a user data flow of a user device, wherein data offloading includes routing the user data flow to another user device via one of a lower layer traffic aggregation device relative to the wireless node, a lower hierarchical controlling device relative to the wireless node, or a peer wireless node relative to the wireless node, and without the data flow traversing any higher layer traffic aggregation device relative to the wireless node or any higher hierarchical controlling device relative to the wireless node; generating, by the wireless node, charging information based on the data offloading performed and the charging policies, wherein the charging information includes a charging record; and sending, by the wireless node, the charging information to at least one of an on-line charging function or an off-line charging function.