Patent ID: 7908358

Claim:
A network services metering system, comprising: one or more data storage devices configured to store a usage database; one or more servers configured to implement: one or more metering service instances; a plurality of queue instances; a plurality of aggregator instances; and a plurality of pipelines for processing-batches of network service usage records into the usage database, wherein each pipeline comprises one of the plurality of queue instances and one of the plurality of aggregator instances; wherein each metering service instance is configured to: receive network service usage records, wherein each network service usage record comprises a plurality of fields indicating usage information corresponding to a network service request to a particular network service; collect the network service usage records into a plurality of usage batches; enqueue a complete copy of each usage batch collected by that metering service instance into the queue instance in each of two or more of the plurality of pipelines; wherein the aggregator instance in each pipeline is configured to: read usage information from a plurality of network service usage records in one or more usage batches enqueued in it the queue instance in its pipeline; aggregate the usage information read from the plurality of network service usage records in the one or more usage batches according to one or more of the plurality of fields of the network service usage records to generate aggregated usage information; and commit the aggregated usage information to the usage database; wherein each usage batch collected by each metering-service instance is separately processed by two or more of the plurality of pipelines into the usage database.