Q1  2009

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The ATS Network & Billing Update is published by Advanced Technologies & Services, Inc. (www.atso.com), a revenue and service assurance solutions provider. This free newsletter is a guide to telecommunications OSS, billing, and revenue assurance news and other telecom industry analysis.  To unsubscribe, contribute an article, or for offbeat news, please scroll to the end. Feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends and co-workers!

In this issue:

	NEW FEATURE: ATS Developers' Corner
	OBF Quarterly Update - OBF #105
	Telecoms Eyeing Home Energy Management: A Viable Combination?
	OffBeat News: Charging Cell Phones With Just a Wave of Your Hand

ATS Developers' Corner
By: Chris Corus, Senior Software Engineer, ATS

ATS is excited to announce a new section to our website entitled "ATS Developers' Corner".  In this section, ATS' development staff will be continually posting new items ranging from note on current projects under development to tips and tricks on how to use our tools such as SimCall and Amadeus.  If you have any questions about projects under development or user questions about our tools, feel free to write to us at info@atso.com and your answers will be posted to our website.  Our first post to the ATS Developers' Corner section comes from Senior Software Engineer Chris Corus. 

Feature Bundle Optimization

Hello mates and welcome to the ATS Developers’ Corner.  Today we are going to talk about a process under development at ATS to provide Feature Bundle Optimization information to a Telco Customer Representative.  Over time, changes are made to the bundle structures such that one can find bundles with more features for less money than a Customer might currently have or perhaps a Customer has purchased all their features one at a time and there is a Feature Bundle that would provide all the Customer’s Features at less cost.  This would be considered a form of "over-billing" which could potentially lead to customer dissent and possible churn.  By utilizing the Feature Bundle Optimization process, a customer service representative has the opportunity when a customer calls in to provide them with information to potentially save them money and increase their satisfaction with the phone company.  As we all know, happy customers remain as customers. 

I would like to quickly take you through a few steps in our process to give you a better understanding of how we can accomplish this. 

The Required Data

Let’s suppose we have some Business and Residential Bundle files.  The examples below assume that the Customers reside on a Nortel DMS-100 switch.  Here are a few sample lines:

Business Bundle File Example

Residential Bundle file Example

Then, using a billing file such as the following, we check to see if customers actually have the most cost efficient bundle.

Billing File Example

The Customer Feature bundle would be compared against either the Business or Residential Bundles, and the most cost effective bundle that has all of the Customer’s features is chosen even if it adds Features to the Customer’s package.

The Results

The results could be something such as: 

Conclusion

We have given a glimpse of an algorithm, the implementation of which is currently being explored by the Developers at ATS.  It shows the type of Telco data that can be combined to provide better information to a Telco Customer Representative so that Customers can benefit from reduced Feature Bundle cost.  While from a pure revenue assurance prospective this process may appear to reduce revenue, the long-term effect would be positive in nature as it would increase customer satisfaction and reduce churn. 

Let us know what you think of this on-going work at info@atso.com.

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OBF #105 - Louisville, KY
By: Ken Babcock, VP of Regulatory Services, ATS

The ATIS Ordering and Billing Forum (OBF) is facing a definite crossroads in its existence.

At OBF#105 held in Louisville, KY from January 26-29, 2009, it became painfully apparent to me that the acquisition/merger activity over the last eighteen (18) months and the severe downturn in the economy coupled with the realization that the Next Generation Network (NGN) is not your father’s means of interconnection has hit hard.

Admittedly, Louisville, KY during an ice storm is not Palm Springs, CA in terms of a crowd magnet. Attendance was down dramatically even in the Internet Protocol Network to Network Interface (IPNNI) Committee. Furthermore, the Billing Committee and the Message Processing Committee no longer meet face-to-face at OBF.

Nevertheless, the IPNNI did manage to put together an approach to ordering Next Generation Network (NGN) service and for Call Detail Record (CDR) charging specifications which holds promise of a possible new beginning to what the OBF is and will become.

The new approach attempts to focus on a Level 3 and above Open System Interconnection (OSI) model which according to internet.com’s Webopedia defines a networking framework for implementing protocols in seven layers. Control is passed from one layer to the next, starting at the application layer in one station, proceeding to the bottom layer, over the channel to the next station and back up the hierarchy stack.

The concept is a difficult one for old-time OBF’ers to grasp in that it assumes traditional connectivity is in place in terms of the Physical layer (Layer 1) of hardware and circuits plus the Data Link layer (Layer 2) of transmission and control of bits and bytes are in place. Following is a brief overview of the OSI seven (7) layer stack which I offer to clarify where we are in terms of “the new language”.

• Webopedia defines Layer 1 as the layer …that conveys the bit stream - electrical impulse, light or radio signal -- through the network at the electrical and mechanical level. It provides the hardware means of sending and receiving data on a carrier, including defining cables, cards and physical aspects. Fast Ethernet, RS232, and ATM are protocols with physical layer components.”
   

• Layer 2 is defined as the layer where data packets are encoded and decoded into bits. It furnishes transmission protocol knowledge and management and handles errors in the physical layer, flow control and frame synchronization. The data link layer is divided into two sub layers: The Media Access Control (MAC) layer and the Logical Link Control (LLC) layer. The MAC sub layer controls how a computer on the network gains access to the data and permission to transmit it. The LLC layer controls frame synchronization, flow control and error checking.
   

• Layer 3 is the layer that provides switching and routing technologies, creating logical paths, known as virtual circuits, for transmitting data from node to node. Routing and forwarding are functions of this layer, as well as addressing, internetworking, error handling, congestion control and packet sequencing.
   

• Layer 4 provides transparent transfer of data between end systems, or hosts, and is responsible for end-to-end error recovery and flow control. It ensures complete data transfer.
   

• Layer 5 establishes, manages and terminates connections between applications. The session layer sets up, coordinates, and terminates conversations, exchanges, and dialogues between the applications at each end. It deals with session and connection coordination.
   

• Layer 6 provides independence from differences in data representation (e.g., encryption) by translating from application to network format, and vice versa. The presentation layer works to transform data into the form that the application layer can accept. This layer formats and encrypts data to be sent across a network, providing freedom from compatibility problems. It is sometimes called the syntax layer.
   

• Layer 7 supports application and end-user processes. Communication partners are identified, quality of service is identified, user authentication and privacy are considered, and any constraints on data syntax are identified. Everything at this layer is application-specific. This layer provides application services for file transfers, e-mail, and other network software services. Telnet and FTP are applications that exist entirely in the application level. Tiered application architectures are part of this layer.

As you can see, there is a huge need to think in abstract terms that do not go down well with people who are trying to fit service into retail or wholesale boxes.

Nevertheless, I believe that the IPNNI Committee is on the right track.

At the upcoming ATIS Meeting of Committees (AMOC) or OBF#106, if you prefer, which is scheduled for Indian Wells, CA on April 20-24, 2009, we will get to test the new IPNNI approach through joint meetings with the Packet Technologies and Systems Committee (PTSC) and the Telecommunications Operations and Management Committee (TMOC). The PTSC and TMOC are standards-setting bodies for everything that is network. These two groups plus the IPNNI come at defining the NGN from very different perspectives.

As a result, there is bound to be controversy and there is. However, it has been my experience that meeting face-to-face shortens the time it takes to work out controversy.

One of the biggest items to work out, is the NGN an N-1 proposition?

In other words, is it only necessary “to know about” direct network interconnection rather than propositions that require the user to have end-to-end knowledge of which networks were involved in providing interconnection of a consumed service. In the past, the PTSC has maintained that an “N-1” method is all that is needed. This obviously flies in the face of anything we are familiar with in the Layer 1 and Layer 2 OSI world.

Another significant controversial item centers on the protocol that will drive event and session charging in the NGN.

The PTSC has said in the past Diameter is the answer because the 3GPP standards body has adopted Diameter as the primary signaling protocol for AAA and mobility management in the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). The IMS is the service delivery environment for real-time multimedia services for the 3rd Generation wireless network and is also an ideal architecture for service convergence across fixed, wireless, and corporate enterprise networks. IMS offers a secure, mediated access to value-added services and network resources inside a managed core IP network while providing open interfaces for third party developers and enterprise-based applications that need access to the trusted carrier.

The TMOC on the other hand insists that the Diameter protocol lacks efficiency and satisfactory performance and therefore Internet Protocol Detail Record (IPDR) streaming protocol is the answer to which protocol should drive NGN event/session charging.

Bottom-line, Diameter vs IPDR will get some meaningful time for further examination and discussion hopefully leading to a prompt resolution of which route will be employed.

Hopefully, this article provides some insight into why I consider this to be the most meaningful time to be involved in OBF.

Time will tell if the OBF can rise to meet the challenge. If not, the OBF will become a dinosaur and never be heard from again.

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Telecoms Eyeing Home Energy Management: A Viable Combination?
Courtesy of Seeking Alpha

U.S. homeowners might start seeing energy monitoring services being offered alongside "triple-play" TV, phone and Internet service as early as this year.

That's the word from Kevin Meagher, CEO of U.K.-based home system management company Intamac Systems Ltd. Meagher said he is in talks with "major carriers" in the U.S. interested in following the lead of foreign contemporaries like British Telecom (BT) and Bell Canada, which are rolling out services to let homeowners measure and manage how much electricity they use.

"There will be two or three (home energy management offerings) we will launch before the end of this year" with telecommunications companies in the United States, Meagher said Friday.

Think of it as a "smart home" incentive to get people to buy telecom broadband services. Bell Canada started offering such services in 2007, though only as a limited pilot project, and Meagher said British Telecom is planning to add "environmental management" to the home monitoring and other features of its Home Hub wireless gateways made by Thomson (TMS).

The question, of course, is whether homeowners will want to pay what telecoms will want to charge to make it worth their while.

Click Here for the full story.

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Offbeat News: Charging Cell Phones With Just a Wave of Your Hand
Courtesy of Cellular News

Imagine if all you had to do to charge your iPod or your BlackBerry was to wave your hand, or stretch your arm, or take a walk? You could say goodbye to batteries and never have to plug those devices into a power source again.

In research presented at the American Chemical Society's 237th National Meeting, scientists from Georgia describe technology that converts mechanical energy from body movements or even the flow of blood in the body into electric energy that can be used to power a broad range of electronic devices without using batteries.

Click Here for the full story.

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