Rating Engine

The Role of Rating Engine

The role of the rating engine is to apply pricing rules to a given transaction, and route to the rated transaction to the appropriate billing/settlement system.

Rating steps:

(1)Determine
a.Connection date & time
b.Duration
c.Rate period for discounts

i.Time of day (TOD)
ii.Day of week (DOW), holidays
d.Rating increments
i.1, 6, 10, 30, 60 second increments
ii.Per packet, per byte
e.Jurisdiction
i.Regional, National, International
ii.May be used for rating, settlement, tax
(2)Rate table look-up using
a.Event date
b.Event type
c.Optionally
i.Rate table ID
ii.Rate period
iii.Jurisdiction
(3)Calculate event charge
(4)Calculate tax (optional)
(5)Store relevant information on the xDR

Steps to rate a call

(1)Determine charge points

a.Originating charge point
i.“A” number from the CDR (May be the originating cell site address)
ii.Originating charge point = country code + city code + exchange

b.Terminating charge point
i.“B” number from the CDR (May be the terminating cell site address)
ii.Terminating charge point = country code + city code + exchange

(2)Retrieve place names

a.Table: Charge point place names
b.Originating & terminating
c.Store on CDR

(3)Determine band
a.Fixed or Mobile
b.Terminating country
c.Terminating network
d.First 5 minutes etc

(4)Rate table look up using

a.Rate Table ID (optional)
i.Assuming rates specific to rate plans
b.Call date
c.Call type
d.Band
e.Rate period (optional)
i.May be a flat discount percentage applied

(5)Rate table look up may return

a.Flat price per event
b.Rate per increment
c.Rate per increment + discounts