Method and apparatus for bandwidth consumption usage reporting of non-managed sources

1. A monitoring system comprising:

a first set top box for receiving content;

a media player within the set top box capable of determining content criteria;

a client based apparatus for actively monitoring content playback at the first set top box;

the client based apparatus further configured to report the client playback state for non-managed sources to a service provider's policy or operation support system;

the client based apparatus further configured to determine if it should notify the service provider's policy system or operation support system that the consumer is streaming content from a non-managed source; and

the client based apparatus further configured to publish a formatted signal, wherein the formatted signal comprises: the identity of the set top box, the rate at which the content is received by the set top box, and a unique content identifier which identifies the source of the content; and

the policy system or operation support system further configured to receive the formatted signal from the client based apparatus and to make bandwidth provisioning decisions based on the formatted signal.

2. The monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the service provider uses both a policy system and an operation support system for resource management.

3. The monitoring system of claim 1 , further comprising a second set top box receiving content from a non-managed source, wherein the first set top box and the second set top box are connected to a consumer access network.

4. The monitoring system of claim 3 , wherein the non-managed source is the Internet.

5. The monitoring system of claim 3 , wherein the client based apparatus determines available access network resources on the consumer's access network while content is being streamed to the consumer on one of the first set top box and the second set top box.

6. The monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the client based apparatus is internal to the first set top box.

7. The monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the client based apparatus stores bandwidth consumption measurements.

8. The monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the policy system or operation support system requires the unique content identifier to indicate that a specific streamed event has been terminated and the bandwidth is no longer in use.

9. A method comprising:

receiving content at a set-top box comprising a media player capable of determining content criteria;

creating a policy apparatus within a policy system for actively monitoring content playback at the set-top box;

reporting the content playback state for non-managed sources to an operation support system;

determining whether to notify the operation support system that the set-top box is streaming content from a non-managed source

receiving formatted signals from an apparatus resident within the set top box, wherein the formatted signals comprise: an identifier associated with the set-top box, the rate at which the content is received by the set-top box, and a unique content identifier which identifies the source of the content; and

making bandwidth provisioning decisions based on the formatted signal.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising: removing of stream data from the account when the stream has completed at the set top box.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising: proxying the formatted signals to an operation support system.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the content is received on-demand over the Internet.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising: determining available consumer access network resources on the consumer access network while the content is being streamed to the consumer on the set top box.