Pre and post-paid real time billing convergence system
AssigneeAccenture Global Services Limited
InventorAndrea Cesarini
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A telecommunications service provider architecture integrates multiple architectures which include prepaid and post-paid processing systems. The convergent enhanced architecture provides performance, scalability, and efficiency consistent with a prepaid architecture and flexibility and configurability consistent with a post-paid system. The convergent architecture provides messaging interfaces between a telecommunications support architecture and a prepaid architecture or a combined rating and billing architecture. The messaging interfaces support message transfer between the processing systems in the architectures to provide information exchange including billing exchanges, rating exchanges, and customer management exchanges.
Claims21
A convergent telecommunications system architecture comprising:
- a telecommunications support architecture comprising prepaid rating balances and post-paid account balances for service customers;
- a prepaid architecture that tracks service usage for a prepaid service;
- and
- a bi-directional messaging interface configured to connect the telecommunications support architecture and the prepaid architecture, the bi-directional messaging interface comprising:
- a prepaid account refill interface from the telecommunications support architecture to the prepaid architecture, the prepaid account refill interface including a refill message adapter comprising a refill message mapping from a telecommunications support architecture refill message to a prepaid architecture refill message, wherein the refill message mapping includes transforming a format used by the telecommunication support architecture to a second, different format used by the prepaid architecture;
- and
- a service usage interface from the prepaid architecture to the telecommunications support architecture, wherein the service usage interface includes:
- a service use event record having an event header;
- a dynamically configurable event attribute list;
- and
- multiple event type definitions, each including an event attribute definition which specifies event attributes configured to be inserted into the dynamically configurable event attribute list in the service use event record.
A method for establishing a telecommunications system architecture, the method comprising:
- providing a telecommunications support architecture comprising prepaid rating balances and post-paid account balances for service customers;
- providing a prepaid architecture that tracks service usage for a prepaid service;
- establishing a bi-directional messaging interface connecting the telecommunications support architecture and the prepaid architecture;
- establishing a subscriber account interface from the telecommunications support architecture to the prepaid architecture, the subscriber account interface including a subscriber account message adapter;
- mapping, using the subscriber account message adapter, from a telecommunications support architecture subscriber account message to a prepaid architecture subscriber account message, comprising transforming a format used by the telecommunications support architecture to a second, different format used by the prepaid architecture;
- and
- establishing a service usage interface from the prepaid architecture to the telecommunications support architecture, and further establishing in the service usage interface:
- a service use event record having an event header;
- a dynamically configurable event attribute list;
- and
- multiple event type definitions, each including an event attribute definition which specifies event attributes configured to be inserted into the dynamically configurable event attribute list in the service use event record.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.