Patent ID: 7734770

Claim:
A method for enlisting one or more end users in a network environment in which information is being monitored, comprising: enlisting one or more end users in a billing plan associated with network communications; generating a bill associated with one or more of the end users, the bill being based on the billing plan; and facilitating network communications for one or more of the end users in response to the end users being enlisted in the billing plan, whereby the network communications includes a protocol that comprises: an access element configured to receive one or more packets from a communication flow and to selectively communicate information associated with the communication flow to a plurality of client-aware network elements, wherein the information is authorization, authentication, and accounting (AAA) information that propagates between an end user and an AAA server, which is coupled to the access element, the AAA information being replicated and sent to the client-aware network elements, the access element including a table that identifies a selected one of the client-aware network elements to receive specific AAA data but not all incoming AAA data such that a filtering operation is achieved and only a portion of the incoming AAA data is sent to the selected client-aware network elements.