Future-Ready BSS Transformation: Elevating Telecom Infrastructure for 5G and IoT

Business challenge

A leading Eastern European operator (part of a renowned Israeli multinational operating in over 90 countries) embarked on a significant journey to modernize their infrastructure. This transformation aimed to replace a legacy billing system with a state-of-the-art business support system (BSS), ensuring uninterrupted service delivery during the transition and laying a robust foundation for future technological advancements.

Faced with the need to modernize their billing systems, our client embarked on an upgrade to support both current operational demands and future technological growth. The transition involved shifting from an outdated legacy system to an advanced business support system (BSS). This upgrade was critical to ensure service continuity while preparing for new technologies like 5G and IoT. Additionally, the BSS solution was designed to consolidate wireline services by integrating a newly acquired fixed-line business, ensuring consistent business processes across the B2B, B2C, and wireline sectors.

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Technology solution

The centerpiece of our solution is a BSS platform designed to handle real-time convergent rating and charging for both mobile and wireline services. This system supports evolving 3GPP interfaces and standards, providing a forward-looking path for integrating new technologies like 5G and IoT. The BSS platform is structured to facilitate not only current telecommunications needs but also future innovations. Key features and enhancements of our BSS solution include:

Real-time convergent rating and charging across services, ensuring rapid and accurate billing processes

• Compatibility with 3GPP standards and futureproofing for 5G and IoT, allowing seamless adoption of upcoming technologies
• Support for both prepaid and postpaid segments, accommodating diverse customer billing preferences
• Dynamic policy management through a policy controller function, enhancing flexibility in service rules and policies
• Seamless integration with external systems and holistic service provisioning, linking over 50 integration points with existing customer systems to ensure a cohesive ecosystem
• Efficient resource lifecycle management for MSISDN, TN, SIM IMSI, and ICCID, optimizing the management of essential telecommunications identifiers
• Template-based orchestration of mass change activities, simplifying complex operations and changes across the network
• A robust real-time messaging framework for communication and event handling, supporting instant and reliable data exchanges
• Comprehensive monitoring for proactive management and operational efficiency, integrated with external monitoring systems for enhanced visibility
• TMForum compliance in APIs and data models, ensuring that the solution adheres to industry standards and best practices
• Facilitating the creation of innovative services through SCE for IN services, enabling the development of new customer-centric solutions
• Establishing a centralized catalog for offers, products, and prices, which provides consistency and ease of management across various service offerings
• Facilitating integration with external monitoring systems for holistic operational visibility, which enhances oversight and management of the entire service delivery framework

Technology stack

Our technological stack includes a convergent online rating/billing system, a product catalog, order management, inventory systems, PCRF, and a REST API layer closely aligned with TMF logic. Additional components enhance the solution’s robustness and efficiency: Kubernetes-based deployment, Hbase/PostgreSQL databases, Kafka for notifications, Diameter protocol support (Gx, Gy, Ro), SS7 (CAP), IVR (SIP), and monitoring tools such as Grafana, Prometheus, Elasticsearch, and Kibana.

Advantages of the BSS deployment:

Deployment of the BSS solution brought numerous advantages, including:

• Enhanced operational efficiency through seamless integration with legacy systems and comprehensive resource management
• Future-proof infrastructure ready for 5G adoption network slicing, and IoT rating
• A unified platform for managing offers, products, and prices, ensuring consistency across the board

Business outcome

Implementation of the BSS solution has profoundly transformed the client’s operational capabilities, seamlessly integrating over 50 connection points with the client’s existing systems through TFM-style APIs. This integration has not only modernized the client’s infrastructure but also enabled the client to manage their services more effectively with a real-time convergent rating and charging system for both mobile and wireline services. The BSS platform is fully compliant with 3GPP and 5G standards, supporting advanced features like network slicing and IoT rating, which enhances their competitive edge in the dynamic telecommunications landscape.

Furthermore, the solution includes robust resource lifecycle management and a centralized administration console that streamlines operations and improves monitoring capabilities. The efficient catalog management system for offers, products, and prices ensures that the client can quickly adapt to market changes and customer needs. By partnering with Intellias, the client has successfully navigated the complexities of digital transformation, laying a strong foundation for future growth with a scalable and innovative BSS platform that keeps them at the forefront of the industry.