volte charging and clearing explained

Syniverse Proprietary1

VoLTE Charging and Clearing Explained

Mary Clark – Chief Marketing Officer, SyniverseKeith Dyer – Founder and Editor, The Mobile NetworkLeo Casey – Senior Solutions Engineer, Syniverse


#VoLTE

VoLTE is on the Rise

430 VoLTE- capable devices

- GSA

521 operators have commercially launched LTE networks

with 560 forecasted by end 2016

82 operators in

43 countries have launched VoLTE

- GSMA

-GSA

146 operators are investing in VoLTE-related activities

- GSA

-GSMA


#VoLTE

Already Launched Next 6 Months

6-12 Months 12 Months or Beyond

Undecided

If You Are Planning to Launch VoLTE Roaming, What is Your Timeline?


#VoLTE

Keith Dyer, Founder and Editor, The Mobile Network Founded The Mobile Network in 2013, introducing a new voice to the

media covering mobile network technology 17 years of experience covering the mobile network technology

ecosystem as a journalist and editor Tracked the development of the VoLTE ecosystem since the beginning

Leo Casey, Senior Solutions Engineer, Syniverse Responsible for supporting Syniverse’s Connected LTE, Intelligent

Roaming, MVNO, and clearing/billing services 15+ years of project management for roaming, business analytics, and

GSM data clearing GSMA regional conference presenter

Today’s Expert Panelists

VOLTE Roaming: charging

Keith Dyer, Editor, The Mobile Network

www.the-mobile-network.com

[email protected] Twitter: @keithdyer

#VoLTE

http://www.the-mobile-network.com/

#VoLTE

Recap on the story so far

Underlying technical choices:

Home Routing (S8HR) Easier but some features lacking or challenging:

e.g. lawful intercept, emergency call, SRVCC

Local Breakout (LBO)Technically more challenging, but more complete

user experience & operator control

#VoLTE

Choices: impact on charging

Underlying technical choices: impact on charging

Home Routing (S8HR)

Can only rate on per kb consumed by voice call

If call drops or falls back - what then?

Local Breakout (LBO)

Signalling changes between home and visited gateways

Keeps current charging model, esp for inbound

Architecture = Charging Capability = Business Model Impact

#VoLTE

What are operators thinking? 1/2

Roaming architecture choices:

Home Routing (S8HR) Clear favourite for early movers so far, but some do NOT like & Local Breakout (LBO) has support for future.

“Only LBO will allow us to meet regulatory, business and customer experience expectations… We have started to test LBO Home routed architecture with no significant network issues.” (Operator “A”)“LBO has been trialled and failed by a few operators. Another major network has specifically asked us to implement S8HR so that’s what we’re going to do as part of this request. Ultimately we’ll probably need to support this and then in the future enable LBO as well” (Operator “B”)

#VoLTE

What are operators thinking? 2/2

...about how charging and clearing will work for VoLTE Roaming?

“We’ll make it work” vs “Is it worth the hassle”

“At the wholesale level, both LBO and S8HR allow charging and settlement based on current contracts.”“LBO allows consistent charging for customers on all technologies while S8HR will require enhancements from both IMS and EPC networks to allow this consistent charging.”“S8HR will probably result in significant decrease of value without changing current charging principles.”

“There is tons of work involved in enabling S8HR Outbound Roaming in order to do Customer Charging correctly” “It’s impossible to relate volume to minutes or data CDRs to a call duration.”

“S8HR: Offers virtually no advantage over a CS voice call but gives many disadvantages.”

#VoLTE

EU roam like home?

Is there any impact of EU roam like home regulations on charging methodology?

NO!

● No anticipated difference in terms of actual way billing is done. Still need to identify session/call and charge/settle accordingly.

“None of the main VoLTE aspects are expected to change as a result of new EU regulation.”

#VoLTE

Conclusions

Still split but if pressed S8HR now (no choice due to commercial relations) and LBO later

Operators not totally uniform on how choice impacts charging

Access to required charging data also seen as challenge

Knock-on impact is on business modelsTime to understand implications is NOW

#VoLTE


#VoLTE

S8HR LBO

Hybrid Undecided

I don’t know

If You Are Planning to Launch VoLTE Roaming, What Roaming Architecture Do You Plan to Implement ?


#VoLTE

VoLTE Charging and Clearing Explained

Evolution towards All-IP/IMS

New and Legacy Network Technologies

Technical and Process Changes

for Charging

VoLTE Charging and Clearing

Principles

Different VoLTE Implementations

S8HR and LBO


#VoLTE

Evolution of TAP Events

CS TAP CDRs Mobile Originating Call MOC

Event for Voice and SMS-MO (only used for 2G , 3G Traffic)

Mobile Terminating Call (MTC) Event for Voice and SMS-MT (only used for 2G , 3G Traffic)

Supplementary Service (SS) Event in association with Voice Service

GPRS TAP CDR GPRS Event for data bearer

stream (2G , 3G , LTE Traffic)

VoLTE TAP CDRs Mobile Session – MSESS

(only used for Voice Traffic over LTE)

Messaging Event – MSG (only used for SMS Traffic over LTE )

2G – 3G 4G


#VoLTE

A single VoLTE call must be represented in a single Mobile Session (MSESS) TAP Call Detail Record (CDR) in the same manner like the case with Voice over Circuit Switch (CS). It is not allowed to present partial VoLTE Calls separately on TAP.

VoLTE Traffic is not allowed to be represented in CS MOC and CS MTC Events on TAP

CS Voice and SMS Events are not allowed to be represented in MSESS and MSG Events on TAP

VoLTE S8HR is volume based charging data service: Using the existing GPRS call record in TAP Charges can be differentiated by QoS Class Identifier

(QCI) and also by APN as any other data usage Signaling (QCI5) can also be separated from payload

traffic (except for SMS)

VoLTE has been supported since TAP3.12, May 1, 2012

VoLTE Principles


VoLTE Support in TAP


#VoLTE

TAP for Voice Over LTE TAP support for LTE/IMS (TAP3.12) Two new TAP records for VoLTE

Messaging event (MSG) Mobile session (MSESS)

New TAP fields in two new records New type of roamer New type of destination New recording entity code/type:

9:P-CSCF

Technical and Process Changes for Charging

TAP Challenges for VoLTE No single network element will

contain all charging elements Correlation of data from

SGSN/S-GW/P-CSCF CDRs via common Charging ID Charging ID available from P-CSCF

to identify each unique call Not all “usual” TAP information

readily available Charging only for service and not

for service + bearer (may not be straightforward)


#VoLTE

Voice and SMS in CS vs. LTE

Item CS LTE

User Identities IMSIMSISDN

IMSI complimentary with Private User IDPublic User ID

Origination / Destination E.164 Number E.164 Number , SIP URI, Tel URI

CDR Source MSC SGSN , S-GW , P-GW , P-CSCF, ATCF, TRF

CDR Correlation Not Required Required by using the Charging ID present in the EPC & IMS Domain

CDR Unique Identifier

Call Reference & SMS Reference IMS Charging Identifier

TAP Record MOC /MTCSMS-MO/SMS-MT

MSESS + Messaging Service MSG +Messaging Event Service

GPRS(S8HR)


VoLTE (S8HR) Home Routed


VoLTE (S8HR) Home Routed Architecture

Advantages S-GW is the main source for charging information Basic bearer data volume charging No technical complexity where handovers are not involved QCI mechanism is used to identify VoLTE calls TAP Charging capabilities are already present CAPEX/OPEX is low for wholesale billing

Challenges Non-granular mechanism to charge and identify single

VoLTE calls No service awareness for services used on the VPMN side Aggregation/Charging for VoLTE handover scenarios with

3G/4G are complex Duration-based charging for VoLTE will be complicated Correlation of charging information between VPMN and

HPMN is difficult

IPXIPX

E-UTRAN

MME

VPMN A-Party HPMN A-Party

B-Party

HSS

P-CSCF

S-CSCF

TAS

SGW

DRA

IBCF

VoLTERoaming

Interconnect

IMS

IMS Exchange

PCRF

PGW


#VoLTE

LTE Data Bearers – S8 Home Routing

QCI = 5

QCI = 1

QCI = 2 Video Media - Dedicated Bearer

Application Servers

IMS APN

LTE Bit Pipe

Voice Media - Dedicated Bearer AS

AS

IMS HPMN

Signaling - Default Bearer

QCI Values TAP Values

ValueQCI Priority Description CTL2

ValueRecord

Type APN

1 2 Conversational Voice 21 GPRS IMS

2 4 Conversational Video (Live Streaming) 22 GPRS IMS

5 1 IMS Signaling (Voice, Video, SMS) 25 GPRS IMS

PDN-GW

S-G

W

VPMN


#VoLTE

Signaling and media anchored in home network

No IMS accounting records sent from visited to home network Records generated in home network

IMS accounting records not available on visited network Visited network only has visibility

into bearer accounting QoS, bearer usage

TAP billing records sent to clearing house for bearer data usage No change from GPRS settlement

process however the VPMN may decide to differentiate charging based on QCI values

Accounting Flow S8 Home Routing

BillingDomain

BillingDomain

AccessNetwork

Visited Network

Home Network

Clearing House

BearerAccounting

Offline Charging System

S-GW PDN-GW


OnlineChargingSystem

(Prepaid)

IMS Accounting

TAP

P/I/S-CSCF

IMS


VoLTE (LBO)


VoLTE (LBO) Local Breakout ArchitectureIPX

IPX

xCSCF

MME

VPMN A-Party HPMN A-Party

B-Party

HSS

P-CSCF

S-CSCF

TAS

IBCF

DRA

IBCF

VoLTERoaming

VoLTE Interconnect

EPC

IMS

IMS

IMS Exchange

IMS Exchange

PCRF

IBCF

Advantages More visibility into the control and media plane aspects of a

call or video session as it’s taking place with IMS Full support for lawful intercept and emergency call handling SRVCC support continuity of a voice call when moving between

LTE and CS networks VPMN has visibility of the call information using their IMS

records, TAP records can be created to reflect MOUs. This makes it possible to use TAP for retail billing

Challenges More complexity implementing and supporting VoLTE roaming Interoperability issues that must be resolved between IMS cores Requires multiple feeds from many network elements for both

visited and home operators Operators may choose to implement home routing for data, but

local breakout for voice, adding complexity The TAP 3.12 MSESS & MSG records need to be supported by

both roaming partners


LBO Roaming Scenarios VPMN Routed HPMN Routed

TAP Event Network Source

MSESS CDR TRF Network CDR

TAS

S-CSCF

Destination

TrGW

VPMN

HSS

IBCF

IBCF

TRF

IC Provider

IC Provider

IBCF

P-CSCF

PGW

IC Provider Control

Media

TAS

S-CSCF

Destination

TrGW

VPMN

HSS

IC Provider

IC Provider

IBCF

P-CSCF

PGW

IC Provider

Control

Media

HPMN HPMN

TrGW

IBCF

IBCF

TAP Event Network Source

MSESS CDR P-CSCF Network CDR


#VoLTE

VoLTE Call – MSESS TAP CDR

GeneralAPN

IMS Domain

ATCF Network CDRCalled Number Address

Subscription IDIMS Charging Identifier (ICID 1)

Service 1 (Voice)Media Component 1

Charging ID 1

Service 2 (Video)Media Component 2

Charging ID 2

IMS APN

PDP Context 3 (Internet Access) – Charging ID 3

PDP Context 2 (Video) – Charging ID 2 – (ICID 1)

PDP Context 1 (Voice) – Charging ID 1 – (ICID 1)

S-GW P-GWLTE EPC Core

External Packet Data Network

TAP MSESS CDR

IMSIMSISDNLocation Info.


#VoLTE

Bearer accounting records optionally sent from visited to home network IMS accounting records generated by visited P-CSCF and home S-CSCF Diameter interfaces to offline and online charging systems TAP billing records may be sent to clearing house to support legacy settlement and retail billing processes IPX provider has access to IMS accounting records

LTE Accounting Flow Local BreakoutIMS Services

Visited Network Home Network

TAP

IMS IMS

BearerBearer AccountingIMS Accounting

IPXProxyIPX

Provider

Offline/Online Charging System

BillingDomain

AccessNetwork

Clearing House

PDN-GW

BillingDomain


S-GW

P-CSCF I/S-CSCF


#VoLTE

LTE and the evolution to an all IP-based network represents new challenges and new opportunities

TAP has evolved to support VoLTE roaming, but not all TAP records are being used at this time

Multiple network routing scenarios bring different advantages and challenges to charging and clearing

S8HR is most widely used VoLTE routing scenario in use today While the information is not as granular for

wholesale charging and clearing, options are available to identify and charge for it

Roaming and financial teams need to work closely with their network engineering teams to understand which routing scenarios they’re using and what information is available to them for charging and clearing

Webinar Recap

VoLTE charging and clearing can be complex, but not impossible.


Q&A


Thank You!

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