For those experienced on mobile networks: how to handle an IMSI / MSISDN change?

[Gre]

Hello,

I bring you some challenges to solve regarding a potential implementation of CGRateS on a mobile core network:

• So I have seen over here some implementations with the account ID mirroring (what totally looks like) the IMSI of the user. But what happens if the SIM card of the user is changed? As far as I know, there is no way to update the account ID on CGRateS.
  
• Someone suggested me during a private discussion to use the MSISDN instead, but what if, still we want to allow users to change their MSISDN? Same challengue applies.

I have came up with some solutions:

• Either look for the way to implement account ID change on CGRateS to solve the challenges or,
• Keep the account ID unique, static and never change it. Use the Diameter Routing Agent to automatically replace the current IMSI or MSISDN of the subscriber on any request towards and from CGRateS.

Any ideas?

[DanB]

Hi Gre,

What you can do is to start with the real IMSI/MSISDN and for the users
needing changing later, use AttributeS to point the new one to old when
processing with SessionS. More or less the same way number portability
works.

DanB

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[Keith Milner]

The ideal would be to have a separate, unique and immutable customer ID that you associate the MSISDN or IMSI to as this supports not only changing numbers, but also allows you to have multiple phone accounts against a single customer account as well as the ability to charge other services against that account.

I'm not sure how this could work with Diameter and CGRateS though. I wonder if it's possible to use the billing ID (MSISDN, for instance) to reference the balance pool in the account without referencing the account itself directly in the Diameter message. In that way you could move the billing ID in/out of the account, or to a different account entirely without jumping through hoops. And you would then also have a separate balance pool for each phone under that account.

Cheers,

Keith

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Keith A. Milner
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[DanB]

Keith,

That is again doable via the AttributeS. We have used a similar
approach in networks with fix2mobile integration where people were
handling different account ids in fixed telephony vs mobile one. They
were both translating to common accounts within CGRateS.
If you are looking for balance pools, you can again create separate
virtual accounts and reference them via AttributeS or use SharedBalance
for that.

DanB