Mobile Number Portability Concept

HIGH LEVEL NETWORK ARCHITECTURE FOR MNP SOLUTION

Fig 1 shows high level network architecture and network components for MNP solution. On high level, complete network can be visualized
into two parts:

Central Side- MNPO ( Mobile Number Portability Operator)

The central side is a MNPO, supposed to provide MNP Service in a particular zone. It is also called MNP Clearing House (MCH). MCH

shall receive mobile number portability requests from the recipient operator; forward it to the donor operator for verification. On getting
clearance from donor operator MNP service provider shall control and coordinate the mobile number portability process. At a
predetermined date and time the MNP service provider will instruct the donor operator to disconnect the mobile number of the subscriber
and upon receiving confirmation of such effect shall instruct the recipient operator to activate the mobile number of the subscriber. Once the
mobile number is activated at the recipient operators end, the MCH will send the details of the porting to the centralised Number Portability
Database (NPDB) which in turn will update its own database by an appropriate routing number called Location Routing Number (LRN), a
unique routing number assigned to each operator in a service area by the DoT. This updation will be communicated by the NPDB to all the
service

providers

for

updating

their

respective

local

Number

Portability

database.

MNP Service provider has to deploy its system (network) in redundant way as shown in figure in two different geographical areas, one as a
production site and another as a disaster recovery site to avoid interruption in service due to failure of one site. Both side must be in sync
and work in active redundant mode.

Types of Number Portability :The various types of number portability are:

Service Provider Number Portability: Subscribers can change the service provider while retaining the same phone number It is also called

operator portability.

Location Number Portability: Subscribers can change their service location while keeping the same mobile telephone number.

Service Portability: Subscribers can change the subscribed services while retaining the same telephone number. It allows the subscribers

to enjoy the subscribed services in the same way when they roam outside their home networks.

Concept

:-

MNP functionality is used only in MT (Mobile Terminating) transactions of voice and messaging. For MO (Mobile Originating) transactions, the
current

flow

scenario

remains

unchanged.

Only for the MT functionality, the mobile number has to be identified and the corresponding service provider has to be interrogated for optimal
routing of the service.

Basic Terms :

Ported out If a subscriber moves to new service provider, for the old service provider, he is a ported out subscriber.

Ported in If a subscriber moves to new service provider, for the new service provider, he is a ported in subscriber.

Donor The service provider left by the subscriber. OR It is the network that first assigns a telephone number to a
subscriber

Recipient The service provider joined by the subscriber. OR It is the network that currently serves the ported number.
A recipient network is a network that a subscribers number is ported to when the subscriber switches the service
provider.

Old Serving Network The old serving network is the network that previously served the ported number before the
number was ported to the new serving network. Since a subscriber can switch
service provider any number of times, the old service provider is not necessarily the same as the donor network.

Participant A Participant is a service provider who is not related to the porting process in any way and still needs the
routing information for call routing and various other activities.

CDB / NPDB Central Database or Number Portability Database.

ACQ All Call Query

There are two basic implementation of MNP.

Indirect Routing or decentralized or bilateral

architecture:

This model works bilaterally between the donor and

recipient service providers who are responsible for
informing all others of the change. It would suit to markets
with less number of service providers. Each provider
will have a dedicated setup and comprehensive database of

ported out and ported in subscribers. As the number of

service providers increases, the bilateral approach becomes
a great burden to all service providers involved in terms of
time, cost and resources. FNR (Flexible Number Register)

will help the service providers have the ported database in

addition to the original HLR database.

Direct Routing or centralized architecture:

In direct routing, the concept of CDB comes into picture. This central
database or Central clearing house will handle all activities related to
porting of subscribers between service providers. This model is suited
for markets with several service providers and this model is currently
used almost in all MNP implementations. Two options are available
with this model with all the service providers updating the ported
number database in synchronization with the CDB and the other is to
query the CDB for all call interrogation to get proper routing
procedure. After obtaining the rules, rest of the call is handled
normally.

Call Routing Schemes :There are 4 schemes of call routing that support number portability.

All Call Query (ACQ) Most Efficient (No dependency on other network for routing the call, Easy Billing, Minimum Call
Set-Up Time, Minimal Impact on Signaling, Impact on network complexity is very less, etc.)

Query on Release (QoR).

Call Dropback.

Onward Routing (OR) Least Efficient.