ETSI TS 102 845 V1.1.1 (2009-11)

User Group; Quality of ICT Services; Requirements and Method for checking Metering and Billing systems

DTS/USER-00026

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 17-Nov-2009
• Technical Committee: USER - User Group
• Current Stage: 12 - Completion
• Due Date: 19-Nov-2009
• Completion Date: 18-Nov-2009

Standards Content (Sample)

ETSI TS 102 845 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
Technical Specification


User Group;
Quality of ICT Services;
Requirements and Method for checking Metering and
Billing systems

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2 ETSI TS 102 845 V1.1.1 (2009-11)



Reference
DTS/USER-00026
Keywords
charging, quality, user
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3 ETSI TS 102 845 V1.1.1 (2009-11)

Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 5
Foreword . 5
Introduction . 5
1 Scope . 6
2 References . 6
2.1 Normative references . 6
2.2 Informative references . 7
3 Definitions and abbreviations . 7
3.1 Definitions . 7
3.2 Abbreviations . 9
4 Billing Integrity Principles . 9
5 Compliance Statement . 10
6 Prerequisites . 10
6.1 Metering Principles . 10
6.1.1 Definition of Successful and Unsuccessful Status . 10
6.1.2 Definition of Units . 11
6.1.3 Definition of Time . 11
6.1.4 Definition of Duration . 11
6.1.5 Definition of Data Volume . 11
6.2 Tariff Information. 12
6.2.1 Tariff Scope . 12
6.2.2 Taxes Information . 12
6.2.3 Public Availability . 12
7 Billing and Metering Checking Process . 12
7.1 Billing Verification Process Overview . 13
7.2 Test Campaign Design . 13
7.3 Test Resources Procurement . 14
7.4 Electronic Communications Technical Configuration . 14
7.5 Electronic Communications Generation . 14
7.6 Robots Logs Collection . 14
7.7 Billing Details Collection . 15
7.8 Electronic Communications Rating and Matching . 15
7.9 Balance and Invoices checking . 15
7.10 Reporting . 15
7.11 Billing Error Rate Computation . 16
Annex A (informative): Example of a Stratified Sample of Electronic Communications . 17
A.1 Locations . 18
A.2 Networks . 18
A.3 Offerings . 18
A.4 Services . 19
A.5 Durations . 19
A.6 Volumes . 20
A.7 Spreading . 20
A.8 Additional Variations . 20
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4 ETSI TS 102 845 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
Annex B (informative): Case Management & Corrective Actions Enforcement . 21
Annex C (informative): Bibliography . 22
History . 23

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5 ETSI TS 102 845 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
Intellectual Property Rights
IPRs essential or potentially essential to the present document may have been declared to ETSI. The information
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, is publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be found
in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to ETSI in
respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the ETSI Web
server (http://webapp.etsi.org/IPR/home.asp).
Pursuant to the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation, including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee
can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web
server) which are, or may be, or may become, essential to the present document.
Foreword
This Technical Specification (TS) has been produced by ETSI User Group (USER).
The standardization work described in the present document was funded by the European Commission, Enterprise and
Industry Directorate-General, as part of the 2009 ICT Standardisation Work Programme and executed by ETSI.
The present document has been produced within the ETSI Special Committee USER GROUP (USER) by the Specialist
Task Force (STF) 375. Several documents provided by European Telecommunications regulatory bodies have been
used to develop the present document. They are detailed in TR 102 847 [i.5].
Introduction
A significant difference rate between theoretical and actual bills has been identified by independent observers. in the
current metering and billing systems used by the Service Providers.
Several Service Providers, Administrations and Users Associations have intended to reduce this difference rate in
implementing rules in order to make users more confident in the reliability of their bills.
Nevertheless, due to the complexity of this issue and in absence of any available formal standard in this area, the current
practices are hindered by significant limitations. The purpose of the present document is to fulfil the gaps of the current
practices in order to provide a reference that can be used for a continuous and trustworthy checking of metering and
billing systems. Such a checking process is expected to contribute to a continuous quality improvement process.
The present document can be used to assess conformance by suitable internal and external parties.
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6 ETSI TS 102 845 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
1 Scope
The present document has been prepared to provide a model for designing and operating the checking of metering and
billing processes and systems of Service Providers (SP). It does not provide any model for designing and operating
metering and billing process systems.
The goal of this specification is to define a standardized checking process that could be implemented by any stakeholder
and is auditable by a third-party, leading to trustworthy performance indicators about the integrity of billing issued by a
Service Provider.
Because the checking process of this technical specification is end-to-end (i.e. using a "black box" approach from the
actual Electronic Communications generation to the verifying of its billing), it is intended that these requirements are
applicable to any kind of services offered by the Service Providers.
2 References
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific.
• For a specific reference, subsequent revisions do not apply.
• Non-specific reference may be made only to a complete document or a part thereof and only in the following
cases:
- if it is accepted that it will be possible to use all future changes of the referenced document for the
purposes of the referring document;
- for informative references.
Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found at
http://docbox.etsi.org/Reference.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
2.1 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of the present document. For dated
references, only the edition cited applies. For non-specific references, the latest edition of the referenced document
(including any amendments) applies.
[1] ISO/IEC 17065: "Conformity assessment -- Requirements for certification bodies certifying
products, processes and services".
[2] CENELEC EN 45011: "General requirements for bodies operating product certification systems".
NOTE: Should become obsolete in 2012 and then replaced by ISO/IEC 17065.
[3] BIPM: "The International System of Units", 8th edition.
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7 ETSI TS 102 845 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
2.2 Informative references
The following referenced documents are not essential to the use of the present document but they assist the user with
regard to a particular subject area. For non-specific references, the latest version of the referenced document (including
any amendments) applies.
[i.1] ETSI EG 202 057-2: "Speech Processing, Transmission and Quality Aspects (STQ); User related
QoS parameter definitions and measurements; Part 2: Voice telephony, Group 3 fax, modem data
services and SMS".
[i.2] ETSI EG 202 057-3: "Speech Processing, Transmission and Quality Aspects (STQ); User related
QoS parameter definitions and measurements; Part 3: QoS parameters specific to Public Land
Mobile Networks (PLMN)".
[i.3] ETSI EG 202 057-4: "Speech Processing, Transmission and Quality Aspects (STQ); User related
QoS parameter definitions and measurements; Part 4: Internet access".
[i.4] ETSI EG 202 765-4: "Speech and multimedia Transmission Quality (STQ); QoS and network
performance metrics and measurement methods; Part 4: Indicators for supervision of Multiplay
services".
[i.5] ETSI TR 102 847: "User Group; Standardization and regulation references in the Metering and
Billing area".
[i.6] ETSI EG 202 765-2: "Speech Processing, Transmission and Quality Aspects (STQ); QoS and
network performance metrics and measurement methods Part 2 : Transmission Quality Indicator
combining Voice Quality Metrics".
[i.7] ETSI TS 102 846: "User Group; Conformity assessment; Requirements for bodies providing audit
and certification for metering and billing systems".
3 Definitions and abbreviations
3.1 Definitions
For the purposes of the present document, the following terms and definitions apply:
automated robot: remotely operated machine that is able to generate Electronic Communications according to a
predefined plan and to report about the exact execution of these Electronic Communications with an appropriate level of
accuracy and traceability
NOTE: Its main functions are:
- Electronic Communication planning;
- Electronic Communication execution; and
- Electronic Communication loging.
billing: activity, within a Service Provider, which aims at charging a customer either by producing an invoice or by
decreasing a prepaid account
NOTE: Billing usually involves three main types of activity:
- Guiding is the allocation of a specific event to a specific customer;
- Rating is the computation of a price of an event according to a rate plan; and
- Charging is the imputation of the financial charge to the Customer.
billing error rate: within a set of Electronic Communications, the ratio of the total number of Electronic
Communications having breached at least one of the billing integrity principles divided by the total number of
electronic communications in the set
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8 ETSI TS 102 845 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
billing integrity principles: principles that must be fulfilled to state that the billing activity of a Service Provider is
correct
NOTE: According to the present document there are 5 billing correctness principles (see clause 4).
billing and metering checking process: process used to prove that a Service Provider billing activity complies with the
billing integrity principles
NOTE: The proof described in the present document is based on a statistical approach, the definition of a
Stratified Sample of Electronic Communications (SSEC) and an end-to-end checking that is a based on a
"black box" approach.
billed quantity valuation methods: set of mathematic methods allowing to transform raw quantities into a billed
quantities
Call Detail Record (CDR): formatted collection of information about a chargeable event (e.g. time of call set-up,
duration of the call, amount of data transferred, etc.) for use in billing and accounting
continuous basis: approach that takes into consideration the constantly evolving nature of communications networks
NOTE: Because metering and billing processes and systems evolve on a continuous basis (incidence and update),
the verification of billing has to evolve accordingly and to check the billing integrity on a similar way.
"Continuous basis" excludes "one shot audit approach" where verification is performed once per period
(typically once per year).
customer: user who is responsible for payment for the Electronic Communication services
electronic communication: service that help people communicate
NOTE: Electronic Communication types includes but are not limited to voice call, video call, conference call,
email, SMS, MMS, USSD, web access, instant messaging, content download, TV broadcasting, etc.
Electronic communications may involve one or several interconnected networks. An Electronic
Communication may lead to billing of a financial charge to a Customer of the Service Provider.
independent observer: entity is said an Independent Observer if it has two characteristics: independency and
externality
NOTE: The independency clause means that the entity has some level of independence from the department in
charge of operating the billing within the Service Provider. The externality means that the entity does not
have to understand all the complexity of the information systems and network components involved in the
billing of a Service Provider.
metering principles: set of non ambiguous principles set by a Service Provider to define and meter the Electronic
Communications service it offers to its Customers
prerequisites: list of basic principles and statements and of requirements for the Tariff Information
pricing: set of Billed Quantity Valuation Methods and Unit Prices
publishing mode: mean by which billing information is provided to the customer of the Service Provider
NOTE: Publishing mode may include but are not limited to paper invoice, electronic invoices, web sites, Call
Centres, Intelligent Voice Response Units, SMS servers, USSD servers, etc.
Service Provider (SP): organization that provides Electronic Communications services to users and customers
Stratified Sample of Electronic Communications (SSEC): sample of Electronic Communications used to conduct the
billing and metering checking process
NOTE: The sample of Electronic Communications is designed according to statistical method so as to provide a
reasonable evidence that the billing integrity is fulfilled.
tariff information: set of principles defined by a Service Provider to price the Electronic Communications service it
offers to its customers
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9 ETSI TS 102 845 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
unambiguous: set of rules is said Unambiguous if it can be understood and checked by a Customer by its own means
without requesting to understand the internality of a Service Provider systems and processes
unit price: given price for a unit billed quantity
3.2 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
APN Access Point Name
BIPM Bureau International des Poids et Mesures
CDR Call Detail Record
DSL Digital Subscriber Line
GPRS General Packet Radio Service
GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
IN Intelligent Network
MMS Multimedia Message Service
SIM Subscriber Identification Module
SMS Short Message Service
SP Service Provider
SSEC Stratified Sample of Electronic Communications
TV Television
URL Uniform Resource Locator
URL Universal Resource Location
USSD Unstructured Supplementary Service Data
VOIP Voice over IP
VPLMN Visited Public Land Mobile Network
VPN Virtual Private Network
4 Billing Integrity Principles
The present document adopts a process approach for providing evidence measured by an Independent Observer
according to a standardized process that a Service Provider complies with the following five billing integrity principles:
Principle 1: Electronic Communications metering (success status, time, duration, volume) is accurate.
Principle 2: Unsuccessful Electronic Communications are not billed or are billed at null price.
Principle 3: Each successful Electronic Communication is charged.
Principle 4: Billed Electronic Communications are priced in accordance with published Metering Principles
and Tariff information (see clauses 6.1 and 6.2).
Principle 5: Electronic Communication billing information details provided to customers are complete,
sufficient, unambiguous and correct whatever the Publishing mode.
According to the present document, evidence of compliance of billing integrity principles is based on the actual
generation and verification of the billing of a Stratified Sample of Electronic Communications (SSEC), designed
according to a predefined statistical method and performed on a continuous basis by automated robots.
As a result of the billing and metering checking process, billing and metering checking reports are produced on a
predefined frequency and archived according to predefined storage policy.
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10 ETSI TS 102 845 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
5 Compliance Statement
The present document describes a set of clauses that shall be included in a billing and metering checking process of a
Service Provider to claim compliance with the present document.
Compliance shall be verified according to clause 6 (Prerequisites) and clause 7 (Billing and Metering Checking Process
steps) of the present document.
The billing and metering checking process itself can be executed by an internal department of the Service Provider (Full
Internalization), outsourced to an external provider of monitoring services (Full Outsourcing) or by a combination of
both (Mixed Model). The present document does not recommend any special type of organisational model.
The actual validation that the billing and metering checking process of a Service Provider is performed according to the
present document shall be performed by a third party according to ISO/IEC 17065 [1] (or until 2012 to EN 45011 [2])
and TS 102 846 [i.7].
It is important to note that this technical specification deals with the checking process of billing and not with the actual
systems and process used for performing metering and billing.
6 Prerequisites
Before implementing the billing and metering checking process described in the present document, the two following
prerequisites shall be fulfilled:
• Prerequisite 1: Metering Principles.
• Prerequisite 2: Tariff Information.
NOTE: The exact legal status of Metering Principles and Tariff Information depends on the contract agreed
between the Customer and the Service Provider (In several cases, such contracts are not in place). The
issue of the legal value of the Prerequisite is outside the scope of this technical specification. For the
present document, the requirement is limited to the fact that the requested information is publicly
available.
6.1 Metering Principles
6.1.1 Definition of Successful and Unsuccessful Status
[6.1.1.1] The Service Provider shall define methods and principles to define if an Electronic
Communication is successful or unsuccessful and whether or not it should lead to a chargeable
item.
[6.1.1.2] The principles of [6.1.1.1] shall be differentiated for every type of Electronic Communication
offered by the Service Provider to its customers: voice call, video call, conference call, SMS,
MMS, USSD, Web access, Instant Messaging, content download, etc.
[6.1.1.3] The principles of [6.1.1.1] shall include the case of Electronic Communications spanning over
more than one network. If Service Provider has not full management of all involved networks,
rules shall be defined, for example based on signalisation exchanged at the interconnect point.
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11 ETSI TS 102 845 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
The definition of a successful status requires to make assumptions that are arbitrary, but shall be clearly defined by the
Service Provider. Successful and unsuccessful status definition are available in several standards for different types of
Electronic Communications. It is up to each Service Provider to design its own definition or to rely on the standard of
its choice. For information, the list below provides widely accepted definition of successful or unsuccessful Electronic
Communications:
• Mobile Telephony: In EG 202 057-3 [i.2], an unsuccessful call is defined as a call attempt to a valid number,
while in a coverage area, where neither the call is answered nor called party busy tone nor ringing tone, is
recognized at the access of the calling user within 40 seconds from the instant when the last digit of the
destination subscriber number is received by the network.
• Fixed Telephony: In EG 202 057-2 [i.1], an unsuccessful call is a call attempt to a valid number, properly
dialled following dial tone, where neither called party busy tone, nor ringing tone, nor answer signal, is
recognized at the access of the calling user within 30 seconds from the instant when the last digit of the
destination subscriber number is received by the network.
• SMS: In EG 202 057-2 [i.1], a successful SMS is defined a SMS where the Short Message has been
successfully from a terminal equipment to a Short Message Center. (i.e. this does not imply that the recipient
of the SMS has received it)
• Data transmission: In EG 202 057-4 [i.3], a successful data transmission is defined as successful if a test file is
transmitted completely and with no errors.
• TV: In EG 202 765-4 [i.4], a successful TV channel access is defined as an access where video and audio are
accessible.
6.1.2 Definition of Units
[6.1.2.1] The Service Provider shall use, when available, units that are part of the International System of
th
Units as described in BIPM, The International System of Units, 8 edition [3].
[6.1.2.2] If no unit is defined in the International System of Units (e.g. bit, byte), a clear system of unit shall
be defined and used consistently by Service Provider.
[6.1.2.3] The Service Provider shall use, Multiples and Submultiples (e.g. kilo = 1 x 1 000 ) that are part of
the International System of Units as described in BIPM, The International System of Units,
th
8 edition [3].
6.1.3 Definition of Time
[6.1.3.1] The Service Provider shall define a clear and consistent reference for measuring time of a
Electronic communication. This method shall be Unambiguous to all types of Electronic
Communications delivered by the Service Provider (e.g. international roaming communications).
6.1.4 Definition of Duration
[6.1.4.1] The Service Provider shall define a clear method to meter the duration of Electronic
communications charged to customers. The duration shall be determined as the difference of time
between two well defined trigger points.
6.1.5 Definition of Data Volume
[6.1.5.1] The Service Provider shall define a clear method to define volume of data exchanged during an
Electronic Communication.
[
...