This chapter provides upgrade impact information for Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) Release 7.3.1 to BRM 7.4. It describes the feature changes that affect your BRM system and what you must consider when you upgrade from 7.3.1 to 7.4.
For information on planning your upgrade implementation, such as setting up your development and test environments, see "About Upgrading BRM Releases".
This section describes the changes to AAA Gateway Manager in BRM 7.4.
Previously, the AAA Gateway Manager supported Diameter GSM service requests by calling the GSM AAA opcodes. It now supports GSM services by calling the Services Framework AAA opcodes (TCF AAA opcodes). As a result, the Diameter grammar file has been changed to map Diameter requests to TCF AAA opcodes.
GSM-specific information is now passed to the opcode input flist in the PIN_FLD_GSM_INFO field under the PIN_FLD_EXTENDED_INFO substruct.
To support other services (for example, GPRS), you define the service type, /service/telco/gprs, and add the PIN_FLD_GPRS_INFO field under the PIN_FLD_EXTENDED_INFO substruct in the input grammar.
Additionally, Credit-Control-Request event messages have been modified to support Service Price Enquiry and Balance Check messages.
This section describes the changes to billing in BRM 7.4.
You can now set the accounting type at the bill unit level. This enables accounts with multiple bill units to have different settings for each bill. For example, an account with two bill units can have one bill unit with an open item accounting type and another bill unit with a balance forward accounting type.
Note:
Child bill units must have the same accounting type as their parent bill unit.In previous releases, the accounting type was set at the account level.
For information, see "About Accounting Types" in BRM Configuring and Running Billing.
Previously, the AAA Gateway Manager supported GSM service requests by calling the GSM AAA opcodes. It now supports GSM services by calling the Services Framework AAA opcodes (TCF AAA opcodes).
Important:
These opcodes will become obsolete in a future release. Any enhancements or bug fixes will be made to the TCF AAA opcodes. If you are using GSM AAA opcodes listed in Table 7-1, you should use the TCF AAA opcodes instead.Table 7-1 Replacement TCF AAA Opcodes for GSM AAA Opcodes
| GSM AAA Opcode | Replacement TCF AAA Opcode |
|---|---|
|
PCM_OP_GSM_AAA_AUTHORIZE |
PCM_OP_TCF_AAA_AUTHORIZE |
|
PCM_OP_GSM_AAA_UPDATE_ACCOUNTING |
PCM_OP_TCF_AAA_UPDATE_ACCOUNTING |
|
PCM_OP_GSM_AAA_REAUTHORIZE |
PCM_OP_TCF_AAA_REAUTHORIZE |
|
PCM_OP_GSM_AAA_UPDATE_AND_REAUTHORIZE |
PCM_OP_TCF_AAA_UPDATE_AND_REAUTHORIZE |
|
PCM_OP_GSM_AAA_AUTHENTICATE |
PCM_OP_TCF_AAA_AUTHENTICATE |
|
PCM_OP_GSM_AAA_CANCEL_AUTHORIZATION |
PCM_OP_TCF_AAA_CANCEL_AUTHORIZATION |
|
PCM_OP_GSM_AAA_START_ACCOUNTING |
PCM_OP_TCF_AAA_START_ACCOUNTING |
|
PCM_OP_GSM_AAA_STOP_ACCOUNTING |
PCM_OP_TCF_AAA_STOP_ACCOUNTING |
|
PCM_OP_GSM_AAA_ACCOUNTING_ON |
PCM_OP_TCF_AAA_ACCOUNTING_ON |
|
PCM_OP_GSM_AAA_ACCOUNTING_OFF |
PCM_OP_TCF_AAA_ACCOUNTING_OFF |
This section describes the changes to pricing in BRM 7.4.
In previous releases, the LoadIfwConfig utility was used primarily to migrate price list data from a legacy database to the Pipeline Manager database. The utility has been enhanced to also transfer data from one Pipeline Manager database to another, such as from a test database to a production database.
Caution:
The enhanced LoadIfwConfig utility is not backwards compatible with previous versions of the utility. Any data exported by a previous version of the utility must also be loaded with that same version. In addition, any custom scripts or procedures that are dependent on the utility's functionality might need to be modified to work with the new version.To support transferring data between Pipeline Manager databases, the utility now:
Supports regular expressions for field values.
Avoids redundant database fetches by looking up data in the cache first.
Retrieves data from dependent tables.
Updates lower-level objects that do not have a CODE column.
Loads data from multiple databases into the Pipeline Manager database.
Includes an option for dumping all pipeline data into an XML file.
Supports all pipeline registry settings in all operation modes.
Enables you to specify the number of rows retrieved on each trip to the database.
Handles larger input files.
Provides more descriptive error messages.
Consolidates schema definition and mapping information into one XSD file.
For more information, see "Transferring Data Between Pipeline Manager Databases" in BRM Configuring Pipeline Rating and Discounting.
This section describes the changes to RADIUS Manager in BRM 7.4.
The RADIUS configuration file (BRM_home/apps/radius/config) has been modified to include configuration of the new RADIUS dictionary file (dictionary-RFC2865) and configuration of the new RADIUS module, mod_unit.
For more information on the RADIUS Manager enhancements, see the information about new features in BRM Release Notes.
Previously, the input grammar description files for TAP3.11 and RAP contained syntax checking and other types of validations as well as the mapping of input data to the EDR container. The new input grammar files do not contain any syntax or validation checks. The new input grammar files map TAP3.11 and RAP input data to staging fields in the EDR container. New input mapping iScripts have been created to copy data from staging fields to the business fields in the EDR container. All the validations are now done using new validation iScripts.
Additionally, a new generic block description file has been created. The generic block description file is used with the TAP3.11 and RAP block description files to form complete block descriptions.
Important:
To configure roaming using the new grammar files and mapping and validation iScripts, see "Setting Up Pipeline Manager For Roaming Incollect Processing" in BRM Configuring Roaming in Pipeline Manager and "Setting Up Pipeline Manager For Roaming Outcollect Processing" in BRM Configuring Roaming in Pipeline Manager.Table 7-2 lists the new description, validation, and iScript files:
Table 7-2 Generic Block File Description
| File Name | Description |
|---|---|
|
GenericBlock.dsc |
Generic block descriptions. |
|
TAP_0311_Blocks.dsc |
Block descriptions for TAP3.11. |
|
TAP_0311_InGrammar.dsc |
Maps TAP3.11 input data to staging fields in the EDR container. |
|
ISC_TAP_0311_Validations.isc |
Performs validation of TAP3.11 input data |
|
ISC_TAP_0311_InMap.isc |
Maps TAP3.11 data in the staging fields to business fields in the EDR container. |
|
RAP_0103_Blocks.dsc |
Block description for RAP. |
|
RAP_0103_AckOutGrammar.dsc |
Output grammar for RAP acknowledgment. |
|
RAP_0103_InGrammar.dsc |
Maps TAP3.11 input data to staging fields in the EDR container. |
|
RAP_0103_OutGrammar.dsc |
Output grammar for RAP. |
|
RAP_0103_MissingReturn.dsc |
Grammar for RAP missing return used by RAP_0103_OutGrammar.dsc. |
|
RAP_0103_FatalReturn.dsc |
Grammar for RAP fatal return used by RAP_0103_OutGrammar.dsc. |
|
ISC_RAP_0103_InMap.isc |
Maps TAP3.11 data in the staging fields to business fields in the EDR container. |
This section describes the changes to Services Framework in BRM 7.4.
You use Services Framework to collect data about customers; manage and provision services; and process authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) requests. In previous releases, Services Framework performed these functions for telco services only. Services Framework now enables non-telco services to leverage Services Framework's functionalities, transforming it into a service management framework for any service type.
This enhancement affects the following:
Provisioning. See "About Provisioning Non-Telco Services".
Service management. See "About Managing Non-Telco Services".
AAA. See "About Processing AAA Requests for Non-Telco Services".
Services Framework provisioning has been enhanced to support non-telco service and event types. To support non-telco service types, Services Framework provisioning includes these changes:
Previously, Services Framework provisioned telco services (/service/telco/*) only and ignored all other service types. Services Framework now also provisions any non-telco service type that is listed in the new /config/service_framework/permitted_service_types object. It also determines the provisioning configuration object to use for non-telco services by reading the /config/service_framework/permitted_service_types object. See "Specifying the Non-Telco Services Supported by Services Framework" in BRM Telco Integration.
Services Framework can now provision service orders in Confirmed mode, in addition to the already supported Queued mode. See "About Provisioning Modes" in BRM Telco Integration.
For more information, see "About Provisioning Services" in BRM Telco Integration.
Previously, Services Framework managed telco services (/service/telco/*) only and ignored all other service types. Services Framework now also manages any non-telco service type that is listed in the /config/service_framework/permitted_service_types object. It also determines the provisioning configuration object to use for non-telco services by reading the /config/service_framework/permitted_service_types object.
For more information, see "About Managing Prepaid Services and Extended Rating Attributes" in BRM Telco Integration.
To support non-telco services, Services Framework AAA Manager includes these changes:
The Services Framework AAA opcodes now check the service type passed in the input flist and create the PIN_FLD_TELCO_INFO substruct only if the service type passed in the input flist is a telco service (/service/telco/*).
The duplicate check criteria for non-telco services is different than that for telco services:
For non-telco services, the PCM_OP_TCF_AAA_SEARCH_SESSION helper opcode searches for sessions based on the authorization ID.
For telco services, the PCM_OP_TCF_AAA_SEARCH_SESSION helper opcode searches for sessions based on both the authorization ID and the network correlation ID.
Previously, Services Framework AAA Manager checked for duplicate authentication and authorization requests only and did not check for duplicate requests for other AAA actions, such as reauthorization, update accounting, and stop accounting. Services Framework AAA now checks for any duplicate AAA request.
For more information, see "About Performing AAA For Prepaid Services" in BRM Telco Integration.