Implementing Provisioning Tags for Telco Services

About Provisioning Tags for Telco Services

To implement supplementary services, service extensions such as bearer services, and extended rating attributes (ERAs) for telco services, you define provisioning tags. You then use PDC to include provisioning tags in charge offers. A tag becomes available to an individual account and service when a charge offer containing the tag is purchased. This is also known as charge offer–level provisioning.

Use the pin_telco_tags_service file to define provisioning tags for telco services, for example, pin_telco_tags_gsm) and the load_pin_telco_tags utility. Use this method to create provisioning tags with custom ERAs. See "Defining Provisioning Tags for Telco Services by Using the pin_telco_tags File".

Use these methods for provisioning tags for telco services, except for the following cases:

For a provisioning tag that creates an ERA or other type of profile that you want to associate with a discount. Services Framework Manager does not process provisioning tags associated with discounts.
For a provisioning tag that populates default values to a profile when creating it. Services Framework Manager cannot populate default values to the profiles.

In both of these cases, use the provisioning tag framework to create provisioning tags.

Service-level provisioning tags are stored in service-specific /config/telco objects, such as /config/telco/gsm/telephony.

You can also use the pin_telco_tags_service file to create account-level ERAs, which do not depend on a specific service. These ERAs are stored in /config/account_era objects.

Examples of Provisioning Tags for Prepaid Services

You can create different types of provisioning tags; for example:

A provisioning tag for a single bearer service, such as a type of voice service.
A provisioning tag for one or more supplementary services without a bearer service. A charge offer with this type of provisioning tag is typically included in an add-on package because the customer must have the service before adding the supplementary services.
A provisioning tag for one or more service-level ERAs. This type of provisioning tag can be used only in an add-on package.
A provisioning tag can include combinations of a bearer service, supplementary services, and service-level ERAs.

For example, you might include two different provisioning tags for a GSM telephony service charge offer:

The VoicePremium provisioning tag implements the following:
- A voice bearer service
- The Call Forwarding supplementary service
- The Home Cell Assignment service ERA
The VoiceFamily provisioning tag implements the following:
- A voice bearer service
- The Caller ID supplementary service
- The Friends and Family service ERA

You might also create charge offers such as these:

A charge offer that implements a voice bearer service.
An add-on charge offer that implements Call Forwarding and the Home Cell Assignment ERA.
An add-on charge offer that implements Caller ID and the Friends and Family ERA.

Note:

You cannot directly change the status of supplementary services. Instead, you change the status of the charge offers they were purchased with.

For example, to inactivate a Call Forwarding supplementary service, you inactivate its charge offer. However, when you do so, you inactivate all other charge offers, supplementary services, and service ERAs purchased with the charge offer.

Therefore, you should create charge offers that enable you to manage services after the charge offers are purchased.

About GSM Supplementary Services

GSM supplementary services are features such as call forwarding and call blocking. They are not implemented as BRM services. Instead, they are implemented by using charge offer provisioning.

For example, you might have a charge offer that includes the GSM telephony service and a provisioning tag that implements the call forwarding supplementary service.

Note:

Supplementary services can be used only with GSM services.

Value-added services, such as voice mail, are similar to supplementary services. The difference is that value-added services are not part of the GSM network standard.

Note:

In this documentation, supplementary services and value-added services are referred to collectively as supplementary services.

You include supplementary services in charge offers by using provisioning tags. You can create charge offers that add supplementary services to an existing account (for example, a charge offer that adds call forwarding).

You cannot activate supplementary services in Billing Care. After BRM provisions a supplementary service, a customer usually activates the supplementary service using the telephone keypad. For example, a customer can define a number to use for call forwarding.

A customer's supplementary services are defined in the service objects owned by the customer's account, such as /service/telco/gsm.

You define systemwide supplementary services in /service/telco/gsm objects. For example, supplementary voice telephony services are defined in /service/telco/gsm/telephony.

Defining Provisioning Tags for Telco Services by Using the pin_telco_tags File

This section describes defining provisioning tags through the pin_telco_tags file for a specific telco service. For example, you use pin_telco_tags_gsm for GSM provisioning tags.

You can include service-level ERAs, supplementary services, and service extensions in a provisioning tag defined in a pin_telco_tags file.

To define provisioning tags using the pin_telco_tags file:

Configure provisioning tags in the pin_telco_tags_service file.
Load the pin_telco_tags_service file into the BRM database with the load_pin_telco_tags utility.

You can also define account-level ERAs in the pin_telco_tags file.

To configure a provisioning tag in the pin_telco_tags file:

Open the pin_telco_tags_service file. For example, use pin_telco_tags_gsm for GSM services.

The default pin_telco_tags files are in BRM_home/sys/data/config. They include examples and instructions.
Use this syntax to add a provisioning tag:

provisioning_tag  "Class" "ProvTag" "PTDescription" "DelayedProvReqd"
service_extn      "Extension Type Name" "Extension Value" 
features          "One Or More Feature Name String Values" 
service_era       "ServiceERA" "StringIdERA" "StringIdServiceERADesc" "ProvBool" "ERALabel"

Enter each value in quotation marks.

A provisioning tag can be any combination of service extensions, features, and service-level ERAs. You do not need to include all three types of data in a tag.

Table 7-1 describes the provisioning tag syntax:

Table 7-1 Provisioning Tag Syntax

Tag Element	Value	Description
provisioning_tag	Class	The object that stores the tag. For example: "/config/telco/gsm/telephony"
provisioning_tag	ProvTag	The name of the provisioning tag. For example: "DataPremium"
provisioning_tag	PTDescription	The description of the provisioning tag. For example: "Premium Data Service"
provisioning_tag	DelayedProvReqd	Whether the tag is unprovisioned when the charge offer containing the tag is canceled. Possible values are: "y" specifies that cancellation triggers unprovisioning. In most cases, use this setting. "n" specifies that cancellation does not trigger unprovisioning. Use this setting to leave a customer's service configuration unchanged. For example, you might want to leave a voice mailbox intact.
service_extn	Extension Type Name	The type of service extension. For example: "BEARER_SERVICE"
service_extn	Extension Value	The code for a GSM bearer service or other service extension. For example: "B46" Codes are defined in the GSM specification. You must use the exact code that the network requires.
features	One or More Feature Name String Values	The GSM supplementary services provisioned when this charge offer is purchased. The services are entered as codes in one line. For example: "CLIP" "CW" These codes are defined in the GSM specification. You must use the exact code that the network requires. For a list of codes, see "Supported Supplementary Services".
service_era	ServiceERA	The service ERA code. For example: "FRIENDS_FAMILY"
service_era	StringIdERA StringIdServiceERADesc	The IDs for the ERA name and description. For example: "12" "13" You define a localized name and description for these IDs in the era_descr.localefile.
service_era	ProvBool	Whether or not provisioning is required. The possible values are: "y" specifies that provisioning is required. "n" specifies that provisioning is not required.
service_era	ERALabel	The name of a list within the ERA. An ERA can have one or more lists. For example: "MYFRIENDS" Note: You cannot localize the ERA label. You cannot have duplicate label names associated with the same ERA code.

This example shows a provisioning tag for a telephony charge offer that includes a bearer service, call waiting and voice mailbox supplementary services, and friends and family service ERAs:

# Standard Telephony Package 
provisioning_tag  "/config/telco/gsm/telephony"  "Voice Standard" "Voice Standard Service package with Called ID, Call Waiting, Voice mail and Friends and Family" "y"
service_extn      "BEARER_SERVICE" "T11"
features          "CLIP" "CW" "VMBOX" 
service_era       "FRIENDS_FAMILY" 12 13 "n" "MYFRIENDS"
service_era       "FRIENDS_FAMILY" 12 13 "n" "MYFAMILY"

Loading the pin_telco_tags File

Run the load_pin_telco_tags utility to load the contents of the pin_telco_tags_service file: for example, the pin_telco_tags_gsm file: into the BRM database. This utility creates or updates /config/telco/service and /config/account_era objects.

Note:

By default, the load_pin_telco_tags utility appends telco provisioning tags and account-level ERAs to the BRM database. But if you use the -x parameter, this utility overwrites existing telco provisioning tags and account-level ERAs. Do not use the -x parameter unless you are certain you want to overwrite existing objects.

Note:

The load_pin_telco_tags utility requires a configuration file. See "Creating Configuration Files for BRM Utilities" in BRM System Administrator's Guide.

Edit the pin_telco_tags_service file to add the custom account-level ERAs. The default pin_telco_tags_gsm file in BRM_home/sys/data/config includes examples and instructions.
Save the pin_telco_tags_service file.
Use the following command to run the load_pin_telco_tags utility:
```
load_pin_telco_tags pin_telco_tags_service 
```
For the complete command syntax, see "load_pin_telco_tags".
Restart the Connection Manager (CM).

To verify that the account ERAs were loaded, you can display the /config objects by using the Object Browser or use the robj command with the testnap utility. (See "Reading an Object and Writing Its Contents to a File" in BRM Developer's Guide.)

Supported Supplementary Services

Table 7-2 shows the supplementary services supported by GSM Manager. You select from these codes when configuring GSM provisioning tags in PDC.

These codes are defined in the GSM provisioning DTD file (GSM.dtd), which is used by the GSM provisioning components. If you customize the GSM provisioning components to add supplementary services, you must be sure to use the new codes in the provisioning tags.

Table 7-2 GSM Manager Supported Supplementary Services

Supplementary Service	Code
Advice of charge (charging)	AOCC
Advice of charge (information)	AOCI
Barring all incoming calls	BAIC
Barring incoming calls when roaming outside the home PLMN country	BAICR
Barring all outgoing calls	BAOC
Barring all incoming calls when roaming outside the home PLMN country	BICRO
Barring all outgoing international calls	BOIC
Barring all outgoing international calls except those directed to the HOME PLMN country	BOICXH
Completion of calls to busy subscribers	CCBS
Call deflection	CD
Call forwarding on mobile subscriber busy	CFB
Call forwarding on mobile subscriber not reachable	CFNRC
Call forwarding on mobile subscriber no reply	CFNRY
Call forwarding unconditional	CFU
Calling line identification presentation	CLIP
Calling line identification restriction	CLIR
Name identification	CNAP
Connected line identification presentation	COLP
Connected line identification restriction	COLR
Call waiting	CW
Explicit call transfer	ECT
Call holding	HOLD
Multicall	MC
Enhanced multilevel precedence	MLPP
Multiparty	MPTY
Support of private numbering package	SPNP
User-to-user signaling	UUS
Voice/fax mail service	VMBOX