Lecture Cbs of Huawei July2012

Covergent Billing System ( CBS ) Summary 22 July 2012 By Asif Rahman Saikat

Huawei’s OCS is a next generation charging system, which provides the convergent charging capability, such as: prepaid /postpaid convergent rating, voice service/data service convergent, multi network convergent

CRM Product Catalog

Marketing

Customer Care

Huawei OCS Service Management Layer

BMP I2000

RPTS

Account Balance Management

Bill Server

Subscriber Management

Pricing Management

Service Data and Rating Layer

CBP Credit Control

Bonus

UVC Convergent Rating

Service Control Layer

IVR

OCG

FEP

Core Network and Service Enabler MSC/SSP

SGSN/GGSN

SMSC/MMSC…

Fig: System Architecture Huawei OCS is composed of 3 functional layers: Service Management Layer, Service Data and Rating Layer, and Service Control Layer.  Service Management Layer: including BMP providing Account Balance Management, Subscriber Management、Pricing Management, I2000 working as EMS, RPTS supporting reports and Bill Server for call detailed information query.

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Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

 Service data and Rating Layer: In this Layer, the OCS provides rating, charging and accounting functionality, and supports both online/offline charging and prepaid/postpaid charging.  Service Control Layer: The Layer includes OCG, FEP. OCG complete the access control(such as voice, sms, data etc.). FEP works as a protocal adaptor or as OCS invoked SMS deliver. The components in Service Control Layer include OCG, FEP,IVR.

Network Element

FUNCTIONS

DESCRIPTION OCG (Open Charging Gateway) is a high availability platform which handles the service control, processing, and traffic management with INAP/CAP/WIN.

OCG ( Open Charging Gateway )

Open Charging Gateway

It interacts with CBP though DCC interface to authenticating subscriber and applying for the call time when it receive a call.

At the end of the call, OCG will report the call duration time to CBP and request CBP for charging.

FEP

URP

Front End Processor

FEP (Front End Processor) is also an interface entity between the OCS system and 3rd party systems such as banks, SMSC (Short Message Service Center), etc. to accomplish the conversion between different protocols so as to extend the functions of the OCS system. Notification SMS invoked by OCS will deliver to FEP for sending.

Universal Resource Platform

The U-SYS Universal Resource Platform (URP8100 for short) is used for both narrowband and broadband media resources. Inheriting all features of C&C08-AIP, the URP8100 is an intelligent peripheral of media resources in next generation network (NGN). The URP8100 uses industry-leading software and hardware architecture, featuring large capacity, high integration, rich media resources, and strong service support. It also enjoys powerful networking ability by supporting PSTN/PLMN and NGN. (In this project, it will not use Huawei URP, it use current IP in MSC/SSP)

Table : The components in Service Control Layer include OCG, FEP,IVR.

Service data and Rating Layer The Service data and Rating layer in the above figure is composed of CBP. The main function of each module/subsystem is listed as below: Network Element CBP

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FUNCTIONS

DESCRIPTION

Convergent Rating & Charging

CBP is the core module in Huawei OCS, providing unified rating & billing engine and supports both online charging and offline charging. The services cover voice, SMS, data service (volume and

Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

duration based), content. Also include periodic charging such as monthly rental, rebating, bonus, and discount. CBP accumulates usage real-timely and generates rated CDRs for future query.

Generates Rated CDR.You can collect CDR from there and check the charging is ok or not and also can check is it is being using the proper Product Key.

Credit Control

UVC

Voucher Center

The real-time balance & account management and credit control for prepaid subscribers and postpaid subscribers is in CBP. UVC consists of UVC (Uniform Voucher Center) and CMP (Card Management Point). The UVC is mainly used to store voucher cards related data, and handle the recharge request from subscriber. CMP is mainly in charge of the centralized management over the card data creation, loading-to-database, deletion, activation/deactivation, locking/unlocking and query of the recharge card data file.

Service Management Layer include BMP and IVR. The main function of each module/subsystem is listed as below: Network Element

FUNCTIONS

Account Balance Management

BMP

Subscriber Management

Pricing Management

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DESCRIPTION

Account Balance Management manages one or more account balances for a subscriber or group of related subscribers, for example for a family. Account balances can be prepaid, postpaid or hybrid models with allowances for particular services. Subscriber Management provides create/delete/input customer information, service ordering information, blacklist management, Customer Relationship Management. Pricing Management operator to define product and manage service. Products have been categorized into: main products, group products, appendent service products and appendent tariff products.Appendent product have higher priority than Main product.And system always choose the

Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

LOWER price in case of charging.

I2000

Monitoring and Maintenance

I2000 (iManager 2000) is a unified NMS (Network Management System) of Huawei OCS. It provides statistics of performance and monitoring, alarm management, operation and maintenance of all elements. The statistic result of service traffic also generated by I2000. I2000 provides SNMP interfaces to the superior NMS.

RPTS

Intelligent Report System

RPTS is a Web-based system. It allows you to design reports based on a template, create, distribute, and manage reports based on the Web, create manual and schedule reports.

Bill Server

CDR Query

Bill Server system store call detailed records and provide query function.

AREA VOICE

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Interfaces With Objects GSM MSC/SSP

IN Remark Base on CAMEL II

Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

IP

Base on CAMEL II

SMSC

SMPP+ -> FEP -> SCP

MMSC

MMSC -> MDSP -> SCP

SMS PTA

SMSC -> MDSP -> SCP

MMS PTA

MMSC -> MDSP -> SCP

GPRS

Based on CAMEL 3 by SGSN

Content Download

SP/WAP -> MDSP ->SCP

RBT

RBT Download, Rent (MML)

RBT->FEP->SCP, RBT->SMP

Notification

SMC

SCP->FEP->SMC

Recharge

Voucher

IVR->SCP SMS->GFEP->SCP (currently not used) USSD->HLR->SCP

ELOAD

DEALER -> EVC -> SMP -> SCP

Balance Transfer

Balance

SMSC -> SCP USSD ->HLR -> SCP IVR -> MSC ->SSP 3rd Party -> SMP

Query

Profile/Balance

SMSC -> SCP (currently not used) USSD ->HLR -> SCP IVR -> MSC ->SSP->SCP

Service Operation

FNs BA Ecare

MML

PTP

PTA

DATA

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Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

Figure :: Target Network Architecture of Huawei OCS

1. One centralized BMP is deployed to support 25 M subscribers, which will manage all the OCS OCG & CBP nodes in 2 production sites. This scheme will be helpful to reduce OPEX. 2. OCG and CBP are deployed in two production sites with site1 supporting 14 M subscribers and site2 supporting 11M subscribers. 3. BMP adopt 1+1 DR mode, one product site and one DR site. OCG & CBP adopt 2+1 DR mode, site 1 & site 2 are production site, site 3 is the DR site, which means one DR site 3 will take over the traffic from production site1 or production site 2, according to which site will happen disaster firstly. The DR site 3 synchronizes all the data from site 1 & site 2, and the synchronized data from site 1 & site 2 is back up in different volume in site 3 DB. 4. Because each site has 5~6 clusters of active-standby CBP’s, and in order to simplify the connection between CBPs and VAS entities, DCCPROXY is introduced to provide single access point for VAS entities (GGSN, CRBT and 3rd party applications), which talk to OCS through Diameter interface. That will be easy for network management and maintenance. 5. For reliability & avoid long distance diameter connection between DCC Proxy and CPBs, for each site will deploy one DCCPROXY. DCCPROXY in each site is furnished with dual-cluster system to meet high reliability requirement.

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Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

6. OCS system adopts IP in SSP throughout the core network for playing announcement. It’s same as Legacy IN solution. All announcements of OCS service will be loaded in all SSP/IP. The existing AIP/URP will not be reused for OCS.

Fig : Interfaces between Huawei OCS and External Systems

A-END System

B-END System

Protocol

Role

CRM/CC/FNs/BA /Ecare…

OCS BMP

Web Service

Service operation and reverse work order for service provisioning

OCS CBP

Billing

sFTP/FTP

CDR transfer

MDSP

OCS GFEP

RTBP

P2A SMS, A2P SMS, MMS and Content Download charging

SMSC

OCS GFEP

SMPP 3.4

System Notification and self care via SMS such as balance transfer, profile/balance query

SMSC

OCS GFEP

SMPP+

P2P SMS rating and charging

CRBT

OCS DCC Proxy

DCC

CRBT download fee, rental fee charging GPRS service rating and charging

GGSN

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OCS DCC Proxy

DCC

(Notes: It can support charging by URL which is more flexible than CAP3. The DCC based GPRS charging will be used

Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

after the migration) GPRS service rating and charging SGSN

OCS OCG

MSC/SSP/AIP

OCS OCG

CAP 3

(Notes: It is only used during the migration in order to guarantee the network stable)

CAP 2

Voice service rating and charging, self care via IVR such as balance transfer, profile/balance query

HLR

OCS OCG

MAP

System notification and self care via USSD such as balance transfer, profile/balance query

UVC

OCS OCG

INAP

Voucher card recharge

ELoad

DCC Proxy

DCC

Electronic recharge

3rd Party APP, e.g. SCL, MCN, MOD etc

DCC Proxy

DCC

3rd party application charging

SNMP

Report alarm information, performance information, and configuration information to superior NMS

I2000

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NMS

Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

Only prepaid calls shall be triggered to OCS and be charged online. Later for CBS, all calls include prepaid, postpaid & hybrid should be triggered to OCS.

MSC/SSP communicates with OCS based on CAP2, MSC/SSP send the CAP message to USAU (Universal signal access point), UASU send to OCG for call control, OCG send diameter message to CBP for authentication and charging. (NB::ASIF::USAU+SCP==OCG)

The charging request is sent from SMSC to OCS for P2P SMS through SMPP+ interface. Rating and charging is done by OCS. The price of P2P SMS is configured through OCS SMAP. During migration, SMSC connect to IN and OCS respectively through SMPP+ interface according to number segment. 9|Page

Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

The charging request is sent from GGSN to OCS for GPRS through DCC interface. During the migration, the GPRS rating and charging will still be from SGSN to OCS through CAP3 interface, same as existing IN solution.

The charging request is also sent from CRBT to OCS for dowloand fee and subscription fee through DCC interface. During migration, the rating will still be done by CRBT same as exising IN solution, and OCS is responsible for fee deduction. CRBT send charging request to IN through MML and to OCS through DCC respectively according to number segment.

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Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

As there will be centralized Customer Care/Provision which will provide unified access for VAS services and unified provision to NEs including OCS, HLR, VAS platform such as CRBT, so the rating and charging of CRBT subscription fee will be fully done by OCS. CRBT is only responsible for the management of the SP/CP/service and assign the content ID. The product and price of CRBT subscription fee will be configured manually in OCS.

Voucher card recharge has IVR, SMS, and USSD three ways. Electronic recharge is from ELoad to OCS through DCC interface.

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Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

During migration, Eload communicate with IN and OCS by MML according to number segment. After the migration, the ELoad need upgrade to support DCC to integrate with OCS.

How to do the Prepaid Subscriber Provision

1. Operator creates the provisioning files for prepaid subscribers in single/batch mode. 2. Operator login OCS SMAP, upload the provisioning files and start to provision prepaid subscribers in OCS. 3. OCS talks to HLR to finish the provisioning on HLR through MML. All OCS services will be pre-activated in HLR. (Whether this step is included depends on the configuration, if this step is not needed, the provisioning in HLR will be independently through the HLR SMAP by manual.) 4. OCS feedback the response in provisioning result files to operator. If there is any provisioning failure in OCS or HLR, it will be corrected by manual.

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Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

How in CBS , Prepaid Subscriber Provision (In Phase II CBS Solution)

1.

Customer Care sends the prepaid creation request to BMP, the request can be Single/Batch.

2.

BMP Create prepaid profile and response back to Customer Care.

3.

Customer Care sends to Provisioning System for Prepaid activation. The request can be Single/Batch.

4.

Provisioning system sends creation request to HLR only for prepaid lines, one by one.

5.

HLR responses back to Provisioning.

6.

Provisioning system sends the response back to Customer Care.

First Call Activation for Prepaid

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Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

1. On user First Call, MSC triggers OCS System. 2. OCS updates the subscriber status and returns the welcome voice ID for announcement. 3. MSC/IP prompt welcome message to the user. 4. OCS sends the welcome SMS message to user via SMSC.

Voice Service 1. GSM calling flow MSC/VLR

CBP

SCP

HLR

GSM

Trigger by O_CSI IDP(MO) Number analysis CCR {Initial} CCA {Initial} RRBE

Authentication inverse calculation reserving fees

AC FCI Continue IAM (PSTN number) ACM ANM ACR CCR {Update} CCA {Update} AC

Rating, Debiting accounts, Reserving fee This area is repeatable

ACR ERB

CCR {Terminate} CCA {Terminate} RC

Rating, Debiting accounts, ending sessions

REL RLC Signalling ISUP Signalling CAP Signalling MAP

1.

Calling user initials a call, MSC/VLR sends an IDP message to SCP, in this message contains the location information of the calling party and other parameters.

2.

SCP receives IDP message from MSC/SSP and return the RRBE message.

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Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

3.

SCP analysis and process the received number, and checks whether the number is barred or emergency call, if yes SCP needn’t send request message to CBP. If the call relates to the service with location charging feature such as local discount charging or same area bonus, SCP need to send ATI message to HLR to get the called party location.

4.

SCP get the subscriber’s home CBP, then send CCR (Initial, RSU (CC-time), Service-ID, IMSI, Location，etc.) to CBP for authentication and budget.

5.

CBP analysis the request message to do authentication, rating, reserving balance, and then send CCA (Initial, RC=Success, GSU (300S, for example)) with the usable call time to SCP.

6.

SCP sends AC, FCI (optional) and Continue messages to MSC/SSP; MSC/SSP executes call monitor.

7.

After the call is connected according to the called number contained in the IAM message and the conversation reaches the given segment (300S for example), MSC/SSP reports the ACR to the SCP.

8.

SCP receives ACR message from MSC/SSP, and then send CCR (Update, USU (300S)) to CBP to report the used call time.

9.

CBP does calculate and charging the last segment fee according to CCR message, reservation for the next segment and then send CCA(Update, RC=Success, GSU(300S)) with usable call time to SCP.

10. When the call is finished, SCP receives ERB and ACR from MSC/SSP and send CCR(Terminate, USU())to CBP to report the used call time. 11. CBP calculates and deducts the account according to CCR message, and then return CCA (Terminate, RC=Success) to SCP and end the sessions. 12. The SCP returns RC message to the MSC/VLR, the call ends.

2. GSM called flow

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Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

MSC/VLR

CBP

SCP

HLR

SRI SRI ACK(T_CSI) Trigger by T_CSI IDP(MT) Number analysis CCR{Initial} CCA {Initial}

RRBE

Authentication, inverse calculation, reserving fees

AC Contuinue SRI SRI ACK ACR CCR{Update} CCA{Update} AC

Rating, debiting accounts, reserving fee This area is repeatable

ACR ERB CCR{Terminate} RC

CCA{Terminate}

Rating, debiting accounts, ending sessions

Signalling CAP Signalling MAP

1.

MSC/VLR receives a call, sends an SRI message to the HLR and obtains T-CSI. Then, MSC/VLR sends an IDP message to SCP, in this message contains the location information of the calling party and other parameters.

2.

After receiving the IDP message, the SCP send RRBE message.

3.

SCP analysis the calling and called number, and the SCP authenticate the right of receiving calls of the called party. If yes, SCP gets the home CBP of the called user and sends the CCR(RSU (CCtime), Service-ID, IMSI, Location，etc.) message to the CBP.

4.

The CBP performs the operations of authentication, inverse calculation, and fee reservation. Then, the CBP returns the CCA(Initial, RC=Success, GSU (300S, for example)) with the usable call time to SCP.

5.

SCP sends the AC and Continue messages to MSC/VLR, MSC/SSP executes call monitor.

6.

After the call is connected, and the conversation reaches the given segment (300S for example), MSC/SSP reports the ACR to the SCP.

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Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

7.

SCP receives ACR message from MSC/SSP, and then send CCR (Update, USU (300S)) to CBP to report the used call time.

8.

The CBP performs the operations of rating, debiting accounts, and reserving fees. Then, the CBP returns the CCA(Update, RC=Success, GSU(300S)) with usable call time to SCP.

9.

When the call is finished, SCP receives ACR from MSC/SSP and send CCR(Terminate, USU())to CBP to report the used call time.

10. CBP calculates and deducts the account according to CCR message, and then return CCA (Terminate, RC=Success) to SCP and end the sessions. 11. The SCP returns RC message to the MSC/VLR, the call ends.

1.1.1

Unified Service Access Unit & Control (USAU & OCG)

The Real Time Billing has the request of real time control for all the service. Huawei adopts the mature Intelligent Network solution to support the voice/SMS/Data services control. The OCG (Service Control Point) will use standard protocol to connect with the core network, and use Diameter protocol to connect with CBP (Convergent Billing Point) to apply the rating/charging function. OCG can be divided into two parts: SAU which is responsible for signaling access and SCDU which is responsible for data manipulate and service control. The structure is shown as below:

SAU is based on Huawei U-SYS® USAU platform. It provides format conversion between SS7 signaling and TCP/IP based internal message. Again, SCDU can be divided into two logical entities: SCU and SDU. SCU is responsible for service control, where service logics are running. SDU is responsible for data manipulate, where database are running. For small capacity SCU and SDU coexist in a same server making up of a SCDU. In large capacity, SCU and SDU can run in independent server. SCU works in N+1 load sharing and SDU works in host-standby cluster mode which can save the signaling point of OCG.

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Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

1.1.1.1

USAU

The USAU provides unique functions in the telecom networks and service capabilities. As a signaling access unit of telecom devices in the intelligent network (IN), the USAU converts the signaling protocols between telecom devices, and supports:  The Time Division Multiplex-based (TDM-based) narrowband No.7 signaling network  The Internet Protocol-based (IP-based) broadband signaling transport (SIGTRAN) network The USAU is based on the open standards telecom architecture (OSTA) platform. The USAU has high signaling link processing capability and integration degree and provides more powerful signaling access capability for:  Service control point (SCP)  Home location register (HLR)  Short message service center (SMSC) The USAU provides the signaling access function for the SCP, SMSC, and the HLR ( Till Page 40 out of 125)

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Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

Convergent Charging & Billing Point (CBP)

CBP software architecture

1. CBP receives a call request, this call request has been preprocessed. 2. Service recognition function judge what kind of service the call request is, for example: this call is mobile originating, domestic toll call, domestic roaming and etc. 3. Authentication function judge whether or not the subscriber has the right to make this call, according to subscriber properties (e.g. account state, outgoing call permission) and call specific information (e.g. toll, roaming). 4. Perform pre-calculation according to the account information, call specific information and product ordering information of the subscriber, work out total call duration the subscriber can afford. CBP will check all products the subscriber ordered, all the charging strategies and rules, find out rules which match the call, and perform accurate calculation. 19 | P a g e

Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

5. Apply to reserve a portion of balance from the related accounts, in case of allowed call duration is less than predefined time slice (300 seconds in default), all the remained balance will be reserved. 6. Indicate to connect the call. 7. CBP detects subscriber hang up or time slice has been used up (under CAMEL standard, a midterm report will be received). 8. Perform post-calculation according to the call duration, call specific information, account information and product ordering information of the subscriber, work out call cost (may involve multiple accounts). 9. Accounting/billing function charge the previous call segment from the account, previous reservation will be committed, call record will be generated. If the call is still active, CBP will repeat the rating, reservation and accounting processes. Following this process model, CBP can meet various telecom service charging demands.

1.1.2 Business Management Point (BMP)

BMP is the adapter and interface of management data and service logic, flashing the data from CC&BM to CBP/OCG, and work order from CBP to CC&BM. The whole service flows such as creating new subscriber, changing rate plans, changing customer information, also need the help of BMP as an interface from CC&BM to CBP 20 | P a g e

Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )

OCS USAU has supported all protocols including CAP, WIN, SIP, INAP etc. OCS OCG can support the SIP access directly without the USAU.

Maintain Engineer can monitor system performance and find abnormal information in time. So engineer can prevent accident. Performance item List:  CAPS  Successful Rate Low  CPU Idle  IO Idle  Memory Idle  Response in time rate

( Till Page 82 out of 125 )

1.2

Fault Possibility  

Critical faults: MTBF - Mean Time Between Failures > 2000 days Major faults: MTBF > 1000 days

The MTBF value is estimated according to minicomputer vendor’s information. It may vary under certain condition.

1.3

Faults Resume Time 

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It’s cold standby for RAX OCS project. The switchover time of CBP normally is within 5 minutes.

Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )



The switchover time of OCG-SDU normally is within 5 minutes, and it will take maximum 10 minutes in extreme situation (in peak time).

 Notes: Fault resume duration above for critical or major faults is achieved by dual-cluster swithover.

For troubleshooting, critical, major and minor all kind of faults will be handled as per AMC between Huawei and RAx.

1.4

Capacity and Performance

1.4.1 Key Performance Index 

Maximum number of DCC clients supported by CBP

Each DCC adapter service provides a DCC port, and each port can support maximum 20 DCC clients, while CBP can start multiple DCC adapter service according to the configuration of CBP server.



Maximum number of Web clients supported by BMP

No application limitation, but limited by memory and JVM memory access limitation. Under 32-bit JVM, BMP supports maximum 400 concurrent clients access, and 2000 under 64-bit JVM.



Maximum number of operators supported by BMP: 1000



Maximum OPS (Operations Per Second) supported by BMP

Single BMP can handle maximum 100 non-batch operations per second, while actual supported OPS depend on the hardware equipment.



Maximum number of subscribers supported by single CBP

5,000,000 subscribers, actual capacity depends on the hardware configuration.



Maximum number of subscribers supported by single BMP

5,000,000 subscribers, actual capacity depends on the hardware configuration.



Maximum number of managed components supported by BMP

BMP can manage maximum 800 components (CBP or OCG), while actual number of managed components depend on the capacity of BMP. 22 | P a g e

Covergent Billing System of Huawei ( Summary )



Performance of Provisioning

For each BMP Application configured with ATAE (R2+), the performance of provisioning can reach 50 CAPS. For totally 3 BMP Applications with 3 pair BMP DB, the performance of provisioning is about 100CAPS~150CAPS in off-peak time. Above performance data is for reference. The actual provisioning performance for RAX OCS project should be according to the real testing result in RAX project environment.



Performance of Web Service protocol

Below is web service command performance test result in ATAE R2 platform:

Business Transaction

TPS

Integration Inquiry Balance Inquiry Voucher Recharge Adjustment

Create a subscriber First Activation

Subscribe a product Create a subscriber in batch mode

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338.96 138.07 126.81 136.43 547.35 305.97 472.23 342.17

CAPS

Average Response Time (seconds)

CPU(BMP) IDLE

CPU(CBP)IDLE

54.41 135.27 86.40 134.00 34.95 61.00 41.11 24.90

0.85 0.22 0.58 0.21 0.86 0.49 0.95