1 About Subscriber Provisioning

This chapter introduces Oracle Communications Service Broker subscriber storage and management features.

About the Subscriber Store

Oracle Communications Service Broker applications enable telecommunication network operators to deliver user-targeted services. For example, Policy Controller applications can apply Quality of Service (QoS) parameters for network access that are customized for a particular user. Similarly, Online Mediation Controller applications can expose the services of back-end charging systems to network end users. The Online Mediation Controller services include balance inquiry and account top-up services.

To deliver user-targeted services, Service Broker maintains its own representation of end user information in a repository called the Subscriber Store. The data in the Subscriber Store specifies the service access preferences and parameters for each network end user.

The information in the Subscriber Store is intended to supplement the information in an operator's existing subscriber repository or billing system. While existing subscriber repositories contain general account information, the Subscriber Store contains information specifically relating to the delivery of user-targeted services over diverse networks.

To implement user-targeted Service Broker features, you must create, configure, and populate the Subscriber Store repository.

The Service Broker controller types that use the Subscriber Store are:

• Policy Controller

• Online Charging Mediation Controller

• Co-deployed Policy Controller and Online Charging Mediation Controller

The Subscriber Store is not used by the Service Broker VPN or Social Voice Communicator (SVC) features. Subscriber profiles for those features are stored and managed separately. Also, the Service Controller does not use the Subscriber Store.

See Oracle Communications Service Broker Concepts Guide for more information about Service Broker products. Also see Oracle Communications Service Broker VPN Implementation Guide and Oracle Communications Service Broker SVC Implementation Guide for information on managing user information for those products.

About Subscriber Profiles

In the Subscriber Store, each subscriber is represented by a profile. A subscriber profile is associated with a particular user on the network through the network ID for that user. The network ID can be an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) number, SIP address, E.164 number, or other type of network ID. The exact form of the ID differs by network.

In addition to external network IDs, each subscriber has an internal user ID allocated by the Subscriber Store. The user ID uniquely identifies an end user in the Subscriber Store, associating a user to potentially multiple external networks IDs.

In addition to network identities, a subscriber profile may contain the following information:

• Service policy information

• iFC data, which defines a customer specific service chain

• General user information such as account state and language preference

Subscriber profiles may also contain elements called profile data extensions. These are application-specific data elements in the form of name-value pairs.

See "Subscriber Profile Data Model" for more information on the subscriber profile data model.

Configuration Overview

The general steps for setting up the Subscriber Store are:

1. Configure Subscriber Store operating settings.

2. Configure the persistence mechanism for the Subscriber Store.

3. Populate and maintain the Subscriber Store with user information.

The Subscriber Store settings consist primarily of access settings for the Subscriber Provisioning API. The API provides operations for adding and managing subscriber information in the store. As a SOAP-based API, the Subscriber Provisioning API allows the Subscriber Store to be integrated with existing subscriber repositories and management applications.