SM Rules Engine

The Subscription Manager contains a flexible rules decision function which uses network information supplied by the subscription manager and the catalogue manager components. The subscriber information from the database along with the specific application decides which product must be provisioned and which charging rules should be used to control a subscription request.

Input Type	Input Value
Local data	Time and date; services; service options; subscription channel
External subscriber data	Subscriber category, charging profiles, additional profile information, service profiles
Product catalog data	Production information, subscriber identity, and location information product information product ID product type requested service service properties service profile roaming information volume duration and events subscription price price group subscriber identity MSISDN IMSI VIP or Group Subscriber type (prepaid, postpaid, etc.) location information GT address roaming
Application function data	Media type and format, special bundles
Data balance from IN	Balance status received over the charging interface
Charging control	IN bypass policy; primary or secondary IN address
Subscription monitoring	subscriber self-care via WEB; self-care via SMS/HTTP/XML

Input Type

Input Value

Local data

Time and date; services; service options; subscription channel

External subscriber data

Subscriber category, charging profiles, additional profile information, service profiles

Product catalog data

Production information, subscriber identity, and location information

product information

product ID
product type
requested service
service properties
service profile
roaming information
volume
duration and events
subscription
price
price group

subscriber identity

MSISDN
IMSI
VIP or Group
Subscriber type (prepaid, postpaid, etc.)

location information

GT address
roaming

Application function data

Media type and format, special bundles

Data balance from IN

Balance status received over the charging interface

Charging control

IN bypass policy; primary or secondary IN address

Subscription monitoring

subscriber self-care via WEB; self-care via SMS/HTTP/XML

Charging rules

Charging rules include whether a subscription should be charged using the Online Charging System, whether charging should be done by time or volume and price group to be used.

Prepaid Bundles and Subscriptions

The ability to track on a per subscriber basis allows the operator to up‐sell and cross‐sell services to casual users and to encourage the up‐take of services amongst reluctant subscribers. The bundles are predefined quotas of usage (volume and/or duration) for a fixed price.

Pausing Subscriptions

The system allows a subscriber to temporarily pause a subscription for a time‐limited quota, for example, when a subscriber is on holidays. This feature allows the subscriber to stop/ restart an expiry timer via self‐care using SMS or web service. The number of times the subscription can be paused is configurable by the network operator to avoid abuse of the feature.

Multiple quotas can be provisioned for each subscriber. The order in which these quotas are consumed is also configurable based on rules such as earliest expiration first, smallest volume first, assigned priority or a combination of the above.