Abstract

Due to market deregulation and technological advances, a multi-service broadband environment is emerging, generating a requirement for a new approach to pricing systems. This paper presents such an approach and describes a working implementation of an innovative and flexible multi-service accounting system. The system is based on a mature understanding of the nature of charging algorithms, and is implemented as a set of interoperating distributed components. At the heart of the system is a rating engine built around a service portfolio, tying together spreadsheet specification of arbitrarily complex services, charging algorithms and tariff tables. The very wide range of service delivery technologies in existence motivates the design of a system that is independent of proprietary formats and based on a dynamic service portfolio structure and a generic service detail record definition.