Whitepaper. Billing System perspective Convergence in Telecommunication

Transcription

1 Billing System perspective Convergence in Telecommunication Whitepaper Only about 20 years ago, the telecommunication world was clearly defined. During these days, an incumbent operator delivered a voice service based on a relatively simple technology dedicated for that purpose. A few years later, the introduction of mobile services brought about a major revolution. Only about 20 years ago, the telecommunication world was clearly defined. During these days, an incumbent operator delivered a voice service based on a relatively simple technology dedicated for that purpose. A few years later, the introduction of mobile services brought about a major revolution. However these services, although basic, had several drawbacks linked to the fact that they were heavily dependent on the underlying technology: The systems were not flexible as minor new features required huge changes in the operator s network. Different technologies (such as fixed voice, GSM voice) were ignoring each other since they were based on different network technology. As an example, a GSM handset was not able to connect to your fixed line while at home to receive a better price plan. Although relatively simple, the systems were not easily extendable, such as additional offers for new value added services such as TV, image messaging, content protected download The back office, and to some extent, the front systems were, as a result, relatively strongly linked to these underlying technologies. As an example, billing systems were able to deal primarily with fixed line voice in post paid mode. Thanks to the generalization of the IP and IMS in telecommunications, the increase of hardware power as well as the increased use of layered architecture in software development, the telecommunication world is now going towards: Network access convergence: The underlying transport technology you are using does not matter anymore. You can use the same handset for your mobile GSM/Wimax or fixed line Wifi connection at home. New, innovative value added services. These value added services are becoming so advanced that we are now seeing a new form of convergence, industry convergence through the merger of the telecommunication, media and Internet industries into one. Improved time to market as new services means modifying only a piece of software instead of upgrading a full set of nationwide switches. Front office and back office systems which are less and less dependent on the underlying technology and more and more agile especially when it comes to configuration updates or convergence management. However, we at Comarch believe there is still room for improvement for increasing these trends and providing increased convergence through better BSS and OSS products. This article aims at describing our approach.

2 The Evolution of Billing Systems To achieve all modern telecommunication requirements it was necessary to change service delivery architectures as well as billing systems architectures. These changes cover many aspects like network unification, standardsbased communication, a centralized product catalogue and most importantly - real-time processing. Comarch Billing System for Convergent Services uses modern multi-layered architecture and solves problems in many business layers of users and their terminals, access networks, service delivery/control, services logic, convergent billing and sales channels. The solution consists of several Comarch products with Comarch Billing System at its heart which enables the following features: off-line charging utilizing the entire billing process (loading, rating, discounting, invoicing, payment collection, dunning, reporting, off-line billing), on-line charging (real-time rating, charging, balance management, high availability), event-based charging (for services like SMS), session-based charging (for services like voice call), database for reference data (customers and contracts, financial and usage data, ). Figure 1 Architecture of Comarch Billing System for Convergent Services

3 Other products used in the solution: Comarch Billing Mediation, Comarch Service Provisioning, Comarch Convergent Services Platform, Network Abstraction Layer & Application Server, Comarch Product Catalogue, Comarch Self-Care, Comarch CRM. Prepaid/Postpaid Level Convergence The system maintains information about prepaid balances assigned to user accounts. Prepaid balance management has all the features required by standard mobile prepaid services as well as next generation services with balance reservations, rollover, automatic recharges, simultaneous service usage and the possibility of charging any event in real-time. The same user account managed by this system may be used for postpaid services where all usage data is collected and used later for invoicing. Figure 2 The Evolution of Billing Systems

4 The decision whether a service is sold in prepaid or postpaid mode can be made at the time of creating a sales offer. The same service may be offered many times in different models like prepaid, postpaid or postpaid with limits. Sales Channels Comarch Billing System for Convergent Services integrates applications for supporting multiple sales channels: Self-Care application for customer subscription & management self service, Dealer-Care application for a dealer s sales channel, CRM system for Customer Relationship Management. Figure 3 Prepaid/Postpaid Level Convergence

5 Service Level & Customer Experience Convergence Service level convergence allows carriers to rate and/ or bill any type of service in the same system with a single point of management. It also enables the possibility for offering multiple services and charging or billing a user with a single invoice or by using a single prepaid account. The logic of each service is defined by an application deployed on the Application Server Layer. This layer consists of two specialized Application Servers for core and value-added services. Figure 4 Service Level & Customer Experience Convergence

6 A customer receives a single bill or uses a prepaid account for many mobile and non-mobile services such as voice, content, parking or ticket payments. The user may check his account status and services history in a single self-care application. Simultaneous multi-network mediation and provisioning The Network Abstraction Layer consists of a set of protocol/network adapters which mediates in real-time between the network elements and the Application Server Layer. The Network Abstraction Layer supports PSTN, NGN/IMS, 2.5G/3G, Cable, Broadband and other IP-based networks and complies with many standards related to SIP/IMS, OMA, Parlay, SS7, IP-based and more. Comarch mediation components are used within the convergent solution to handle the following aspects: Billing mediation on-line (near real-time) and off-line CDR processing, Service provisioning mediation on-line service and subscriber provisioning. Figure 5 Simultaneous multi-network mediation and provisioning

7 Comarch Headquarters Al. Jana Pawla II 39 a Krakow Poland phone: fax: info@comarch.com ComArch Spółka Akcyjna with its registered seat in Kraków at Aleja Jana Pawła II 39 A, entered in the National Court Register kept by the District Court for Kraków-Śródmieście in Kraków, the 11th Commercial Division of the National Court Register under no. KRS The share capital amounts to 7,960, zł. The share capital was fully paid, NIP Copyright Comarch All Rights Reserved. EN Benefits Having introduced Comarch Billing System for Convergent Services, the following benefits may ultimately be listed as the most important: increased competence fast time to market for new services, decreased OPEX and CAPEX by reusing system infrastructure for launching new services in next generation and legacy networks, increased customer satisfaction a single Customer Self- Care system and single account/bill for all services, customer diversification easy integration with 3rd party service providers who can provide services for niche-markets, reduced churn rate telco-grade solution upgrade and service changes with minimal impact to existing services. Krzysztof Kwiatkowski Position: Product Manager Comarch SA David Gourdelier Consultant Comarch Software AG