Telecommunications rating
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In telecommunications rating is the activity of determining the cost of a particular call[1]. The rating process involves converting call-related data into a monetary-equivalent value.
Call-related data is generated at various points in the network or measurements may be taken by third party equipment such as network probes. Generally this data is something quantifiable and specific. The usage data so gathered is then either packaged by the equipment or it may be sent to a charging gateway. In either case, it is necessary to produce a CDR/EDR (Call Data Record, also known as Call Detail Record) / (Event Data Record - for systems that charge more than calls - content. eg. buying ring tones). The generated CDR/EDR may not be in a form suitable for the particular rating system. In this case a piece of software, known as the mediation system, may be required to render the data into a form useful by the rating system. The mediation system is also useful for gathering data from various sources to aggregate into one record.
Rating systems typically use some or all of the following types of data about a call:
- Time property of the call (day of week, date, time of day)
- Amount of usage (Duration of call, amount of data, number of messages, number of songs)
- Destination of the call (land line, overseas, etc.)
- Origin of call/ Location of the caller (for mobile networks)
- Premium charges (third party charges for premium content, cost of physical items such as movie tickets)
Generally individual calls are rated and then the rated amounts are sent to a billing system to provide a bill to the subscriber.
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[edit] Real Time Rating
Delivers the rating calculations immediately, typically within 50–100ms. In general, real time rating systems are required for pre-paid (also known as "pay as you go") services whereby any time gap between rating and charge reconciliation presents an actual fraud risk to the operator. Typically in a pre-paid setting the rating system generates an AOC (Advice of Charge) which must be matched against the remaining credit in the subscriber's account. Services are terminated when the monetary amount of usage exceeds the total credit in the account.
Sample scenario A pre-paid subscriber is charged 10 credits per minute. Subscriber has 100 credits remaining. Before the end of a given time block (one minute in this example) the rating system has to generate an AOC that the next block will cost another 10 credits. By the end of the tenth minute the system has to be aware that the subscriber has no more credits. As such the real time rating subsystem has to be able to produce its output in less time than a given chargeable unit can be consumed.
[edit] Complex rating
As competition increased in the telecommunications space, rating is getting increasingly complex. Some rating scenarios use multiple measurements.
Example: Rating for a video download may involve measuring the number of minutes, the amount of data, the quality of data transfer as identified by the service level agreement (SLA) and the usage (copyright) cost of the video.
Complex rating could also involve non-network related parameters. Some of the rating data may come from the customer care or billing sub-systems.
Example: When usage above a certain amount is triggered in the billing sub-system the rating engine may assign a lower rate for the user. This is also known as an adjusting rate and can be complex to model in certain system.
Complex rating behaviour could be due to particular real or virtual behaviour
Example: Subscribers who play an affiliated on line game may trade in-game currency or equipment or incentive tokens for discounted calls to other players of the game.
[edit] Neutral currency rating
Modern rating engines may also be currency neutral. Certain multi-national telecommunication providers provide the ability for subscribers settlement in multiple currencies. In this scenario the rating engine generates a currency neutral billing record. It is the billing engine which is assigned with converting the virtual currency into an actualized cost.
[edit] Re-rating
In some scenarios it may be necessary to re-rate calls but not all rating engines are capable of this.
