Frameworx Home

Application Framework (TAM)

Business Process Framework (eTOM)

Business Process Framework Flows

Information Framework (SID)

Business Metrics High Level

All Diagrams

Frameworx Processes

Frameworx Applications

Information Framework ABEs

Frameworx Metrics

Views

Frameworx Application: Charge Calculation

Category: (2) TAM Application Type

Application Identifier: 5.19.1

Maturity Level: 4

Overview

The Charge Calculation application assigns a value (monetary or other) to an event in the context of a product and payer .  Charge calculation may be as simple as direct application of a price to an event or may be complicated, involving a combination of price and other factors (measurements).  The values that result from a charge calculation are not limited to monetary values – they may represent many types of units (minutes, points, tokens, etc.).

The application accepts events that are:

  • Usage events / records or
  • Events derived from Customer and Order/Product information that indicate the need for recurring and onetime charges.

The value that results from Charge Calculation may be used in many subsequent processes, including:

·         affecting a balance (Balance Management)

·         the preparation of an invoice (Bill Calculation)

·         pay-it-now processing options.

The values that result from the calculation may be expressed as recurring charges/credits, one-time charges/credits, or usage charges/credits.   

Taxes may be calculated for the individual customer specific charges using the Tax application, otherwise taxes are calculated by the Tax application during the bill calculation process.

Functionality

The main functions of the Charge Calculation applications are:

  • Charge/Credit calculation – Calculate event-level charges/credits (one time, recurring, and usage).
  •  Recalculation – recalculation of charges/credits based on information received later (e.g. from the Service Level Agreement function, delayed call detail record file arrival, delayed order arrival).  Recalculation may be necessary: pre-billing (prior to Bill Calculation), during the Bill Calculation process, and/or post-billing.
  • Proration of calculated charges/credits.
  • Accumulate events that provide measurements that will be used in the charge calculation (e.g. used allowance).

Non-functional aspects of the Charge Calculation applications include:

  • High Availability: When used in online mode, the Charge Management application should provide Carrier grade availability (99.999).
  • Low Latency: Responses to requests should be given with very low latency.
  • High Throughput: The application must support the maximum request and events throughput required during the busiest hour of the year without throttling or rejecting any request.
  • Small Charge Precision – Precision level shall be maintained for small charges.

Supported Business Services

Exposed Contracts

  • Advice of Charge - provide, an immediate advice of the expected charge/credit for a specific usage request. The advice is based on all parameters of the request (type, quantity, etc.), all parameter of the customer/subscriber (price plan, accumulated usage, etc.) and other parameters (time-of-day, etc.).

Consumed Contracts

  • Tax Application – execute the Tax application immediately following Charge Calculation in order to support real-time payment processing and real-time balance management.

(2) TAM Application Type Charge Calculation

Appears on these diagrams:

Frameworx Processes (Automated TAM to eTOM)

Frameworx Domains (Horizontal)


This was created from the Frameworx 16.0 Model


Created from the TM Forum Model Frameworx 16.0.0 on 6/13/2016 at 22:31