ETSI GS PDL 026 V1.1.1 (2024-05)

Permissioned Distributed Ledgers (PDL); PDL in Settlement of Usage-Based Services

DGS/PDL-0026_Settlmt_UB_serv

General Information

• Status: Not Published
• Technical Committee: PDL - Permissioned Distributed Ledger
• Current Stage: 12 - Citation in the OJ (auto-insert)
• Due Date: 21-May-2024
• Completion Date: 16-May-2024

Standards Content (Sample)

GROUP SPECIFICATION
Permissioned Distributed Ledgers (PDL);
PDL in Settlement of Usage-Based Services

Disclaimer
The present document has been produced and approved by the Permissioned Distributed Ledger (PDL) ETSI Industry
Specification Group (ISG) and represents the views of those members who participated in this ISG.
It does not necessarily represent the views of the entire ETSI membership.

2 ETSI GS PDL 026 V1.1.1 (2024-05)

Reference
DGS/PDL-0026_Settlmt_UB_serv
Keywords
architecture, distributed ledger
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All rights reserved.
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3 ETSI GS PDL 026 V1.1.1 (2024-05)
Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 5
Foreword . 5
Modal verbs terminology . 5
Executive summary . 5
Introduction . 6
1 Scope . 7
1.1 Introduction . 7
1.2 In scope . 7
1.3 Out of scope . 7
2 References . 7
2.1 Normative references . 7
2.2 Informative references . 7
3 Definition of terms, symbols and abbreviations . 8
3.1 Terms . 8
3.2 Symbols . 9
3.3 Abbreviations . 9
4 Management of Data in a multi-domain environment . 9
4.1 Introduction . 9
4.2 Sources of data . 10
4.2.1 Single-Sourced data . 10
4.2.2 Multi-Sourced data . 10
4.3 Characteristics of Data . 11
4.3.1 Introduction. 11
4.3.2 Commercial value . 11
4.3.3 Cost of transacting . 11
4.3.4 Volume of data . 12
4.3.5 Processing of Per-Item data and Aggregated data . 12
4.3.6 Frequency of Reconciliation and Settlement . 12
4.3.6.1 Term-based. 12
4.3.6.2 Event-based . 13
5 PDL Nodes in a multi-domain environment . 13
5.1 Introduction . 13
5.2 Number of nodes . 13
5.3 Ownership of nodes . 13
5.4 Location of nodes . 13
5.5 Chain type . 14
5.6 Data Sovereignty . 14
5.7 Local legislation . 14
6 Rating . 14
7 Reconciliation . 15
7.1 Definition of Reconciliation . 15
7.2 Reconciliation prior to invoicing . 15
7.3 Reconciliation after invoicing . 16
8 Invoicing . 17
8.1 Introduction to Invoicing . 17
8.2 Invoicing occurrence . 17
8.3 Invoice contents . 17
8.4 Buyer-Seller entity multiplicity . 18
8.5 Additional requirements related to Invoicing in a PDL enabled environment . 18
9 Discrepancy and Dispute Management . 18
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4 ETSI GS PDL 026 V1.1.1 (2024-05)
9.1 Introduction to Discrepancies and Disputes . 18
9.2 Dispute Threshold . 19
9.3 Dispute Resolution . 19
9.4 Finality . 20
10 Settlement . 20
10.1 Definition of Settlement . 20
10.2 Payment . 20
10.3 Netting . 20
10.4 Netting and Payment process diagram . 21
History . 22

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5 ETSI GS PDL 026 V1.1.1 (2024-05)
Intellectual Property Rights
Essential patents
IPRs essential or potentially essential to normative deliverables may have been declared to ETSI. The declarations
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, are 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 (https://ipr.etsi.org/).
Pursuant to the ETSI Directives including the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation regarding the essentiality of IPRs,
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.
Trademarks
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ETSI claims no ownership of these except for any which are indicated as being the property of ETSI, and conveys no
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Organizational Partners. oneM2M™ logo is a trademark of ETSI registered for the benefit of its Members and of the ®
oneM2M Partners. GSM and the GSM logo are trademarks registered and owned by the GSM Association.
Foreword
This Group Specification (GS) has been produced by ETSI Industry Specification Group (ISG) Permissioned
Distributed Ledger (PDL).
Modal verbs terminology
In the present document "shall", "shall not", "should", "should not", "may", "need not", "will", "will not", "can" and
"cannot" are to be interpreted as described in clause 3.2 of the ETSI Drafting Rules (Verbal forms for the expression of
provisions).
"must" and "must not" are NOT allowed in ETSI deliverables except when used in direct citation.
Executive summary
The application and use of PDL in settlement of usage-based services is discussed and analysed resulting in
specifications, requirements and recommendations related to management of data sources, processes and actions related
to commercial and commercial affecting attributes. The present document is broken down to three main parts: Data
management, PDL node management and Settlement process, including Rating of usage records, discrepancy and
dispute management and reconciliation, invoicing, and commercial settlement.
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6 ETSI GS PDL 026 V1.1.1 (2024-05)
Introduction
Usage-based services are consumed in a manner that can be measured by units of measurement such as time, distance,
speed, volume, temperature, pressure, and many other measurable attributes. An example of a measurable service would
be a telephone call where the duration, destination and quality of the call can all be measured (each with a certain
degree of accuracy). An in-depth discussion of measurable attributes related to the ICT sector can be found in
MEF-74 "Commercial Affecting Attributes" [i.1].
A commercial rate can be applied to a measurement of a service giving the measurement a commercial value. Taking
the example of a telephone call: Suppose the agreed rate between a buyer and a seller of telephony service is USD 0,50
per minute of call destined to the USA, and the buyer places a call whose duration is measured to be three minutes, the
usage-based fee for such call would be USD 1,50.
A similar logic can be applied to other services in most areas of life:
• Household water consumption and the municipal water supply service.
• Agricultural produce and the wholesale/retail supply chain from the field to the consumer.
• Data Centre computation and storage capacity and the users of such services.
• Toll road usage, the toll road operators and the drivers of vehicles on such reads.
• And many more.
Once a record of usage has been established it may go through commercial processes of:
• Rating (see clause 6 herewith)
• Dispute management and Reconciliation (see clauses 7 and 9 herewith)
• Invoicing (see clause 8 herewith)
• Settlement (see clause 10 herewith)
Usage-based services differ from other consumables in that the amount of use of such service is not known until it had
been actually used. This affects the way such services are billed for.
Payment for services may be performed in advance (when the service will only become available to the buyer after
payment had been made) or in arrears (where payment is made after the service has been consumed). Regular services,
that are not usage based, would be billed the same amount whether they are billed in advance or in arrears (e.g. some
bridge or tunnel tolls are charge upon entry ad some upon exist). Usage-based services, however, will be treated
differently if they are charged in advance, where the buyer will buy some balance in advance and will be able to use
such service until their balance depletes (e.g. a pre-paid calling card) or in arrears, where the buyer pays for whatever
service was consumed (e.g. a monthly telephone bill).
The present document discusses the application and use of PDL in settlement of usage-based services. It defines
specifications, requirements and recommendations related to management of data sources, processes and actions related
to commercial and commercial affecting attributes of such services.
The present document is broken down to three main parts: Data management, PDL node management, and Settlement
process, including Rating of usage records, discrepancy and dispute management and reconciliation, invoicing and
commercial settlement.
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7 ETSI GS PDL 026 V1.1.1 (2024-05)
1 Scope
1.1 Introduction
The present document discusses and specifies the processes and methods of utilizing PDL in settlement of usage based
services.
1.2 In scope
a) Definitions of processes.
b) Definitions and requirements related to PDL node management.
c) Definitions of commercial and data management terms and operational methods.
d) Definitions and specifications of dispute resolution stages and processes.
1.3 Out of scope
a) Specific reconciliation and dispute resolution algorithms.
b) Commercial agreements.
c) Commercial data.
2 References
2.1 Normative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found at
https://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.
The following referenced documents are necessary for the application of the present document.
Not applicable.
2.2 Informative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
The following referenced documents are not necessary for the application of the present document but they assist the
user with regard to a particular subject area.
[i.1] MEF Forum, MEF-74, December 2018: "Commercial Affecting attributes".
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[i.2] ETSI GS PDL 012 (V1.2.1): "Permissioned Distributed Ledger (PDL); Reference Architecture".
[i.3] ETSI GS PDL 022 (V1.1.1): "Permissioned Distributed Ledgers (PDL); PDL in Wholesale Supply
Chain Management".
3 Definition of terms, symbols and abbreviations
3.1 Terms
For the purposes of the present document, the following terms apply:
billing: commercial process of invoicing, reconciliation, and settlement of amounts due by Buyer, Seller or
bidirectional trading partners
NOTE: See MEF 74 [i.1].
buyer: entity that buys a service from a Seller of which it is an immediate neighbour in the Supply Chain
Call Details Record ("CDR"): digital record containing information related to a telephone call traversing a telephone
network
commercial agreement: agreement between two parties allowing for buying services, selling services between them or
both
compute: act of manipulating data or acting based on data using a computing resource
connectivity: act of transporting data through space
data: information related to the characteristics and usage of services
NOTE: This term is generic and may have other interpretations in other documents. This definition is specific to
the context of the present document.
data service: service that combines one or more of the following:
• Connectivity service
• Compute service
• Storage service
domain: group of ICT elements administered and operated by an entity and subject to specific rules, regulations and
procedures
gas cost: cost of performing a blockchain transaction
Internet of Things ("IoT"): network of physical objects that are embedded with sensors, software and other
technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the internet
invoicing: process in which the Seller generates and sends an invoice to the Buyer for the amount stipulated by an
agreement and based on utilization information and SLA or other credits as applicable based on agreement
multi-domain environment: ICT environment where multiple domains exist and are managed by different entities
netting: subtracting amounts due by two parties to each other resulting in a net amount owed by one party to the other
and a zero amount owed by the other party
rating: application of a commercial rate to a usage record
reconciliation: process of reaching agreement in case of a dispute
NOTE: See MEF 74 [i.1].
seller: entity that sells goods or a service to a Buyer of which it is an immediate neighbour in the Supply Chain
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9 ETSI GS PDL 026 V1.1.1 (2024-05)
Service Level Agreement (SLA): contract between the Buyer and Seller specifying the service level commitments and
related business agreements and penalties related to failure to meet such service level for a service
settlement: transfer of monetary funds between parties based on billing and reconciliation
supply chain: collection of entities that in combination deliver one or more goods or end-to-end services through
bilateral agreements
transaction point: physical or virtual meeting place between a buyer and seller where transactions are being performed
3.2 Symbols
Void.
3.3 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
CDR Call Details Record
CPU Central Processing Unit
DLT Distributed Ledger Technology
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute
GDPR General Data Protection Regulation
GUI Graphical User Interface
ICT Information and Communications Technology
ID Identification/Identity Document
IoT Internet of Things
ISG Industry Specification Group
MBPS MegaBits Per Second
MEF MEF Forum
NOTE: Formerly known as "Metro Ethernet Forum".
PDL Permissioned Distributed Ledger
PoC Proof of Concept
SLA Service Level Agreement
USD United States Dollar
VAT Value Added Tax
4 Management of Data in a multi-domain environment
4.1 Introduction
When handling data in a multi-domain environment the following aspects should be considered:
The source of data:
a) How is it measured?
b) By whom?
c) Can the data be measured by more than one entity or in more than one point?
The different characteristics of data:
a) The direct or derived commercial value of the data or that the data defines/describes.
b) The volume of data.
c) The cost of transacting the data.
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The following clauses discuss the above in detail.
4.2 Sources of data
4.2.1 Single-Sourced data
In many instances there is only a single source of data. In such events even when multiple parties use such data, they are
all dependent on that single source and in the event of dispute the different parties cannot provide alternative data to
contradict that single source of data. There may be disputes on interpretation of data or on assignment of a commercial
value to such data, but the data itself cannot be disputed.
EXAMPLE: When a mobile device is roaming from its home operator to a hosting operator the measurement of
call duration and data consumption is done by the hosting operator. The roaming user and the
home operator both do not have the ability to measure call duration or data consumption thus are
unable to provide alternative measurements to contradict the measurements of the hosting
operator. There may be a dispute over the rates applied to the measured data (e.g. the home
operator may argue that the hosting operator has applied a higher per-minute or per-kilobit rate
than agreed) but there is no way for the home operator to prove a possible claim that the duration
of calls or volume of data consumed by the roaming user was different than the measurements
made by the hosting operator.
4.2.2 Multi-Sourced data
When data can be measured by more than one entity and/or in more than one location, it is considered Multi-Sourced.
There may be discrepancies between data generated for a certain event by different sources. The reasons for such
discrepancies can be:
a) Different measurement methods.
b) Different Measurement equipment/calibration.
c) Measurements at different points along the path of flow of information/matter which may be subject to data
loss/corruption.
d) Others.
When different entities can present different measurements for the same event - each entity may dispute the
measurements presented by the other entity. In such event the parties may choose to go through a dispute resolution
process and reconcile.
EXAMPLE: When a telecom carrier routes an international telephone call to another telecom carrier each
carrier generates a Call Details Record ("CDR") for that call. The CDR includes certain data such
as call duration, originating number of the call, destination number of the call. Such attributes
determine the commercial value of that call: the monetary amount that the sending carrier is
obligated to pay to the receiving carrier for extending the call to its destination. There may be
instances where the CDRs generated by the sending carrier and the receiving carrier differ (e.g. the
call duration does not match). In such instances the carriers may debate until they reconcile and
agree on a value (or a monetary amount) to be used for settlement of the CDR.
Figure 1 herewith depicts the differences between Single-Sourced and Multi-Sourced data.
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