Internet Accounting
charter-ietf-acct-01

The Internet Accounting Working Group has the goal of producing
standards for the generation of accounting data within the Internet
that can be used to support a wide range of management and cost
allocation policies. The introduction of a common set of tools and
interpretations should ease the implementation of organizational
policies for Internet components and make them more equitable in a
multi-vendor environment.

In the following accounting model, this Working Group is primarily
concerned with defining standards for the Meter function and
recommending protocols for the Collector function. Individual
accounting applications (billing applications) and organizational
policies will not be addressed, although examples should be provided.

Meter $<$--$>$ Collector $<$--$>$ Application $<$--$>$ Policy

First, examine a wide range of existing and hypothetical policies to
understand what set of information is required to satisfy usage
reporting requirements. Next, evaluate existing mechanisms to generate
this information and define the specifications of each accounting
parameter to be generated. Determine the requirements for local storage
and how parameters may be aggregated. Recommend a data collection
protocol and internal formats for processing by accounting applications.

This will result in an Internet-Draft suitable for experimental
verification and implementation.

In parallel with the definition of the draft standard, develop a suite
of test scenarios to verify the model. Identify candidates for
prototyping and implementation.

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