TMN based accounting management architecture

This paper presents a distributed architecture for the accounting management of telecommunication networks that addresses some of the main open issues encountered in ATM networks. The architecture is based on the TMN recommendations of the ITU-T to facilitate interoperability between different networking organizations. In ATM, depending on the charging policy, the charge of a connection may involve traffic measurements and other accounting data generated by the network elements all along the path of a connection. The paper focuses on the convergence of this data from the network elements to a central process calculating the final bill of a customer. The convergence is done in two steps: the data is first assembled locally in some administrative (sub)domains by collector functions, and is then concentrated from all concerned domains to a central administrative point where the customer account is located