8 Loading ECE Rated Events into BRM

You load rated events from Oracle Communications Elastic Charging Engine (ECE) into the Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) database by using Rated Event Loader.

Topics in this document:

• About Sending Rated Events to the BRM Database

• Adding a Rated Event Publisher Instance

• Configuring Rated Event Publisher

• Configuring Item Assignment for Rated Events

• Configuring Life Cycle States in ECE for BRM

• Including or Excluding a Customer’s Remaining Balance in Rated Events

• Accessing ECE Configuration MBeans

About Sending Rated Events to the BRM Database

After usage events are rated, ECE sends the rated event data to the BRM database by using Rated Event Loader and updates the customer's balance in both ECE and in the BRM database. The same process is used for loading online charging events and offline charging events.

For more information, see "About Loading Rated Events into the BRM Database" in BRM Loading Rated Events.

Adding a Rated Event Publisher Instance

If you are using Oracle NoSQL Database to store rated events, you must configure Rated Event Publisher. Rated Event Publisher publishes ECE-generated rated events to the Oracle NoSQL database data store.

To add a Rated Event Publisher instance:

1. Access the ECE configuration MBeans in a JMX editor, such as JConsole. See "Accessing ECE Configuration MBeans".

2. Expand the ECE Configuration node.

3. Expand charging.ratedEventPublishers.

4. Expand Operations.

5. Select addRatedEventPublisherConfiguration.

6. Enter a value for the instance name parameter.

7. Click addRatedEventPublisherConfiguration.

8. Use Elastic Charging Controller (ECC) to start the RE Publisher instance.

Configuring Rated Event Publisher

To configure Rated Event Publisher:

1. Access the ECE configuration MBeans in a JMX editor, such as JConsole. See "Accessing ECE Configuration MBeans".

2. Expand the ECE Configuration node.

3. Expand charging.connectionConfiguratons.instance_name.

4. Specify values for the fields in Table 8-1.

   Table 8-1 Fields for Configuring Rated Event Publisher Connection

   Name	Default	Description and Guideline
   dataStoreConnection	localhost:5000	This parameter configures Rated Event Publisher to connect to the Oracle NoSQL database; it configures the data store connection to the Oracle NoSQL database system. The Oracle NoSQL database connection string uses the format hostname:port for connecting to a preconfigured Oracle NoSQL database system. The default is localhost:5000 for connecting to a standalone Oracle NoSQL database system (KV-Lite).
   dataStoreName	kvstore	This parameter configures the data store name to an Oracle NoSQL database system. The data store name is for using a preconfigured data store in an Oracle NoSQL database system. The default is kvstore for using a standalone Oracle NoSQL database system (KV-Lite).
   name	noSQLConnection1	This parameter should match the noSQLConnectionName parameter in the charging.ratedEventPublishers.instance_name configuration.

5. Expand the charging.ratedEventPublishers.instance_name node.

6. Expand Attributes.

7. Specify values for the fields in Table 8-2.

   Table 8-2 Fields for Configuring Rated Event Publisher

   Name	Default	Description and Guideline
   noSQLConnectionName	noSQLConnection1	This parameter should match the name parameter in the charging.ratedEventPublishers.instance_name configuration for the correct connection configuration to the Oracle NoSQL database.
   threadPoolSize	4	This parameter configures the number of threads in the thread pool. Multiple threads can be used in a RatedEventPublisher module where each thread can publish rated events to an Oracle NoSQL database system independently. The valid number is greater than zero. For best performance, Oracle recommends that you set this parameter to the number of Oracle NoSQL database partitions. Setting the number of threads higher than the number of partitions does not increase performance. Threads that you configure higher than the number of partitions are not used.

8. Use ECC to stop and restart Rated Event Publisher.

Configuring Item Assignment for Rated Events

You configure item assignments in ECE so that customer balance impacts can be tracked appropriately. Typically, the default configuration is sufficient. If you have custom item assignments, you might need to change the configuration for item assignments.

The item-type field maps to BRM items; this mapping is required for loading rated events from ECE to the BRM database. Each rated event record has an item_type field derived from the mapping specified in the itemType MBean attribute. The itemType MBean attribute lists the ECE service/event combinations used in event definitions.

For example, usage events are typically applied to the /item/misc object, also known as the misc item type. To map voice and data events to the misc item, ECE maps itemType="misc" to itemTag="VOICE_DATA_misc". The XML file that stores this configuration shows how the mapping works.

<itemTypeDetail itemType="misc" itemTag="VOICE_DATA_misc">
   <itemTagDetail
      productType="VOICE"
      eventType="USAGE">
   </itemTagDetail>
   <itemTagDetail
      productType="DATA"
      eventType="DATA_USAGE">
   </itemTagDetail>
</itemTypeDetail>

In this example, the VOICE_DATA_misc item tag includes two ECE service/event mappings: VOICE/USAGE and DATA/DATA_USAGE. When a usage request is created, the item mapping specifies that the misc item type will be assigned to the events.

If you configured delayed billing in BRM, you must configure item assignment in ECE to process delayed usage requests in the appropriate accounting cycle.

To configure item assignment for rated events:

1. Access the ECE configuration MBeans in a JMX editor, such as JConsole. See "Accessing ECE Configuration MBeans".

2. Expand the ECE Configuration node.

3. Expand charging.itemAssignmentConfig.

4. Expand Attributes.

5. Review the following attributes:

   • itemAssignmentEnabled: Enter true to turn on item assignment or false to turn it off.

   • poidQuantityPerSchema: Double-click the Value field. A list of schemas and the quantity of POID IDs reserved at ECE startup for each schema appears.

   • delayToleranceIntervalInDays: Enter the number of days during which delayed usage requests are processed for the current accounting cycle. This interval must be less than the delayed billing interval.

     The delayed billing interval is set in the ConfigBillingDelay business parameter. See "Configuring Delayed Billing" in BRM Configuring and Running Billing.

6. To add a schema to the poidQuantityPerSchema list or to change the quantity of POID IDs for a schema in the list:

   1. Expand Operations.

   2. Select setPoidQuantity.

   3. Specify values for the following parameters:

      • schema: Enter the BRM schema number for which the POID IDs must be reserved. For example, in a multischema environment, enter 1 for the primary schema, 2 for the secondary schema, and so on.

      • quantity: Enter the number of POID IDs reserved at ECE startup for the specified schema.

   4. Click the setPoidQuantity button.

Configuring Life Cycle States in ECE for BRM

ECE supports the BRM subscriber life cycle state feature. If the subscriber life cycle state feature is disabled in BRM, ECE supports only the default subscriber life cycle, which has the following states: Active, Inactive, and Closed. If the subscriber life cycle state feature is enabled in BRM, ECE supports custom subscriber life cycles, which has the following states: Preactive, Active, Recharge Only, Credit Expired, Fraud Investigated, Dormant, Suspended, and Closed. See "Creating Custom Service Life Cycles" in BRM Managing Customers for more information.

You must configure the life cycle states in ECE, so they stay synchronized with life cycle states you add in BRM.

To configure life cycle states in ECE for BRM:

1. Access the ECE configuration MBeans in a JMX editor, such as JConsole. See "Accessing ECE Configuration MBeans".

2. Expand the ECE Configuration node.

3. Expand charging.lifecycleConfiguration.

4. For each subscriber life cycle state, configure the rules and transitions defined for each state for each service.

Including or Excluding a Customer’s Remaining Balance in Rated Events

Starting in Patch Set 7, ECE can send the current balance and loan balance information with rated events. This allows your custom client application to display balance data with rated events. These balances can be either currency or non-currency, depending on the type of resource impacted by the transaction.

By default, this value is set to true, so that the balances are sent with events. You can change the value to false, if you would like to retain the older event format.

To configure whether ECE sends balance data on rated events:

1. Access the ECE configuration MBeans in a JMX editor, such as JConsole. See "Accessing ECE Configuration MBeans".

2. Expand the ECE Configuration node.

3. Expand charging.server.

4. Set the populateCurrentLoanAmountsOnRef attribute to either true or false as desired.

Accessing ECE Configuration MBeans

For all configurations, start by accessing the ECE configuration MBeans:

1. Log on to the driver machine.
2. Start the ECE charging servers (if they are not started).
3. Connect to the ECE charging server node enabled for JMX management.

   This is the charging server node set to start CohMgt = true in the ECE_home/config/eceTopology.conf file, where ECE_home is the directory in which ECE is installed.

4. Start a JMX editor that enables you to edit MBean attributes, such as JConsole.
5. In the editor's MBean hierarchy, find the ECE configuration MBeans.