Problem Statement: Metering And Accounting In The Full-Ip 4g Environment

The current migration from traditional circuit-switched networks towards a packet-based wireless-IP network infrastructure is adding significant pressure for the provision of commercialized IP-based services. However, due of the lack of suitable mechanisms to provide scalable and efficient support for IP-based charging and billing, the commercialization of the Internet has only been progressing slowly. Such IP-based charging and billing support is crucial to the overall success of a commercialized wireless IP-based network as aspired in 4G. Within the IETF, both an IP-based metering framework and an AAA architecture dealing with authentication authorization and accounting have been developed which targets the missing functions and mechanisms. Although the basic mechanisms are available and widely understood, their efficient and scalable integration into a mobile environment is still an open point.