5647results about "Metering/charging/biilling arrangements" patented technology

A charging factor is determined applicable to each time interval in a period of time during which at least one data transfer was conducted. An amount of data transferred during each time interval is determined. A total charge applicable to the at least one data transfer is computed based at least in part on the charging factor applicable to each time interval and the amount of data transferred. Alternatively or additionally, a plurality of potential start times and an amount of data for a data transfer are identified. A set of time intervals associated with each of the potential start times are determined. For each of the potential start times, an estimated charge applicable to the data transfer is computed based at least in part on a charging factor applicable to each of one or more time intervals associated with the potential start time and the amount of data estimated to be transferred.

The invention enables digital music content to be downloaded to and used on a portable wireless computing device. An application running on the wireless device has been automatically adapted to parameters associated with the wireless device without end-user input (e.g. the application has been configured in dependence on the device OS and firmware, related bugs, screen size, pixel number, security models, connection handling, memory etc. This application enables an end-user to browse and search music content on a remote server using a wireless network; to download music content from that remote server using the wireless network and to playback and manage that downloaded music content. The application also includes a digital rights management system that enables unlimited legal downloads of different music tracks to the device and also enables any of those tracks stored on the device to be played so long as a subscription service has not terminated.

A system and method for providing network access are disclosed. After connecting to a network at an access point, a user of a computing device registers for network access with a network provider. In response to the registration, the network provider sends a completion page to the computing device. The completion page includes a link to an embedded file such as a small, transparent GIF image. When the computing device retrieves the embedded file, the embedded file is associated with a header than includes an instruction to generate a network system identifier (e.g., a cookie). The network system identifier may be stored by the computing device and later used to identify the computing device as a registrant for network access with the network provider. The embedded file may also be sent at other times, such as after authentication of the user for network access.

A system is provided that includes a request module adapted to receive a request from an initiation interface initiated by a user and a user profile module adapted to associate the request with a user profile of the user. The user profile includes at least a payment plan selected by the user and an identification number of the user. The system also includes a payment interface adapted to submit a payment demand to the payment plan and a mobile communication interface adapted to transmit a confirmation to a mobile communication network for transmission to a wireless device associated with the identification number. In the system, the initiation interface may be a wireless device, a magnetic swipe reader, a wireless barcode reading device, an RFID interface, a website, and/or a web banner interface. A method of operating a server is provided. A computer-readable storage medium containing a set of instructions for a processor is provided.

A content delivery and global traffic management network system provides a plurality of caching servers connected to a network. The caching servers host customer content that can be cached and stored, and respond to requests for Web content from clients. If the requested content does not exist in memory or on disk, it generates a request to an origin site to obtain the content. A DNS Server (SPD) load balances network requests among customer Web servers and directs client requests for hosted customer content to the appropriate caching server which is selected by choosing the caching server that is closest to the user, is available, and is the least loaded. SPD also supports persistence and returns the same IP addresses, for a given client. The entire Internet address space is broken up into multiple zones. Each zone is assigned to a group of SPD servers. If an SPD server gets a request from a client that is not in the zone assigned to that SPD server, it forwards the request to the SPD server assigned to that zone. Servers write information about the content delivered to log files that are picked up by a log server.

A method and system for brokering bandwidth in a wireless communications network includes receiving a request for a wireless service at a geographic region. An availability of the wireless service is determined at the geographic region. A response to the request is generated based on the availability of the wireless service. The response includes one or more terms for the wireless service.

In embodiments, the present invention provides method and system for determining if an existing pass log may be reused. The method may include associating an existing pass log with an encoding profile. The method may further include computing with a processor a signature for the encoding profile and for a target encoding profile. The method may include comparing with the processor at least a portion of the two signatures and based on a result of the comparing, storing in a processor accessible memory at least one of an indication that the pass log file may be used in conjunction with the target encoding profile and an indication that the pass log file cannot be used in conjunction with the target encoding profile.

A mobile content delivery system that optimizes the delivery of especially bandwidth-consuming content (or the flow of any peak-hour data traffic) in a way that best utilizes the free capacity in the radio network, thus enabling considerably more efficient usage of the radio capacity. It also allows new services and pricing structures to be used in the cellular network, that otherwise would not be possible. The class of delivery of message content can be selected by the user on a transaction basis, or subscription-based and pre-defined in a user profile. By choosing a scheduled delivery the user can receive the content at a fraction of the price compared to instant delivery, since the content is sent at a time when the network is least utilized.

A method of billing a variable bit rate communication between a first terminal and a distant terminal to a broadband subscriber permits changing billing parameters during a call in real time in response to user inputs including user requested changes in quality of service, changes in data rate and changes in preferred service provider. A variable bit rate communication to be billed has a variable quality of service related to the degree of utilization of a plurality of different networks. The billing method comprises the steps of i.) receiving user identification data at a first terminal and data representing a required bit rate and a default quality of service selected by the user, ii.) verifying the user identification data to be associated with the broadband service subscriber, iii.) determining least cost alternative network resources available for achieving the communication at the user selected default quality of service and the required bit rate, iv.) determining cost data associated with the network resources, v.) outputting to the user a least cost for the communication according to their selected default quality of service and alternative least cost network resources, vi.) coupling the first terminal and the distant terminal via the least cost determined network resources at the default quality of service and the required bit rate responsive to user authorization and vii.) billing for the communication at the default quality of service and according to the required bit rate after the termination of the communication.

A system and method permit a customer obtaining communication services to modify account parameters governing terms on which that service is provided. Customer account parameters are stored in one or more databases and accessed by one or more servers. The customer, upon accessing the communication service, is provided with an opportunity to modify the account parameters via automated interactive communication with the server. The invention can applied to wireless communication services such as wireless telephone service, wireless internet access, paging, or other forms of interactive wireless communication; to telephone or other wired interactive communication; to cable services; and to any other form of interactive subscriber communications. The invention may be implemented using existing equipment, and can be optimized for the type of communication device at issue.

A secure streaming content delivery system provides a plurality of content servers connected to a network that host customer content that can be cached and/or stored, e.g., images, video, text, and/or software. The content servers respond to requests for customer content from users. The invention load balances user requests for cached customer content to the appropriate content server. A user makes a request to a customer's server/authorization server for delivery of the customer's content. The authorization server checks if the user is authorized to view the requested content. If the user is authorized, then the authorization server generates a hash value using the authorization server's secret key, the current time, a time-to-live value, and any other information that the customer has configured, and embeds it into the URL which is passed to the user. A content server receives a URL request from the user for customer content cached on the content server. The request is verified by the content server creating its own hash value using the customer server's secret key, the current time, a time-to-live value, and any other related information configured for the customer. If the hash value from the URL matches the content server's generated hash value, then the user's request is valid and within the expiration time period and the content server delivers the requested content to the user.

Monitoring criteria is received that corresponds to a usage quantity for a plurality of services. Each of the plurality of services is provided over ones of a plurality of different communication systems. Actual service usage information is received for the plurality of services. The actual service usage information and the monitoring criteria are compared. An electronic notification message is sent when the monitoring criteria for one or more of the plurality of services is satisfied.

A method for determining metrics of a content delivery and global traffic management network provides service metric probes that determine the service availability and metric measurements of types of services provided by a content delivery machine. Latency probes are also provided for determining the latency of various servers within a network. Service metric probes consult a configuration file containing each DNS name in its area and the set of services. Each server in the network has a metric test associated with each service supported by the server which the service metric probes periodically performs metric tests on and records the metric test results which are periodically sent to all of the DNS servers in the network. DNS servers use the test result updates to determine the best server to return for a given DNS name. The latency probe calculates the latency from its location to a client's location using the round trip time for sending a packet to the client to obtain the latency value for that client. The latency probe updates the DNS servers with the clients' latency data. The DNS server uses the latency test data updates to determine the closest server to a client.

The invention relates to methods, devices and systems for the authenticated access to a data network by means of a station (WH) compatible with a data network (WLAN), which permit an authentication of the station and user. A device, for example a mobile radio device, is used for the above, which is authenticated in another system. In addition to the authentication, in particular a charging of services in a data network or another communication system (GSM) which is accessible by means of the data network is thus possible.

A content delivery and global traffic management network system provides a plurality of caching servers connected to a network. The caching servers host customer content that can be cached and stored, and respond to requests for Web content from clients. If the requested content does not exist in memory or on disk, it generates a request to an origin site to obtain the content. A DNS Server load balances network requests among customer Web servers and directs client requests for hosted customer content to the appropriate caching server. The customer pays a service that provides the content delivery and global traffic management network system a fee for usage of the content delivery and global traffic management network system.