Basic Principles of the WA000010 WCDMA System ISSUE1.

WCDMA Billing System

Chapter 9 WCDMA Billing System

In a telecomm operating network, as subscribers are offered service, service billing is
accompanied. Essentially, as a measure of the network resources used by
subscribers, billing is classified into Circuit Switched (CS) domain billing and Packet
Service (PS) domain billing. CS domain adopts circuit switching, so call duration
becomes the primary factor of billing. PS domain data works in packet transmission,
so traffic is the primary factor of billing, but time is not excluded. This chapter mainly
introduces the billing principles of CS domain and PS domain, including the billing
architecture of Huawei core network, bill generation mechanism and processing
course.

9.1 WCDMA CS Domain Billing Principles

9.1.1 WCDMA CS Domain Billing Architecture
The billing system of WCDMA system CS domain is consistent with that of GSM
system, that is, the billing data are both generated by MSC/MSC Server and directly
transported to billing center. Therefore, in view of the architecture, the billing system
of CS domain consists of billing module and billing center of MSC/MSC Server.
Between the billing module and billing center, bill data are transported with FTP/FTAM
file transporting protocol.
Because no specific interface parameter is prescribed for MSC/MSC Server billing
module in the protocol, between MSC/MSC Server host system and billing module is
an internal interface, and the implementation of the billing module is also diversified.
As an example, the implementation of billing module in Huawei MSC/MSC Server is
described below.

Basic Principles of the WA000010 WCDMA System ISSUE1.0

Server
MSC/MSC
MSC/

WCDMA Billing System

Bill service console

Host system

Internal interface

LAN

FTP/FTAM transmission
protocol
Heartbeat
network cable
Highly-reliable
system design Active server
Disk array

Standby ROUTER
server
IP network

BAU
Large-capacity
storage capability

Billing center
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Figure 1.1 WCDMA CS domain billing architecture

MSC/MSC Server billing system mainly consists of host modules and Bill
Administration Unit (BAU). Figure 1.1 shows the CS domain billing architecture.
Host system: The bill information is generated from the host system, and firstly
buffered in the bill pool of host. The original bills in the bill pool are, in the form of
packet, continuously transported to BAU with TCP/IP.
Bill Administration Unit (BAU): BAU, the processing core of MSC/MSC Server billing
system, is a dual-system hot backup system. Connected to the host through local
area network (LAN) and to billing center through wide area network (WAN), BAU
provides FTP/FTAM interface for billing center to support Server/Client in FTP and
Responder in FTAM, to transport bills to billing center.
BAU functions: After saving the original bills received from the host system, it carries
out sorting and format conversion for the original bills to generate the final bill. BAU
saves the final bill and transports it to billing center. Specifically:

Saving original bills: After receiving the bill packets from the host, unpacking and
validating the packets, BAU saves the received original bills in hard disk, then
sends confirmation message to the host and makes the corresponding log
record, and finally carries out sorting and format conversion for the original bills.
Sorting bills: It means classifying bills according to a domain, to process them in
different flows and save them in different physical paths. All data domains in bills
can be used as the criterion for sorting.
Bill format conversion: The format conversion on BAU involves choosing bill
domain, changing the two-digit chronology into four-digit chronology, and
converting into specified text format.
Saving final bill: After sorting and format conversion on the original bills, BAU
saves the final bills in different directories according to their classification.

Billing center: Collecting bills, processing bill data in final, and generating final
subscriber bills based on tariffs.

Basic Principles of the WA000010 WCDMA System ISSUE1.0

WCDMA Billing System

9.1.2 Billing Data Generated by MSC/MSC Server

1. Bill type
MSC/MSC Server can be used as VMSC, TMSC, GMSC and SSP. Different calls may
have different bill types. The major bill types are as follows:

Mobile calling bill: A bill generated when a local mobile subscriber makes a call.
Mobile called bill: A bill generated when a local mobile subscriber is called.
Roaming bill: A bill generated when a subscriber of another office calls a local
subscriber.
Gateway office outgoing bill: A bill generated when a local subscriber calls a
subscriber of another network.
Tandem bill: A bill generated when the caller and called are not local subscribers
and this office is a TMSC.
Substituting bill: When a non-prepaid subscriber calls prepaid subscriber and it is
a OVERLAY networking, SSP will replace the originating MSC to generate this
bill to charge the non-prepaid calling subscriber.
Forwarding bill: A bill generated when a local subscriber is called and the call is
forwarded.
Call attempt bill: A bill generated when a call is not successful.
SM bill: A bill generated when an SM is originated/terminated.
Special service bill: A bill generated when special service call or special service
emergency call is involved.

2. Bill format
The bill format that MSC/MSC SERVER BAU provides for billing center complies with
Mobile Phone Billing Standard Pre-processing Bill Format. BAU can provide billing
center with bills in binary or text format as required.
A bill mainly consists of the following information:

WCDMA/GSM/PLMN resource utilization (such as MSC number and

incoming/outgoing trunk group number)
Basic service utilization (in accordance with source, destination, call date, call
time, call duration, and bearer service)
Supplementary services utilization (such as call forwarding)
Subscriber related numbers (such as MSISDN, IMSI and MSRN)

Basic Principles of the WA000010 WCDMA System ISSUE1.0

WCDMA Billing System

9.2 Billing Principles of WCDMA PS Domain

9.2.1 WCDMA PS Domain Billing System Architecture

Figure 1.1 PS domain billing system architecture

Figure 1.1 shows the PS domain billing architecture. Billing system of PS domain
consists of three parts: SGSN/GGSN billing module, CG and billing center. Between
SGSN/GGSN and CG, there is a standard Ga interface with GTP protocol. Between
CG and billing center, bill data are transported with FTP/FTAM file transporting
protocol.
The functions of each part are described as follows:
SGSN and GGSN: Generating billing data.
CGF:

Collecting the billing data of SGSN and GGSN.

Saving for a long time and executing some pre-processing work, such as
integrating and sorting.
Transporting the collected billing data to the billing center.

Billing System billing center: Processing billing data and generating final bill.

9.2.2 Billing Data Generated by GSN

1. Billing data
There are 5 major types of CDR (bills) generated in 3G billing:
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Basic Principles of the WA000010 WCDMA System ISSUE1.0

WCDMA Billing System

M-CDR bill: Generated by SGSN, used for recording billing information of

mobility management for mobile phone. It can be configured whether to generate
this bill, not required normally.
S-SMO-CDR: Generated by SGSN, used for recording billing information of SM
origination.
S-SMT-CDR: Generated by SGSN, used for recording billing information of SM
termination.
S-CDR: Generated by SGSN.
G-CDR: Generated by GGSN.

As for the same PDP course, there are 2 types of bills generated, S-CDR and GCDR. Billing center usually calculates the final charge according to G-CDR, while SCDR is mainly used for statistics.
CDR generated in SGSN and GGSN mainly records the following information:

Radio resource utilization

Duration
GPRS resource utilization
Originator and terminator
External data network utilization
Mobile terminal location.

2. Integration of partial bills

One PDP context may be corresponding to multiple partial bills, which are generated
because of:

Data amount limitation

Time limitation
Changed billing condition (such as tariff change).

Because in the bill finally sent to subscriber, there is only one bill in one PDP context,
all partial bills in one PDP context must be integrated. Integration of partial bills is
carried out in 2 steps: The integration in the first step is carried out by CGF. This can
reduce the requirement of bandwidth between CGF and billing center and alleviate
the processing operation of billing center. For this reason or that, the integration in
this step may be incomplete. The second step is carried out by billing center, where
those bills that are not integrated completely in CGF will be integrated, resulting in
final bill.
As for each PDP context, GGSN generates one exclusive C-ID. According to CID+GGSN address, it is possible to know whether two partial bills belong to the same
PDP context.
As for G-CDR, all partial bills with the same C-ID+GGSN address must be integrated.
As for S-CDR, all partial bills with the same C-ID+GGSN address and +SGSN
address must be integrated.

9.2.3 CGF
CGF offers a mechanism to send the billing information generated by GGSN and
SGSN to designated billing center. CGF is an abstract functional concept, and CG is
a specific implementation of CGF. The specific implementation of CG differs with
manufacturers.
CGF must offer the following functions:

Collecting CDR from SGSN and GGSN

Providing long-time reliable storage of CDR
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Basic Principles of the WA000010 WCDMA System ISSUE1.0

WCDMA Billing System

Transporting CDR to billing center.

In addition, to reduce the transmission amount between CGF and billing center, CGF
should provide some integration function of partial bills to minimize the amount of
CDRs transmitted to billing center, thus lightening the bandwidth requirement for the
billing center.
CGF must offer high degree of reliability and redundancy. One GSN should be
corresponding to multiple CGFs in different levels of priority. When CGF in higher
priority can not process the communication with GSN, GSN will redirect it to CGF in
lower priority.

9.2.4 Billing Center

Billing center has the following main functions:

Collecting the bills on CGF

Figuring out charge according to bill
Fully Integrating bills
Proofreading bills.

9.2.5 GTP' Protocol

GTP' protocol is a communication protocol between GSN and CGF and between
different CGFs. It is an application layer protocol. The bottom protocol stack adopts
UDP/TCP and IP, as shown below.
GTP'

GTP'

UDP

UDP

IP

IP

L2

L2

L1

L1

GSN/CGF

Ga

CGF

Figure 1.1 GTP Protocol

The major functions of GTP' protocol are as follows:

Transporting CDRs from GSN to CGF

Redirecting CDRs to another CGF
Detecting the communication failure between CGF and GSN
Recommending another available CGF to GSN in case of failure in one CGF
Preventing repeated CDRs.