dc.description.abstract | Different operators offering telecommunication services cannot operate in isolation. They have to depend
on each other in order to provide all inclusive telecommunication services to their customers. A part from
offering services to their customers, operators offer interconnect services to each other. These interconnect
services are charged. The current billing and payment for interconnect services is semi automatic. This has
resulted in delay of bill and payment processing, prolonged period for settlement of billing and payment
disputes.
In order to address the above problems, we intended to develop the automated multiagent-based
interoperator billing and payment system (AMBIBPSY) which should have the following main
functionalities:
• To receive and transform raw CDR from the POI into a formart suitable for bill generation.
• To generate, store and deliver bill to the distant operator.
• To receive, reconcile and store the received bill from the distant operator.
• To generate and store voucher against the received bill from the distant operator.
• To effect the payment against the reconciled voucher.
AMBIBPSY system has been developed using four agents to enable it accomplish the above functionalities.
The four agents include: CollectionAgent, BillingAgent, PaymentAgent and BankingAgent. The multiagent
system approach to this study is due to the distributed nature of points of interconnection from which the
call detail records are captured. The use of agents has reduced the complexity of the system during
development and when the system will require expansion afterwards. Each agent has been built
successfully including all the roles it should play. CollectionAgent is used to receive and transform raw
CDR from the POI into a formart suitable for bill generation. BillingAgent is used to generate, store and
deliver bill to the distant operator. PaymentAgent is used to generate and store voucher against the received
bill from the distant operator. BankingAgent is used to effect the payment against the reconciled voucher
by implementing EFT. The system is able to generate and send bill to the distant operator. Voucher
generation and transmission to the distant operator has been accomplished successfully. Electronic fund
transfer between the banking agents has been successful.
The success of this study is a relief to telecommunication operators in handling inter-operator billing and
payment. Automatic billing and payment processing makes the process faster due to reduction of human
errors. Electronic fund transfer reduces the cost of fund transfer processing in terms of time and money. | en |