Differential bandwidth metering for networks with direct peerings

• US 9,141,947 B1
• Filed: 12/19/2011
• Issued: 09/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Furr, Michael B., Doane, Andrew J., Lennon, David B., De Santis, Peter N., Miller, Kevin Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Ludwig, Peter L
• Application Number:
  US13/330,449
• Time in Patent Office: 1,373 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1403 Architecture for metering, charging or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5029 Service quality level-based billing, e.g. dependent on measured service level customer is charged more or less
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/41 Billing record details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure of call data record [CDR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/42 Dynamic individual rates per user
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/43 Billing software details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/44 Augmented, consolidated or itemized billing statement or bill presentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/51 for resellers, retailers or service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/60 based on actual use of network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/765 Linked or grouped accounts, e.g. of users or devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/7652 shared by users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/80 Rating or billing plans; Tariff determination aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8022 Determining tariff or charge band
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/81 Dynamic pricing, e.g. change of tariff during call
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for differential bandwidth metering in a network implementing direct peerings. A system includes a plurality of resource collections and a billing manager. The billing manager obtains a first metric of network traffic transmitted on behalf of a client to obtain one or more services from one or more resource collections. The billing manager also obtains a second metric of network traffic transmitted on behalf of the client over one or more private links, where each private link is set up to establish a network path between a respective client network of the client and a respective resource collection of the plurality of resource collections. The billing manager provides composite billing information to the client comprising a differential billing amount dependent upon a difference between the first metric and the second metric.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a plurality of resource collections, implemented by one or more computing devices, of a provider that provides one or more network-based services to a plurality of clients, wherein at least some of the plurality of resource collections of the provider are accessible to one or more of the plurality of clients via one or more private network links and additionally accessible via one or more shared network paths;

a plurality of metering agents, implemented by one or more computing devices, one or more of the plurality of metering agents configured to;

measure, as a first network traffic measurement, network traffic transmitted on behalf of a particular client of the plurality of clients to obtain one or more services from one or more resource collections of the plurality of resource collections of the provider, wherein the first network traffic measurement includes both network traffic transmitted over the one or more private network links as well as other network traffic not transmitted over the one or more private network links for the same particular client;

measure, as a second network traffic measurement, the network traffic transmitted on behalf of the same particular client over the one or more private network links, wherein the second network traffic measurement does not include the other network traffic not transmitted over the one or more private network links, wherein each private network link of the one or more private network links is set up to establish a private network path between a respective client network of the same particular client and a respective resource collection of the plurality of resource collections of the provider; and

a manager component, implemented by one or more computing devices, configured to;

obtain the first network traffic measurement and the second network traffic measurement;

determine a differential network traffic amount dependent upon a difference between the first network traffic measurement and the second network traffic measurement; and

provide composite information to the particular client, wherein the composite information is based at least in part on the differential network traffic amount.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the composite information comprises a first amount dependent on network traffic transmitted over a first logically isolated network path established using a private link of the one or more private links, and a second amount dependent on network traffic transmitted over a second logically isolated network path established using the private link.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the manager component is further configured to:

maintain a record of a linked relationship between a first account of the particular client and a second account of a second client of the plurality of clients; and

provide linked information derived using a ratio of a first service traffic measurement associated with the first account to a total service traffic measurement associated with the first and second accounts.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the composite information further comprises a private link amount dependent upon the second measurement and upon a private link rate, and wherein the differential amount is dependent upon a service-based rate.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more services comprise a first service and a second service, wherein the differential amount is dependent upon a first service rate associated with the first service and a second service rate associated with the second service.

6. A method, comprising:

performing, by one or more computers;

providing access to a plurality of resource collections, implemented by one or more computing devices, of a provider that provides one or more network-based services to a plurality of clients, said providing comprising providing access to at least some of the plurality of resource collections of the provider to one or more of the plurality of clients via one or more private network links and additionally providing access via one or more shared network paths;

measuring, by one or more metering agents as a first network traffic measurement, network traffic generated on behalf of a particular client of a plurality of clients to obtain one or more services from one or more resource collections of a plurality of resource collections of a provider network that provides the one or more network-based services to the plurality of clients, wherein the first network traffic measurement includes both network traffic transmitted over the one or more private network links as well as other network traffic not transmitted over the one or more private network links for the same particular client;

measuring, by one or more metering agents as a second network traffic measurement of network traffic transmitted on behalf of the same particular client over the one or more private network links, wherein the second network traffic measurement does not include the other network traffic not transmitted over the one or more private network links, and wherein each private network link of the one or more private network links is set up to establish connectivity between a respective client network of the same particular client and a respective resource collection of a plurality of resource collections of the provider network; and

providing, by a manager component, composite traffic information to the particular client, wherein the composite traffic information comprises a differential network traffic amount dependent upon a difference between the first network traffic measurement and the second network traffic measurement.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the composite information comprises a first amount dependent on network traffic transmitted over a first logically isolated network path associated with a first account of the particular client, and a second amount dependent on network traffic transmitted over a second logically isolated network path associated with a second account of the particular client.

8. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising:

maintaining a record of a linked relationship between a first account of the particular client and a second account of a second client of the plurality of clients; and

in response to a request for linked account information, provide information derived from a combination of traffic measurements of the particular client and the second client.

9. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the composite traffic information further comprises a private link amount dependent upon the second measurement and upon a private link rate, and wherein the differential amount is dependent upon a service rate.

10. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the one or more services comprise a first service and a second service, wherein the differential amount is dependent upon a first service rate associated with the first service and a second service rate associated with the second service.

11. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the first measurement comprises a measurement of network traffic generated during a specified time period to obtain the one or more services, and the second measurement comprises a measurement of traffic transmitted during the specified time period over the one or more private links.

12. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the second measurement of network traffic transmitted on behalf of the particular client over one or more private links comprises a first measurement of network traffic received at an endpoint device of the provider network from a client network of the particular client via a private link of the one or more private links, and a second measurement of network traffic sent from the endpoint device to the client network via the private link, wherein the composite information comprises an incoming amount dependent on the first measurement and an outgoing amount dependent on the second measurement.

13. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising:

implementing a programmatic interface defining operations available to the plurality of clients;

wherein said providing composite traffic information to the particular client comprises using the interface to provide the composite traffic information.

14. A non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium storing program instructions computer-executable to implement a manager component configured to perform:

receiving, from one or more of a plurality of metering agents, a first network traffic measurement of network traffic generated on behalf of a particular client of a plurality of clients of a provider network that provides one or more network-based services to the plurality of clients, to obtain one or more of the network-based services from one or more resource collections of a plurality of resource collections of the provider network, wherein the first network traffic measurement includes both network traffic transmitted over a plurality of private network links as well as other network traffic not transmitted over the one or more private network links for the same particular client; and

receiving, from one or more of the plurality of metering agents, a second network traffic measurement of the network traffic transmitted on behalf of the same particular client of the plurality of clients over one or more private links, wherein the second network traffic measurement does not include the other network traffic not transmitted over the one or more private network links, and wherein each private network link of the plurality of private network links is set up to establish connectivity between a respective client network of the same particular client and a resource collection of the plurality of resource collections of the provider network; and

providing composite information to the particular client, wherein the composite information comprises a differential network traffic amount dependent upon a difference between the first network traffic measurement and the second network traffic measurement.

15. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 14, wherein the composite information comprises a first amount dependent on network traffic transmitted over a first logically isolated network path associated with a first account of the particular client, and a second amount dependent on network traffic transmitted over a second logically isolated network path associated with a second account of the particular client.

16. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 14, wherein the manager component is further configured to:

maintain a record of a linked relationship between a first account of the particular client and a second account of a second client of the plurality of clients; and

in response to a request for linked information, provide information derived from a combination of traffic measurements of the particular client and the second client.

17. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 14, wherein the composite information further comprises a private link amount dependent upon the second measurement and upon a private link rate, and wherein the differential amount is dependent upon a service rate.

18. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 14, wherein the one or more services comprise a first service and a second service, wherein the differential amount is dependent upon a first service rate associated with the first service and a second service rate associated with the second service.

19. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 14, wherein the first measurement comprises a measurement of network traffic generated during a specified time period to obtain the one or more services, and the second measurement comprises a measurement of traffic transmitted during the specified time period over the one or more private links.

20. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 14, wherein the second measurement of network traffic transmitted on behalf of the particular client comprises a first measurement of network traffic received at an endpoint device of the provider network from a client network of the particular client via a private link of the one or more private links, and a second measurement of network traffic sent from the endpoint device to the client network via the private link, wherein the composite information comprises an incoming amount dependent on the first measurement and an outgoing amount dependent on the second measurement.

21. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 14, wherein the instructions are computer-executable to implement:

a programmatic interface that defines operations available to the plurality of clients;

wherein to provide said composite information to the particular client the manager component is further configured to use the programmatic interface to provide the composite information.