October 10-13, 2006 San Diego Convention Center, San Diego California Billing in an IMS World TMC IT Expo – Oct 2006 Bala Janakiraman Sonus Networks

October 10-13, 2006 San Diego Convention Center, San Diego California IMS – Enabling Rapid Service Introduction One core network, multiple access technologies Single set of applications that apply network wide Consistent user experience An environment to experiment & introduce new services Packet Core (IP) Circuit Access Wireless Access Packet Access Session Control (IMS) Applications Simplicity Flexibility Will your Billing System be Ready?

October 10-13, 2006 San Diego Convention Center, San Diego California Billing Challenges with IMS Pieces of information about a session (call) come from various places Multiple levels of correlation required by billing mediation Business rules need to be carefully understood – may vary per service Some services will need online charging Accounting for peering arrangements with other carriers RAN IMS BBA RAN Real Estate Agent Office Assistant Voice call Video session Instant Messaging Customer

October 10-13, 2006 San Diego Convention Center, San Diego California IMS Charging Architecture All IMS core network elements provide charge event information via Diameter Charge-related information supported in SIP headers Correlation support – built in Selectable Charging Collection Function – built in Support for peering arrangements - built in IMS accommodates some key needs that were previously left as an exercise Billing Domain ONLINECHARGING OFFLINECHARGING WLAN BGCF MGCF MRFC SIP AS CRF AF CDF TPF CS-NE SGSN GGSN CGF OCS IMS GWF P-CSCF I- S- Service-NE CCF

October 10-13, 2006 San Diego Convention Center, San Diego California Billing Content in IMS Charging information not as richly defined as that of legacy services Diameter events (charging information) may be underspecified in some cases for some service providers –E.g., strict AMA requirements may require certain extensions to the charge events Integrating IMS services into a legacy environment requires careful examination of call-flows and data creation

October 10-13, 2006 San Diego Convention Center, San Diego California TA FMC Scenario – Wireline Operator Sonus IMS Core PSTN IMX (CCCF/NeDS) HSX Mobile RAN Subsystem MSC/ VLR NBS, (P-CSCF, THIG) HLR Generic IP Network GSX (MGCF) GSX (BGCF) PSX (gsmSCF) SRX (S-CSCF) √ √ √ √ √ Charging information generated in multiple network elements

October 10-13, 2006 San Diego Convention Center, San Diego California FMC Scenario - Billing Issues to Consider Service pricing: Monthly subscription, Tiered minutes/megabytes options, content charging Same or different rates for cellular/wi-fi legs Correlating charging information from multitude of elements for the same call Support for pre-paid and post-paid subscribers One bill or separate bills for FMC & Broadband Access services Roaming agreements with Mobility Partners Collecting call detail records from Mobility Partners for analyzing service quality during roaming sessions

October 10-13, 2006 San Diego Convention Center, San Diego California Impact on Billing Processes & Systems Sourcing the CCF & OCS –Equipment Provider or BSS provider or home-grown? –Multi-vendor support (because of vendor extensions to standards) Operational needs of online charging –High availability – % –Low latency – response in ms –High transaction throughput New IMS based services will require flexible billing options – can the billing infrastructure support this? Pre-paid, post-paid, content-based, session based billing Will the existing BSS support IMS services? –Phased migration IMS enables you to create a variety of services – ease & speed of BSS customization will be key to success

October 10-13, 2006 San Diego Convention Center, San Diego California Thank You Bala Janakiraman