.gif)
Billing IMS - Exploiting possibilities
To enhance customer experience through the provision of multimedia service packages, operators need a convergent customer care and billing solution with real-time charging capabilities, says K Nanda Kumar
The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) standard will dramatically alter the global telecommunications landscape. The ability to support any combination of fixed and mobile services, coupled with limitless service accessibility, presents telecom operators with incredible revenue generating opportunities. The challenge now lies in successfully tapping into the potential provided by the all-IP architecture.
In order to truly enhance customer experience through the provision of attractive multimedia service packages, operators need a convergent customer care and billing solution with real-time charging capabilities.
What is IMS?
Essentially, IMS is a standardised next generation networking architecture that enables interoperability between existing voice and data networks and provides multimedia services for fixed and mobile operators. Originally developed for the mobile industry, IMS now supports fixed networks as well, driving the wave for fixed-mobile convergence. It is an enabler of true convergence and interworking in several dimensions, independent of access or network, and provides users with the ability to access services irrespective of their location and device.
From the point of view of end-users, IMS promises to deliver the ultimate mix of convenience, connectivity, cost-effectiveness and personalisation. Customers will have ubiquitous access to information, entertainment and other content-rich services through a variety of channels, with the ability to switch between terminals when required. Simply put, IMS will set up the best available connection according to the type of communication and corresponding media chosen by the end-user, and deliver multimedia services seamlessly across a variety of fixed and mobile devices.
From an operator's perspective, benefits from this opportunity will be manifold – not only will IMS reduce their capital and operating expenses through reusable common infrastructure; it will also simplify the entire service creation and delivery process. IMS will help to achieve new levels of differentiation through attractive, innovative and flexible bundling of content and services along with a speedier time to market. Moreover, operators can increase customer satisfaction by delivering a seamless and consistent user experience.
Charging in IMS
IMS includes a definition of the interfaces an application service must use for charging – the Diameter Rf and Ro interfaces for offline and online charging respectively. In the case of offline charging, applied for users who pay for their services periodically, all the SIP network entities involved in the session use the Diameter Rf interface to send accounting information to a Charging Collector Function (CCF). Unlike other packet-switched networks, the prime network elements of the IMS architecture have the ability to provide detailed charging information in the form of Charging Data Records (CDR), built by the CCF. The CCF is responsible for the IMS domain, carrying the charging information from network nodes to the rating and billing system. Additionally, the CCF is able to validate, combine, aggregate and consolidate the received charging information, to generate partial records (whenever necessary), to remove duplicated charging data as well as support load sharing, redundancy, high availability and efficient management of the generated CDRs.
For online or credit-based charging, which is used for prepaid users, there is a Session Charging Function (SCF) that signals the Serving Call/Session Control Function (S-CSCF) for terminating sessions when the user runs out of credit during a session. The Serving-Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF) and the Proxy-Call Session Control Function (PCSCF) generate charging records related to session events (for example, session start, session stop, etc.) and may include information related to session configuration such as session timestamps, end-point identifiers and QoS related information. Online charging provides for event charging functions like immediate event charging, wherein a certain number of credit units are immediately deducted from the user's account when he/she accepts a service. Such real-time checks on customer credit help in minimizing the credit risk for operators.
Customer care and billing challenges
As the telecommunications industry graduates from a technology-centric ideology to a customer-centric value creation model, the role of customer care and billing solutions becomes critical. CCB solutions have moved from being mere back-end support systems to strategic tools in customer retention and management. Traditionally, service providers have been supported by a large number of billing systems, deployed separately to cater to the requirements of different networks or services. However, operators realise that in order to capitalise on the true potential of IMS, they need an integrated solution capable of handling all services across all networks. With the advent of IMS, billing vendors have been confronted with various challenges in terms of enriching the capabilities of their offerings, a few of which are mentioned below.
Flexibility
In an IMS environment, customer care and billing solutions will be required to manage a mix of technologies, an explosion of new services, and ever-increasing customer expectations. The CCB system must, therefore, possess the flexibility to support any basis of charging that service providers may demand. The rise of content-rich services, like online gaming and videoconferencing, has prompted the need for solutions with dynamic and interactive pricing capabilities.
Partner management
In an era where telecom operators depend heavily on third-party content providers, multiple-party billing capability is critical to any service provider's business. Real-time revenue sharing, coupled with cross-service discounting capability, is becoming the de facto standard for billing vendors. Furthermore, the increasing demand for content-intensive services provides operators with tremendous revenue generating opportunities, and the operators need to be equipped with a CCB solution that is scalable enough to handle any surge in transaction volumes.
Real-time charging
With prepaid-postpaid convergence becoming prevalent in the IMS network, real-time charging capability will be a key feature to be incorporated in all CCB systems. Through online charging in IMS, operators will be able to offer credit control features to the end-users, in terms of limiting both the amount and type of content being consumed. The billing system should be able to manage the real-time information provided by the IMS network entities, with the ability to perform real-time checks on customer credit balance, charges accrued, discounts etc. With improved customer financial management and real-time credit checks, online charging will also reduce the overall credit risk of operators.
Judging by the amount of charging information compiled and delivered by IMS, the current charging systems will be faced with a lot of challenges. While current pricing strategies are the result of customer demand for simplicity and service provider's interest in differentiation, the IMS pricing will be based around creative communication bundles and value-added offers. Moreover, it drives multi-service session adoption and opens the door to exciting up-selling opportunities for content service providers. Therefore, to support IMS pricing strategies effectively, operators will require a convergent charging system capable of:
• Supporting all services and charging based on any set of usage parameters – time, volume, event, value etc.
• Reducing time to market for add-on offers in a unified product catalogue like content and advertising
• Enabling online and offline charging models (pre-paid/post-paid) with the same ease
• Supporting advanced subscriber identity management features, and
• Robust online charging to address personalised advice of charge and credit limit control for subscribers
IMS has captivated the telecommunications industry and offers immense potential for driving operator revenues. However, to effectively exploit the possibilities, operators will require a convergent, network independent, real-time and future-ready customer care and billing solution that will allow them to truly revolutionise customer experience. •
K Nanda Kumar is President and CEO, SunTec Business Solutions and can be contacted via e-mail: knk@suntecgroup.com
Share this article with others
Post to del.icio.us
Printed from http://www.eurocomms.com/features/111075/Billing_IMS_-_Exploiting_possibilities.html
Comment on this article
Skip to comments
We encourage users to analyse, comment on and even challenge European Communications's articles, including the one above - 'Billing IMS - Exploiting possibilities'
User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site.
Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site.