Charging and accounting in the Internet

Abstract

Summary form only given. Due to the commercialization of the Internet its traffic as well as content being transmitted requires suitable mechanisms, which enable a service provider to charge for the traffic or content. This tutorial provides an overview of the key aspects, technology, and related work being essential for an effective and efficient approach to account for respective data, which may be used for the charging process. This includes on the technology side a discussion of accounting systems as well as on the economic side an overview of applicable pricing schemes. The problem of single- and multi-provider scenarios is addressed and an outlook on future areas of research and interest given.