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Telecom Billing - System Architecture

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Following diagram shows a typical architecture of a Billing System. Here we have two possibilities:

Billing System Architecture

Typical Billing Process:

Considering above system architecture:-> After a call is made or you can say a usage is generated by the end customer, the mediation system gathers usage data from the network switch and builds a call-detail record (CDR). This CDR must contain A party number and B party number, the start and end date & times.

The CDR is then stored until it can be rated. To rate the call, the CDR is examined to see if the call is, for example, a 800 number, a local call that is covered by a local-area calling plan, international call or a toll call. Information such as the time of the call was placed and city coode or country codes are used to calculate the rate for the call.

Once each call is rated, this information is stored until the invoice is run, usually once a month. When the invoice is run, other nonusage charges,such as discounts or monthly fees, can be applied to the bill or sometime called invoice.

There could be rating time discount or billing time discount, different payments done by the customers, different adjustments given, all this information contribute in final invoice generation.

This information is then converted in a formats which can be printed in a readable form. Finally, the envelope is printed, stuffed with enclosures, and mailed to the end customer.

Billing System Requirements:

A billing system should composed of a series of independent applications that, when run together, are referred to as the billing system. A good billing system should provide following major functionalities with a dept of flexibility:

Apart from the above functionalities, a good billing system should be :

What is Next?

Starting form next chapter, I would try to cover complete process starting from defining product and services, associating plan and tariffs with those products, acquiring customers (selling products to the end customers) and capturing usage generated by those customers and finally rating and billing that usage to send a final bill to those customers.


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