Patent ID: 7761084

Claim:
A billing mediation system for use within a communications network that correlates session records pertaining to usage of network resources, wherein a record producer generates one or more session records during a session by a user, comprising: a record correlator that receives and correlates session records, wherein each received session record has a unique identifier and an indication whether the received session record was the first or last record in a session; a look ahead cache coupled to the record correlator that caches unique session identifiers for session records and a timestamp for each session identifier that indicates when the most recent record for that session was received; a set of buffers coupled to the record correlator that store session records, wherein the buffers comprise: a single segment insert buffer that stores session records for sessions having only one session record; a multi-segment insert buffer that stores the first received session record for sessions having more than one session record; a multi-segment update buffer that stores session records other than the first received session record for sessions having more than one session record; and a billing finalization update buffer that stores a unique session identifier for each session having at least one session record stored in either the multi-segment insert buffer or the multi-segment update buffer, wherein a flag is set for a session identifier that indicates the session records for that session are finalized; and a session records database that stores correlated session records that are received from the set of buffers.