A generic accounting scheme for next generation networks

Accounting is generally considered as one of the most challenging issues in modern and future mobile networks. As multi-domain complex heterogeneous environments are becoming a common terrain, accounting procedures performed by network and service providers have turned into a key aspect. However, in order for these networks to reliably deliver modern real-time services, they should, among other things, provide accurate accounting services, particularly billing. This work elaborates on the accounting process, proposing a novel and robust accounting system. The requirements of the proposed mechanism are defined and all the accounting scenarios that the system should cope with are examined. All the proposed accounting extensions are implemented by means of Diameter AVPs and commands. Our mechanism is generic and capitalizes on the existing AAA infrastructure, thus providing secure means to transfer and store sensitive billing data. More importantly, it can be easily incorporated into the providers' existing mechanisms regardless of the underlying network technology. At the same time, its generic nature allows for interoperability between different network operators and service providers. Through extensive experimentation, we can also infer that our scheme is lightweight, scalable, and easy to implement requiring only minor modifications to the core Diameter protocol. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.