Agilent OSS access7 Signaling Meter access7 Signaling Meter - extracting the maximum revenue potential from your network Agilent access7 Signaling Meter helps you to measure SS7 traffic volumes and network conditions quickly and cost-effectively. It captures and converts usage data from the SS7 network to give you a totally accurate picture of resource consumption. The information helps you to maximize billing revenues, validate interconnect agreements and dimension your signaling network more precisely. 1
Achieve new levels of profitability The growth in mobile and intelligent services has led to a huge increase in the volume of non-circuitrelated SS7 traffic flowing between networks. Network revenues and profitability should reflect this dynamic growth, but in many instances, an operator s income fails to match up to the actual volume of traffic. This is because time, cost and technology constraints may be hampering the extraction of accurate usage data from the SS7 network, a key factor in maximizing revenues. Agilent Signaling Meter makes quick, cost effective SS7 usage measurement a reality. It measures all incoming and outgoing traffic, helping you to account and charge for the use of your SS7 network and validate invoices from your interconnect partners for your use of their networks. Signaling Meter captures real-time usage data from the SS7 signaling links. It is completely unobtrusive, functioning independently of the network switches, the intelligent network and the SS7 network. It creates comprehensive signaling usage records containing information on originating and terminating point codes, message types (SCCP/ISUP/TCAP), message direction and time. These are presented in a user-friendly format to give you precise measurements of traffic volumes and network conditions. Signaling Meter then processes and organizes SS7 usage measurement data into configurable aggregated groupings to provide statistical data for a range of applications such as billing, accounting, network planning or marketing statistics. Making access7 Signaling Meter work for you Comprehensive accurate SS7 usage information can bring you substantial financial and operational benefits. Manage your network resources more efficiently Accurate real-time signaling usage information lets you monitor resource consumption and make sure that interconnecting operators are using your network within agreed parameters. Any deviations from these parameters can be quickly quantified and used as a potential new revenue opportunity. Correctly dimension your signaling network Precise usage information lets you monitor resource consumption by service categories and dimension your SS7 network and resources accordingly. Achieve full payment for resource consumption Signaling Meter lets you accurately bill other interconnecting operators who are using your SS7 network to send non-circuit related data. It groups usage measurement data in a number of preset ways, such as by point code, message type and service type, and incorporates the data into detailed summary reports. These help you to structure your tariffs more effectively and charge different operators appropriately. Extract key marketing information Tracking service usage trends with Signaling Meter gives you the data you need to price products and allocate cost more effectively, helping to increase revenues and improve your bottom line. The data can also be used to measure service uptake. 2
Accurate wholesale and new service accounting The comprehensive and accessible records of signaling usage supplied by Agilent Signaling Meter help you to extract the maximum benefit and revenues from the introduction of new services on your SS7 network as well as from existing services. With regulations forcing the telecoms market to open up to competition, interconnection between your network and different operators is expanding. Managing networks and maximizing revenues in this demanding environment requires unprecedented levels of usage information from key links within your network. Signaling Meter recognizes the wide range of usage information needed by different telecommunications operators and offers you great flexibility in the way it configures data collection and outputs the results. Agilent Signaling Meter records inter-network SS7 usage measurements helping to produce invoices that you send to other SS7 network providers and to verify invoices received. It can also help you create a new revenue stream by billing other operators for new services as they are introduced. In addition, you can use the SS7 measurements internally to monitor the network for future enhancements. Local Operator Mobile National or International Operator Signaling Meter Billing Application Mobile With AMAT7 you can also monitor the quantity of non-trunk related signaling transiting your networks. In the diagram above, an operator is connected to fixed and mobile networks. In many instances, especially where the operator is an international gateway, there will be no billing agreement for non-voice network usage. In this example, SMS and GSM signaling updates will add to network congestion in the home network. This signaling traffic consumes network resource but in most cases, is not billed. AMAT7 will categorize signaling traffic into different types of network usage. Operators can then bill for this type of resource consumption. Interconnecting operator billing Connecting Signaling Meter on SS7 links at your Point of Interconnects (POIs) enables you to bill other telecommunications operators using your SS7 network. With the configuration set to capture data for signaling point codes of the interconnecting operator, you can convert the information into an appropriate invoice. Per-message billing Billing strategies are now relating less closely to the actual cost of running a network. With Signaling Meter you can charge for the different phases involved in setting up and clearing down calls, database dips and other non-call related SS7 usage. You can also charge for the transport of messages between the network elements and for switching the messages at the STPs. These charges relate to the cost of providing SS7 transport bandwidth and the costs of processing network elements. Signaling Meter can capture and group the appropriate data, enabling you to formulate charges relating to each of the network elements. Wireless traffic compensation Short Message Service (SMS) and roaming services have increased traffic on service providers network gateways, in many instances by more than 70 percent, fueling costly network capacity expansion. Signaling Meter gathers and analyzes previously untracked SMS and roaming signaling usage data for more accurate interconnect billing. This solution provides an alternative to increasing tariffs to fund network expansion by enabling you to accurately bill for each interconnect partner s actual network consumption. 3
Delivering timely and highly accurate data Signaling Meter is a distributed network application that consists of several specific modules. These modules perform key gathering, formatting and transmission functions so you can receive up-to-date accurate usage data, organized to meet your precise requirements. Generation Capture Classify Aggregation Formatting Text File Generation Usage Measurement Generation creates Usage Measurement Packets (UMP) by collecting, filtering and time-stamping each message. You can set filtering parameters to ensure that you receive the types of messages you need. Each usage measurement includes: - the originating and terminating network addresses - the message type (ISUP, SCCP Unit Data or SCCP Unit Data Service) - the message direction (sent or received by the STP) - the message time SCCP unit data messages contain additional TCAP message type information. Time measurements are automatically converted to local time and are accurate to within a tenth of a second. Aggregation The Usage Measurement Aggregation process organizes the usage measurement packets into aggregation groupings, based on their key values (i.e. originating and terminating addresses, time, direction, type). Signaling Meter then takes statistical population counts of each grouping, for billing, analysis and other research purposes. The start date and time and the duration of each aggregation period can be preset to a one-hour resolution and aggregation periods can be manually closed if needed. Completed aggregation groupings are then transferred to the next module, the Record Formatter. Record Formatter and Text File The Formatter translates the aggregation groupings into a data text file and stores this to disk, the process happens rapidly to support the time-sensitive nature of the data and to handle extremely high traffic volumes. Detailed Report Rec # Linkset ONA TNA Category Type SSN Dir MsgCnt OctCnt 1 LS01 0123456 6543210 SCCP-UDT BGN<0x64> 25 RX 102 7140 2 LS02 3456789 9876543 ISUP RLC<0x10> 0 TX 101 1717 Information is then extracted from the data file to create a summary text file. Summary Report Orig. Term Service GT/MTP Tx/Rx Msg Count Octets UKMob UKFix MAP GT Tx 587 45199 UKFix UKMob ISUP MTP Rx 316 11,036 Configuring Signaling Meter The Signaling Meter product architecture incorporates highly reliable hardware components and extensively tested software that can be tailored to any size of operation. It can be expanded in terms of processing power, number of installed sites and number of links monitored. Additional hardware options such as mirrored disks at remote sites, provide an additional degree of reliability. Integration with other applications such as the Agilent Data Mining Toolkit, a powerful and flexible analytic tool, can provide additional value. 4
Agilent OSS Revenue Assurance Agilent's access7 monitoring systems play a key role in Revenue, Network, Service and Customer Assurance. They gather, store and process data from multiple technologies, including SS7, VoIP, 2G, 2.5G and 3G, providing detailed information about the status of all transactions across entire networks in real-time. This network-centric view benefits the whole organization. It provides valuable insights into the way systems and customers interact and opens up new ways to safeguard and increase revenues. The access7 platform supports an integrated range of Revenue Assurance applications targeted at the network-to-bill, interconnect and wholesale and fraud areas. The system's ability to capture every network transaction helps to verify the accuracy of wholesale and retail transactions, identify service abuse and fraud, and manage interconnect services and billing more efficiently. Decision makers in all business sectors can also develop new network and marketing strategies, extracting valuable information from this gold standard of reference data and sharing these insights across the organization. Agilent's OSS Revenue Assurance solutions provide you with quickly deployed capability to increase revenues, manage your network more efficiently and meet customer expectations. Agilent Professional Services A full range of consultancy, integration and tailored support services complement the access7 Revenue Assurance portfolio. Solution Consultants will work with you to define your business and technical requirements in detail and develop a precisely targeted solution. Agilent's extensive experience in delivering complex systems ensures a smooth installation and commissioning process, with expert system integrators embedding the solution within your own OSS environment. This minimizes on-going system management costs. Training classes, implementation and value-added consulting services make sure that your staff can use the solution to maximize your investment. Agilent's worldwide support organization provides the breadth of services to let you select the package of proactive and reactive support that exactly meets your needs. About Agilent Agilent Technologies is a leading provider of components, test, measurement, monitoring and management solutions for the communications industry. Agilent enables designers, manufacturers and service providers to accelerate the delivery of next-generation devices, networks and services. Its broad set of solutions and services include optical, wireless, Internet and broadband technologies that span the entire communications lifecycle. Agilent's 28,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Information about Agilent is available on the web at www.agilent.com 5
www.agilent.com/comms/oss For more information about Agilent OSS Solutions, visit our website or call one of the following customer contact centers: Australia 1800 629 485 Austria 0820 87 44 11 Belgium +32 (0) 2 404 9340 Brazil +55 11 4197 3600 Canada 877 894 4414 China 800 810 0189 Denmark +45 70 13 15 15 Finland +358 (0) 10 855 2100 France +33 (0) 825 010 700 Germany +49 (0) 1805 24 6333 Hong Kong 800 930 871 India 1600 112 929 Ireland +353 (0) 1 890 924 204 Israel +972 3 9288 500 Italy +39 02 9260 8484 Japan 0120 421 345 Luxembourg +32 (0) 2 404 9340 Malaysia 1800 888 848 Mexico +52 55 5081 9469 Netherlands +31 (0) 20 547 2111 Russia +7 095 797 3963 Singapore 1800 375 8100 South Korea 080 769 0800 Spain +34 91 631 3300 Sweden 0200 88 22 55 Switzerland 0800 80 5353 Taiwan 0800 047 866 Thailand 1800 226 008 United Kingdom +44 (0) 7004 666666 USA 800 829-4444 Data Subject to change without notice. Agilent Technologies, Inc., 2004 Printed in the United Kingdom PUB. # 5988-4707EN October 29, 2004 U.S. Patent: 5,008,929 Canadian Patent: 2,033,800 Copyright: 1995, 1996, 2000 Verisign All rights reserved. 6