A CDR rating engine for telecom volume
Rating is where most billing projects stall. Call detail records arrive in a format nobody documented, at a volume that makes row-by-row processing impossible, and the pricing rules change the week after go-live.
OpenBRM integrates OpenRate, which was designed for exactly this problem. It processes in the order of a thousand CDRs per second, and a parser for a new record format is typically a few hours of work rather than a project.
Record formats it handles
- Delimited files — CSV and its many dialects
- Fixed-length records
- Binary formats including TAP and ASN.1 encodings
- Records fed directly from a database table
- Real-time interfaces including Diameter and RADIUS
Batch and real time in one telecom rating engine
A prepaid MVNO needs a rating decision before the call connects. A wholesale interconnect settlement needs to reprocess a month of traffic after a rate card is corrected. These are usually two products. In OpenBRM they are the same engine configured differently, which means one set of rate cards and one place where pricing logic lives.
Usage-based billing, open source end to end
With open source usage-based billing, rated usage does not sit in a separate silo. It flows into the same billing run as subscription charges and one-off fees, so a customer with a monthly plan, an equipment fee and 4,200 rated minutes receives a single invoice with all three on it. That is usage based billing open source end to end, with no export step between rating and invoicing. Bundled credits are consumed first, then overage is rated at the applicable tier.
Who needs an open source rating engine
Fixed and mobile operators, MVNOs and MVNEs, VoIP providers, internet service providers, and anyone settling interconnection traffic. If your charges depend on what customers actually consumed rather than a flat monthly figure, this is the part of OpenBRM that matters most.
Getting usage files in
Usage files rarely arrive by hand. OpenBRM 26.0.0 includes Spring Integration support for FTP and SFTP, so files from a switch, a roaming clearing house or a wholesale partner can be picked up automatically instead of being copied over by a script. Each record is parsed, matched to the account and product it belongs to, priced against the applicable rate and stored as rated usage, ready for the next billing run.
When the rates change
Rate cards change, and sometimes they change after the traffic has already been rated. Because the same engine handles batch work, a corrected rate can be applied by reprocessing the affected period rather than by adjusting invoices by hand. New record formats are handled by adding a parser, which is typically a few hours of work, so a new partner or switch does not hold up a launch. Pricing logic that is specific to your business can be added through the plug-in system without changing the core product.
Documentation · Subscription management · Interconnection billing services
OpenRate is one part of OpenBRM's open source BSS. Evaluating it against a commercial suite? See how OpenBRM compares with Oracle BRM.