Ericsson LBI-38965B installation manual Billing Architecture BCU Operation Overview

SPECIFICATIONS LBI-38965

3.2.2. Billing Architecture

The EDACS billing system architecture is shown in Figure 3. Each IMC is connected to a BCU/CAL via a high-speed serial communications link using HDLC protocol.

RF	RF
System	System

RF	RF
System	System

Console

TerminalDownlink

DAT (Optional) MIM MIM

BCU	C	Area
	A	IMC
	M
	High-Speed
	HDLC Link
Ethernet
TCP/IP WAN

Console

Terminal

DAT (Optional)

BCU

MIM MIM

CArea

AIMC

M

StarGate

Customer

Billing

Mainframe To other IMCs

The dotted lines enclose one optional setup for a StarGate (multi-node) billing architecture.

Figure 3 - Billing Architecture

3.2.3. BCU Operation Overview

Each RF system sends all call information to the IMC via the downlink. This is true for single-channel autonomous trunking (SCAT), Conventional Network Interface (CNI), basic EDACS, and RF systems operating in failsoft mode.

All call activity information messages received by the IMC are collected by the Central Activity Module (CAM), where each call message is time stamped. These messages, called raw activity records (RARs), are then passed via the high-speed serial link to the BCU/CAL. The BCU examines each RAR and uses the time stamp values to determine the length of each call. The actual billing algorithm is quite complex and depends on the BCU's keeping a memory ofoutstanding calls. The output of the billing algorithm is stored to a regular disk file as a series of call detail records (CDR).

The CDR format is compatible with Cincinnati Bell Information System’s (CBIS) Cellware billing software.

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