ACCOUNTING AND BILLING BASED ON NETWORK USE

摘要

A method and system to determe billing information for use of a network (10). For a data transmission path (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22) between a pair of nodes locations (A, B, C, D), the price for the transmission depends, inter alia, on the amount of data transported and the price of using the path (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22) of the network (10). The method collects traffic data (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 42) for data sent over paths (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22) of network (10), creates a virtual path (9), which is a combination of one or more paths (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22) of network (10), selects a set of paths connecting each pair of node locations (A, B, C, D), and determines a price for the virtual path (9) used to transport data between node locations (A, B, C, D). The determined cost of transporting data between node locations (A, B, C, D) is then apportioned among the users of the network that transported the data.