Receiving AOC data

This topic describes:

• Advice of Charge - start of call (AOC-S)

• Advice of Charge - during call (AOC-D)

• Advice of Charge - end of call (AOC-E)

• AOC and Explicit Call Transfer (ECT) services

• AOC and call deflection services

When Advice of Charge data is available, the application receives an ACU indication or confirmation message, containing an acu_ss_aoc_inform_invoke extended data structure with:

• Operation ID ACU_OP_ID_AOC_INFORM

• OpType ACU_OP_TYPE_INVOKE

The following listing shows the acu_ss_aoc_inform_invoke extended data structure:

struct acu_ss_aoc_inform_invoke
{
  struct acu_ext_hdr ext_hdr; /* Extension header                  */
  struct acu_ss_hdr  ss_hdr;  /* Supp. services header             */
  uchar  aoc_type;            /* From ACU_SS_AOC_TYPE... constants */
  pad7
  union
  {
    tAcuSSAocSInform aoc_s;   /* aoc_type==AOC_SS_TYPE_AOC_S_INFORM*/
    tAcuSSAocDInform aoc_d;   /* aoc_type==AOC_SS_TYPE_AOC_D_INFORM*/
    tAcuSSAocEInform aoc_e;   /* aoc_type==AOC_SS_TYPE_AOC_E_INFORM*/
  } aoc_data;
};

The following table lists the fields in this structure (other than the header fields), and when they are used:

Charging information is delivered to the application using the extended service data area of an ACU primitive during the active part of the call.

Advice of charge - start of call (AOC-S)

If AOC-S is active, the aoc_type field in acu_ss_aoc_inform_invoke is set to ACU_SS_AOC_TYPE_AOC_S_INFORM. The tAcuSSAocSInform data structure and substructures are used to carry Advice of Charge data.

The following listing shows the tAcuSSAocSInform structure.

typedef struct tAcuSSAocSInform
{
  uchar type_of_info;           /* From ACU_SS_AOC_TYPE_OF_INFO_ constants*/
  uchar charged_item;           /* Bitmap of charged item constants       */
  uchar charging_rate;          /* One of charging rate constants         */
  pad5
  union 
  {
    tAcuSSAocDuration duration; /* charging_rate=CHARGING_RATE_DURATION   */
    tAcuSSAocSpecific specific; /* charging_rate=CHARGING_RATE_SPECIFIC   */
    tAcuSSAocVolume   volume;   /* charging_rate=CHARGING_RATE_VOLUME     */
  }rate;
};

The following table lists the fields in this structure (other than the header fields):

If there is charging rate information returned, the type_of_info field in the tAcuSSAocSInform structure contains CHARGE_RATE. Otherwise, the field contains NOT_AVAILABLE.

If type_of_info in tAcuSSAocSInform contains CHARGE_RATE, the charged_item field in the structure contains the charged item. The following are valid values for this field:

Note: Network providers will only use those charged items that are appropriate to the service provider's charging mechanism. Therefore, in some networks, users may or may not receive some of these items or combinations of items. Different networks may give information about the same call in different ways.

Different charging rates are associated with each of the charged item types. If a charged item is not included, the default value is interpreted as free of charge.

The charging rate is specified in the charging_rate field in the tAcuSSAocSInform structure. Depending upon its setting, one of the following data structures contains additional data:

• tAcuSSAocDuration: provides the currency value for a particular time unit, and the length of the time unit.

• tAcuSSAocVolume: provides the currency value for a particular volume unit, and the length of the volume unit.

• tAcuSSAocSpecific: provides a specific currency value.

The following table lists the charging_rate field setting and associated data structure for each charging rate type:

tAcuSSAocDuration structure

The following listing shows the tAcuSSAocDuration structure:

typedef struct tAcuSSAocDuration
{
  struct op_byte_field multiplier;        /* Applies to currency amount   */
  struct op_long_field currency_amount;   /* No. of currency units charged*/
  struct op_long_field time;              /* Number of time units charged */
  struct op_long_field granularity;       /* Integer or not included      */
  struct op_byte_field time_scale;        /* Applies to time              */
  struct op_byte_field granularity_scale; /* Applies to granularity       */
  struct op_byte_field currency_id_size;  /* 0 if currency ID not included*/
  uchar  currency_id[MAX_CURRENCY_SIZE];  /* Currency ID                  */
  uchar  type_of_charging;                /* From SS_AOC_S_TYPE_OF_CHARGE */
  pad3                                    /* constants                    */
};

The following table lists the fields in the tAcuSSAocDuration structure:

tAcuSSAocSpecific structure

The following listing shows the tAcuSSAocSpecific structure:

typedef struct tAcuSSAocSpecific
{
  struct op_byte_field multiplier;       /* From ACU_SS_AOC_MULTIPLIER_  */
                                         /* constants                    */
  struct op_long_field currency_amount;  /* No. of currency units charged*/
  struct op_byte_field charge_code;      /* 10                           */
  struct op_byte_field currency_id_size; /* No. of bytes from currency_id*/
  uchar  currency_id[MAX_CURRENCY_SIZE]; /* Currency ID string           */
  uchar  rate_type;                      /* From ACU_SS_AOC_RATE_TYPE_   */
  pad3                                   /* constants                    */
};

The following table lists the fields in the tAcuSSAocSpecific structure:

tAcuSSAocVolume structure

The following listing shows the tAcuSSAocVolume structure:

typedef struct tAcuSSAocVolume
{
  struct op_long_field currency_amount;    /* No of currency units charged*/
  struct op_byte_field currency_id_size;   /* No of bytes from currency_id*/
  struct op_byte_field multiplier;         /* From ACU_SS_AOC_MULTIPLIER_ */
                                           /* constants*                   /
  uchar    currency_id[MAX_CURRENCY_SIZE]; /* Currency ID string          */
  uchar    volume_type;                    /* From ACU_SS_AOC_VOLUME_TYPE_*/
  pad3                                     /* constants                   */
};

The following table lists the fields in the tAcuSSAocVolume structure:

Advice of charge - during call (AOC-D)

If AOC-D is active, the aoc_type field in the acu_ss_aoc_inform_invoke structure is set to ACU_SS_AOC_TYPE_AOC_D_INFORM. The tAcuSSAocDInform data structure and substructures are used to carry Advice of Charge data.

The following listing shows of the tAcuSSAocDInform structure:

typedef struct tAcuSSAocDInform
{
  struct op_byte_field currency_id_size; /* Used only if type_of_charging*/
                                         /* is CURRENCY_UNITS            */
  struct op_long_field currency_amount;  /* Used only if type_of_charging*/
                                         /* is CURRENCY_UNITS            */
  struct op_byte_field multiplier;       /* Used only if type_of_charging*/
                                         /* is CURRENCY_UNITS            */
  struct op_byte_field billing_id;       /* From ACU_SS_AOC_BILLING_ID   */
                                         /* constants                    */
  struct acu_ss_association charge_association; /* Returns ID of charge  */
                                         /* for AOC-E after call clearing*/
  tRecordedUnits       recorded_units;   /* Used only if type_of_charging*/
                                         /* is CHARGING_UNITS            */
  uchar currency_id[MAX_CURRENCY_SIZE];  /* Used only if type_of_charging*/
                                         /* is CURRENCY_UNITS            */
  uchar type_of_charging;                /* From SS_AOC_TYPE_OF_CHARGE...*/
                                         /* constants                    */
  uchar recorded_charges;                /* From SS_AOC_RECORDED_CHARGES */
                                         /* constants                    */
  uchar completed;                       /* Set to OFF if additional     */
                                         /* recorded units are queued    */
  pad1                                   /* in a subsequent message      */
};

The following table lists the fields in the tAcuSSAocDInform structure (other than the header fields):

Advice of charge - end of call (AOC-E)

If AOC-E is active, the aoc_type field in the acu_ss_aoc_inform_invoke structure is set to ACU_SS_AOC_TYPE_AOC_E_INFORM. The tAcuSSAocEInform data structure and substructures are used to carry Advice of Charge data.

The following listing shows the tAcuSSAocEInform structure:

typedef struct tAcuSSAocEInform
{
  struct op_byte_field currency_id_size;/* Used only if type_of_charging*/
                                        /* is CURRENCY_UNITS            */
  struct op_long_field currency_amount; /* Used only if type_of_charging*/
                                        /* is CURRENCY_UNITS            */
  struct op_byte_field multiplier;      /* Used only if type_of_charging*/
                                        /* is CURRENCY_UNITS            */
  struct op_byte_field billing_id;      /* From ACU_SS_AOC_BILLING_ID   */
                                        /* constants                    */
  struct acu_ss_association charge_association; /* Returns ID of charge */
                                        /* for AOC-E after call clearing*/
  tRecordedUnits       recorded_units;  /* Used only if type_of_charging*/
                                        /* is CHARGING_UNITS            */
  uchar currency_id[MAX_CURRENCY_SIZE]; /* Used only if type_of_charging*/
                                        /* is CURRENCY_UNITS            */
  uchar type_of_charging;               /* From SS_AOC_TYPE_OF_CHARGE...*/
                                        /* constants                    */
  uchar recorded_charges;               /* From SS_AOC_RECORDED_CHARGES */
                                        /* constants                    */
  uchar completed;                      /* Set to OFF if additional     */
                                        /* recorded units are queued    */
  pad1                                  /* in a subsequent message      */
};

The following table lists the fields in the tAcuSSAocEInform structure (other than the header fields):

Transfer of charging information during the active state of a call

Transfer of charging information during the call clearing phase, clearing initiated by the calling user

Transfer of charging information during the call clearing phase, clearing initiated by the called user

AOC and Explicit Call Transfer (ECT) services

The Advice of Charge service interacts with the Explicit Call Transfer service. This section describes how the services interact.

AOC-S and ECT

If AOC-S is active at the time the served user invokes the Explicit Call Transfer service, then AOC-S is stopped, and the application may get advice of charge prior to the clearing of the call.

AOC-D and ECT

If AOC-D is active at the time the served user invokes the Explicit Call Transfer service, then the application receives advice of charge information prior to the clearing of the call, and the service is stopped.

AOC-E and ECT

If the served user continues to be charged for a call after the call is transferred elsewhere, the served user can associate an identifier with the call, so AOC-E information for the call can be returned to the served user even though the served user is no longer involved in the call.

The identifier is specified in the charge_association field in the Explicit Call Transfer or data structure. When AOC-E information is returned at the end of the call, the information is presented to the application using the management SAPI (ACU_MGMT_SAPI) in the AOC_INFORM structure, using a dummy connection ID. The charge_association field in the AcuSSAocEInform data structure is filled in, enabling the application to associate the charging information to the specific invocation of the service.

If an identifier is not specified with the call, no AOC information is returned.

If AOC-E is activated for a call, and the Explicit Call Transfer service is called without a charge identifier included, then the AOC-E service is stopped, and the application receives AOC-E information for the portion of the call prior to the transfer.

AOC and call transfer

AOC and call deflection services

The Advice of Charge service interacts with the Call Deflection service. This section describes how the services interact.

AOC-S, AOC-D, and call deflection

AOC-S and AOC-D services are not applicable to the user performing the deflection.

AOC-E and call deflection

If the served user continues to be charged for a call after the call is deflected elsewhere, the served user can associate an identifier with the call, so AOC-E information for the call can be returned to the served user even though the served user is no longer involved in the call.

The identifier is specified in the charge_association field in the Call Deflection data structure. When AOC-E information is returned at the end of the call, the information is presented to the application using the management SAPI (ACU_MGMT_SAPI) in the AOC_INFORM structure, using a dummy connection ID. The charge_association field in the AcuSSAocEInform data structure is filled in, enabling the application to associate the charging information to the specific invocation of the service.

If AOC-E is activated for a call, and the Call Deflection service is called without a charge identifier included, then the AOC-E service is stopped, and the application receives AOC-E information for the portion of the call prior to the deflection.