4 Setting Up Online Charging for SS7 Networks

Setting Up Connectivity to the Legacy SS7 Network

You can connect Service Controller to a SIGTRAN-based SS7 network. Service Controller does not support TDM-based SS7 networks.

Before you start, make sure that you have a detailed plan of how Service Controller connects to your SS7 network, including point codes that you assign to Service Controller. To connect Service Controller to the legacy SS7 network:

1. Configure a SIGTRAN-based SS7 SSU for your SIGTRAN-based SS7 network. See Service Controller Signaling Server Units Configuration Guide for more information.

2. Deploy and configure the proper IMSCF module variant, as described in Service Controller Modules Configuration Guide.

3. Configure routing rules in the SS7 SSU to route sessions arriving from the SS7 network to the IMSCF module that you deployed in the step 1.

   In the Administration Console:

   1. In the navigation tree, expand OCSB node, and then the Signaling Tier node.

   2. Select SSU SS7 SIGTRAN.

   3. In the Routing tab, in the left pane, click the Add button. The New dialog box appears.

   4. In the Name field, enter a name for the routing rule. Click Apply. The newly created rule now appears in the rules tree in the left pane.

   5. Select the newly created rule node, and then select the Incoming Routing Rules tab.

   6. In the Module Instance field enter module.type@domain where module is the name of the IMSCF module that you deployed in step 2, type is the type of the IMSCF module that you deployed, and domain is the name of the domain where you deployed the module. For example, for an instance of IMSCFCAP3, imscf.IMSCFCAP3@ocsb.

   7. Optionally, you can define criteria for the rule, so that the SSU SS7 route to the IMSCF application only sessions that meet the criteria. You define criteria for the rule in the Incoming Routing Rule Criteria tab.

4. Configure the IMSCF parameters under the Charging Service tab in the Administration Console. See the charging service configuration section for the IMSCF module you are using in Service Controller Modules Configuration Guide, for more information on setting these parameters.

Setting Up Connectivity to the OCS

Before you start, make sure that you have a detailed plan of how Service Controller connects to your OCS, including information such as connection credentials and IP addresses or host names. Ask your OCS administrator for the required information

You can connect Service Controller to the OCS through Diameter Ro.

To connect Service Controller to the IMS network:

1. Define Service Controller as a Diameter node and configure how other Diameter entities access it, as described in the discussion about creating Diameter nodes in the chapter about the Diameter SSU in Service Controller Signaling Server Units Configuration Guide.

   In the Administration Console:

   1. In the navigation tree, expand the OCSB node, and then the Signaling Tier node.

   2. Select the SSU Diameter node.

   3. In the DIAMETER tab, select the Diameter Configuration tab.

   4. You can either use the default node or create a new node by clicking the Add button on the bottom of the list of existing Diameter nodes.

   5. In the General tab, in the Name field, enter a unique name for the Diameter node.

   6. In the Realm field, enter the realm name that other Diameter nodes use to access Service Controller.

   7. In the Port field, enter the port number that signaling servers use to listen to Diameter traffic.

   8. Leave the Address, Host and Target fields blank to apply the configuration to all signaling servers in the Signaling Domain and have them all provide a Diameter network channel on the same port.

   9. Click Apply.

      Note:

      If you run multiple signaling servers on the same physical machine, you have to define each signaling server as a different Diameter node which listens on a different port. Otherwise, the Diameter SSU running on all signaling servers using the same port will result in network traffic collisions.

2. Deploy the IMOCF-Ro module as described in the discussion on setting up IMOCF-Ro in Service Controller Modules Configuration Guide.

   In the Administration Console:

   1. In the navigation tree, expand the OCSB node.

   2. Expand the Processing Tier node, and then the Interworking Modules node.

   3. Click IM Management.

   4. In the IM Management tab, click the New button. The New dialog box appears.

   5. From the Type list, select IMOCF.

   6. In the Name field, enter a module instance name. For example, rimocfro_instance.

   7. Click the OK button.

3. Configure the IMOCF-Ro module as described in the discussion on setting up IMOCF-Ro in Service Controller Modules Configuration Guide.

4. Activate the IMOCF-Ro module that you deployed and configured in steps 2 and 3.

   In the Administration Console:

   1. In the navigation tree, expand the OCSB node.

   2. Expand the Processing Tier node and then the Interworking Modules node.

   3. Click on IM Management.

   4. In the IM Management tab, select the IMOCF-Ro module in the table.

   5. Click the Activate button.

Defining a Service Orchestration Chain

To route sessions to the OCS, you have to choose the method (LSS, HSS, or static service orchestration) that you want to use for service orchestration, and then, based on your choice, define a service orchestration chain with the OCS in it.

See "Configuring Service Orchestration" for information about the different options for service orchestration, and how to configure them.