Patent ID: 8320246

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, at a policy controller, an initial request for a usage quota for a subscriber session; providing an initial fair usage window for the subscriber session, wherein the initial fair usage window includes a data volume and a period of time during which the data volume may be used; receiving, at the policy controller, a subsequent request for a new usage quota for the subscriber session when the subscriber exceeds the initial usage quota for the subscriber session; determining, at a quota manager in the policy controller, a subsequent fair usage window for the subscriber session after the initial usage quota is exceeded, wherein the data volume and period of time in the subsequent fair usage window is shortened in response to the exceeding of the initial usage quota; and returning the subsequent fair usage window; wherein determining the subsequent fair usage window comprises: retrieving subscriber usage data from a subscriber data repository, wherein the subscriber usage data includes a final fair usage window assigned to the subscriber in a previous session, and determining the subsequent fair usage window based on the final fair usage window.