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Table Of Contents
Service Creation Integration - Periodic-Quota Based Services
Building the Real Time Quota Provisioning Process
Handling Cases of Subscriber Logout
Defining the Premium Content Service
Service Creation Integration - Periodic-Quota Based Services
This module describes the service integration use case example for periodic-quota based services.
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Overview
Business Use-Case
Traffic is divided into two services:
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Users have a monthly quota (not accumulated across months) for general internet access. When the quota is depleted, the traffic rate is reduced to a dial-up rate of 64 kbps. Access to the Premium Content is not counted as part of the monthly quota and is not reduced to dial-up rates.
When the quota is depleted, the subscriber is notified using the subscriber-notification event.
Overview
The following figure shows an overview of the implementation of this business use case. It is recommended that you return to this section after reading the step-by-step description.
Figure 3-1 Periodic Quota - Scenario Overview
Policy Configuration
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Building the Real Time Quota Provisioning Process
The real-time quota provisioning process for this business use case is based on a subscriber balance manager that allocates subscriber quota upon request (through Quota Below Threshold and Quota Depleted notifications), based on quota availability.
To implement this business logic, the Policy Server uses the SCMS SCE Subscriber API in order to receive quota requests and to provision the quota accordingly through the Quota Update method.
There are two main use cases:
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Further details on using these operations can be found in the Cisco SCMS SCE Subscriber API Programmer Guide .
Acting upon Depletion Events
Depletion events are signaled to the Policy Server through the Quota Depleted notification event. The Policy Server is required to receive such notifications to run some predefined logic. In this specific example, where the breach behavior is implemented inside SCA BB, the Policy Server is only required to log the event details.
Handling Cases of Subscriber Logout
When subscribers log out of the network, either intentionally or implicitly (e.g. due to session expiration), their records are removed from the SCE until they log back in.
In such a case, a notification is triggered. The notification includes the amount of quota left in the subscriber's buckets. This notification allows the Policy Server to add the remaining quota back to the subscriber's balance so that no quota is lost and to process the amount of used quota to prevent revenue leakage.
This sequence of events is shown in the following diagram.
Figure 3-2 Logout Handling Behavior Definition
Defining the Premium Content Service
Step 1
For simplicity, this assumes that the Premium Content service is defined based on a list of servers.
Figure 3-3 Flavor Settings Dialog
Step 2
The services of the Premium Browsing service should be modified such that it is based on the HTTP protocol together with the PremiumContent flavor that contains the list of designated servers defined in Step 1.
Figure 3-4 Modifying the Premium Browsing Service
Assigning Services to Quotas
The business logic used in this example specifies that a subscriber's traffic will be partitioned between General Internet Access and Premium Content. General Internet Access is quota controlled from one bucket (both upstream and downstream consuming from the same bucket). Premium Content traffic will not be quota controlled (but rather post paid charged).
SUMMARY STEPS
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DETAILED STEPS
Step 1
Figure 3-5 Adding Free Premium Content Service
Step 2
Figure 3-6 Setting Quota Management to External
The package is created:
Figure 3-7 Free Premium Content Package
Step 3
Figure 3-8 Adding Rule to Premium Browsing Service
The Free Premium Content package now contains two service rules.
Figure 3-9 Free Premium Content Package Service Rules
Step 4
Define all other services, except for PremiumBrowsing, as consuming quota frmo bucket number 1 for both upstream and downstream traffic.
Buckets can normally be used to manage upstream volume, downstream volume, and sessions. This example deals only with volume based quota:
Figure 3-10 Edit Rule for Service Dialog
The PremiumBrowsing service is not associated with a quota bucket, and therefore will not be quota limited. Use of this service will still be reflected in the quota usage notifications using the SCE Subscriber API.
An overview of the monthly quota package is shown in the following figure.
Figure 3-11 Monthly Quota Package Overview
Defining a Grace Period
A grace period can be configured in SCA BB to improve the user-experience for a subscriber accessing a service for the first time. The grace period allows the subscriber to access a service until the initial quota provisioning stage is complete. The grace period should be configured to be relatively short because it allows subscribers to get services regardless of the allocated quota amount even when the subscriber does not have available balance. The grace period reflects the willingness of the provider to credit the subscriber with service assuming that the balance is positive. This behavior is fully configurable and depends on the provider business logic.
Step 1
Figure 3-12 Advanced Service Configuration Options Dialog
Defining Quota-RDR Settings
Quota RDRs are the internal triggers for quota notifications that are part of the SCE subscriber API. When using the quota functionality, make sure that all RDRs are enabled.
The period of remaining quota RDRs should be set based on the operator's preferences.
The threshold value for RDR generation should be determined by the operator based on the size of the quota chunks provisioned and the expected bandwidth consumed by the service. Quota threshold notifications are intended to allow the policy server to provision a new quota chunk before an existing quota is depleted, thus enabling service continuity while the subscriber has a positive account balance.
The system must be configured to enable the RPC server and to send RDRs - that will be converted into notifications by the SCE Subscriber API - to the internal RDR listener.
Step 1
#>RDR-formatter destination 127.0.0.1 port 33001 category number 4 priority 100Defining the Control Scheme
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Defining the Package Bandwidth Controllers
The package BW controllers have to be defined. The total bandwidth allocated to a subscriber will be limited to 1 Mbps.
"Depletion BWC", designed for limiting the breached service traffic must also be defined (upstream and downstream).
Step 1
Figure 3-13 Defining BW Controllers and Depletion BWC
All services will be placed by default under the total BW controller.
Defining the Depletion Actions
After the General-Internet-Access quota is depleted, this service will be mapped to a subscriber BW controller allowing it to consume up to 64 kbps. The subscriber should be notified that their bandwidth has been reduced due to quota depletion (through subscriber-notification).
Using the subscriber notification capability, subscribers can be put automatically into a state where their browsing session is redirected to a predefined web portal. The web portal page informs subscribers that their quota has depleted and therefore their Internet-Access-Speed is reduced.
Note
Step 1
Figure 3-14 Quota Depletion Notification Web Page
Step 2
Figure 3-15 Subscriber Notification Settings Dialog
The destination URL directs the subscriber to the web portal page created in Step 1.
Step 3
This action maps all the services that consume from the General-Internet-Traffic Quota (bucket 1) to the Depletion Bandwidth Controller. The subscriber notification also needs to be selected for activation.
Figure 3-16 Setting Breach Handling Rules
Posted: Thu Jun 7 07:27:27 PDT 2007
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