Multiple-level internet protocol accounting

• US 6,792,457 B1
• Filed: 06/07/2000
• Issued: 09/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Sitaraman, Aravind, Lou, Shuxian, Kochan, Roman Peter, Zhang, Shujin
• Primary Examiner(s): WINDER, PATRICE L
• Application Number:
  US09/589,609
• Time in Patent Office: 1,560 Days
• Field of Search: 705/34, 705/42, 709/227, 709/228, 709/203, 709/221, 709/225, 709/229, 713/201, 713/202, 370/252
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1439 time-based
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0892 by using authentication-authorization-accounting [AAA] servers or protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/22 Bandwidth or usage-sensitve billing

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing computer network access points the capability for multiple-level accounting. A gateway device located at the access point is capable of generating Internet protocol accounting start and stop requests based on various events that need to be accounted for when a user accesses a network. These events include the user account logon, the service establishments and the Point to Point protocol (PPP) connections between the gateway device and public and private domains within the network. The counter is capable of tracking the duration of sessions and connections and the byte-count associated with the specified session or connection. The gateway device communicates with an accounting server which stores the accounting requests and matches start requests with subsequent stop requests.

Claims

1. A method for providing accounting within a computer network, said method comprising:

generating an internet protocol service accounting start request associated with a service in response to a determination that a subscriber has logged on to the service and that no other subscribers have a current connection established to the service; and

generating an internet protocol service accounting stop request associated with a service in response to a determination that the subscriber has terminated the service and that no other subscribers have a current connection established to the service.

2. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

generating an internet protocol account logon accounting start request in response to a determination that a subscriber logged on to the computer network; and

forwarding the internet protocol account logon accounting start request to a memory.

3. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

generating an internet protocol connection accounting start request in response to a determination that the subscriber established a connection with the requested service.

4. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

generating an internet protocol connection accounting stop request in response to a determination that the subscriber terminated the connection with the requested service.

5. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

generating an internet protocol account logoff accounting stop request in response to a determination that the subscriber logged off the computer network.

6. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

generating an internet protocol update accounting request at predetermined intervals after the internet protocol account logon accounting start request is received into the memory.

7. The method in accordance with claim 6, further comprising:

forwarding the internet protocol update accounting request to a memory.

8. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions readable by the machine to perform a method for providing accounting within a computer network, said method comprising:

generating an internet protocol service accounting start request associated with a service in response to a determination that a subscriber has logged on to the service and that no other subscribers have a current connection established to the service through the computer network; and

generating an internet protocol service accounting stop request associated with a service in response to a determination that the subscriber terminated the service and that no other subscribers have a current connection established to the service through the computer network.

9. The program storage device in accordance with claim 8, wherein said method further comprises:

generating an internet protocol account logon accounting start request in response to a determination that a subscriber logged on to the computer network; and

forwarding the internet protocol account logon accounting start request to a memory.

10. The program storage device in accordance with claim 8, wherein said method further comprises:

generating an internet protocol connection accounting start request in response to a determination that the subscriber established a connection with the requested service.

11. The program storage device in accordance with claim 8, wherein said method further comprises:

generating an internet protocol connection accounting stop request in response to a determination that the subscriber terminated the connection with the requested service.

12. The program storage device in accordance with claim 8, wherein said method further comprises:

generating an internet protocol account logoff accounting stop request in response to a determination that the subscriber logged off the computer network.

13. The program storage device in accordance with claim 8, wherein said method further comprises:

generating an internet protocol update accounting request at predetermined intervals after the internet protocol account logon accounting start request is received into the memory.

14. The program storage device in accordance with claim 13, wherein said method further comprises:

forwarding the internet protocol update accounting request to a memory.

15. A system for providing accounting within a computer network, said system comprising:

means for generating an internet protocol service accounting start request associated with a service in response to a determination that the subscriber has logged on to the service and that no other subscribers have a current connection established to the service through the computer network; and

means for generating an internet protocol service accounting stop request associated with a service in response to a determination that the subscriber terminated the service and that no other subscribers have a current connection established to the service through the computer network.

16. The system in accordance with claim 15, further comprising:

means for generating an internet protocol account logon accounting start request in response to a determination that a subscriber logged on to the computer network; and

means for forwarding the internet protocol account logon accounting start request to a memory.

17. The system in accordance with claim 15, further comprising:

means for generating an internet protocol update accounting request at predetermined intervals after the internet protocol account logon accounting start request is received into the memory; and

means for forwarding the internet protocol update accounting request to a memory.

18. A system for providing accounting within a computer network, said system comprising:

an internet protocol account logon generator adapted to generate an internet protocol account logon accounting start request in response to a determination that a subscriber logged on to the computer network;

an internet protocol service accounting start request generator adapted to generate an internet protocol service accounting start request associated with a service in response to a determination that the subscriber logged on to the service and that no other subscribers have a current connection established to the service through the computer network; and

an internet protocol service accounting stop request generator adapted to generate an internet protocol service accounting stop request associated with a service in response to a determination that the subscriber terminated the service and that no other subscribers have a current connection established to the service through the computer network.

19. The system in accordance with claim 18, further comprising:

a request forwarder adapted to forward the internet protocol account logon accounting start request to a memory.

20. The system in accordance with claim 18, further comprising:

an internet protocol connection accounting start request generator adapted to generate an internet protocol connection accounting start request in response to a determination that the subscriber established a connection with the service.

21. The system in accordance with claim 18, further comprising:

an internet protocol connection accounting stop request generator adapted to generate an internet protocol connection accounting stop request in response to a determination that the subscriber terminated the connection with the service.

22. The system in accordance with claim 18, further comprising:

an internet protocol update accounting request generator adapted to generate an internet protocol update accounting request at predetermined intervals after the internet protocol account logon accounting start request is received into the memory; and

a request forwarder for forwarding the internet protocol update accounting request to a memory.

23. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions readable by the machine to perform a method for providing multiple-level accounting to a computer network service provider, the method comprising:

generating an internet protocol account logon accounting start request in response to a determination that a subscriber logged onto the computer network service provider;

forwarding the internet protocol account logon accounting start request to a memory;

generating an internet protocol service accounting start request associated with a service in response to a determination that the subscriber logged on to the service and that no other subscribers have a current connection established to the service through the computer network service provider;

forwarding the internet protocol service accounting start request to a memory;

generating an internet protocol service accounting stop request associated with a service in response to a determination that the subscriber terminated the service and that no other subscribers have a current connection established to the service through the computer network service provider; and

forwarding the internet protocol service accounting stop request to a memory.

24. A method for providing accounting to a computer network, said method comprising:

receiving a user service access request at the computer network;

sending a service accounting start request associated with a requested service to an accounting server if the computer network has not established a service connection with the requested service; and

sending a service accounting stop request associated with the requested service to the accounting server if no other hosts have current connections to the requested service in response to a determination that a user disconnected from the requested service.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

receiving a user account logon access request at the computer network; and

sending an account logon accounting start request to the accounting server.

26. The method in accordance with claim 25, further comprising:

authorizing and authenticating the user in response to receiving the user account logon access request.

27. The method in accordance with claim 25, further comprising;

establishing a connection between the user and the requested service if the requested service is contained within a service profile of the user.

28. The method in accordance with claim 27, further comprising:

sending a connection accounting start request to the accounting server; and

sending a connection accounting stop request to the accounting server in response to a determination that the user disconnected from the requested service.

29. The method in accordance with claim 28, further comprising:

re-sending the connection accounting start request at predetermined intervals upon determining that the initial connection accounting start request was not received by the accounting server.

30. The method in accordance with claim 28, further comprising:

re-sending the connection accounting stop request at predetermined intervals upon determining that the initial connection accounting stop request was not received by the accounting server.

31. The method in accordance with claim 25, further comprising:

sending an account logoff accounting stop request to the accounting service in response to a determination that the user terminated the user account logon access request.

32. The method in accordance with claim 31, further comprising:

re-sending the account logoff accounting stop request at predetermined intervals upon determining that the initial account logoff accounting stop request was not received by the accounting server.

33. The method in accordance with claim 25, wherein said receiving a user account logon access request includes:

receiving the user account logon access request directly from a dashboard application launched on the user'"'"'s host computer.

34. The method in accordance with claim 25, wherein said receiving a user account logon access request includes:

receiving the user account logon access request from a remote web server.

35. The method in accordance with claim 25, further comprising:

generating an update accounting request at predetermined intervals after the user account logon account access request is received into the accounting server; and

forwarding the update accounting request to the accounting server.

36. The method in accordance with claim 25, further comprising:

re-sending the accounting logon accounting start request at predetermined intervals upon determining that the initial account logon accounting start request was not received by the accounting server.

37. The method in accordance with claim 25, further comprising:

re-sending the service accounting start request at predetermined intervals upon determining that the initial service accounting start request was not received by the accounting server.

38. The method in accordance with claim 25, further comprising:

re-sending the service accounting stop request at predetermined intervals upon determining that the initial service accounting stop request was not received by the accounting server.

39. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions readable by the machine to perform a method for providing accounting to a computer network, said method comprising:

receiving a user service access request at the computer network to access a requested service;

sending a service accounting start request associated with the requested service to an accounting server if the computer network has not established a service connection with the requested service; and

sending a service accounting stop request associated with the requested service to the accounting server if no other hosts have current connections to the requested service in response to a determination that a user disconnected from the requested service.

40. The program storage device in accordance with claim 39, wherein said method further comprises:

receiving a user account logon access request at the computer network; and

sending an account logon accounting start request to an accounting server.

41. The program storage device in accordance with claim 40, wherein said method further comprises:

authorizing and authenticating the user in response to receiving the user account logon access request.

42. The program storage device in accordance with claim 40, wherein said receiving a user account logon request comprises:

receiving the user account logon access request directly from a dashboard application launched on the user'"'"'s host computer.

43. The program storage device in accordance with claim 40, wherein said receiving a user account logon access request comprises:

receiving the user account logon access request from a remote web server.

44. The program storage device in accordance with claim 40, wherein said method further comprises:

sending an account logoff accounting stop request to the accounting service in response to a determination that the user terminated the user account logon access request.

45. The program storage device in accordance with claim 44, wherein said method further comprises:

re-sending the account logoff accounting stop request at predetermined intervals upon determining that the initial account logoff accounting stop request was not received by the accounting server.

46. The program storage device in accordance with claim 40, wherein said method further comprises:

re-sending the accounting logon accounting start request at predetermined intervals upon determining that the initial account logon accounting start request was not received by the accounting server.

47. The program storage device in accordance with claim 39, wherein said method further comprises:

granting user service privileges to the user if the requested service is contained within a service profile of the user.

48. The program storage device in accordance with claim 39, wherein said method further comprises:

establishing a connection between the user and the requested service if the requested service is contained within a service profile of the user.

49. The program storage device in accordance with claim 39, wherein said method further comprises:

sending a connection accounting start request to the accounting server; and

sending a connection accounting stop request to the accounting server in response to a determination that the user disconnected from the requested service.

50. The program storage device in accordance with claim 49, wherein said method further comprises:

re-sending the connection accounting start request at predetermined intervals upon determining that the initial connection accounting start request was not received by the accounting server.

51. The program storage device in accordance with claim 49, wherein said method further comprises:

re-sending the connection accounting stop request at predetermined intervals upon determining that the initial connection accounting stop request was not received by the accounting server.

52. The program storage device in accordance with claim 39, wherein said method further comprises:

generating an update accounting request at predetermined intervals after the user account logon account access request is received into the accounting server; and

forwarding the update accounting request to the accounting server.

53. The program storage device in accordance with claim 39, wherein said method further comprises:

re-sending the service accounting start request at predetermined intervals upon determining that the initial service accounting start request was not received by the accounting server.

54. The program storage device in accordance with claim 39, wherein said method further comprises:

re-sending the service accounting stop request at predetermined intervals upon determining that the initial service accounting stop request was not received by the accounting server.