Billing Mediation Platform
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A billing mediation platform is a system used to convert datatypes of a certain type to other datatypes, usually for billing purposes. They are used mostly by telephone companies, who typically need to process UDRs (Usage Detail Records). In call scenarios it is known as CDR (Call Detail Record), and among broadband carriers it's referred to as IPDR.
Billing mediation platforms get their name from their behavior; they "mediate" between a variety of other systems. In the typical telephone company scenario, the upstream systems (those providing data to the mediation platform) are network elements, such as telephone switches, and the downstream systems (those receiving data from the mediation platform) perform accounting, auditing, archiving, or bill-generation functions. The mediation system collects, coallates and prepares data for consumption by the downstream systems, which often accept data only in a limited set of formats.
Typically a mediation platform is used for the following tasks:
- Collection and validation of CDRs
- Collating
- Format change
- Business transformation of data
In a telecom billing scenario, mediation is the first step after receiving a CDR. Generally speaking, the mediated CDR is forwarded to a rating engine, which calculates the charge associated with the CDRs.
Despite the name, not all of the data transferred via billing mediation platforms is actually used for billing purposes. For instance, the mediation software might generate traffic volume statistics based on the number and origin of the records passing through it. Those statistics could then be used for capacity planning, as part of a network monitoring procedure, or for any other business intelligence applications.
Sophisticated Billing Mediation software from various providers servers end to end functionality for Telecom Operators. Following are few Mediation billing software providers
- AMDOCS
- Comarch Billing Mediation
- Comptel Mediation
- Intec telecom
- Openet
- TeleSciences
- Ericsson (EMM)
- DigitalRoute
- UshaComms Pegasus
- Aricent
Mediation Software Performs various operation from Collection to Downstream Distribution to Modules like Retail Billing, Interconnect Settlement, Business intelligence, Fraud Detection, Revenue Assurance, Test Call Generators. Following list of activities provides an insight on Mediation software activities
- Collection and Archive
- Decoding/Encoding
- CDR Normalization (Common Format)
- Filtering
- Conversion
- Validation
- Record Enrichment (Using Complex Reference Data)
- Duplicate Record Detection
- Aggregation or Correlation
- Buffering
- Cloning
- Sorting
- Downstream Format Mapping
- Header and Trailer generation
- Downstream Distribution
- Error Messaging and Alarms
- Auditing and Reports
- Reconciliation
- Reference Data Configuration
Complementary to Billing Mediation functions, comprehensive mediation platforms also provide functionality dedicated to Service Provisioning (the two areas frequently intermix as services configured and used by the end customer result in usage data records generation in the network).
