Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); LTE; Telecommunication management; Charging management; Announcement service (V13.0.0; 3GPP TS 32.281 version 13.0.0 Release 13)
During any phase of a voice or video call@ the Online Charging System (OCS) may need to deliver billing/charging insession notifications to the end user via announcements as part of the rating@ balance management and billing process. For example@ the OCS may need to inform the user about usage states@ threshold crossings@ offer statuses@ reason for call rejection@ alerts about low balances@ etc. In Circuit Switched (CS) domain@ online charging of a voice session is performed using Customised Applications for Mobile network Enhanced Logic (CAMEL) mechanisms. In order to deliver in-session notifications or to interact with the end user@ OCS can use CAMEL messages such as: Play Announcement@ Prompt and Collect@ Connect to Resource@ Establish Temporary Connection. Such notifications can be delivered pre-@ mid- or post-call. However@ in IMS and MMTel charging defined in TS 32.260 [20] and TS 32.275 [35] as well as in Diameter Credit-Control Application (DCCA) defined in RFC 4006 [402]@ announcement capabilities@ available at the OCS level@ are limited to redirection of a session to a given SIP URI at completion of the session. When redirected the session may be connected to a resource that delivers an announcement. The Announcement service in this specification provides announcement capabilities for use in a Diameter based online charging session. The OCS is able to specify that a given announcement be played to a call party in order to deliver charging/billing related notifications.