Profile-Determined Quota Authorization

You can define usage quota profiles in My MATRIXX that during rating determine an authorized quota amount based on a specific rating quantity type, such as actual duration. In general, quota is authorized using a service and context type, but you can use usage quota profiles to override these in specific cases. For example, you can reduce quotas to increase balance accuracy or increase quotas to reduce system load.

In product offers, you can add one or more usage quota components that use decision tables to select a usage quota profile that determines an authorized quota amount. Normalizers determine which usage quota profile is applied to each context based on rating groups and service identifiers (MSCC Rating-Group AVP and MSCC Service-Identifier AVP). For example, you could set a default quota for a data service which could be overridden to provide smaller quotas for roaming data and larger quotas for zero-rated (free) data.

Individual requests for quota apply usage quota profiles when applicable. Each request for quota in a Diameter request takes place within a service context within a session. For each of these requests, MATRIXX Charging Application attempts to select a usage quota profile for that request. The selection process uses the current state of the subscriber, device, session, context, CCR, and (if applicable) MSCC making the request to select a profile. If a selection is successful, the request is evaluated based on the parameters of the selected profile. Otherwise, the request is evaluated based on the parameters of the context type configured in pricing.

When quota is requested, if a usage quota profile is selected, quota is authorized according to that profile only. The parameters defined in that profile override any quota parameters configured for the service context-type in the request. For this reason, it is important that you carefully define the parameters in the usage quota component. If a usage profile component is not selected, the default quota parameters for the service context are used. When rating determines the quantity type that is measured for the service usage by a service context, only usage quota components with this quantity type are considered applicable during rating.

A product offer must include only one usage quota component for each rating quantity type. For instance, a data service product offer could have a usage quota component with a quantity type of total-data and a usage quota component with a quantity type of actual-duration for a VoIP data service. However, it could not have a second usage quota component with an actual-duration quantity type.
Important: It is possible that the product offer that provides the usage quota profile for quota authorization is not one of the offers used to rate the authorization. If a usage quota profile is selected, it is valid for the lifetime of the authorization. For example, if an authorization request occurs at 11:55 PM, a profile is selected from among the profiles available at that time and MATRIXX Charging Application may grant quota that expires beyond midnight, even if a different profile would have been selected after midnight.
MATRIXX Engine uses the following process to determine which profile to select.
  • Collect all device, subscriber, group, and global-scope offers that are valid, that apply to the service being used, and that include usage quota components for the relevant rating quantity type.
  • Prioritize the offers.
  • Starting with the component in the highest-priority offer, evaluate each rate table in turn until one selects a quota profile. If none select a profile, continue with the next component, and so forth.
  • If a profile was selected, determine quota based on that profile. Otherwise, determine quota based on the underlying service context configuration.
The following general tasks describe how to implement usage quota profiles in My MATRIXX Help.
  • Create normalizers that can discriminate criteria such as service type (video, audio and so forth), bearer (cellular, Wi-Fi, and so forth), and location (region and so forth).
  • Create usage quota profiles that define how data is authorized based on the criteria in the normalizers.
  • Create decision tables that use the normalizers to determine which usage quota profile is applied.
  • Create usage quota components that determine how data is authorized using the decision tables.
  • Add usage quota components to product offers.
  • Add a product offer to a catalog item.

For information about creating usage quota components and usage quota profiles, see the discussion about creating usage quota components in My MATRIXX Help.

Quota Profile Example

In this example, a service operator has three categories of data service: streaming video, streaming audio, and everything else. The service operator provides two product offers, one for roaming data usage and one for domestic zero-rated data usage. In addition, all subscribers get a base domestic data offer.

  1. Construct a data service type with contexts for video, audio, and everything else, assuming that your usage is neither roaming nor zero rated.
  2. Construct usage quota profiles for roaming and zero-rated quotas. This probably includes a roaming quota profile for video, another for audio, and a third for everything else. In addition there is a zero-rated quota profile that allocates large quotas for all data usage in which the type of data usage does not matter.
  3. Create a roaming usage quota component that normalizes on things such as event location (roaming or not) and rating group (video, audio, and other), either to select the appropriate roaming profile or to skip.
  4. Create a zero-rated usage quota profile that normalizes on things like roaming or not, either to select the appropriate zero-rated profile or to skip.

In this case, roaming video, audio, and other data will select the profile appropriate for each. The zero-rated data of any kind selects the profile appropriate to it. All other data uses the settings in the service configuration.