New OBF Committee to Focus on IP Billing, Settlements

The ATIS Ordering and Billing Forum (OBF) has created a new committee to address IP network-to- network interfaces (NNIs), to help carriers with the conversion from PSTN to IP-based networks. The newly created Internet Protocol Network-to-Network Interface (IP-NNI) Committee is chaired by BellSouth and Verizon.

The committee will evaluate how VoIP uses SIP for signaling and how interconnection arrangements might change as voice rides over IP. Any change in signaling will impact interconnection, which ultimately will affect service establishment (ordering) and billing.

Subject matter experts will look at the IP-NNI in various scenarios and in conjunction with other OBF committees. For example, the Packet Technology and Systems Committee (PTSC), which looks at signaling architecture, will evaluate the exchange of traffic, which currently is not regulated. Even though bill-and-keep has become the prevalent intercarrier compensation method, it would be better if carriers could identify IP points of interface in IP environments or hand-offs from or to PSTNs from IP. Ultimately there may be changes to current access service request (ASR) processes, which currently do not support direct IP interconnection.

The IP-NNI Committee is analyzing interconnection topologies to drive new ASR requirements.

While the geographic location of VoIP users may become available once VoIP E911 is implemented, there is doubt about how available such information will be for billing purposes. The new committee will look at those issues, as well as how LNP will be impacted when IP- NNIs are involved, or how QoS measures will be implemented among partners.

Other work for the group will go according to findings in the “VoIP Ordering and Billing Issues and Concerns” document the OBF released in December. The compilation of industry comments and concerns around accounting and service establishment (http://www.atis.org/doccenter.shtml) brought to light the need for industry-wide standards for call flows across IP systems and interaction among wireless and wireline networks. The call flows were broken into categories from an ordering and billing perspective, including IP-NNI in IP environments and TDM NNI where calls come off PSTN networks.

The paper reflected a lack of consensus on rules governing jurisdiction and taxation for intercarrier compensation for VoIP; as well as a dearth of data to support business processes that apply to IP-NNIs. Additionally, rules related to VoIP can change at any time, invalidating current negotiated arrangements. As a result, the committee aims to develop standards that can be easily modified and expanded within PSTN or IP-based systems to accommodate regulatory rulings.

The hope is that easily modified standards will create “fluidity” of rules for VoIP and other packet technologies, according to the OBF Director John Pautlitz. “While VoIP is the impetus, IP-NNI will look at the entire IP realm, including IMS, Wi-Fi roaming and IPTV,” says Pautlitz, noting that the IP-NNI is charged with identifying and analyzing issues relating to accounting and settlements among suppliers and partners.

The IP-NNI group will be tied to other ATIS committees, such as the PTSC (Packet Technology and Systems Committee), which is looking in detail at call flows in IP to see from what protocol layer the signaling information can be pulled. “You have trunks and calls directed to trunks, so we have to identify that, which gets difficult in IP, as the packets get scattered as they travel back and forth,” says Pautlitz. “Pulling it together in a cohesive centralized manner so it can be used for billing is what they’ll be working on.”

The TMOC (Telemanagement and Operations Committee) will be looking at operational aspects of the network to see how intra-company billing issues will unfold. “While the OBF deals with inter-company issues in settlement, the TMOC will make documents for intra-company VoIP billing aspects,” says Pautlitz.

The IPDR will be active in helping the OBF take billing information from AMA records and establish a protocol that can be universally accepted. “We are working with the IPDR.org, which we believe possesses the proper record to do this,” he says. “The OBF will piggyback on top of that for the settlement aspects.” The document reflecting that is in the process of being implemented with the ITU.

The ITU will play a key role, as the IP-NNI Committee is seeking an international approach. As a means to that end, a “harmonizing” meeting was conducted with the ITU, 3GPP and IPDR organizations to reflect an international attempt to address concerns. The international approach is reflected even in its semantics, as the OBF now refers to billing and order management as “accounting and service establishment,” more consistent with the international vernacular.