The whole concept of service provisioning for packet networks
and IP billing requires new technology to meet the needs of
service providers and customers. Initially, these new technologies
augmented those of circuit-switched equipment and later
supplanted them. Telecommunications based on Internet
Protocol (IP) allow carriers to create grades of service and variable
pricing to reflect real market conditions.
Currently, data from switches is formatted into billable
event detail records through a mediation function. The big difference
between the circuit-switched and the IP network is
that IP billing must handle many more variables. Just as circuit-
switched billing is derived from call detail records
(CDRs), IP-based billing is derived from Internet usage
records (IURs). However, IURs must contain far greater information.
Future bills will include usage-based billing based on
IP information.
Customers can receive value-added information and services
with real-time billing. Provisioning of services can take place
online for wireless users, satisfying the customer who wants
added services. It also benefits the service provider by adding
incremental revenue for a given customer and by providing
more accurate and timely billing.
To implement IP billing, however, techniques must be
developed to retrieve and analyze IP data. Because this holds
true whether it’s wired or wireless IP, many companies are
working on solutions to this problem today.