This chapter describes how client programs create and submit usage requests to Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) Elastic Charging Engine (ECE).
ECE can process network charging requests from any usage domain (telco, toll, content, and so on). Network mediation software programs map usage attributes that are relevant to charging from the network charging requests to usage attributes in ECE usage requests.
ECE usage requests contain both fixed (mandatory) attributes and a payload that holds dynamic (configurable) attributes to represent the usage of the customer.
See the usage request Java API in BRM Elastic Charging Engine Java API Reference for a detailed description of fixed attributes and the payload.
Client programs use the Elastic Charging Client API provided in the ECE SDK for building and submitting usage requests to the Elastic Charging Server.
Client programs can choose between incremental or cumulative accounting behavior when instantiating the usage request builder. See the discussion of implementation concepts in BRM Elastic Charging Engine Implementation Guide for more information.
After network mediation software programs create usage requests, they submit them to the Elastic Charging Server (Elastic Charging Server instances are referred to as ECE charging server nodes). Refer to BRM Elastic Charging Engine Java API Reference for information about the methods network mediation software programs use to submit usage requests. Refer to the ECE sample programs for examples of how usage requests are built and submitted to the Elastic Charging Server.
Network mediation software programs create usage requests when the charging requests (online) or CDRs (offline) are received from the network. The programs call the ECE API to construct and submit the usage request. The programs read the usage response returned by the Elastic Charging Server after the Elastic Charging Server processes the usage request.
The Elastic Charging Server reads the submitted usage request, processes it, and sends a usage response. The network mediation program calls the ECE API to read the response. See "About Usage Responses" for more information.
Online and offline mediation systems transform charging requests (online charging) and CDRs (offline charging) that are received from the network into ECE usage requests.
A program calls the ECE API to construct and submit the usage request. For ECE to recognize and be able to process the chargeable events within the charging requests and CDRs, the usage request adheres to a format that serves to map attributes from the network to attribute definitions described in the ECE DSL language. Usage requests contain both fixed attributes and dynamic attributes. See the discussion about usage request fixed attributes in BRM Elastic Charging Engine Implementation Guide for more information.
ECE reads the submitted usage request, caches it, and sends a usage response. The network mediation software program calls the ECE API to read the response. See "About Usage Requests" for more information.
The attributes from the network charging requests or CDRs which are relevant for charging are mapped to the fields in the event definition. These attributes or payloads are used by ECE for rating.
After the usage request is created, the network mediation software program uses the brs.submit() method to submit the usage request to the Elastic Charging Server.