Charging models for M2M communications.

The emerging of M2M communications enables many new applications such as smart grid, connected vehicle, eHealth and smart city. The telecom network is an ideal environment to support the implementation of these applications. However, the property of M2M communications is very different from that of traditional telecomm. Consequently, charging models designed for traditional telecomm such as pricing by amount of data transfer are no longer adequate for M2M communications. More general charging models are needed to accommodate new charging factors identified for M2M communications. With appropriate charging models, the amount of resources consumed by M2M communications can be assessed fairly and charged accordingly. This paper proposes general charging models for M2M communications based on two innovative ingredients: charging factors and pricing parameters.