| Oracle® Communications Service Broker Online Mediation Controller Implementation Guide Release 6.0 Part Number E23527-02 |
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View PDF |
| Oracle® Communications Service Broker Online Mediation Controller Implementation Guide Release 6.0 Part Number E23527-02 |
|
|
View PDF |
This chapter provides an overview of the Oracle Communications Service Broker Online Mediation Controller.
Before you read this chapter, you should be familiar with Service Broker concepts and architecture. See Oracle Communications Service Broker Concepts Guide.
Online Mediation Controller provides network connectivity for Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) and third party Online Charging Systems (OCSs).
Online Mediation Controller acts as the front end for OCSs, providing connectivity to the network and mediating network protocols, supporting the Diameter and RADIUS protocols and enabling delivery of online charging services for sessions in the network.
When integrated with third party OCSs, it interacts with the OCS through a standard Diameter-based Ro interface, mediating network protocols to Diameter Ro. When integrated with BRM, it interacts with BRM through a Portal Communications Protocol (PCP) interface, mediating network protocols to PCP. This is shown in Figure 1-1.
Online Mediation Controller also extends the OCS functionality traditionally associated with balance management and rating, with additional charging reliant features.
The following sections introduce key concepts and features of the Service Broker Online Mediation Controller.
Service Broker provides a Session Abstraction Layer (SAL) interface that you use to implement applications that extend your OCS functionality.
Applications that you implement reside on the session path inside Service Broker, optionally orchestrated and invoked with other external applications, and active during session setup and execution.
Applications can use any session parameter such as called party, call duration and charging information, to run their business logic, and affect session setup and execution synchronously. For example, an application can play an announcement when the subscriber balance goes down below a threshold, asking the subscriber to top up his account.
Applications can also invoke additional asynchronous activities in your system, by publishing events to external entities through a web services API. For example, an application can notify your OSS when a subscriber tops up his account. The session itself is not affected by the notification, but your OSS can trigger asynchronous activities such as sending a notification email to the subscriber.
See Oracle Communications Service Broker SAL Java API Reference, for more information about the SAL interface.
Figure 1-2 shows applications implemented inside a Service Broker domain, that you combine, using service orchestration logic, with online charging services provided by the OCS.
To deliver subscriber-specific services, the Online Mediation Controller maintains its own subscriber profiles. These profiles contain subscriber-specific information that is not traditional stored in the OCS, but required by the Online Mediation Controller's built-in applications.
Subscriber profiles include:
The service profile.
An orchestration logic that defines how to route subscriber sessions through applications.
An extensible subscriber lifecycle that you use to define subscriber states and state transitions.
You can control service delivery for subscribers, specifying which application to invoke and in what order, by basing orchestration logic conditions on the subscriber state.
You extend the subscriber lifecycle by defining the subscriber states your implementation requires. Each state implies a certain set of privileges and prohibitions. For example, you can configure the Online Mediation Controller to charge Active subscribers, or redirect Suspended subscribers to top up their accounts. You can also can publish and consume state transition notifications and actively request state transitions.
Service Broker includes a web services Subscriber Provisioning API that you use to manage subscriber data in the Subscriber Store. You use this API to add, modify, and remove subscribers from the Subscriber Store, and manage the subscriber lifecycle and states. The Subscriber Provisioning API is accessible by both internal Service Broker components and external systems.
Figure 1-3 shows the Subscriber Store and the Subscriber Provisioning API available for internal Service Broker components and external systems.
Complementary applications use the Event Notification Framework to publish events. The type of event and its timing are application-specific.
Events can be targeted to internal Service Broker components, or to external systems, such as your OSS. External systems use an asynchronous web services Event Notification API to consume these events.
Using the Event Notification Framework, the Online Mediation Controller can be integrated with external Business Intelligence (BI) systems, basing business logic on complementary application events. For example, a parental control application may fire an event when a subscriber reaches a predefined monthly credit threshold, driving further business logic on the OSS side.
OSS applications consuming Online Mediation Controller events may also use those events as triggers to change things in the Online Mediation Controller. OSS applications make changes to the Online Mediation Controller using its web services APIs. For example, if an OSS applications consumes and event noting that a subscriber has reached a predefined monthly credit threshold, then the OSS application can use the Subscriber Provisioning web services API to suspend the subscriber account.
Figure 1-4 shows how complementary applications use the Event Notification API to publish events to external systems.
The Event Notification Framework is thereby a Service Broker extension point in which you can extend business logic, and link online activities related to charging and service delivery with other activities happening in your OSS.
Degraded Mode is activated when the OCS cannot respond to charging requests. This may happen when the OCS fails or during an OCS maintenance window.
Degraded Mode guarantees service continuity while the OCS is unavailable. During that time, Service Broker ensures session continuity by responding to charging requests and generating Call Data Records (CDRs) itself. When the OCS resumes, Service Broker forwards the CDRs to the OCS which updates subscriber accounts.
You use the User Interaction Framework to contact subscribers with charging-related information. The Online Mediation Controller supports these channels for user interaction:
Short Message Service (SMS): You can send SMS to subscribers using the Short Message Peer to Peer (SMPP) protocol. For example, you can send an SMS to a subscriber when his account is being activated, after he makes the first use of a service.
Announcements: You can use the User Interaction Framework to play mid-call announcements to either the calling party or called party.
While the Online Mediation Controller can be integrated with any OCS through a standard Diameter interface, it is natively integrated with Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) through the proprietary Portal Communications Protocol (PCP).
Oracle Communications BRM requires Service Broker to act as its front-end, providing network connectivity through Diameter Ro and RADIUS.
Service Broker release 6.0 is aligned with Oracle Communications BRM release 7.5.
This document provides general instructions for integrating the Online Mediation Controller with any OCS, and specific information for integrating with BRM.
Online Mediation Controller includes a number of built-in sample applications to support the combined Service Broker and Oracle Communications BRM solution. For example, the zone-based charging application can identify roaming subscribers, and use the Short Message Service (SMS) to alert them that different rates apply to roaming calls.
When integrated with Oracle Communications BRM, the Online Mediation Controller also mediates RADIUS to PCP, providing complete support for session authentication, authorization and accounting.
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