DUCR/ATC Charges with Multi-Tariffs Do Not Follow Balance Cascades Resulting in Negative Balances (Doc ID 2234231.1)

Last updated on MARCH 27, 2023

Applies to:

Symptoms

On all versions of Oracle Communications Network Charging and Control (NCC), a problem exists when using the Direct Unit Charge Request (DUCR) Feature Node (FN) to send an Apply Tariff[ed] Charge (ATC) message to the Voucher Wallet Servers (VWS') to charge for an event which hits a CLI-DN (Calling Line Identifier - Destination Number) entry with Multi-Tariffs configured.  Any configured Balance Cascades are disregarded and the entire charge is deducted from a single bucket which can cause the bucket to go negative if it does not have sufficient funds to cover the ATC request.

A Multi-Tariff CLI-DN is used to charge for a session based event (Voice or Data session) from multiple balance types.  For example, a voice call may cost $0.60 per minute of General/Promotional Cash (GC/PC) as well as 1 unit of Free Minutes at the same time.  For more details on Multi-Tariffs, please see the Charging Control Services (CCS) User's Guide for the application version of NCC here.

An ATC is used to request a charge to be performed for a known/fixed amount while applying all the applicable tariffs. An example of its usage would be to perform a session charge in one go ie. charge for 10 minutes of usage.

For example, assuming the setup:

1. A GC bucket exists and has a balance of $2
2. A PC bucket exists and has a balance of $10
3. A Free Minutes bucket exists and has a balance of 60 minutes (this balance type is only added to complete the Multi-Tariff configuration)
4. A BT cascade exists for the cash unit BT which utilizes the GC BT first before cascading to the PC BT
5. This is all configured for a CLI-DN which an ATC will hit where the cost is $0.60 per minute and 1 Free Minute per minute

When the ATC request comes in to charge 10 minutes worth of usage, the GC bucket will fall to -$4, the Free Minutes bucket will fall to 56 minutes and the PC bucket will be unaffected.

Changes

Implementation of Multi-Tariffs to CLI-DNs and DUCR/ATCs which utilize them.

Cause

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