Charging mechanism for multicasting

摘要

An apparatus (170) for calculating a cost of receiving multicast data from a multicast session. A multicast network (105) includes at least one multicast service, each multicast service including at least one multicast session. The apparatus (170) receives a request (117) to establish a connection to the multicast session, stores a start time for the connection and an end time for the connection and, after termination of the connection, calculates the cost of receiving the multicast data. The apparatus (170) can receive a subsequent request to extend the connection, the subsequent request specifying a new end time for the connection, and store the new end time for the connection. Alternatively, the apparatus (170) can receive a subsequent request to terminate the connection, the subsequent request specifying a new end time that precedes the end time for the connection, and store the new end time for the connection.