Billing and Customer Care System

(BCCS)

Functions of BCCS

٭ Provisioning

Billing ٭

Customer Care ٭

BCCS BLOCK DIAGRAM

WANTCP/IP

CSR

CSR

CSR

OM

BP

OMDatabase

Customer

DATABASE

Connect VU

Mediation

CDR

Storage

MSC

IN

UMS

WAP

IN

MSCs

WAP

UMS

SMSC

TCP/IP

FTAM

TCP/IP

TCP/IP

TCP/IP

Level 2 RouterCisco 2621

LAN SwitchCisco 2950

PC/Terminal

HP Printer

Connectivity toLevel 1 router

CSR CONNECTIVITY SCHEMATIC

Ethernet port Serial port

LAN cable

E1 at each location Is backed up with ISDN BRI

Servers located at Pune

Central SwitchE1 Converter

Ahmedabad

NagpurRaipur

Bhopal

Pune

50 CSR Node connected

50 CSR Node connected

50 CSR Node connected

50 CSR Node connected

50 CSR Node connected

Ring network for CSR connectivity

250 CSR sites are connecting centrally at Pune via level1 routers connected in ring. The level1 routers are connected between Pune, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Bhopal & Raipur.

All the CSR locations are connected to level1 router via 1 E1 link, depending on their region.

Activities done at CSR locations are:• Provisioning.• Billing information for the customers.• Duplicate billing.• Booking.• Allocation of Plan.• Prepaid & Postpaid.• Collections.

5505 S/W

Central Router 7206

MSC Network diagram

MSC Router

X25 Router

MSC Locations:

Pune

Aurangabad

Nagpur

Ahmedabad

Rajkot

Surat

Bhopal

Raipur

Billing servers

MSC Network is connected to 8 locations within the west zone. Pune, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, Bhopal & Raipur.

The connectivity diagram for the same is given below:• Each MSC location is connected with 1 E1 link & ISDN as a backup.• The E1 link is connected to the MSC router & then connected to X25 router.• The X25 router is connected to the switch where all the CDR’s are collected.• All the locations are connected at Pune to the Central Router.• The Central Router is connected to the Billing Servers via Cisco switch.• All the CDR’s are further send to Billing Servers for processing.

ARBOR/OM

• An order Management System which supports order handling.

• It supports workflow management activities for products and services.

• It is used in tandem with arbor/BP.

ORDER(Central Concept of OM)

• Every order is associated with a master Account.• Master Account may be an existing account from BP

as a new or pending account in OM.• An order consists of one or more items.• A single order can contain any combination of new,

modified or disconnected service.• Examples of order

a. Create new Accountsb. Add products & servicesc. Change products & services.d. Discontinue products or services.

System Architecture

• OM system architecture routes all communications between the user interface (GUI) and the database through a middle layer.

• OM is built around a RDBMS (relational database management system) that contains all orders and account information as well as system configuration information.

System ArchitectureContd…..

• OM servers and databases are logical entities and they need not be uniquely associated with physical database.

Network provisioning workflow

• The network provisioning process begins when the CSR commits an “order” comprised of one of more products associated with network provisioning related workflow items. The sequence of state transitions occurring for each of the product level workflow items associated with the new order.

ORDER FLOW

BP

CSR OMCONNECT

VU SWITCH

1. ICC gives an order

2. Order gets inserted into a table in OM Database

3. Provmgr picks up the order and sends it to connect VU

9. Provupdater updates the status of order as completed.

10. Arbor updated then updates the order in the BP database.

4. The order is queued in the connectVU for respective GW

5. Order is sent to the NE(Switch) for provisioning.

8. CVU completes the order and sends acknowledgement to OM.

6. The order gets executed in the switch.

7. Switch sends an ack back to CVU.

1310

8

5

7

Role of Mediation

• Collects CDRs from various NEs

• Filters the CDRs (Allowing all & only billable CDRs to the Billing System)

• Formats the CDRs as required by the Billing System

• Can store CDRs for a certain time period

Flow of CDRsFlow of CDRs

Mediation System BILLDATS

MSC BPL MSC AHM

WAP

UMS

IN

SMSC

ARBOR BILLING SYSTEM

MSC Pune

FTAM FTAMFTAM

TCP/IP

TCP/IP

TCP/IP

TCP/IP

TCP/IP

Size of CDRs

• In MSC - 120 – 200 Bytes

• There are various modules according to the type of Call (IN,VPN etc)

• IN BP size of CDR is fixed 472 Bytes

• No attached modules

Analysis of CDRs

• Basic Call records - 55 %

• Supplementary CDRs - 12 %

• Auxillary CDRs - 33 %

CDRs in BP

• Only 25-20 % of the CDRs are able to make it to the Billing System

• If we block MTC at the mediation this further gets reduced to 12-15 %

The CDRs in BP

• MTC - 48 - 52 %

• MOC - 20 - 25 %

• RMR - 4-5 %

• VPN - 0-2 %

• REST - 0-2 %

• SMS - 18 – 20 %

Salient Configurations• All the voice call details (Both prepaid and

postpaid) are collected from MSC

• The CDRs from IN are not used by the billing for any purpose ( Although they are not required for bill generation purpose)

Salient Configuration (Contd ..)

• All the SMS CDRs are collected from SMSC except the MT-SMS of Inroamers

• The call detail records of DATA calls are being collected from MSC.

Problems in Mediation Logic

The problems arises when mediation is unable to do its job of sending all the billable CDRs and only the billable CDRs to the billing sytem.

The latter results in the CDRs ending up in MIU

Problems in Mediation Logic ..

1. Mediation has been unable to properly distinguish between prepaid and postpaid CDRs. Which results in non billable CDRs going into Billing systems and are rejected by the MPS going into MIU.

Problems in Mediation Logic ..

2. Since all the SMS CDRs are collected from SMSC, mediation doesn’t find enough information in these CDRs to distinguish between postpaid and prepaid , resulting in all prepaid SMS CDRs ending into MIU.

Usage Processing Tasks

• Retrieve records of usage events from network mediation layers.

• Calculate usage charges for each usage event.

• Route usge records for roaming clients to clearing house.

• Store usage records for local customers in the local database.

Bill Processing Tasks

• Calculate customer balances based on charges and credits (e.g. service charges, monthly fees, usage charges, taxes, late fees, adjustments, discounts and payments).

• Arrange charges and credits on formatted customer bills.

• Dispatch customer bills.

Roaming CDR Management

• Roaming subscriber becomes a part of visited network.• Based on foreign IMSI, CDRs are grouped in TAP files.• TAP files are rated as per defined plans.• TAP files are sent to Home Network through clearing Houses.• Clearing House validates the TAP files.• Co-ordinates for missing and error files.• Generates high usage report & fraud reports.• For MTNL Delhi & Mumbai, TAP files are exchanged through

MACH Bangalore.• For BSNL Networks TAP files are exchanged directly between

zonal billing centres.

Pre-Bill Checks Carried out at BCCS Before Issue of Bills

1. Check for all promotional schemes discount e.g.

a. Ganesh Festival discount scheme effective b. Dassehra Postpaid schemec. Rs.100/- discount upto 6 months

2. Discount for unlimited SMS only for Plan 525.3. Check for more than one packages attached to a

service instant.4. Check for nil packages attached.5. Check for discount for friends & family

Pre-bill checks Contd………..

6. Check for non charging of activation fee for change of plan cases.

7. Updation of all batch payments8. Extra charges due to attachment of

itemized bill more than once.9. Filtering of duplicate CDRs10.Non charging of Online calls for VPN

accounts.