EI_GSM_ICB

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ENGINEERING INSTRUCTION

INTRODUCTION TO ICB (INTER-CONNECT BILLING) IN GSM

!"(No.: GSM/BILLING/A-032)

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20 34".

(A Govt. of India Enterprise)TECHNICAL &

DEVELOPMENT CIRCLE,

(ISO 9001:2000 Certified)

No of Pages) : 11

(Issue Number) : 01

(Issued By) : T&D, Circle

Approved By) : CGM T&D Circle

(Date of Issue): 29.09.2007

Amendment No. If Any): Nil

Page Nos. Amended) :

(Issued By) : Approved By) :

(Date of Issue) :

All efforts have been made to incorporate all relevant up to date information available, any

discrepancies or need for addition or deletion is felt necessarily may please be intimated to

this office for further improvement, on E-Mail Id [email protected].

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BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED

(A Govt of India Enterprises)

Restricted to BSNL Staff only

ISSUE No.1

Page 2 of 11

Date: 29.09.2007

INTRODUCTION TO ICB (INTER-CONNECT BILLING) IN GSM

1.0 Scope:

This EI describes the ICB (Inter Connect Billing) for GSM network.

2.0 Introduction:

In old single operator environment the life was simple. When a customer makes a phone call thenwe manage the end to end process of delivering the calls to its destination and bill the customer

for it. Now in modern multi-operator environment the situation is more complex. There was a

need for specifying cost based interconnection usage charge for origination, transit and

termination in multi-operator environment. The Interconnect Usage Charge (IUC) for origination,transit and termination are based on the principles of element based charging i.e. one operator

charging the other for the resources consumed for carriage of its calls in terms of minutes of use

(MOU). The originating service provider shall retain origination charges from the residual, after

payment of the charges for carriage, termination and access deficit charge (ADC).

Interconnection means the commercial and technical arrangements under which service providersconnect their equipment, networks and services to enable their customers to have access to the

customers, services and networks of other service providers.

Interconnect Usage Charges (IUC) is a combination of Access Deficit Charges (ADC), CarryingCharges and Termination Charges. IUC is collected to compensate basic telecom operators like

BSNL for investment in backward and rural areas.`

Implementation of Inter Operator Billing and Accounting system (IOBAS) has been completed.

BSNL plans to provide CDR based Customer Care and Convergent Billing system. This will help

Company in providing effective and efficient billing & customer care solutions for its fixed line

subscribers. It envisages building of country wide intranet to reduce the cost of operation,increase realization, stop leakage of revenue and minimize frauds, besides providing round the

clock best customer care services to the Companys subscribers.

Interconnection Charge means the charge for interconnection by an interconnection provider (theservice provider to whose network an interconnection is sought for providing telecommunication

services) to an interconnection seeker (the service provider who seeks interconnection to the

network of the interconnection provider). Usage Charge means the charge levied by a serviceprovider for carriage of telecommunication traffic on its network.

Access Deficit Charges (ADC) is a concept devised by the Telecom Regulatory Authority ofIndia (TRAI), recognizing that basic telecom service providers in India had historically run a

cross-subsidized system. Under this system, high long distance tariffs raked in surpluses which

were used to offset losses created by low cost items such as local calls, monthly rentals, free calls

provided by fixed line operators etc. With competition eroding the fat margins available in thelong distance segment, this system could not continue. Hence TRAI introduced ADC, which is

paid only to fixed line operators, since they alone had been prevented by regulation from

recovering costs, while cellular operators were not compelled to fix tariffs below cost.



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IUC (Interconnect Usage Charges) is a rating and settlement solution designed to offer thefunctionality and the performance required by today's dynamic telecommunications market. The

system has vital capabilities to verify interconnect settlement bills from other operators and

generate accurate interconnect settlement reports. It involves functionalities like CDR Decoding,

Guiding, Rating, and Generating Invoicing, Reconciliation and various Reports requested by

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The possibility of generating Invoice & reconciliation for SMS usage between operators by ICBserver should also be explored. As such the ICB server, in the present version, is able to give

SMS tentative counts for inter operator settlement, if required, from the MSC CDRs. It is

proposed to collect SMSC CDRs as well, and the ICB server should consider the successful SMOCDRs from SMSC for reconciling the other operators invoice and SMT CDRs from MSCs for

raising Invoice to other operators.

Further, the ICB server may also be made use of for generating & reconciling Invoices ofSMS/MMS content providers. At present this is happening at the SMSC itself by way of reports.

3.0 DEFINITION OF POI:

POI is point through which a Service provider is connected to the external telecom world. POI is

the point connecting one operators network with the other operators network through a set of

well defined trunks.

In the mobile network Point Of Interconnection (POI) is a point at which the

GMSC of Fully Mobile network of UASL ( Unified Access Service Licensee ) and

Gateway Switch of BSNL or local / tandem / TAX exchange of the basic service

network of UASL and local / Tandem / TAX of BSNL are interconnected by the facility

of interconnection seeker and where the specified Network-Network Interface Standards

are applicable.

POIs are classified into different categories like Non trunk POI, Level 1 POI, Level 2 POI,

NLDO POI, USAL POI etc based on the calls transferred through them.

Some of the POIs are explained below:

1. Non-Trunk POI :

All Calls for which IUC is not applicable will be routed through this POI.Some of the Non-Trunk POI call scenarios are as follows.

1. Mobile own to Mobile own

2. National-roamer to Mobile own (MTC for home n/w subscriber)

3.

Inter-National roamer to Mobile own (MTC for home n/w subscriber)

Note: Physically there wont be any such POI. In all the above-mentioned call scenarios the calls

will be transmitted to the destination directly from the MSC using trunks of category Nontrunks.



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Date: 29.09.2007

2. Level 2 POI:

All intra circles Fixed/WLL calls can be transmitted through Level 2 POIs. Level 2 POIs of

metro cities like Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai are called Tandem POIs. And Level 2 POIs exists

in cities other then metro is called Normal POIs. Tandem POIs and Normal POIs are same

except the tariff will be different for both these POIs. The high potential in cities makes thenetworking easy. So there is slight decrease in the tariff rates. L2 POI calls will be charged with

the rate-plan defined for L2 POI.

Some of the L2 POI call scenarios are as follows.1. Cell own to Fix land/WLL own (local) and vise versa

2. Cell own to Fix Land/WLL others (local) and vise versa*

3.

Cell own to Emergency/Level 1 services*.

Note: Level 2 POIs are also called Level 2 Tax.

3.

Level 1 POI/Gateway POI:

All Type of Inter circle and In-roamers call will be transmitted through this POI. All these calls

will be charged with the rate-plan defined for L1 POI.

Some of the L1 POI call scenarios are as follows.

1. Cell Own To Fixed Own/WLL Own /Cell Own (STD/ISD) and vise versa

2. Cell Own To Cell Others (*Local/STD/ISD) and vise versa3. Cell Own to WLL Others/Fixed Others (STD/ISD) and vise versa

Note: Level 1 POIs are also called Level 1 Tax/Gateway Tax.

4. UASL Basic POI:

UASL refers to Universal Access Service License. Such POIs belongs to Private Operators

like Tata Indicom,Reliance etc and are used to transmit basic local calls (Fixed and WLL). Let

Tata Indicom Fixed Subscriber calls BSNL Cell subscriber, and if the TATA Indicom is havingUASL Basic POI it will be routed through this UASL Basic POI to BSNL subscriber.

UASL Basic call scenarios are as follows.

Cell Own To Fixed Others/WLL Others (Intra circle) and vise versa.

5. UASL Fully Mobile POI:

POIs thatbelongs to Private Operators like Airtel, is used to transmit local Cell calls.

UASL Fully Mobile call scenarios are as follows:

Cell Own To Cell Others (Local within PLMN) and vise versa.



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6. NLDO POI (National Long Distance Operator POI):POIs that belongs to Private Operators like, Airtel, which are used to transmit inter- circle Fixed,

WLL and Cell calls.

NLDO call scenario is as follows.

1.

Fixed/WLL/Cell Others (STD Inter circle) to Cell Own.2.

Fixed/WLL/Cell Others (ISD) to Cell Own.

Note: Cell Own can only receive call through this POI, cannot transmit any calls.

4.0 Objectives of ICB:

1. Produce an invoice for the calls delivered by /from another operator.

2. Reconciliation of the invoices received from other operators for the calls handled by

system

3. Produce a summarized statement (A net settlement between the two operators).4. Produce customize reports as per the user requirement.

5. Minimize Inter-operator disputes.

6.

Produce TRAI reports in different formats.

5.0 Collection of CDRs in GSM:

X.25 FTAM Link

X.25 LinkOver IP

As system is working on CDR based billing so it is important to see the collection of CDRs andby the path it reaches to the Inter-Connect Billing server (ICB Server).

In Lucent MSC CDRs are generated for each & every call (Incoming, Outgoing & Transit calls).

These CDRs from MSC are pulled by mediation servers. In Alcatel MSC CDRs are generatedfor each & every call in RCP these are pulled first in file collector & then by mediation servers.

From mediation servers CDRs for are sent to Billing Process for processing. The same CDRs

are pulled by ICB servers for further analysis.

Lucent

MSC

Alcatel

RCPFile

Collector Mediation

server

ICB

Server

Billing

Process



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6.0 SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE:The following diagram depicts the IUC architecture. As shown in the diagram IUC consists of

front end and batch components, which share a common database. Configuration tables are

maintained using the IUC GUI.

The decoder and guider modules validate and rate call data received from the mediation device as

per the billing reference data setup. This is typically done after the end of the working day,reading all call files received during the day. Rated call information is stored on the database and

reports are available online for checking the success of the run i.e. the number of callssuccessfully rated and those rejected.

From

Mediation

Server

UNIX FILE SYSTEM

The reporting module is accessed from the online menu. It allows the user to generate standard

reports.

RAW

CDR

Files

DATABASE

IUC

Application

Decoder

And

Guider

Decoded

Files

Rejected

Files

FRONT

END

GUI Base

REPORTS



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6.1 Pulling/Receiving RAW CDR Files from Mediation:IUC uses an FTP utility to pick the files from the mediation system. These files are received for

each location and stored in the file system. The files have a fixed naming convention and format

depending on the switch and the mediation system. Three possible modes of FTP available in the

system.

Raw CDR files contains CDR for following: Mobile Originating calls,

Mobile Terminating calls,

SMS (Short Mesage Service),

MMS (Multimedia Message Service),

GPRS (General Packet Radio Service),

WAP(Wireless Access Protocol),

EDGE(Enhanced Data For Global Evolution) ,

SMS MT (Mobile terminating) based content provider,

WAP based content provider.

Fully Automatic;This is the default value. The FTP application will scan for raw CDRs under

all MSCs for the last three days

Semi Automatic;The FTP application will scan for raw CDRs under all MSCs but date is taken

as an input

Manual; The FTP application will scan for raw CDRs under user specified MSC for user

specified date

Depending on the job schedule (using scheduling tools like cron / AT in UNIX) for each circle

the FTP process gets triggered. As soon as the file is received at IUC the same is picked by IUC

for processing. IUC provides the flexibility to process files for each location or for each switch.System maintains the log of the files received from the Mediation system. In Trichy, the

mediation system dumps the CDR files to the IUC Guide directory.

6.2 IUC Application Process Overview:

IUC is a single process, which does both decoding and guiding. This process is associated with

MSCs and can be started simultaneously for many MSCs. It takes RAWCDR files as its input,and then it decodes each and every record of it that is guided as and when it is decoded. The input

required for each MSC process is picked from the configurable path mentioned in

IUC_CONFIG_PROPERTYTABLE against that MSCs property. If the decoded output is turnedon, then the decoded file output will be placed in the configurable path mentioned in

IUC_CONFIG_PROPERTYTABLE. Decoding module of the IUC process converts the RAW

format of each record into readable format that can be understood well by guiding module.

Guiding module then checks out the appropriate values of the required elements for rating such asTrunkID, POIID, RPID, SPID, and DISTID.

Once it has succeeded in finding the necessary elements, that record along with the values itfound will be populated into respective MSC table for rating. If not, that record along with the

necessary errorID will be populated into that MSCs log table and also written into a flat file for

reprocessing at the configurable destination path mentioned in:



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IUC_CONFIG _PROPERTYTABLE against that MSCs property.

Following Details should be available for generating reports:

1. CDR Files (Decoded/Raw CDR) with the following mandatory fields:

a.

Call typeb. Record No

c.

MSC ID

d.

Calling Noe.

Called No

f. Original Called No

g. MSRN Noh. Out Trunk

i.

In Trunk

j.

Date & Time

k. Durationl. *Service Center Address

m.

**Indication for split CDRsn.

**Correlation ID

Note: * In case of SMS CDRs

**In case of Split CDRs

2. CDR File Identification:

Ex. If MS0145678.234567.00 and FT01455656.434343.00 are two CDR files then, first fewprefixed characters (like MS01, FT01) should help us in identifying CDR meant for which MSC.

3.

Circle details - MH Maharshatra , GJ Gujrat

4.

MSC details - MSC Name and MSC Id5.

POI details - POI Name, POI Level, Location

6. Trunk detail - Trunk Name and POI Name it is assigned to

6.3 Decoded Files:

This is the optional feature available in system by which the decoded files are stored for futureuse.

6.4 Rejected Files/CDRs:

If in RAW CDR/Decoded CDRs not having above mention mandatory fields, those

CDRs /Files are put in rejected files. This rejected file in turn generates error coded forCDRs /files. From these error codes problem is easily find out.



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CDRs for which the tariffs are not defined are rejected by the system and the same are loaded tothe rejected table. These are then to be analyzed and processed. The file wise summarized

information that can be drilled down to Operator-wise, POI wise, Distance Band wise, Time Band

and Time Slab wise, Pulse-rate wise.

7.2 Processing of Rejected CDRs:

The rejected CDRs are stored in the system with the proper reason of failure attributed to thesame. The administrator has to analyze the failed CDRs and apply the required corrections. The

corrections could be additions or modifications to the configurations, corrections to the CDRs,

corrections to the pulse sheets etc. After the required corrections are done, the failed CDRs can beprocessed from the GUI or thru batch program.

7.3 Invoicing:

Interconnect Billing System helps to generate invoices for the interconnect operators. The

architecture provides the provision to summarize the call details file wise. This summarized data

helps to generate invoices for operators. The system generates a detailed invoice listing the POIwise, bill run month wise, count of the CDRs, Minutes of Usage for the CDRs, pulses, charge

applied, amount for the calls.

7.4 Reconciliation:

When any of the operator/POI raises invoice against BSNL mobile, BSNL mobile has to make

sure that the invoice raised by that particular operator is acceptable. For this it has to go throughverification cycle, which checks the billable data sent from other operator with the data what

BSNL mobile has. This process of verification is known as Reconciliation. IUC compares

invoice data with the data available for the same period in database.

7.5 TRAI Report:

TRAI Report of ICB includes the following details:1. Equipped capacity as on last date of quarter

2. Subscriber base

3. Number of out-Roamers4. Number of in-Roamers

5. Total MOUs (outgoing excl ild)

6. Total MOUs (incoming excl ild)7. Proportion of peak:off-peak minutes (in %)

8.

Number of outgoing SMS

9. Gross revenue

10.

Inter connect charges payable11. Inter connect charges receivable

12.Net Revenue

13.

Average holding time14.Overall ARPU per month

15.ARPU per month for rural subscribers

16.ARPU per month for urban subscribers



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8.0 Glossary:ADC Access Deficit Charge

ARPU Average Revenue per Unit

CDR Call Detail Record

GUI- Graphical User Interface

ICB Interconnect BillingIOBAS Inter Operator Billing and Accounting System

IUC Interconnect BillingMOU Minutes of use

MMS - Multimedia Message Service

NLDO National Long Distance OperatorPOI point of Interconnect

SMS Short message service

TRAI Telecom Regulatory Authority of IndiaUASL Universal Access Service LicenseWLL Wireless in Local Loop

9.0 Reference:

Information on BSNL Internet site: http://www.bsnl.co.in/infomanual.doc.

ICB System Manual provided by M/s. BPL.

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