ABSTRACT
Accounting constitutes one of the most important functions in any telecommunication network. The provisioning of accounting requires very complicated functionality due to the large number of users involved as well as differences in the tariff schemes applied to different user groups. The accounting functionality consists of four subfunctions: metering, charging, accounting, and billing. The metering function is responsible for identifying and recording information relevant to the usage of a resource in a meaningful way; for example, the information could be about access to a resource or the time and duration of usage. The records created by the metering function are referred to as
usage metering records
(UMRs). The charging
function collects the metering records pertaining to specific service usage events and combines them into service transaction records, which include pricing information. Charges are calculated for the resources used from the metered information by applying appropriate tariff schemes. The accounting
function assigns charges in terms of service transaction records to customers’ accounts. The charges for service usage may be distributed to service providers that cooperate together to provide the services to the users. Finally, the billing
function collects service transaction records and selects from the account that pertains to a particular service subscriber, accumulates the charges, and finally sends an invoice to the subscriber.
