Patent ID: 8799491

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for metering usage of composite services accessed via a network requesting at least one composite service by a user program running on a user's computer, wherein said at least one composite service comprises a corresponding at least one service composition pair, in which a higher level service invokes a lower level service and a charging model of said higher level service determines said charging model of said at least one service composition pair, a service composition pair comprising any one of: a transaction service over a resource-centric service, in which metering information for a lower resource-centric service, including resource consumption metrics, and for a higher transaction service, including transaction usage metrics, is charged per transaction; a composite resource-centric service, in which metering information for a lower resource-centric service, including lower resource consumption metrics, and for a higher resource-centric service, is charged for composite resource consumption; a composite transactional service, in which metering information for a lower transactional service, including lower transaction usage metrics, and for a higher transaction service, including higher transaction usage metrics, is charged for composite transaction usage; and a resource-centric over a transaction service, in which metering information for a lower transaction service, including lower transaction usage metrics, and for a higher resource-centric service, including higher resource consumption metrics, is charged for resource consumption; generating, by a computer system, partial metering records for all service requested by said at least one composite service, said partial metering records corresponding to each requested service, including identities of each higher and lower service of said at least one service composition pair, and an appropriate charging model; sending, by said computer system, said partial metering records to an accounting service; and correlating, by said computer system, said partial metering records, by said accounting service, based on a hierarchical-tree of said at least one service composition pair, to create a complete metering record of an at least one requested composite service.