Comparison of charging methods in 3G mobile networks (consumer behaviour versus tariff models)

The paper describes an approach to analyse various charging mechanisms according to consumer behaviour, service types and tariff models in third generation (3G) mobile networks. In the area of charging for mobile networks, much work has been done to create proprietary billing solutions to address the problems of optimal allocation of network resources and bandwidth control. However, the sophisticated new services and applications offered by 3G networks demand more flexible charging models with a requirement to meter true resource usage. The authors analyse various service scenarios according to customer types and service mix. These scenarios are then compared according to the number of charging data records (CDRs) generated for individual customer type and for the customer scenario mix. It is shown that a trade-off exists between the need to reduce the volume of CDRs generated and the requirement to maximize operator revenue. The timing for the generation of CDRs and rate of CDR generation are the two main parameters that need to be set optimally according to the expected network data volume and service mix.