About Quota Conventions

A quota convention controls top-ups and rollovers of plans.

CAUTION: If a plan contains more than one type of counter (for example, time and volume), then ALL of the counters for that entire plan must be exhausted before a rollover and/or top-up for either type of counter is activated. Depending on how policy rules are written, this functionality could lead to an unintended effect on the end-user's service. If the intent is to apply separate limits on different units, then separate quotas should be defined and independent top-ups or rollovers may be applied.
Rollover
A rollover allows a subscriber to carry forward unused units from one billing cycle to another. For example, if a subscriber is allowed 10 gigabytes of data a month and only uses 9, the remaining gigabyte of data can be saved for use in the next month. Rollover units can accumulate and can be carried across multiple months. You can establish a quota convention that rollover units are consumed after plan units are exhausted, or before.
Top-up

A top-up allows a subscriber to obtain additional units for an existing plan. For example, if a plan allows 20 gigabytes of traffic per month, but near the end of the month the subscriber has only 1 gigabyte left, the subscriber can obtain an additional 5 gigabytes. These units are used after the initial units are exhausted and do not roll over.

Multiple top-ups can be present and enforced in the database at the same time and are processed by the MPE device. Multiple top-ups can be assigned to the same subscriber. These top-ups are consumed in the following order:
  • The highest priority top-up is consumed first.
  • If priorities are equal, the top-up with the earliest expiration date/time is consumed first.
  • If expiration date/times are equal, the top-up with the earliest purchase date/time is consumed first.
  • If purchase date/times are equal, the top-ups are consumed in alphabetical order of the instance IDs.

The top-up that is processed first according to these criteria is referred to as the best top-up.

You can establish a quota convention that top-up units are consumed after rollover units are exhausted, or before. However, plan units are always consumed before top-up units.
Note: Top-ups are enabled using the Quota Conventions option. Top-up information is configured in an SPR database. See the Oracle Communications User Data Repository documentation for more information on the UDR product, and the Oracle Communications Enhanced Subscriber Profile Repository documentation for more information on the ESPR product.