University of Athens

http://www.cnl.di.uoa.gr

Communication Networks Laboratory

CHARGING, ACCOUNTING

& BILLING ISSUES

FOR NEXT GENERATION

MOBILE NETWORKS

Definition of basic terms

CHARGINGThe Charging function collects information related to a chargeable event from specific network nodes, which are able to generate such kind of information. As a chargeable event can be considered any activity utilising network resources and related services that the operator charges for.

BILLING

The Billing function processes the records coming from the charging functional entity according to the respective tariffs in order to calculate the charge for which the user should be billed.

ACCOUNTING

In case of roaming the Accounting function is responsible to calculate the portion that is due to each operator. Additionally, it is reasponsible for sharing the incoming revenue between the players (network operators, application/service providers).

PRICING

The Pricing function determines the necessary attributes for billing and accounting processes and defines the model that should be used for the calculation of charges and profits.

SGSN

GGSN

CGF

BILLING

SYSTEM

MSC

GMSC

Charging Model in Current Network

PS

CS {

{

USER

Configuration Messages

Charging Information

Bill

OSA-likeInterface

Open NetworkService for

Reconfigurability CAB Gateway

CAB Service

OpenNetworkServices

OpenNetworkServices

OSA-likeInterface

Pricing Policies

OpenAPIs

Service ProvidersDomain

Packet-SwitchedCore network

CGF

SGSN GGSN

HSS

Internet Multimedia Subsystem

GGSNSGSN

MeteringDevice

MD Reconfiguration Manager

MeteringDevice

OpenAPIs

OpenAPIs

Function

VAS

VAS

Circuit-SwitchedCore network

GMSC

MSCMMSRelay/Server

Service Domain

OpenNetworkServices

OpenNetworkServices

ManagerReconfiguration

ChargingFunction Service Manager

Advanced

Function

MD

VASAAA

VASMDAAA

LCS

Charging Architecture

ManagerRoaming Users

Billing

Accounting

I-CSCF

AS

S-CSCF

BGCF

MGCF

MRFC

P-CSCF

CCF

PS

CS

IMS

ServiceDomain

HSS

VASP

SGSN

GGSN

MSC

GMSC

MMSRelay/Server

S-CSCF

P-CSCF

I-CSCF

BGCF

MRFC

AS

MD

AAAServer

{{

{

{

CGF

CCF

SCCF

CPCF

MDC

MD

CHARGING

GATEWAY

EventChargingFunction

BearerChargingFunction

SessionChargingFunction

{

{

LCS

Proposed Charging Model

BSC & MSC Thesis

Specification of the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) using the Specification and Description Language (SDL) and integration with the existing SDL platform UMTS IMS SDL Charging Issues

Charging Issues in an integrated 3G/wireless LAN network UMTS WLAN Interworking Architectures between them

Thank you

for more info please contact:

Maria Koutsopoulou

tel.: 210 7275421

email: mkoutsop@di.uoa.gr