Article about the concept of billing by phone number/

Navigation

Billing! What a sonorous, mysterious word!
What does the dry transcript of this word sound like on Wikipedia? Billing means complex measures, actions, decisions at communication enterprises, where information is collected about different types of communication services, operator prices, customer invoices, and payment invoice processing.

Billing - navigation on a mobile phone.

In fact, Billing- the system is additional program to support business services in the field of communication.

What does billing by phone number mean?

Billing by phone number, or rather billing among operators cellular communications, is a series of services offered to the subscriber. The following services are provided in this area:

• searching for a person, navigation to the location of a person or object, authorization in a communication network using an unchangeable code, analysis of calls, storage of subscriber data, and so on.

How does all this happen?

Let's say we need to find a person, establish the coordinates of his location, that is, carry out billing– surgery.
A regular call is a specific group of actions. As stated above, any cellular telephone has its own code (email). When making calls, that is, authorization on the network mobile communications, the code works like the series number of a telephone set. The code is also used to track telephone devices (for example, stolen ones) and block them.
The code - identifier (email) remains constant, no matter how the SIM card changes. It is not difficult to figure out who used the SIM card.

There are incoming and outgoing calls and messages from each phone. Based on these actions, the operator can also find out where the person is.

How does subscriber cellular communication work?

• the subscriber turns on the phone and gets in touch
• the signal from the phone (receiver-transmitter) passes to the antenna of the mobile communication station
• the location of the person with the phone is approximately determined
• the error depends on the geological features of the area, the number of cellular stations in a certain square of the region

The probability of finding a person is 100 percent, or almost 100 percent.
No search is completed without the data provided as a result of the analysis billing. IN billing includes analysis of incoming and outgoing calls, messages, call history, duration, price.
Operators keep the subscriber’s personal data and call details completely confidential, in accordance with the law on telecommunications and communications, the protection of personal data of users.
Data billing– systems can be provided to law enforcement agencies upon investigation of crimes, by court decision.

The subscriber himself is prohibited from engaging in billing without permission from the relevant authorities.
Billing, a very effective, powerful, but expensive search tool.

Video: How to find a person by phone number?

They cannot exist without billing, thanks to which bills are issued to consumers of their services and the economic component of their activities is ensured.

For billing systems in telecommunications in Russian the term is also used automated payment system (ASR), in particular, this term is used in official documents of the Russian Ministry of Communications, prescribing mandatory certification of billing systems.

Billing features

Billing functions at an enterprise are grouped into three main blocks: settlement operations, information services, and financial services.

Broadly speaking, when considering billing in integration with revenue management. Billing and revenue management ) additionally highlight such functions as guaranteeing income (eng. revenue assurance), subscriber profitability management (eng. profitability management), subscriber fraud control (eng. fraud management).

Settlement operations

The calculation operations block includes functions such as determining consumption (for example, receiving detailed information about calls from switches, processing data from switching equipment on traffic consumption, receiving data from a mediation system), estimating consumption (determining the calculated characteristics of consumption data), aggregation estimates and formation of charges for subscribers, calculation of taxes, discounts, additional charges, adjustments, issuing invoices for payment, ensuring delivery or familiarization of subscribers with invoices for payment, managing personal accounts of subscribers.

The implementation of the calculation block can vary significantly both for different types of communications and in different models relationships with subscribers.

Prepaid

Prepaid (prepayment) - a model of settlements with subscribers and agents, which involves the preliminary deposit of funds into your personal account of a communication service operator, which are subsequently spent on paying for the services received. Prepaid settlement systems usually keep records in real time, directly managing the process of providing services; upon reaching the lower threshold of the amount of funds in the counterparty's account, the mode of providing services can be changed (up to complete termination). The amount of funds in the account, the duration of maintaining a positive balance, the size and regularity of receipts can serve as tariff parameters when calculating the cost, quality and quantity of services provided.

Functionality to support restriction of access to real-time communications services with a prepaid billing model is sometimes referred to as hot billing.

Postpaid

Postpaid- a payment model in which the operator first provides services to the subscriber or agent within the framework of an agreement concluded with him, and then carries out charging and issuing invoices for payment. The process of tariffing and invoicing is planned and regular and usually covers the calendar period of time specified in the contract (most often a month, sometimes a week, quarter, year). The counterparty is obliged to pay the amount of the invoice within the period of time specified in the contract; in case of late payment, the methods of working with the debtor specified in the contract are applied to him, as part of the processes for collecting receivables.

Information service

Information services include functions to support operational information about subscribers, about products and services, including their tariffs, restrictions, possible combinations, as well as configuration data about billing in general (for example, billing and billing schedules, managing subscriber notification events, auditing and aging settings information, acceptable characteristics of subscribers).

Financial services

Financial services cover the functions of payment processing, their reconciliation for issued invoices and services, management of subscriber accounts receivable and the process of collection, processing of tax data.

Billing location in the enterprise

Inter-operator billing

Transit billing

Convergent billing

Convergent billing(from lat. convergego- “bringing together”) - billing focused on issuing uniform bills to subscribers in the conditions of multi-service networks and various payment models.

Convergent billing system unifiedly processes data on a wide range of services provided, providing a single personal account and single invoices for payment for each subscriber, regardless of the set of services used by the subscriber (this can simultaneously be various services of fixed telephony, mobile communications, data transmission, television, content services), and regardless of the principle of calculating charges for them (services can be purchased either prepaid or paid according to contractual principles)

Billing systems market

The annual volume of the global billing systems market in 2007 was estimated at $6 billion, and its growth is projected to reach $7.2 billion by 2012, while the market was divided into the following components by area of ​​application:

Notes

1. , pp. 3-5
2. Billing. TM Forum Knowledge. TM Forum (May 17, 2011). Archived"Billing" is the group of processes and systems that are responsible for collection of appropriate usage records, determining charging and billing information, production of timely and accurate bills, for providing pre-bill use information and billing to customers, for processing their payments, and performing payment collections
3. Ministry of Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation On approval of the rules for the use of automated settlement systems (Russian). Rossvyaz (July 2, 2007). Archived from the original on August 24, 2011. Retrieved May 15, 2011.
4. , pp. 3-7
5. , pp. 7-13
6. , pp. 13-14
7. Pulkkinen, Kari Convergent charging is the route to increased competitiveness for operators. OSS/BSS Analyst (29 May 2006). Archived
8. Törnkvist, Robert and Schubert, Ralph Ericsson convergent charging and billing. Ericsson Review Magazine. Ericsson (2009-30-01). Archived from the original on August 24, 2011. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
9. Dinan, Michael Forecast: Global Telecom Billing to Hit $7.6 Billion in 2012 (English). TMC Network (17 October 2008). Archived from the original on August 24, 2011. Retrieved May 17, 2011.
10. Mottishaw, Peter Billing market share report 2009. Sample pages Archived from the original on August 24, 2011. Retrieved May 17, 2011.
11. Mottishaw, Peter Billing market share report 2009 (English). Analysis Mason (27 July 2010). Archived from the original on August 24, 2011. Retrieved May 17, 2011.

Literature

• Hunter, Jane M. and Thiebaud, Maud E.

Thinking about pressing problems and reconciling debit with credit, wondering how to make payments, saving time, and not losing money, I came to the conclusion that electronic payment for me is the most convenient form of mutual settlement with a service provider.

Having a regular bank card, I can make any purchases and pay for replenishment mobile phone and run a business. And at the same time, I don’t have to stand in long lines at the bank’s cash desk or wait until they write out a receipt for payment with a note in the corner. It turned out that this was the ideal solution for me. I took it into account, but notes of doubt still crept into my consciousness. How beneficial is this for me? What is the likelihood of an error when paying by electronic payment? The stereotype is strong: “Without a piece of paper, you....” Yes, and I have heard about various cases of loss of payment or disappearance of money from a mobile phone.

I decided to figure it out: how all this happens and who controls it. I read a lot of information and found out how it all works. It turns out that there is such a system - billing is not a physical law, but an ordinary program for conducting mutual settlements. That is, in ordinary words and for a common person, a billing system is a separate computer with a simple person. It will be enough for a common man to know the principle of operation of the system and not bother his head with all the abstruse information that I have read.

Want to know what billing is?

Billing in slang translation means calculation, and it turns out that the system of such calculation has long been entrenched in our lives. I never even thought about how money is withdrawn from a mobile phone. It turns out that this is controlled by a billing system that stores data about the client, his tariffs, and the direction of calls. Complete information about what is happening. Data is exchanged online between the subscriber and the billing center. You can check your phone account immediately after the call, but they have already calculated it for you and debited it from your balance. Everyone uses billing: mobile terminals, telecommunications providers, mobile operators, Internet banking, hosting providers, and so on. Absolutely all companies and private entrepreneurs related to information technologies and payments by electronic payment, use billing technology.

What is billing and how does it work?

Software for billing systems is developed individually, according to the specifics of the customer. These can be multifunctional applications for an online store, or corporate development (like MTS functionality). Everything happens automatically, under the control of the program. calculation for each client individually, according to prepaid or contract tariff plan- everything is taken into account. Any little things. Not a single second or kilobyte of traffic will remain unaccounted for, everything is calculated and charged. And often completely not in favor of the consumer. The tricks that some companies in the industry resort to are simply amazing, and their earnings increase by an order of magnitude.

The main task of billing is the transfer of client funds to the company for services provided. Or in the opposite direction - accrual of package services in the amount paid, according to the tariff plan, by the client. Everything, of course, is much more complicated if you thoroughly understand what billing is. There is a lot that billing considers and controls, but you shouldn’t worry about it, unless, of course, you want to become a developer. To do this, you will have to study much more deeply the entire “kitchen” of telecommunications and communications.

After spending several hours searching for the truth, I came to the conclusion that the billing system does an excellent job and can be trusted. After all, it is she who protects from scammers. It controls financial flows and distributions between service providers and subscribers. Now you know what billing is.

Billing systems: basic concepts

Billing. What associations does this term evoke? Maybe there is some connection with Bill Gates? No, fortunately he has not yet “poked his nose” into the field of telecommunications. Well, that's just a joke. But to be serious, let's look at the origins of the word billing. The English word “bill” can be translated as “account” (other translations: bill, banknote). “Billing” is translated by the expression “writing an invoice.”

What is a billing system?

Systems that calculate the cost of communication services for each client and store information about all tariffs and other cost characteristics that are used by telecommunications operators to issue invoices to subscribers and mutual settlements with other service providers are called billing systems; the cycle of operations they perform is called billing. Billing system (BS) is an accounting system software, in other words, “software” developed specifically for operators. Which operators? Telecommunications. That is, we are not talking only about cellular operators. BSs are also used by regular (landline, wireline) communication operators. In small offices, for example, you can conduct telephony billing (analyze: who called, when, how long the conversation lasted). IP telephony is another area of ​​application of BS. What about Internet providers? They also use BS, for example, to generate invoices and record traffic. Any BS is created on the basis a certain system database management (DBMS). Most BS in the world were created on the basis of the Oracle DBMS. Among other DBMSs, Sybase and Informix can be distinguished as designed for large volumes of information. Here are the names of some billing systems: BIS, Flagship, CBOSS, Arbor, Bill-2000-prepaid. It is worth mentioning that BS may also mean Hardware involved in organizing billing.

Terminology

I will try to consider all the basic concepts and definitions related to BS. I will focus on the BS used by cellular operators. But most definitions also apply to BS used in other areas. I will try to explain it as simply as possible so that most readers can understand the material. If you have anything to add to the terms I have entered, please write to me by e-mail.

There are several names for the billing system: ASR— automated payment system; IHD— information billing system.

One of the important qualities of BS is its flexibility, that is, the ability to adapt to changed circumstances. The flexible system is adapted not only to the immediate needs of the operator; due to such qualities as customizability, modularity and openness, it allows you to solve promising problems. The more options the system has for customization, the better. What is it modularity? The modular principle of building a system is a principle in which the entire system is assembled from individual parts (modules), just like a house is assembled brick by brick. The BS also consists of such modules - subsystems. The BS includes, for example, a data pre-processing subsystem, an operational billing management subsystem, and a customer notification subsystem (read below about the structure and functions of the BS). Under openness The system implies the openness of the source code of the software product, which allows the operator not to depend on the developer in the future and independently maintain and upgrade the system. Closely related to the flexibility of the BS is the next quality of automated calculation systems - scalability.

Load scalability. With the growth of the subscriber base and the appearance of additional services, there should be no need to change or modify the software part of the BS. Increasing the capabilities of the BS should be achieved by upgrading the system hardware. What is important to consider when designing scalable systems? It is necessary to use DBMS designed for large volumes of data. The DBMS must be compatible with various computer platforms to provide support for multiprocessor operation.

Reliability- one of the basic requirements for any system. The reliability of the BS is determined by the reliability of the DBMS and the technologies used in system development. Not least important is the reliability of the supplier (developer) of application software: the time it has been on the market and, as an indirect indicator, the percentage of presence of the systems it has developed on the telecommunications market. Why is the indicator indirect? Is it possible Microsoft Windows the best and most reliable operating system?... And at the same time it has a significant market share. However, the reliability of the BS is also ensured by compliance with certain standards during their development (read about this below).

Multilingual— ability to install different languages ​​for presenting information.

Multicurrency— ability to work with any currencies

Deferred billing— billing, in which payments are made after calls have taken place.

Hot billing— the account balance changes during the conversation, and information about the balance on your account can be obtained immediately after the call.

Billing optimization— improvement, improvement by the operator of his BS.

Big BS— systems used by large operators.

Posting billing— recording the results of billing calculations; After calculations, the results become available to users (sent out, printed).

What can, what should, or what is the BS responsible for?

European (origin) standard TAR appeared in 1992. It is maintained by the TADIG working group. Most European operators use TAR2, although there is a third version. Since 1995, modification TAP2, known as specification TD.27, or NAGTAP2, began to be used in the USA.

Instead of a conclusion

You take your cell phone out of your pocket, dial the number, press “call” and... the conversation takes place. Now you can't wait to find out your account balance. If the billing system is “hot”, you are immediately informed of this amount. “I calculated everything accurately, it’s a good billing system,” you think. Meanwhile, the other subscriber finds out that he has just reached his time limit and has been disconnected. “Why do I need this “hot” billing! Stupid billing system!” he complains... Yes, you can’t please everyone at the same time!

Special thanks to Bolshovaya Galina, magazine columnist, for information support

The platform processes InitialDP 37 ms; the subscriber listened to beeps for 10 seconds; The duration of the conversation is a little more than 5 minutes.

Billing collects information about the use of telecommunications services, their tariffs, and is responsible for billing subscribers and processing payments.

There are 2 main types of calculation:

• Postpay- issuing an invoice for the period based on its results (postpaid)
• And advance system(prepaid), when money is paid in advance.

Postpayment appeared historically earlier, but prepayment turned out to be more convenient for customers (more controllable - if something goes wrong, a disconnection occurs, rather than a large bill being issued).

Postpaid system

When a postpaid payment system subscriber uses the services of an operator, special CDR (Charging Data Record) files are generated on the switches. Essentially, these are ordinary logs that indicate the subscriber number, date, call time/volume of downloaded traffic, etc. Billing, at a certain time (for example, once a day) connects to the switch, downloads CDRs, calculates the cost of services and saves everything in a database (usually Oracle). The subscriber is then issued a total invoice at the end of the month.

Scheme of interaction of the Postpaid platform with the core of the operator’s network.
CSN- circuit switching network; Represented by channel switches (MSC).
PSN– packet switching network; Represented by packet switches and gateways (SGSN and GGSN, respectively).

The principle of operation of the postpaid system is relatively simple, because it does not require a real-time response from the platform: after all, the subscriber does not need to be warned about reaching zero (and, accordingly, there is no need to change the nature of the network’s interaction with him).

Advance system

In the case of advance charging, the telecom operator, in addition to taking into account the volume of services provided, needs to solve the problem of tracking the subscriber's current account and, if it reaches zero, inform the subscriber/disable the provision of the service. Therefore, such systems are also called Online Charging System (OCS).

Since the operator provides different types services and are used different types networks (channel/packet switching system), then billing to solve the problem of monitoring a subscriber’s account has to use different charging protocols, for example the following:

Scheme of interaction of the prepaid platform with the operator’s network.

Let's look at these protocols in more detail.

CAP

CAP(CAMEL Application Part) is an application layer protocol of the SS7 stack that implements intelligent services in GSM/UMTS networks (for example, prepaid).

Place of the protocol in the SS7 stack. The figure also shows a popular option using SIGTRAN technology (an SS7 extension that allows the use of the “seven” protocols over an IP network).

Using this protocol, OCS communicates with the circuit switching network. Here is an example of outgoing voice call pricing:

Charging dialog using the CAP protocol, dotted lines show ISUP messages.

1. First, the billing system receives a message (Initial Detection Point) from the MSC1 switch, which transmits the subscriber’s parameters. These are incoming and outgoing numbers, the cell address of the called subscriber and others. Based on this, it is possible to begin analyzing the call. Billing creates a certain Detection Point - that is, the call state. OCS determines whether the subscriber can make a voice call (whether there are funds in the account), if so, then for what maximum time.
2. After this, OCS responds to the switch with a Request Report BCSM Event (“I have initialized the Detection Point, I am waiting for further information from you about the status of the call”). And sends Apply Charging (“the subscriber has funds in his account, I authorize the call”). The maximum time that the subscriber can use is also sent there.
3. The switch, having received permission from OCS, initiates a voice connection between subscribers using the ISUP protocol, sending an IAM (Initial Address Message) message to MSC2.
4. MSC2 responds to MSC1 with an ACM (Address Complete Message), in in this case this means “yes, my subscriber, he is online now, I’m starting to call him.” Having received this message, MSC1 turns on long beeps to subscriber A.
5. Subscriber B picks up the phone, MSC2 sends MSC1 the message ANM (Answer Message) - “my subscriber picked up the phone, connect them.”
6. MSC1 connects subscriber A and B, a conversation begins. MSC1 sends an Event Report BCSM (O_Answer) message to the OCS. OCS changes its call state for of this subscriber. From this moment, charging begins (taking into account that the first 3 seconds are free).
7. While subscribers are communicating, MSC1 monitors the call time. If there is little time left, the MSC warns the subscriber with an audible signal.
8. In our case, subscriber B hangs up first, MSC1 and MSC2 make a friendly handshake using REL (Release Message) and RLC (Release Complete Message) messages.
9. MSC1 sends the message Event Report BCSM (O_Disconnect - “subscribers successfully disconnected”) and Apply Charging Report (how many seconds the conversation lasted) to OCS.
10. OCS accepts this data and responds that the session can now be closed.

INVOKE --- A1 TAG: A1h 1B LEN: 27 --- INVOKE ID --- 02 TAG: 02h INTEGER 01 LEN: 1 02 INVOKE ID: 2 === CAP === --- INVOKE --- -- - OPERATION --- 02 TAG: 02h INTEGER 01 LEN: 1 23 OPERATION: 35 = applyCharging --- APPL CHARG --- 30 TAG: 30h SEQUENCE 13 LEN: 19 --- ACH BCC --- 80 TAG: 80h 0C LEN: 12 --- TDC --- A0 TAG: A0h 0A LEN: 10 --- MAX C P D --- 80 TAG: 80h 03 LEN: 3 01 19 40 MAX C P D: 4370

This is part of the trace. We see that the applyCharging message was sent via the CAP protocol, the maximum conversation time (MAX CPD - Maximum Call Period Duration) is 437.0 seconds.

I’ll duplicate the picture before the kata: this is an example of communication using the CAP protocol. Timestamps can be estimated: the platform processes InitialDP 37 ms; the subscriber listened to beeps for 10 seconds; The duration of the conversation is a little more than 5 minutes.

But here the call is long and you can see how the system itself requests the call status (activityTest) from MSC every 6 minutes. This was done so that, in the event of any error, the conversation would not last for days (until all the subscriber’s money is debited).

The CAP protocol can charge not only voice calls - it is also capable of charging Internet connections, SMS, MMS, and so on. Although in practice, specially tailored protocols (DIAMETER/OSA) are most often used for these needs.

O.S.A.

O.S.A.(Open Service Access) - an open software interface developed by the 3GPP and ETSI consortium, often used for charging VAS services and mobile internet.

Let's consider the operation of this protocol using the example of tariffing for mobile Internet services:

1. When you try to activate PDP Context (the phone receives an IP address on the network mobile operator) GGSN requests the platform whether this subscriber can activate a charging session (CreateChargingSessionReq).
2. In our case, everything is fine (the subscriber is in the database, there are funds), the platform creates a charging session and allows the PDP Context to be activated (CreateChargingSessionResp).
3. Now the subscriber wants to start downloading data. To allow him to do this, GGSN contacts the platform with a request to reserve funds (ReserveUnitReq). In general, unit is an abstract thing, it can be anything - a kilobyte of data, a text message, a second of conversation, a ruble, a pizza, a barrel, and so on. In our case, unit is 100 kB.
4. The platform checks whether a given subscriber, in accordance with his tariff, has funds for 100 kB of traffic and responds with the message ReserveUnitResp (“funds are reserved”). Having received this message from the platform, GGSN allows the subscriber to download traffic.
5. When the subscriber has downloaded the reserved portion of traffic, GGSN contacts the platform with the message DebitUnitReq (“you can write off the reserved funds”).
6. The platform debits the funds and responds with the message DebitUnitResp (“funds successfully debited”).
7. The ReserveUnitReq-DebitUnitResp cycle is repeated until the subscriber downloads the entire Internet and closes the Internet session.
8. When PDP Context is deactivated, GGSN sends a message to the platform indicating the end of the charging session; the memory allocated for this session is freed.

Request debitUnitReq; OSA commands are wrapped in the SOAP protocol, which in turn is encapsulated by the HTTP protocol.

Conclusion

Changing customer needs (including an increase in the volume of transferred data), the creation of new types of services, entails the evolution of the mobile operator’s network, primarily in the field of VAS platforms and billing systems.

If the topic of AAA family protocols is interesting to you, then later I will talk about RADIUS, DIAMETER and other interesting things.