Mediation

Mediation is the process of collecting and processing usage data from networked
devices (switches), usually for billing purposes. Whenever a Subscriber / Customer
uses communication services (Voice, Call, SMS, Data transfer etc) from a Service
Provider, network elements records used data in the form of Call Detail Record
(CDR). There are various protocol supported namely FTP, SFTP, etc provides a
secured way of collecting the CDRs
Mediation collects and processes the CDRs from networked devices (switches),
CDRs are normally pushed to or pulled from the switches to the mediation
At Mediation following tasks performed before files are pushed to downstream
applications
Collecting and validating CDR from network elements (switches / MSCs)
Filtration (non billing CDRS)
Correlation of different input sources CDRs
Aggregation of partial CDRs related to the same call.
CDR normalization.
Transformation of data as per business logic.
Downstream Format mapping ,header and trailer generation
Downstream Distribution(DWH, Watchdog, Inopac/ Revup, Inforoam, Avabil),

Mediation Flow

Function of Mediation system

Network devices receives CDRs as files for different types of communication, below
are some of the CDR files for generated at different communication

Voice calls record as MSC (Mobile switching center) files

SMS traffic record as SMSC(Short messaging service center) files
Data traffic from GPRS (General Pocket Radio Center) - GGSN(Gateway GRPS
Support Node) & SGSN (Service GRPS Support Node)
MMS traffic MMSC
Roaming CDRs from business partners
Interconnect CDRs from partners
Function of Mediation system
Collection of the CDR files from switches, which includes checking the naming
convension of the files, sequence checking inside the files and eliminating 0kb files
and CDR processing includes removal of duplicate CDRs, conversion of CDRs into
system readable format, filtering them and processing them as per the business
which is done in the decode applications. After files are processed they will be
distributed among the downstream applications and these applications again pick
only the files relevant files and leave the 0kb files if any as a result there could be
increase in the backlogs in the paths. Downstream applications include watchdog,
Inopac/Revup, Avabil, DWH and Inforoam, Sometimes unprocessed files can sent
directly to downstream applications like watchdog/ Inopac as per the logic.
Before the processed files are distributed among the downstream they will be
separately moved to other applications (ex: DistributeoutInopac) inside the
mediation itself which will route them to the respective downstream applications
Function of Mediation

Purpose of downstream applications:

After files are processed in mediation server they are distributed into different
downstream applications basing on their business usage
Avabil: for billing the CDR
Watchdog: collects all non-billing CDRs like toll free calls and for fraud detection
DHW: Warehouse of all CDRs files after getting processed in mediation, useful for
future needs, contains both CDRs and non CDRs (other dumps like EPIN/ Pivot/ PPS/
MTR/ sales journal)
Inopac/Revup: for rating interconnect billing of CDRs
Inforoam: for roaming CDRs
Once CDR file received mediation preprocess the CDR, which involves removal of
header and tailer, adding extra filed in CDR to process and finally parsed to check
with switch format to validate CDR. Some mediation software collect CDR from
network element at physical path then process it, while some collect the same in
buffer and after process, one final CDR is sent for further process and one file sent
to Archive directory.

A typical mediation workflow: