Billing and Customer Care System

(BCCS)

Functions of BCCS

Provisioning

Billing
Customer Care

BCCS BLOCK DIAGRAM

WAP

CSR
CSR
CSR

WAN
TCP/IP

OM

IN
UMS

OM
Database

BP

MSC

Connect
VU

Mediation

TCP/IP

IN

FTAM

MSCs

TCP/IP
TCP/IP

Customer
DATABASE

CDR
Storage

TCP/IP

WAP
UMS
SMSC

CSR CONNECTIVITY SCHEMATIC

Connectivity to
Level 1 router

E1 Converter
Ethernet port

Central Switch

Serial port

Level 2 Router
Cisco 2621

LAN cable
LAN Switch
Cisco 2950

Servers located at
Pune
HP Printer

PC/Terminal

E1 at each location
Is backed up with ISDN BRI

Ring network for CSR

connectivity
50 CSR
Node
connected
Ahmedabad
50 CSR
Node
connected

Bhopal
50 CSR
Node
connected
Pune

Nagpur
Raipur
50 CSR
Node
connected
50 CSR
Node
connected

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.

MSC Network diagram

X25 Router

MSC Router

Central Router 7206

Billing
servers

MSC
Locations:
Pune
Aurangabad
Nagpur
Ahmedabad
Rajkot
Surat
Bhopal
Raipur

5505 S/W

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 CDRs 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 CDRs are further send to Billing Servers for

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 Accounts
b. Add products & services
c. 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 Architecture
Contd..

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
10

CSR
1.

ICC gives
an order

OM

CONNECT
VU

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

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.

5
SWITCH
7

6. The order gets

executed in the
switch.
7. Switch sends an
ack back to CVU.

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 CDRs
MSC BPL

MSC Pune
IN

FTAM

MSC AHM

FTAM

TCP/IP
Mediation System
BILLDATS
SMSC

TCP/IP

FTAM

WAP

TCP/IP

TCP/IP
TCP/IP

ARBOR BILLING SYSTEM

UMS

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
MOC
RMR
VPN
REST
SMS

- 48 - 52 %
- 20 - 25 %
- 4-5 %
- 0-2 %
- 0-2 %
- 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 doesnt 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.

2.
3.
4.
5.

Check for all promotional schemes discount

e.g.
a. Ganesh Festival discount scheme effective
b. Dassehra Postpaid scheme
c. Rs.100/- discount upto 6 months
Discount for unlimited SMS only for Plan 525.
Check for more than one packages attached to a
service instant.
Check for nil packages attached.
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 payments
8. Extra charges due to attachment of
itemized bill more than once.
9. Filtering of duplicate CDRs
10. Non charging of Online calls for VPN
accounts.