Product Offer Required Tier Balances

For aggregated required balances, product offers can specify at which tier in a group hierarchy the G/L balance is created.

When a device, subscriber, or group purchases a product offer with one or more required tier balances, the Charging Server determines if the required tiers are all present in one group hierarchy. New balances are updated or new balances are created at the required tiers as determined by the balance instance creation policy defined for the balance templates.

In My MATRIXX set either a tier or a tier parameter ID on a product offer required balance; you cannot set both. If you select a tier, this value specifies at which tier in a group hierarchy the G/L balance is created. If you select a tier parameter ID, select from predefined catalog item parameters that specify the balance’s tier name; at purchase time, the group tier value can be updated using this parameter to specify which group tier name to use. For information about setting the tier or tier parameter ID on a product offer required balance, see the discussion about product offer balance properties in My MATRIXX Help. For more information about creating predefined parameters, see the discussion about adding parameters.

After creating or updating the G/L tier balance, a virtual balance instance for each required tier balance is added or updated in the subscriber or group wallet and is made a candidate during rating for the pricing associated with that product offer. In addition, virtual balances are added or updated in subscriber and group wallets up the hierarchy until the required tier is reached. If the wallet contains multiple balance instances from the same balance template, only the instance listed as required will be a candidate during rating for that product offer.

In a tiered private balance, the G/L balance is in the group's wallet, and the virtual balance can be used exclusively by the offer which has the private balance.

When a subscriber buys an offer with a required tiered balance, a G/L balance is created in the group's wallet and a virtual balance is created in the subscriber's wallet. The virtual balance is a required balance of the purchased offer. When the offer is applied and the required balance is used, normalizers such as those used by filters have access to objects in the rating context; for example, the subscriber object or the offer being applied (product offer revision, catalog item revision, purchased offer extension, and so on).

When a balance state update component specifies a required tier, if the balance state update profile is selected during rating, the Charging Server determines if the product offer includes any required tier balances at that tier to determine which balances are eligible for extension. Balance state update components for required tier balances are useful during auto-renewal of shared balances because priority is given to required tier balances associated with the product offer after a specific balance class or template has been selected. For more information about balance state update components, see the discussion about modifying balance validity periods.

The device, subscriber, and group SubMan queries return an array of MtxTierBalancePurchasedOfferInfo that includes balance at-tier purchased offer information for the group hierarchy at the specified tier.

For information about creating balance state update components, see the discussion about creating balance state update components in My MATRIXX Help. For information about creating tiers, see the discussion about adding a field to a pricing plan in My MATRIXX Help. For information about group hierarchies and aggregated balances, see the discussion about group-owned balances and meters.