Device-Specific Balances and Meters

Device-specific balances and meters track currency or other assets for a device. Their balance impacts are recorded in a subscriber'swallet with a device association. Device-specific balances and meters are particularly useful for prepaid applications, such as topping-up a device with resources.

You can use device-specific balances and meters to limit overall spending or usage by device. For example, you could offer a plan that would restrict each device owned by a subscriber to its own data usage limit.

You make balances or meters device-specific by checking the Device Specific box when you create them in My MATRIXX, and then add them to offers normally. When a subscriber purchases offers with device-specific balances or meters, those balances or meters are added to that subscriber's wallet. Each device-specific balance impact includes a DeviceId field identifying the device it applies to.

Offers can contain any combination of device-specific and device-neutral balances and meters. How Device-Specific Balances and Meters Affect Offer Pricing explains how device-specific balances and meters affects offer pricing.

Table 1. How Device-Specific Balances and Meters Affect Offer Pricing
Offer Purchaser Device-Specific Balances (Non-Aggregated) Device-Specific Meters (Non-Aggregated) Device-Neutral Balances or Meters (Non-Aggregated) Device-Neutral Balances or Meters (Aggregated)
Subscriber Not Supported A GL instance is created for each device meter in the subscriber's wallet. One GL instance is added to the subscriber's wallet that is accessible to the subscriber and all devices. Uses the default MATRIXX Online Charging System (OCS) behavior. For more information, see the discussion about pricing plans.
Group Not Supported Not Supported One GL instance is created in the group's wallet that is only accessible to the group account (the group offers and the subman APIs). Uses the default MATRIXX OCS behavior. For more information, see the discussion about pricing plans.
Device One GL instance is added to the subscriber's wallet only for that device. One GL instance is added to the subscriber's wallet only for that device. One GL instance is added to the subscriber's wallet that is accessible to the subscriber and all devices. Uses the default MATRIXX OCS behavior. For more information, see the discussion about pricing plans.

Limitations

The device-specific balances and meters have these limitations:

  • Device-specific balances and meters cannot be purchased by groups because they cannot be aggregated.
  • Main balances cannot be device-specific.
  • Postpaid actual currency balances cannot be device-specific.
  • Session meters cannot be device-specific.
  • A device-specific charge meter can only track usage charges.
  • A subscriber cannot purchase a product offer that requires a device-specific balance or meter.

Rating Device-Specific Balances and Meters

Rating is applied to a device-specific balance or meter in the same way it is applied to other balances and meters. A device-specific balance or meter is prioritized and rated the same way and is treated in the same way, for example, in normalizers as other balances and meters.

Programmatic Interface

A DeviceId field is required for device-specific balances and meters that identifies the device for billing and rating in:

  • Balance and meter updates
  • Balance impacts in notifications
  • SubMan APIs

Use Case for a Device-Specific Meter

Use cases for a device-specific meter:

  • A device-owned offer is purchased, and a meter tracks the spending/usage for that one device.

    For example, a subscriber wants to track how much data they download on their work phone.

  • A subscriber-owned offer is purchased, and each device of that subscriber has a meter that tracks its spending/usage.

    For example, a parent wants to track how much credit children use up playing online games on their phones and tablets.

Use Case for a Device-Specific Balance

Use case for a device-specific balance:

  • A device-owned offer is purchased where the device gets its own balance with its own credit.

    For example, a parent wants a guaranteed amount of credit for their own phone that cannot be used up by devices of other offers.

In the current release, a subscriber-owned offer cannot require a device-specific balance. Device-specific balances (and their credit) must come from offers that were purchased by the device. After a device-specific balance is instantiated, it can be spent/used for any of the device's charges, including usage charges generated by subscriber-owned offers or group-owned offers of the device.