Prepaid MVNO - Telecom Basics and Introduction To BSS

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Telecommunications for Dummies Telecom Basics and Intr BSS.
Introduction
This post is intended to be a crash course for beginners who wish to understand at a broad level how Business Support Subsys telecom carriers network and more importantly how they connect to the telecom network elements over standard protocols. Hence, the text is more conversational in nature rather than completely technical.
Elementary examples of simple call setup procedures have also been included, as they are required for a holistic understanding o beginning from a call setup, to its charging, rating and billing. Background Telecom operations from the perspective of a carrier are divided into two broad categories: OSS and BSS.
Operations Support Subsystems (OSS) is an aggregation of functions that enable the operator to provision and manage their inv network elements. Provisioning implies making an entry or a record of some resource. This resource may be a customer, a valu as dongles or even a network element such as a call control switch. For example if a new customer is acquired, his entire record such as his name, address, phone number allotted etc. This is customer provisioning. An example of managing an inventory could be as follows.
Dongles procured by the carrier need to be recorded in the inventory management system. Each dongle would undergo a lifecyc
Eg: When the dongle is first procured, it is recorded to be in stock. When the dongle is dispatched to a retail store, its status is c management system to be for sale. When a customer purchases the dongle, its status changes to sold and it is linked to the it.
On the other hand, Business Support Subsystems is an aggregation of functions which are used for managing an operators dayand providing an operator with complete clarity on the performance and management of his diverse lines of businesses.
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BSS systems include real-time functions such as charging (post-paid/pre-paid), rating using tariff plans and applying discounts.
BSS also includes some non-real-time components such as launching new marketing campaigns, analyzing the success of individ business intelligence reports, partner management (for dealing with 3rd party content providers, other operators, franchisees etc collection, revenue sharing with partners and billing. This note is more focussed on the BSS components of an operators ecosystem.
Before going to the specifics of BSS, it is useful to review a typical call setup procedure for post paid calls as well as for pre pai grounding is available regarding the call flows in a typical telecom network:
The above scenario depicts the flow of messages for a pre-paid subscriber. When the subscriber dials out a number, the local of subscriber has enough balance in his/her account. Only if the balance is available, does the call proceed further. Case Study:
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NOTE-1: There may be one or more transit exchanges between the originating local office and the terminating local office.
NOTE-2: The messages that flow between the local exchange and the pre-paid platform are in INAP protocol. INAP stands for I Part and is the top most layer of the SS7 protocol stack. Both the local office and the service control point (SCP) understand the
NOTE-3: The other levels of the SS7 stack are: MTP1, MTP2, MTP3, SCCP and TCAP. MTP stands for Message Transfer Par Connection Control Part. TCAP stands for Transaction Capability Application Part. Main steps in charging a pre-paid call in a fixed line network: When a pre-paid subscriber makes a call, it arrives at a local exchange (also called local office in the US). as it would have done for a post paid customer. The local exchange has to now talk to a pre-paid platform. The local exchange sends a message to the pre-paid platform informing it of the A-party number and the B-party number. understands and receives messages sent by the local exchange.
The local exchange looks at the calling number (A-party), and finds that it is a call made by a pre-paid customer. So, it cannot
This message is received by a component of the pre-paid platform called the Service Control Point (SCP). SCP is nothing but
On receiving the message from the local exchange, the SCP communicates with a Rating Engine, which is the second compon flexibility and functionality to meet the business requirements. pre-paid platform, the rating engine will contain a large number of customer balance records. insufficient balance, then it must inform the SCP that the calling customer has insufficient balance. The SCP in turn will send a message to the local exchange informing it that the calling party has insufficient balance. The local exchange rejects the call.
The rating engine is the heart of the pre-paid platform. As tariff plans get more complex and more services need to be charge
It contains in its database, the current balance of all the pre-paid customers. Since there are hundreds and thousands of custo
The rating engine looks at the A-party number and then queries its database to find out the current balance of the A-party. If t
If however, the rating engine finds that the calling party has sufficient balance, then via the SCP, the local exchange is informe B-party number if the balance is sufficient to support the minimum rate of the call pulse. international call, then even 50 cents balance may not be sufficient. the call will be eventually connected via one or more exchanges to the called subscriber whose phone will ring. exchange must again send a message to the SCP informing it that the call has not matured.
If the balance of the calling party is zero, then no further analysis is required by the rating engine to reject the call. However it
For example: If a local call costs 10 cents per minute and the balance of the A-party is currently 5 cents, then this balance is n
Assuming that the balance was sufficient and the pre-paid platform has allowed the call to proceed, then the local exchange w
If the call is abandoned for any reason like the calling party abandoning the call before it is answered by the B-party, no answ
The rating engine had at the time of allowing the call reserved a certain amount from the subscribers balance. For example th larger chunk of units from the balance.
reserved depends upon the tariff plan of the customer. To avoid frequent requests for the reservation of amount, the rating en
As an example, assume that the calling party had a balance of USD 100 when the call was made. When the message reache
rating engine on finding that there is enough balance will not only respond to the local exchange about the sufficiency of the ba
also reserve an amount, say USD 5. Therefore, temporarily the balance reduces to USD 95. It is important to understand that the call is successful and usage takes place.
equivalent to actually reducing the balance of the calling party. At this time, the reservation only signifies the intent, and actua
When the call is answered, the deduction will happen periodically from the reserved amount of USD 5. How much amount mus minute, this reserved amount of USD 5 would be enough for 10 minutes of conversation. This is the validity time.
periodicity? This has to ultimately depend upon the tariff plan which the calling party has subscribed to. Assuming that the call
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At the time of informing the local exchange that the calling party has sufficient balance and the call can be connected, the valid SCP. Thus, the local exchange knows that if this call matures, it can let the call continue for the first 10 minutes without again
If the conversation ends is less than 10 minutes, for example the call duration is just 3 minutes, the local exchange sends a me party. His closing balance will now be USD 8.5. of the validity time. The pre-paid platform will reserve another chunk of USD 5 and inform the local exchange accordingly.
and only USD 1.5 will be deducted by the pre-paid platform at the end of the call. The remaining USD 3.5 is returned to the ac
Assuming that the conversation exceeded 10 minutes, the local exchange sends another request to reserve more units. This h
It may happen that the unit reservation request fails. This will happen when the subscriber has no units left in his balance. In s call.
platform will respond with a message that informs the local exchange that the credit limit is reached. The local exchange will t
The architecture for charging a pre-paid call in a mobile network (GSM) is shown below. Note that it is very similar. Only the INA replaced by CAMEL:
NOTE-1: CAMEL stands for Customised Applications for Mobile Enhanced Logic.
NOTE-2: There will be a base station and the base station controller (BSC) before the call reaches the originating MSC. Likewis on the terminating side.
NOTE-3: There may be one or more transit exchanges between the originating and terminating MSCs. These are called GMSCs networks.
NOTE-4: The architecture in a CDMA mobile network will be identical except that CAMEL will be replaced by IS-826 protocol lay Details of the SMP and the VMS: Service Management Point (SMP):
The SMP performs the management functions for the IN platform. For example, all the pre-paid customers must be recorded in t initial balance. This is typically called the provisioning of customers. This task is performed by the SMP. The SMP will typically ha operators can do this task through a set of commands called the command line interface (CLI). There may also be a need to per
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customers who have left the pre-paid service provided by the operator. It will also be connected to a voucher management syste flow to the SMP for bulk provisioning of customers so that a large number of customers can be simultaneously provisioned in the Voucher Management System:
The Voucher Management System (VMS) allows prepaid subscribers recharge their accounts using pre-paid vouchers, allowing distributed dealer networks efficiently and easily. VMS allows subscribers to add funds to their accounts within the home network regardless of location, time of day or model of phone. VMS cuts down administrative, bookkeeping and servicing expenses and m keep track of their account balance without service centres. Features of a VMS are as follows: Account recharging via voice services
The Voucher Management System allows subscribers to recharge their accounts from their own telephone as well as from any to Account recharging via non-voice services
Subscribers can top up their own accounts, as well as the account of any other subscriber of the same network, by sending an S a service number. Accounts can also be recharged from a special websites of the carrier. Account recharging via operator Subscribers can recharge their accounts via call centre operators. Distributed system The prepaid card system allows distributed systems with card roaming to be built, giving your subscribers the ability to recharge Blocking
The Voucher Management System can bar a specific telephone number from accessing the service after several consecutive uns PIN code from that number, protecting you from fraud. Advertising
Additional profit can be generated from placing adverts on cards, and can also be a useful marketing tool for the operator, for ex Card Status Information about card usage (transactions made) is recorded automatically in the operators billing system. Revisiting Post paid Charging: Charging for Post-paid subscribers:
For post-paid subscribers, there is no need to check for the balance. The calls are allowed to proceed further, without any mess the call details are captured in the form of a Call Detail Record (CDR) at the end of the call. These CDRs are used later for billing purposes. A typical CDR file captures the following information: Calling party number Called party number Call start time
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Call end time Call duration (End Time Start Time) Call Identifier
This information is saved in the form of a file in the local exchange or the MSC and is pushed to the Charging System for post pro
The charging system has a rating engine and a mediation engine. The rating engine analyzes the CDR files and determines the ra file. Once this rating is completed, the CDR is known as a rated-CDR. This rated CDR is pushed to the mediation engine. The m because it may receive CDRs from more than one source and the format of the CDRs may be different from each source.
The mediation engine post-processes the rated CDRs from multiple sources and reformats them into a common file. This commo system which generates the itemized bills for each customer based on the CDRs. A simple procedure for a post-paid subscriber is given below in terms of CDR creation and storage:
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We have so far described charging of voice calls. The figure below shows the post-paid charging of a data call in CDMA:
The data call path bifurcates from the PCF Packet Control Function, which is a logical function of the Base Station Controller a The Rating, Mediation engine and billing system are common for data calls as well as voice calls.
The figure below shows the corresponding architecture for charging a Mobile WiMAX data call. The only difference here is, that w controller for data calls. The AAA is sending charging events on RADIUS protocol.
The AAA (Authorization, Authentication and Accounting) server receives the messages on RADIUS protocol. There may be a d converter in the AAA server, which converts these messages to the DIAMETER protocol and sends them to the charging pla interface is used for post-paid charging while the DIAMETER protocols Ro interface is used for pre-paid charging. Introduction to the Realtime Components of BSS: We can now discuss the BSS system in more detail. There may be some overlap of information with what is described above.
The figure below shows a modern BSS system which works on DIAMETER interfaces and integrates with IMS, Mobile WiMAX protocols:
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LEGEND:
This is only an architectural representation meant to show some of the major components of a BSS system and to provide a glim modern BSS platform.
However, we will be discussing conceptually some of the basic components of the BSS system without going into the technical d Some of the most important real-time network facing components of a BSS system are: 1. Charging 2. Rating 3. Mediation 4. Billing, and 5. Reconciliation 1. Charging
Charging of customers can be done in two ways: pre-paid (online) charging and post-paid (offline) charging. The first step of rev charging process, where the network elements identify the events which need to be charged. Some examples include sending downloading content etc. Network elements such as the local exchange (office), SMSC (Short Message Service Centre) etc gen towards the charging platform.
Chargeable events can be conceptualized as intents to charge the customer based on his/her actions. At this stage, it is not gu actually lead to revenue realization. For example, a chargeable event will be generated for a missed call, or a failed call setup. H
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connected successfully, the customer will not be liable for paying for this event. However, the operator may change his policy and for missed calls if needed. Interfaces for Charging:
Charging platforms support multiple interfaces to receive events. Some of the most common charging interfaces are on RADIUS Legacy systems used to charge calls on the IN (Intelligent Network) pre-paid platform. There were also Web Service interfaces systems. Web services work on the HTTP protocol and are described by SOAP protocol (Simple Object Access Protocol). 2. Rate Determination and Rating. The next logical step after receiving charging events is Rate Determination and Rating.
Once the charging system has received an event, rate calculation takes place for the customer depending upon the current tariff needs to decide the amount of units which need to be consumed for the particular charging event. For post-paid subscribers, the attached to a Call Detail Record (CDR). Then this rated-CDR is dumped as a file.
For pre-paid subscribers, the units are determined and compared with the subscribers account balance. If the account balance i borrows the required amount of units from the subscribers account and prepares to deduct them from the available balance.
Units may have different manifestations. For example, we can represent Units as money. We may also represent units in the fo download in Megabytes (units measured by volume). Another possibility is to measure units in terms of talk time. In some specia represent units in terms of the number of free calls offered and the number of free SMS messages allowed.
Before the charging system rates a particular charging event and actually deducts units, there is an intermediary step. This step applicable. For example, if the charging event cost the subscriber $1 and the tariff plan of the subscriber offered him with a disco rate applicable would only be 50 cents.
At this stage, it is important to understand the relationship between a tariff plan, the components of a tariff plan, offers attached applied based on the offers, and the validity semantics of the offer. These are important inputs to the rating engine. The final rate based on the tariff plan, offers and discounts applicable on the base plan and the validity of the offers. The illustration below explains the relationship between these concepts:
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The figure above represents a tariff plan. This plan has four components: 1. Voice 2. Messaging 3. Data 4. Content.
The voice component applies to the usual calls that the subscriber initiates. The messaging component of this example refers to component refers to the internet browsing and downloads from websites. Finally, the content component refers to the purchase o movies, ringtones and ebooks from an operators application store for example. Each component of this tariff plan has an offer attached to it. In this example, the customer has the first 100 voice calls free, the first 10 MB of downloads free and 2 ringtones free.
These offers have validity applicable to them. The first 100 voice calls are free and must be consumed within a month. Similarly, consumed within a month. The same is applicable to the data download offer. However, the 2 ringtones are free as a onetime off customer may download at the most 2 ringtones for free. For the 3rd ringtone download, normal charges shall apply.
The last concept is that of usage counters. At the top of each month, the free voice call quota is re-initialized to a value of 100. W customer, this value of 100 is decremented until it reaches zero. Once the free call quota is zero, normal charges apply to all sub messaging the usage quota is set to 50 every month. Validity can be represented in several forms:
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The validity semantics of an offer has to be very flexible. This flexibility determines the business agility of an operator. In the figur are shown. For example:
A particular offer may be valid at the top of each month. This is similar to the voice call free usage counters discussed in the e
In some other scenarios, a certain offer may be valid only on certain days of the week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). Fo discounted 30% on certain days of the week (weekends for example).
Another option is for an offer to be applicable within a time band of a day. For example, the operator may offer discounted ca pm and 5 am) to encourage usage during these lean hours.
The fourth option shown above is for an offer to be applicable only on some special days such as Diwali, New Year, and Chris
The validity of an offer can also be confined to a closed user group. For example, all calls made between users belonging to a cheaper as compared to the calls made outside the group.
Some offers are valid based on the destination of the called party. For example, there may be a special rate applied when ca and Chicago.
Usage based validity is a very interesting case. For example, when the usage of a particular customer crosses $30 in a given that month are offered at a discounted rate of 25%. This is a kind of a reward given to high ARPU customers. The last option for validity is unconditional. This means that the offer in question will be valid at all times and for all calls. 3. Mediation:
The mediation process is the next logical step after rating. Once the rate is determined as explained in the previous section, it is this rated CDR file is pulled by the mediation engine. The mediation engine can handle CDRs from various sources The MSC, t converts all these CDR files into a common file format. The file format is chosen so that it is understandable by the billing system billing system for post-processing. 4. Billing:
In the billing process, CDRs are provided by the Mediation engine to the billing system. The billing system processes these CDR this process is the generation of an itemized bill in human readable form by the billing system. As the CDRs which reach the billin billing system can calculate the final bill for a subscriber and the rate applied for each charging event.
The details of the CDR are presented in the form of a bill which can then be e-mailed or dispatched to the subscribers billing add
These days, some advanced billing systems also provide a feature of billing level discounts. For example, if there is a high paying of over USD 100 every month for 6 months consecutively, the billing system can provide this customer with a discount of 10% on may even ask the rating engine to provide this high ARPU customer with a quota for free calls from next month onwards. Wholesale/Interconnect Billing:
Wholesale billing applications include a variety of capabilities. Traditionally, this area included inter-carrier settlements capabilities interconnect billing applications. In todays competitive markets and complex value chains, it has expanded further to include amo operators, and resellers, Mobile Virtual Network Operators, Content Providers and E-Commerce.
There is now an array of applications in the area providing charging, billing, and settlement capabilities on a raw data basis, indiv basis across a variety of services and platforms. These applications work across a variety of platforms and support a wide rang single system. 5. Reconciliation:
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Reconciliation is an offline process of sorting out the CDRs of the calls made in a certain period to determine the following inform 1. How many calls were made to another carriers network? 2. How many calls made to another carriers network were local/regional/international? 3. How many calls from other networks terminated in my network? 4. How many calls made from a 3rd party network used my network as a transit and they actually terminated in some othe 5. Similar details for SMS messages and MMS messages are also post processed.
Based on such information, the operator makes a record of the amount of revenue which has to be shared with other network op takes place because all these operators share a point of interconnect (POI) to each others networks and they allow calls to be m another.
Due to this, the operator arrives at an amount which other operators need to pay him, and an amount which he needs to pay to o interconnect services to each other. This process is known as reconciliation. Business Perspective and an introduction to the non-realtime components of BSS:
Business teams of a carrier are responsible for designing and planning tariff plans which are later launched in the form of market needs to be designed carefully, keeping in mind the inputs obtained from competitive analysis of the tariff plans of other carriers.
The BSS component which manages the marketing campaigns for the carrier is called Campaign Management. The success or campaign is gauged by another component known as Business Intelligence or BI.
The Business Intelligence engine provides the business teams with clarity on the performance of a particular marketing campaign An example is provided below: Popularity of a particular marketing campaign (tariff plan) based on market segments such as children, young executives etc. Popularity of a campaign based on the region Florida, California, New Jersey etc. Popularity of a campaign based on age.
Popularity of a campaign based on market segment High ARPU customers, Customers with traditionally low ARPU, mid AR customers etc. Some of the other major functions of a BSS system which is critical from the viewpoint of a network carrier are: Revenue Assurance: The main revenue assurance application areas are:
Detection of data discrepancies Detection of data discrepancies between systems and data repositories that might affect th increase costs, including, Configuration data e.g. between Customer Relationship Management systems, inventory and network) Events data e.g., between the call Switch, Mediation, and billing) Interconnect/partners billing Detection of data integrity and correctness problems, e.g., a switch that rounds incorrectly the durations of the call. correct plan, and is he billed correctly according to the correspondent plan. Investigation of revenue leakages, finding and correcting their root cause to prevent the recurrence of similar leakages Grouping and classification of leakages
Rating and Billing Verification Verification of the correctness of the application of the rating and billing rules e.g., is the cus
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Equipment and system testing Proactively test equipment and systems and processes to verify that they provide accurate in generation Trouble Reports and Alarms Generation and tracking of Revenue Assurance Trouble Reports and Alarms Automation of revenue assurance controls and data collection Automation of leakages correction
Generation of revenue leakage reports and documentation both for internal needs as well as a support to regulatory complian Fraud Management: Investigating, preventing and responding to activities that indicate fraudulent use of networks or systems. This is achieved by effective Fraud Management systems coupled with the instrumentation and monitoring that enables potential identified. There are close linkages between fraud identification and anomaly detection. Eg: 1. Someone fraudulently tops up the pre paid account from the system backend without using a voucher. 2. Someone reduces the value of the pos paid bill just before it is processed by the billing system. 3. Someone deletes the CDRs or reduces the rate on each CDR. Conclusion: The domain of BSS is huge and it is not possible to cover all aspects in a single post.
However, this post provided an introduction to some of the important concepts of this area and how the BSS connects to network over standard interfaces.
We also discussed some of the most critical concepts of a BSS platform which directly influence the operators revenue realizatio charging, billing, reconciliation, revenue assurance and fraud management. Original POST
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Prepaid MVNO | Telecommunications for Dummies Telecom Basics a...

Telecommunications for Dummies Telecom Basics and Intr BSS.

Prepaid MVNO | Telecommunications for Dummies Telecom Basics a...

Prepaid MVNO | Telecommunications for Dummies Telecom Basics a...

Prepaid MVNO | Telecommunications for Dummies Telecom Basics a...

Prepaid MVNO | Telecommunications for Dummies Telecom Basics a...

Prepaid MVNO | Telecommunications for Dummies Telecom Basics a...

Prepaid MVNO | Telecommunications for Dummies Telecom Basics a...

Prepaid MVNO | Telecommunications for Dummies Telecom Basics a...

Prepaid MVNO | Telecommunications for Dummies Telecom Basics a...

Prepaid MVNO | Telecommunications for Dummies Telecom Basics a...

Prepaid MVNO | Telecommunications for Dummies Telecom Basics a...

Prepaid MVNO | Telecommunications for Dummies Telecom Basics a...

Prepaid MVNO | Telecommunications for Dummies Telecom Basics a...

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