Financial reciprocal compensation is provided for a predetermined
Quality of Service (QoS) managed service path including various providers in an internetwork (such as
the Internet). A user requests access to one or more of the services or resources advertised by a portal that employ the predetermined QoS (such as
digital multimedia or Internet
telephony). After the request is validated, the portal transmits a request to a primary QoS regulation
server to determine the path segments required to deliver the service at the predetermined QoS level. If capable segments are available, the primary QoS regulation
server will setup QoS regulation in its domain and request QoS regulation from the QoS regulation servers managing any other required segments in other domains (e.g., networks). After completing the setup, the primary QoS regulation
server replies back to the portal with a success indication and an identification of an
entry point to the QoS-regulated path. The portal then signals the service or resource to start. When the service has successfully started, the
service usage is logged. When the service is terminated, the usage logs are updated and the primary QoS regulation server releases its QoS regulated path segments and in turn signals all secondary QoS regulation servers to release their service related capacity. The usage logs are then used to support a settlement
system which collects payments from the user or the
service provider, and which provides respective portions of the total compensation to the various financial entities that provided the QoS-regulated path segments.