Parallel Usage Rating with Secondary Beats

You use usage charge price components with secondary beats to perform separate, parallel rating for a single time-based service flow usage.

Charging with different usage charge price components with primary and secondary beats is useful to rate and charge different amounts for the same time-based service usage at the same time. They can charge by different time increments. For example, you might need to charge subscribers for a voice call by the minute, and also charge them for the underlying infrastructure by the second. To do this, you would rate the voice charges using price components with primary beats, and the infrastructure charges using price components with secondary beats.

By default, usage charge price components are charged using primary beats. You can direct a usage charge price component to use secondary beats by checking Is Secondary Beat Sequence when you create or change that price component. By doing so, you are implementing parallel rating of the same usage by primary and secondary price components. For details about specifying price components as secondary, see the discussion about creating a usage charge in My MATRIXX Help.

For each usage request, primary and secondary usage charges are calculated in parallel. Primary charges are calculated and rated together, and secondary charges are calculated and rated together. If one completes and the other does not:
  • If this is an intermediate request, any incomplete charges are deferred to the next request.
  • If this is the final request, any incomplete charges are completed immediately.

You can associate each usage charge with a different rate tag to allow separation of discounts and reporting in event records.

Note:
  • You cannot associate usage-quantity meters, discounts, or other constructs with a specific beat sequence, because they apply to both.
  • Rating using primary and secondary charging fails if either the primary or secondary fails to complete a full beat.

Rating for primary and secondary charges collect their total charges independently, and also independently pick their longest beat for MATRIXX Engine to rate with. MATRIXX Engine then calculates beat rating using the longest primary beat and the longest secondary beat and combines them. Any unused charges are also deferred separately.

Rating with Different Size Primary and Secondary Beats

MATRIXX Engine calculates rating differently between primary and secondary charges than it does within primary charges. In sequences where a shorter beat is a divisor of the longer beat, MATRIXX Engine completes the shorter beat first. It then defers the unused part of the larger beat, unless both beats complete at the same time (when they reach a common multiple). Primary/Secondary Charge Calculation Example 1 shows example rating usage for 6-second primary beats and 60-second secondary beats.
Table 1. Primary/Secondary Charge Calculation Example 1
Action Total Usage Primary Beat Charge Secondary Beat Charge Deferred Charge
CCR-U reports usage of 30 seconds 30 seconds 5 beats x 6 seconds (total 5 beats = 30 seconds) 1 beat x 60 seconds (total 1 beat = 60 seconds) 30 seconds from secondary charge
Next CCR-U reports usage of 30 seconds 60 seconds 5 beats x 6 seconds (total 10 beats = 60 seconds) Uses 30 seconds deferred revenue (total 1 beat = 60 seconds) Nothing
Next CCR-U reports usage of 30 seconds 90 seconds 5 beats x 6 seconds (total 15 beats = 90 seconds) 1 beat x 60 seconds (total 2 beats = 120 seconds) 30 seconds from secondary charge
CCR-T reports usage of 15 seconds 105 seconds 3 beats x 6 seconds (total 18 beats = total 108 seconds) Uses 30 seconds deferred revenue (total 2 beats = 120 seconds) Nothing
Other sequences might alternate between immediate and deferred settlement depending on which of the beats is nearest to completion. Primary/Secondary Charge Calculation Example 2 shows an example in which both beats have deferred charges.
Table 2. Primary/Secondary Charge Calculation Example 2
Action Total Usage Primary Beat Charge (2-second beat) Secondary Beat Charges (3-second beat) Deferred Charges
CCR-U reports usage of 2 seconds 2 seconds 1 beat x 2 seconds (total 1 beat = 2 seconds 1 beat x 3 seconds (total 1 beat = 3 seconds 1 second deferred from secondary charge
CCR-U reports usage of 1 second 3 seconds 1 beat x 2 seconds (total 2 beats = 4 seconds) Uses 1 second deferred revenue (total 1 beat = 3 seconds 1 second deferred from primary charge
CCR-U reports usage of 1 second 4 seconds Uses 1 second deferred revenue. (total 2 beats = 4 seconds) 1 beat x 3 seconds (total 2 beats = 6 seconds 2 seconds deferred from secondary charge.
CCR-T reports usage of 1 second 5 seconds 1 beat x 2 seconds (total 3 beats = 6 seconds) Used 2 seconds deferred revenue. No additional charge (total 2 beats = 6 seconds) Nothing
Note: MATRIXX does not calculate deferred settlement of a partial beat if the service terminates. For example:
  • If a CCA or RAA indicates failure, or an RAR cannot be sent.
  • If the SubMan API is used to terminate the session.