Patent ID: 8131257

Claim:
A method for switching an accounting mode, comprising: notifying, by a prepaid client of an access service network gateway, a prepaid accounting server to establish a session; assigning, by the prepaid accounting server, an accounting quota of the session to the prepaid client; notifying, by the prepaid client of the access service network gateway, the prepaid accounting server that the accounting quota of the session is depleted; notifying, by the prepaid accounting server, the prepaid client of the access service network gateway to stop the prepaid accounting; keeping the session established; determining, by the access service network gateway, whether a subscriber is allowed to switch to the postpaid accounting mode; and notifying, by an accounting client of the access service network gateway, an authentication, authorization and accounting server to start a postpaid accounting if the subscriber is allowed to switch to the postpaid accounting mode.