Internet Billing Service Design and Prototype Implementation.pdfVIP

INTERNET BILLING SERVICE DESIGN AND PROTOTYPE IMPLEMENTATION by Marvin A. Sirbu* Abstract A group of students in the M.S. program in Information Networking at Carnegie Mellon University have designed and implemented a prototype of an Internet Billing Service--an electronic credit card service for the Internet environment. The service provides account management, authentication, access control, credit verification, management reporting, billing and collection services to network-based service providers. 1. Introduction A worldwide data networking infrastructure is gradually falling into place which will allow consumers and service providers to interact in a vast electronic marketplace. In France some 9,000 services are available over the Minitel network. In the U.S., access to electronic databases generates billions of dollars a year in business. As networked computers proliferate at home and in the workplace, more and more consumers are in a position to shop in the electronic marketplace. _________________________________ * This report represents the collective work of 13 students in CMUs Master of Science Program in Information Networking and is derived from their final project report: Richard Batelaan, Richard Butler, Chun Yi Chan, Tie Ju Chen, Michael Evenchick, Paul Hughes, Tao Jen, John Jeng, Jon Millett, Michael Riccio, Ed Skoudis, Chris Starace, Peter Stoddard. The project was directed by William Arms, John Leong and Dennis Smith of CMU. Dhananjay Gode served as Teaching Assistant and prepared the first draft of this paper. An Internet Billing Server Already the Internet, a loose confederation of independently managed networks, links eight million users and some one