Communications network

• US 7,535,853 B2
• Filed: 09/01/2005
• Issued: 05/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Briscoe, Robert J, Rizzo, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan; Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jones; Prenell P
• Application Number:
  US11/216,349
• Publication Number:
  US 20050286488A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,356 Days
• Field of Search: 370/357, 370/389, 370/235, 370/329, 370/401, 709/202, 375/240, 726/11, 726/13, 726/22, 726/14
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1403 Architecture for metering, charging or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1414 in real-time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1453 Methods or systems for payment or settlement of the charges for data transmission involving significant interaction with the data transmission network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1485 Tariff-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1489 dependent on congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/30 the meter or calculation of charges not being controlled from an exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/70 Administration or customization aspects; Counter-checking correct charges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/73 Validating charges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8027 based on network load situation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/81 Dynamic pricing, e.g. change of tariff during call
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/83 Notification aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0112 Dynamic pricing, e.g. change of tariff during call
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/22 Bandwidth or usage-sensitve billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/32 Involving wireless systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/70 : Administration aspects, modify settings or limits or counter-check correct charges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/7072 : Validate charges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/7428 : Load situation, e.g. Current network load, traffic load or available resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/82 : Advice-of-Charge [AOC], i.e. notify subscriber of charges/cumulative charge; meter at the substation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/92 : Autonomous calculations of charges in terminal, i.e. meter not controlled from exchange

Abstract

In a communications network, which may be a federated network such as the Internet, a tariff is distributed via the network to customer terminals. At each terminal a charge for use of the network is calculated by using the tariff. Different tariffs may be communicated for different services and a respective tariff may be varied depending upon the operational condition of the service. Different tariffs may be calculated for different customers and the tariffs may be varied in dependence upon the loading of network resources and different tariffs may have different volatilities. Part of the traffic from a user to the network may be sampled and the status of the user may be amended when a discrepancy is detected between the sampled parameters and the contracted parameters in the users contract.

Claims

1. A method of operating a communications network comprising:

applying only a single test to traffic entering the network, the test being applied at a point of access to the network, and the single test comprising examining one or more packets of data forming the traffic entering the network at the point of access, determining if any of the one or more examined packets may be illegitimate and designating any thus determined packet or packets as a suspicious packet or packets;

allowing the or each suspicious packet to enter the network; and

checking after its admission on to the network to see if the or each suspicious packet is a permitted packet according to any agreement between an associated customer and an operator of the network, and if not, administering a retrospective punishment to the associated customer.

2. A method as in claim 1, wherein applying the test at the point of access to the network comprises:

forwarding all traffic entering the network and, in parallel, metering the forwarded traffic to check that it complies with a traffic conditioning agreement associated with the traffic; and

if it is determined that the traffic does not comply with the respective traffic conditioning agreement, administering the retrospective punishment to the associated customer.

3. A method as in claim 2 wherein the metering is performed on a sampling basis whereby only a portion of the forwarded traffic is checked for compliance with a respective traffic conditioning agreement.

4. A method as in claim 2 wherein the forwarding is performed by a router and the metering proceeds on a memory copy of packet header information of the forwarded traffic, and the packet header information is stored in a memory of the router.

5. A method as in claim 2 wherein all-optical technology is used for forwarding the traffic, while samples of traffic are tapped off an optical flow of the all-optical technology to be policed in electronics out of band.

6. A communications network comprising:

a router forming an access point to the network, the router being operable to apply only a single test to traffic entering the network, wherein the test comprises examining one or more packets of data forming the traffic entering the network at the access point, determining if any of the one or more examined packets may be illegitimate and designating any thus determined packet or packets as a suspicious packet or packets, the router also being operable to allow the or each suspicious packet to enter the network; and

a processing device for checking, after its admission on to the network, to see if the or each suspicious packet is a permitted packet as in any agreement between an associated customer and an operator of the network, wherein if the packet is not a permitted packet, the operator may administer a retrospective punishment to the associated customer.

7. A communications network as in claim 6 wherein:

the router forming the access point to the network is operable to forward traffic entering the network;

the router operable to apply the test includes a metering device for metering at least a portion of the forwarded traffic to check that it complies with a traffic conditioning agreement associated with the traffic;

wherein if it is determined that the traffic does not comply with the respective traffic conditioning agreement, an operator of the network may administer the retrospective punishment to the associated customer; and

the metering is performed in parallel with the forwarding of the traffic.

8. A communications network as in claim 7 wherein the metering device is operable to meter only a portion of the forwarded traffic to check that it complies with a respective traffic conditioning agreement.

9. A communications network as in claim 7 wherein the metering device proceeds on a memory copy of packet header information of the forwarded traffic, and the packet header information is stored in a memory of the router.

10. A communications network as in claim 6 wherein the router employs all-optical technology for forwarding the traffic, while samples of traffic are tapped off an optical flow of the all-optical technology to be policed by the metering device in electronics out of band.

11. A computer program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for operating a communications network, the method comprising:

applying only a single test to traffic entering the network, the test being applied at a point of access to the network, and the single test comprising examining one or more packets of data forming the traffic entering the network at the point of access, determining if any of the one or more examined packets may be illegitimate and designating any thus determined packet or packets as a suspicious packet or packets;

allowing the or each suspicious packet to enter the network; and

checking after its admission on to the network to see if the or each suspicious packet is a permitted packet according to any agreement between an associated customer and an operator of the network, and if not, administering a retrospective punishment to the associated customer.