Maria Koutsopoulou

Charging, accounting and billing management schemes in mobile telecommunication networks and the internet

The current technological advances in mobile telecommunication networks and the Internet are about to alter existing business models. These different worlds converge and create an open market, where a large number of independent application/service providers will offer their services to users through a limited number of network providers. At the same time, the evolution of existing network technologies and the specification of new concepts requires new advanced and holistic solutions in several technical areas. One such area is related to the design and management of new sophisticated functions and protocols to support innovative, flexible, and efficient charging, accounting, and billing mechanisms. This survey article considers the key concepts of such mechanisms, and the requirements they impose upon the network infrastructure. The article presents the latest efforts undertaken by standardization bodies in the mobile telecommunication industry as well as by Internet Working Groups to meet these requirements.

A platform for charging, billing, and accounting in future mobile networks

Current technological advances enable the modification of existing mobile telecommunications business models. In future mobile networks, mobile users will be able to choose from multiple network operators and service providers. This capability requires the extension of the existing charging collection information mechanisms and billing systems to assist the oncoming mass service offering by independent service providers. In this paper, we present a platform that extends the existing systems to provide for advanced and flexible charging mechanisms and pricing policies.

Charging, accounting and billing as a sophisticated and reconfigurable discrete service for next generation mobile networks

The evolution of the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) creates an open market; where a large number of independent application/service providers will offer their services to the users through a limited number of network providers. Moreover, the convergence of the UMTS with the Internet world is about to alter the existing business models. The support of advanced business models is a chance but also implies new requirements. Among the important issues that are to be resolved in order to facilitate the establishment of these advanced models, is the support of innovative, flexible and efficient charging, accounting and billing mechanisms. We propose the complexity involved in all these issues to be handled by an intelligent and integrated platform that will be responsible for coordinating the charging, accounting and billing process allowing all the involved players to affect dynamically these processes. Moreover, the generation of a single, itemised bill for delivered services, which is required from the user perspective, is well accommodated in the proposed platform.

Subscription management and charging for value added services in UMTS networks

We propose a novel architecture for value added services provision in UMTS networks. The key idea is to introduce a model which is capable of handling efficiently subscription management, as well as charging, billing and accounting for value added services that are provided either by the network provider or third trusted parties. We propose a flexible business model in line with the arising requirements for openness and dynamic subscription and introduce an integrated system that employs a flexible charging scheme for each type of service usage (transport and value added), so that the user will receive only one itemised bill for all services. As a result, the user is able to access a large number of services provided by independent providers, without the need for any additional contracts.

Adaptive charging accounting and billing system for the support of advanced business models for VAS provision in 3G systems

In the framework of the design of a flexible service provision platform for 3G systems and beyond, an integrated system for enabling advanced Charging, accounting and billing has been introduced. The CAB system is adaptive to VAS charging requirements and network/business environment concepts. Part of the system has been developed in the frame of IST-MOBIVAS project.

A VHE architecture for advanced value-added service provision in 3rd generation mobile communication networks

In the emerging era of 3rd generation mobile communication networks, it is expected that operator differentiation in the market will highly depend on the advanced provision of value-added services, including the successful implementation of the virtual home environment (VHE) concept. In this paper, after discussing some issues critical to VHE realization, we introduce a distributed application platform architecture, capable of supporting flexible value-added service provision to mobile users of 3rd generation networks, as well as address issues crucial for business deployment such as charging, billing and accounting. Moreover, we describe how this architecture can support the seamless, customized service access to roaming users, inline with the VHE requirements.

An integrated charging, accounting and billing management platform for the support of innovative business models in mobile networks

In the near future, it is expected that mobile operators will offer their subscribers a plethora of services as well as the ability to access value-added services offered by independent providers. However, until this goal is reached, there are several technical issues related to dynamic service provision and charging that have to be tackled. In order to examine in detail all the attributes of the aforementioned issues, we present the involved players and the prospective business models for flexible service provisioning. Furthermore, we outline the key concepts of such mechanisms and respective interdependencies between business entities, network/communication domains and the charging functionality. We also present the latest efforts undertaken by standardisation bodies to address these issues and the mechanisms that are planned to be deployed. Finally, we introduce a generic integrated architecture for charging, accounting and billing enabling flexible service provision in an open marketplace.

An advanced service provision framework for reconfigurable mobile networks

The success of next generation mobile networks is highly dependent on the availability of a plethora of functionality-rich applications, accessible via a variety of network infrastructures and terminals. This can be achieved through the cooperation of various business players in addition to network operators and infrastructure providers. The specification by major standardisation organisations of open APIs for network access by third parties is a significant step in this direction. A critical issue in such architectures is reconfiguration management, which is regarded as the mean to enable new approaches to service provision, customisation and personalisation. In this paper, we present our proposal for a generic, open, flexible, service provision framework that supports context-aware service provision and reconfiguration management.

A holistic solution for charging, billing and accounting in 4G mobile systems

The introduction of open and more flexible business models in 4G mobile networks, as well as the integration of UMTS with WLAN increases the overall overhead and complexity for the dynamic management between heterogeneous networks. To cope with such complexity and enable the seamless provision of value added services the introduction of an integrated platform for at least charging accounting and billing is required. This paper proposes an holistic solution for all management aspects related to charging, billing and accounting in 4G systems. The main concept is the introduction of a platform to incorporate various charging functionalities. The proposed platform is suitable for any business model and is appropriate for the different levels of UMTS-WLAN interworking.

Context sensitive user profiling for customised service provision in mobile environments

Present paper focuses on context awareness in service provisioning and proposes a framework that enables efficient management of contextual profiles. Furthermore, a more flexible and innovative model for user profiling is introduced. The innovation is based on the enrichment of common user profiling architectures to include location and other contextual attributes, so that enhanced adaptability and personalization can be achieved. For each context instance an associated user profile instance is created and hence, service provisioning is adapted to the user profile instance that better apply to the current context. The generic model, the structure and the content of that context-sensitive user profile, along with some related implementation issues, are discussed