Internet Accounting

This article provides an introduction to Internet accounting and discusses the status of related work within the IETF and IRTF, as well as certain research projects. Internet accounting is different from accounting in POTS. To understand Internet accounting, it is important to answer questions like "what is being paid for" and "who is being paid". With respect to the question "what is being paid for" a distinction can be made between transport accounting and content accounting. Transport accounting is interesting since techniques like DiffServ enable the provision of different quality of service classes; each class will be charged differently to avoid all users selecting the same top-level class. The interest in content accounting finds its roots in the fast growth of commercial offerings over the Internet; examples of such offerings include remote video and software distribution. The question "who is being paid" has two possible answers: the network provider or the owner of the content. The case in which the network provider issues the bill is called provider-based accounting. Since this case will become more and more important, this article introduces a new architecture for provider-based accounting

Management of networks that provide QoS guarantees

This paper presents the results of a case study to the feasibility of introducing ATM SVCs into the Dutch SURFnet research ATM network. The key issue that is examined are the implications of the Quality of Service support of ATM. QoS guarantees for a connection require a portion of the finite ATM network resource. Once all network resource is allocated to connections no new connections will be accepted, and users will start experiencing denial of service. The key research question here is if and how this denial of service probability can be kept to a minimum

Inter-Domain Integration of Services and Service Management

The evolution of the global telecommunications industry into an open services market presents developers of telecommunication service and management systems with many new challenges. Increased competition, complex service provision chains and integrated service offerings require effective techniques for the rapid integration of service and management systems over multiple organisational domains. These integration issues have been examined in the ACTS project Prospect by developing a working set of integrated, managed telecommunications services for a user trial. This paper presents the initial results of this work detailing the technologies and standards used, the architectural approach taken and the application of this approach to specific services

Experiences in Integrated Multi-Domain Service Management

Increased competition, complex service provision chains and integrated service offerings require effective techniques for the rapid integration of telecommunications services and management systems over multiple organisational domains. This paper presents some of the results of practical development work in this area, detailing the technologies and standards used, the architectural approach taken and the application of this approach to specific services. This work covers the integration of multimedia services, broadband networks, service management and network management, though the detailed examples given focus specifically on the integration of services and service management

Flexible Multi-Service Telecommunications Accounting System

Due to market deregulation and technological advances, a multi-service broadband environment is emerging, generating a requirement for a new approach to pricing systems. This paper presents such an approach and describes a working implementation of an innovative and flexible multi-service accounting system. The system is based on a mature understanding of the nature of charging algorithms, and is implemented as a set of interoperating distributed components. At the heart of the system is a rating engine built around a service portfolio, tying together spreadsheet specification of arbitrarily complex services, charging algorithms and tariff tables. The very wide range of service delivery technologies in existence motivates the design of a system that is independent of proprietary formats and based on a dynamic service portfolio structure and a generic service detail record definition

Fourth Generation Wireless Systems: Requirements and Challenges for the Next Frontier

Fourth generation wireless systems (4G) are likely to reach the consumer market in another 4-5 years. 4G comes with the promise of increased bandwidth, higher speeds, greater interoperability across communication protocols, and user friendly, innovative, and secure applications. In this article, I list the requirements of the 4G systems by considering the needs of the users in the future. These requirements can be met if technical and business challenges can be overcome. Technical challenges include mobility management, quality of service, interoperability, high data rate, security, survivability, spectrum, intelligent mobile devices, middleware, and network access. I discuss the most plausible solutions to these technical challenges in this paper. Business-related challenges include billing, payment methods, pricing, size of investments, content provision and mediation, and the trade-off between richness and reach. If these technical and business challenges can be met, then 4G will become the next frontier in data and voice communication infrastructure

Implementation of charging schemes to transport and service level ATM networks

Nowadays, telecommunications networks like telephony networks, computer networks, and packet switched networks are all dedicated to only one or just a few types of services When a user wants to subscribe to various telecommunications services, he needs to be connected to different types of networks, which raises the cost of connection, and reduces the efficiency of the utilisation of the network

Charging for Computer Networks at Higher Educational Institutions in Developing Countries

The advantage of the Internet to academia and research cannot be underestimated; nevertheless in developing countries the ability to support this important resource, as a viable tool for teaching and research, is undermined by lack of funding. This makes it necessary to apply a charging mechanism that will make it possible to render this facility available to the higher education system, while encouraging its use primarily for teaching and research. In this paper we present a proposal for a charging system that can be applied to achieve this aim. Our proposal discourages the use of the Academic Network for purposes other than teaching and research