Wi-Fi service delivery platform for wholesale service providers

摘要

A method and apparatus are provided for managing usage of a plurality of local area networks by a plurality of subscribers. Each subscriber is associated with one of a plurality of retail service providers. The subscribers each have a terminal for accessing one or more of the local area networks. For each attempt by one of the plurality of subscribers to access one of the plurality of local area networks, the method includes the steps of: (a) receiving at a gateway at a wholesale service provider network a request from the one of the plurality of local area networks for authenticating the one of the plurality of subscribers. The request contains subscriber credentials for the one of the plurality of subscribers; (b) forwarding the subscriber credentials to a retail service provider with which the one of the plurality of subscribers is associated; (c) receiving from the retail service provider authorization to grant access to the one of the plurality of local area networks when the one of the plurality of subscribers is authenticated based on the subscriber credentials and information relating to the one of the plurality of subscribers previously stored in a subscriber database; (d) authorizing the one of the plurality of local area networks to grant access to the one of the plurality of subscribers when the one of the plurality of subscribers is authenticated; (e) receiving session information from the one of the plurality of local area networks on usage of the one of a plurality of local area networks by the one of the plurality of subscribers; and (f) transmitting the information received on local area network usage to the retail service provider for use in billing the one of the plurality of subscribers.