LogiSense has a powerful rating and mediation engine that can rate any type of usage event in real time or batch. Usage data can take the form of an event record in a usage feed. The usage data records are can be supplied either via an SFTP file upload or by API. Because each record will have its own proprietary format, a mediation layer is designed for each solution to format the data into a Usage Data Record (UDR) that can be processed by the rating engine.
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The rating engine performs a lookup to determine if a matching unique Usage IDentifier (UID) exists which is the a unique record assigned to service assigned a service (e.g. an IMSI, phone number, mac address, etc.) that has been added to an account that is being which will be billed for this type of data. This UID maintains a history of which service and customer has owned that the unique entity over time.
Once a valid UID is determined, the rating engine determines the matching rate group based on location, time period and other characteristics that might be set. The rate is determined from that rate group. Once a rate is determined, the rating is computed on that UDR.
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Usage events are classified into UDR classes. These define the type of event and units of measure. The mediation process identifies the Usage Class as well as the owner of that usage by a the configurable unique ID we call a unique usage identifier usage ID (UID). This UID has a history of what service and customer has owned that unique entity over time. Usage Classes can be configured to represent any measure of usage including storage, time, IO, bandwidth, transactions, and units.
After rating, applicable taxes are computed on the amount. Finally, bucketing is performed to account for any special promotions, free usage or discounting that might apply.
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In order to perform rating, a rate plan needs to be created. The rate plan itself doesn’t define the rates. All it does is define the container for rate groups. Rate groups are what define the rates. A rate plan can contain multiple rate groups, each with their own rate planrates.
Furthermore, conditions can be imposed on the rate group for assigning different rates based on conditions: as an example, it is common to charge a higher rate for peak hour service and a lower rate for off peak times. The actual rate is encapsulated in a UDR rate structure. The figure below illustrates the relationship between a rate plan, rate groups, conditions and UDR rates.
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Along with the data type, the class configuration also defines whether the rating is class based or GeoTree based. The major use of the GeoTree is for location or zone based service rating (i.e. telecom calls). Unlike most systems which have you simply enter a calling pattern (i.e. 1212) and associated rate, without any real understanding of where it is entered or structured, LogiSense allows you to get as granular as you like within a structured tree. For instance, you can define what actually makes up the calling patterns within a state, deploy rates based on zones, set top level rates (one price for the Continental US instead of having to define each individual pattern), setup rates by regions, types or operators (allowing you to specify a different rate based on which mobile operator's network the user is on).
Usage Rates
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When looking for a rate, the rating logic will determine the appropriate rate plan associated with that usage. As explained previously a rate plan may contain multiple rate groups based on rate group conditions . The the rating engine will choose a rate group that matches the given conditions. A rate group can contain one or more rates once again subject to conditions such as the class of usage (Data vs. API vs. Voice) and location groups. Once the correct rate is determined, the system will apply that rate to the usage being rated and calculate the charge.
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Different types of rates are supported as shown in the table:
Rate Type | Definition |
|---|---|
Standard Rates | ($ value) x (event record value) |
Fixed Rate | $ regardless of event record value |
Markup | ($ value) x cost |
Fixed Markup | ($ value) + cost |
Usage Identifier
The event record Usage Identifier (UID) is a key component in the rating process. It is what ties an incoming event record to a given account service. A UID can be created per account service and is valid for the duration of that service. A UID must be unique for each instance of the service; when adding bulk quantities of a given service, distinct identifiers must be specified for each item to uniquely identify each usage based service.
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