Verifiable device assisted service usage billing with integrated accounting, mediation accounting, and multi-account

What is this patent about?

’364 is related to the field of wireless network management and device-assisted service control. Specifically, it addresses the challenges of managing network capacity and service costs as mobile data demand outpaces infrastructure growth. The technology focuses on empowering wireless devices to participate in the monitoring and enforcement of service policies, allowing for more granular control over data usage than traditional network-centric approaches.

The underlying idea behind ’364 is to distribute service policy enforcement from the core network down to the end-user device itself. By using on-device software agents that interface directly with applications, the system can identify specific service activities—such as video streaming or social media—and apply different data usage rules depending on which wireless network the device is currently using. This allows for a highly flexible management model where a user can specify how they want to conserve data on expensive or congested networks while maintaining full access on others.

The claims of ’364 focus on a wireless device equipped with multiple modems and a specialized application interface agent. This agent is designed to communicate with software components associated with specific service activities to apply network-specific policies. The device is configured to receive user input that defines aspects of these policies, detect when it is connected to a specific network, and then identify and control data communications for a particular activity based on that network connection. Crucially, the policy allows for different levels of control for the same activity across different wireless networks.

In practice, the invention works by monitoring data traffic at the application layer before it is encrypted or packetized by the standard networking stack. This literal or virtual tagging of traffic allows the device to distinguish between a high-bandwidth video stream and a low-bandwidth text message. When a user connects to a metered or restricted network, the device-side agent can automatically throttle, block, or redirect only the specific high-usage activities identified by the user or the service provider, rather than shutting down all network access.

This approach differs from prior solutions by moving the intelligence of deep packet inspection and traffic shaping from expensive network gateways to the device. Traditional systems often struggle to manage encrypted traffic or provide granular user-level choices without significant network overhead. By utilizing a device-based service processor, ’364 enables real-time, verifiable service control that respects user privacy and network neutrality, as the user can directly influence which applications are prioritized or restricted to manage their own service costs.