3 Definitions, symbols and abbreviations
32.2713GPPCharging managementLocation Services (LCS) chargingRelease 17Telecommunication managementTS
3.1 Definitions
For the purposes of the present document, the terms and definitions defined in TR 21.905 [100] and TS 32.240 [1], and the following apply:
accounting: process of apportioning charges between the Home Environment, Serving Network and Subscriber.
billing: function whereby CDRs generated by the charging function(s) are transformed into bills requiring payment.
Billing Domain (BD): part of the operator network, which is outside the telecommunications network, that receives and processes CDR files from the network charging functions. It includes functions that can provide billing mediation and billing or other (e.g. statistical) end applications. It is only applicable to offline charging (see "Online Charging System" for equivalent functionality in online charging).
chargeable event: activity utilizing telecommunications network resources and related services for:
– user to user communication (e.g. a single call, a data communication session or a short message); or
– user to network communication (e.g. service profile administration); or
– inter-network communication (e.g. transferring calls, signalling, or short messages); or
– mobility (e.g. roaming or inter-system handover); and
– that the network operator may want to charge for.
As a minimum, a chargeable event characterises the resource / service usage and indicates the identity of the involved end user(s).
charging: a function within the telecommunications network and the associated OCS/BD components whereby information related to a chargeable event is collected, formatted, transferred and evaluated in order to make it possible to determine usage for which the charged party may be billed.
Charging Data Record (CDR): a formatted collection of information about a chargeable event (e.g. time of call set-up, duration of the call, amount of data transferred, etc) for use in billing and accounting. For each party to be charged for parts of or all charges of a chargeable event a separate CDR shall be generated, i.e. more than one CDR may be generated for a single chargeable event, e.g. because of its long duration, or because more than one charged party is to be charged.
charging event: a set of charging information forwarded by the CTF towards the CDF (offline charging) or towards the OCS (online charging). Each charging event matches exactly one chargeable event.
charging function: entity inside the network domain, subsystem or service that is involved in charging for that domain, subsystem or service.
circuit switched domain: domain within GSM / UMTS in which information is transferred in circuit switched mode.
Credit-Control: mechanism which directly interacts in real-time with an account and controls or monitors the charges, related to the service usage. Credit-Control is a process of: checking if credit is available, credit reservation, deduction of credit from the end user account when service is completed and refunding of reserved credit not used.
domain: part of a communication network that provides network resources using a certain bearer technology.
Fully Qualified Partial CDR (FQPC): partial CDR that contains a complete set of the fields specified in the present document. This includes all the mandatory and conditional fields as well as those fields that the PLMN operator has provisioned to be included in the CDR. The first Partial CDR shall be a Fully qualified Partial CDR.
LCS Client: software and/or hardware entity that interacts with a LCS Server for the purpose of obtaining location information for one or more Mobile Stations
LCS Clients subscribe to LCS in order to obtain location information. LCS Clients may or may not interact with human users. The LCS Client is responsible for formatting and presenting data and managing the user interface (dialogue). The LCS Client may reside in the Mobile Station (MS).
LCS Server: software and/or hardware entity offering LCS capabilities. The LCS Server accepts requests, services requests, and sends back responses to the received requests
The LCS server consists of LCS components, which are distributed to one or more PLMN and/or service provider.
Location Based Service (LBS): service provided either by teleoperator or a 3rd party service provider that utilizes the available location information of the terminal
Location Application offers the User Interface for the service. LBS is either a pull or a push type of service (see Location Dependent Services and Location Independent Services). In ETSI/GSM documentation of SoLSA, LBS is called "Location Related Service". ETSI and/or 3GPP -wide terminology harmonization is expected here.
location estimate: geographic location of an UE and/or a valid Mobile Equipment (ME), expressed in latitude and longitude data
The Location Estimate shall be represented in a well-defined universal format. Translation from this universal format to another geographic location system may be supported, although the details are considered outside the scope of the primitive services.
middle tier TS: used for the 3GPP charging TSs that specify the domain / subsystem / service specific, online and offline, charging functionality. These are all the TSs in the numbering range from TS 32.250 to TS 32.279, e.g. TS 32.250 [10] for the CS domain, or TS 32.270 [30] for the MMS service. Currently, there is only one "tier 1" TS in 3GPP, which is TS 32.240 [1] that specifies the charging architecture and principles. Finally, there are a number of top tier TSs in the 32.29x numbering range ([50] ff) that specify common charging aspects such as parameter definitions, encoding rules, the common billing domain interface or common charging applications.
offline charging: charging mechanism where charging information does not affect, in real-time, the service rendered.
online charging: charging mechanism where charging information can affect, in real-time, the service rendered and therefore a direct interaction of the charging mechanism with bearer/session/service control is required.
Online Charging System (OCS): the entity that performs real-time credit control.
Its functionality includes transaction handling, rating, online correlation and management of subscriber account balances.
packet switched domain: domain within GSM / UMTS in which data is transferred in packet switched mode. Corresponds to the term "GPRS".
partial CDR: CDR that provides information on part of a subscriber session. A long session may be covered by several partial CDRs. Two formats are considered for Partial CDRs. One that contains all of the specified fields (FQPC); the second has a reduced format (RPC).
Positioning method (/locating method): method or technical solution, which is used to get an estimate of the target mobile’s geographical location
EXAMPLE: Positioning methods based on radio cell coverage, GPS or Assisted GPS methods, which are based on the Time-Of-Arrival (TOA) algorithm, and OTDOA or E-OTD methods, which are based on the Time-Difference-Of-Arrival (TDOA) algorithm.
The positioning methods are further described in UTRAN Stage 2, TS 25.305 [203] and GERAN Stage 2, TS 43.059 [204].
target UE: UE being positioned
user: an entity, not part of the 3GPP System, that uses network resources by means of a subscription. The user may or may not be identical to the subscriber holding that subscription.
User Equipment (UE): a device allowing a user access to network services. For the purpose of 3GPP specifications the interface between the UE and the network is the radio interface. A User Equipment can be subdivided into a number of domains, the domains being separated by reference points. Currently defined domains are the USIM and ME Domains. The ME Domain can further be subdivided into several components showing the connectivity between multiple functional groups. These groups can be implemented in one or more hardware devices. An example of such a connectivity is the TE – MT interface. Further, an occurrence of a User Equipment is an MS for GSM as defined in TS 24.002 [205].
3.2 Symbols
For the purposes of the present document, the following symbols apply:
Bl Reference point for the CDR file transfer from the GMLC CGF to the BD,
Lr Interface between Gateway MLCs
3.3 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the abbreviations defined in TR 21.905 [100], TS 23.271 [20] and TS 32.240 [1], and the following apply:
3G 3rd Generation
3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project
AVP Attribute Value Pair
BD Billing Domain
CCA Credit-Control-Answer
CCR Credit-Control-Request
CDF Charging Data Function
CDR Charging Data Records
CGF Charging Gateway Function
CS Circuit-Switched
CTF Charging Trigger Function
DCCA Diameter Credit-Control Application
ECUR Event Charging with Unit Reservation
FTAM File Transfer, Access and Management
GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network
GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node
GMLC Gateway MLC
GPRS General Packet Radio Service
GSM Global System for Mobile communication
gsmSCF GSM Service Control Function
H-GMLC Home GMLC
HLR Home Location Register
HPLMN Home PLMN
HSS Home Subscriber Server
IE Information Element
IEC Immediate Event Charging
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force
IMS IP Multimedia Subsystem
IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity
IP Internet Protocol
ITU-T International Telecommunication Union – Telecommunications standardization sector
LCS LoCation Service
MAP Mobile Application Part
ME Mobile Equipment
MO Mobile Originated
MO-LR Mobile Originated Location Request
MS Mobile Station
MSISDN Mobile Station Integrated Services Data Network
MT Mobile Terminated
MT-LR Mobile Terminated Location Request
NI-LR Network Induced Location Request
OCS Online Charging System
PLMN Public Land Mobile Network
PMD Pseudonym Mediation Device functionality
PPR Privacy Profile Register
PS Packet Switched
RAN Radio Access Network
R-GMLC Requesting GMLC
RPC Reduced Partial CDR
SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node
TR Technical Report
TS Technical Specification
UE User Equipment
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
USIM User Service Identity Module
UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network
V-GMLC Visited GMLC
VPLMN Visited PLMN