| 摘要 |
According to one aspect of the teachings disclosed herein, a Machine-to-Machine, M2M, support entity within a M2M network is configured to identify the M2M Service Provider, SP, affiliations of the M2M entities and the M2M resources involved in a given transaction supported by the M2M support entity. Moreover, the support entity is configured to generate corresponding transaction records that are tagged with or otherwise store the M2M SP affiliation information, for billing usage. Consequently, usage of the support entity by more than one M2M SP can be differentiated for billing purposes. This functionality allows, for example, a second, smaller or less financially capable M2M SP to use the M2M gateways and/or other support entities of a larger or better-established M2M SP, and, in turn, allows the larger M2M SP to increase its revenue by expanding usage of its M2M network. |
