Other

Cleversafe, Inc.

Sejal Kumarbhai Modi

S Christopher Gladwin

Zachary J Mark

Vance T Thornton

Matthew Michael England

Joshua J Mullin

An apparatus includes a processing module and a network interface. The processing module is operably coupled to: access user level metadata based on account identifier to identify a plurality of files associated with a user and retrieve user level metadata for the plurality of files; access file level metadata associated with the plurality of files to retrieve, for each of the plurality of files, file level metadata and determine, for each of the plurality of files, a plurality of file slices associated with a corresponding file of the plurality of files; and generate billing transaction information based on the user level metadata and the file level metadata of the plurality of files. The network interface is operably coupled to: convert the billing transaction information into a network billing transaction information message and transmit it.

Billing system for information dispersal system

A billing process is disclosed for a information dispersal system or digital data storage system. In one embodiment of the invention, the original data to be stored is separated into a number of data 'slices' or shares in such a manner that the data in each subset is less usable or less recognizable or completely unusable or completely unrecognizable by itself except when combined with some or all of the other data subsets. These data subsets are stored on separate digital data storage devices as a way of increasing privacy and security. As dispersed file shares are being stored or removed from a grid of distributed storage locations, a set of metadata tables are created, separate from the dispersed file share storage, to maintain information about the original data size of each block, file or set of file shares dispersed on the grid. The original data size information in these separate metadata tables is used to determine usage information based upon the original file size even though the file has been dispersed onto a storage grid that contains file slices who size may not relate to the original file size and the file slices may have been compressed by the system in order to reduce storage space or improve transmission time. As such, the billing process is able to enable a broad range of commercial billing options for billing for commercial data services on an information dispersal grid.

Growing community of inventors

Chicago, IL, United States of America

Sejal Kumarbhai Modi