With increase in networks, technologies, services and data traffic, it has become difficult for operators to analyse all the data generated by various components. Traditionally Mediation had a role to play in post-paid world where CDRs were collected, enriched and sent to rating systems for billing. But nowadays the role of mediation is changing.
The big data trend in not likely to slow down, instead it is likely to grow with increase in the number of device connected resulting in exponential rise in data. With such volume of billing information, Mediation system is not just confined to only billing CDRs but it has a pivotal role to play in non-charging applications too. It has evolved to collect subscriber usage and network data from various network elements that can be used as primary source of customer buying behaviour and usage pattern. By analysing this data the operator can generate a lot of intelligence that enables them to optimize network resources as well as enhance customer experience.
The data collected, parsed, processed and consolidated can further be leveraged by providing processed data in real time for business critical downstream systems like BI analytics, rating / billing, interconnect, roaming, fraud management /revenue assurance, 3rd Party Database etc.
Below are few use cases which the Convergent Mediation offers to CSPs:
Improved Customer Experience through content optimization: Operators sometimes have to deal with multiple content optimisers installed at different locations. Also, there might be a possibility that these content optimisers are from different vendors. The problem occurs when the transactions data produced by these content optimisers are in different format. Mediation can play an important role here by collecting these transactions records from various content optimisers and process them in to a unified format. These transactions records can be then passed on for report generation based on operator’s requirement that eventually enables them to enhance customer experience by optimising content that is frequently accessed by customers.
Service Assurance & Monitoring: Once a subscriber is lost, getting them back is even more expensive for an operator than acquiring new ones. And one of the main reasons of customer churn is service outage at various geo locations. The increasing complexities on the network side are also creating problems for an operator. They have to deal with different networks, different network elements, different services and different technologies. If a service outage happens, the operator can’t decide the reason because of the siloed systems in place. With mediation, the operator can use the data generated by various n/w elements and process them as inputs for analytics. This helps them in providing undisturbed high quality of service to customers.
Consolidation for seamless convergence and significant cost savings: Multiple mediation systems to manage different networks not only leads to complexity but also adds to CAPEX. With Convergent Mediation system CSPs can consolidate their existing mediation systems onto one future ready platform by managing multiple networks WiMax, xDSL , PSTN, GSM, CDMA, LTE, IMS; thereby simplifying the mediation process. With convergence CSPs can reduce hardware cost, remove duplication and simplify configuration across voice and data services.
Support M2M/IoT devices: The mediation server processes SIM enabled device traffic from M2M/IoT network elements to communicate and trigger events in real time, which is later bifurcated into machine and human generated triggers to provide you an aggregate data from M2M/IoT devices for analysis and assurance purpose.
Adherence to Regulatory Guidelines: The data collected from various network elements is processed by the mediation engine and passed on to IP Log Management system for lawful interception and investigative purposes to control cyber crimes.
There could be many such use cases and the full potential of Convergent Mediation is yet to e explored. An ideal mediation system should support all upstream and downstream systems for true convergence. It should be scalable, flexible, modular and adaptable to the network and BSS and OSS environments. To know more on Elitecore Mediation Solution Click Here