engineering

Telecommunication transaction processing systems

Telecommunication transaction processing systems is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Telecommunication transaction processing systems rather than just read about it. In short: Telecommunication networks can generate a vast amount of transactions where each transaction contains information about a particular subscriber's activity. Telecommunication network consist of various interacting devices and platforms.

Key takeaways

Telecommunication transaction processing systems belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Telecommunication transaction processing systems to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Telecommunication transaction processing systems from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Telecommunication networks can generate a vast amount of transactions where each transaction contains information about a particular subscriber's activity. Telecommunication network consist of various interacting devices and platforms. Any transaction carried out by a subscriber is often recorded in multiple devices as it passes through the network. Telecommunication organizations generally need to be able to extract transaction information from these various network elements in order to correctly bill subscribers for the usage on the network. Transaction processing system is a subset of information systems, and in the telecommunications industry, forms an integral part of the management information system. TPS can be regarded as the link between the various network elements and platforms and the information management uses to drive the business.

Call Data Records Each activity occurring on a specific network element within the telecommunication network, is recorded by the particular platform. All available information about the particular transaction is recorded and encoded into different formats. The recorded transactions, is called Call Data Records (CDR). Various formats and protocols are used to encode these CDRs, some example encoding protocols used includes ASN.1, XML and CSV. Some platform vendors develop their own encoding protocols for security reasons. Encoded CDRs are grouped into batches and periodically moved to locations from where the TPS can collect the CDR batches in order to process it.

Gathering of CDR files The TPS is configured to periodically check each platform for any new CDR batches becoming available. The TPS uses standard network protocols, including FTP, SFTP and FTPS to transfer the CDR batch file to the TPS. Some platform vendors have developed their own file transfer protocols, in which case, the TPS need to be customized in order to retrieve the batch files from these platforms. The TPS is also responsible for ensuring the integrity of each file transferred, ensuring that no IP network errors render the file corrupt. Checking for duplicate files from the particular platform is also a responsibility of the TPS to ensure that no file is processed more than once, resulting in duplication of CDRs. Once batch files are retrieved from a particular network-element, they are backed up to long-term media. Some governments require that a record of each and every transaction needs to be stored infinitely in its raw (encoded) format. The batch sizes and frequency differ for each network-element and is also directly related to the number of active subscribers on a particular telecommunication network.

Decoding / Enrichment and Loading of CDRs Once the TPS has successfully retrieved all the CDR batches, its first task is to decode the CDRs into human readable (ASCII) format. This is probably one of the most important functions of the TPS within the telecommunication industry, as any error in the decoding process will result in inaccurate, unreliable information being passed onto downstream processes and ultimately to the reports viewed by the management. The TPS usually consists of standard functionality to decode all standard CDR encoding protocols like XML, CSV and ASN.1. Should a particular platform vendor encode CDR's in non standard protocols, customization on the TPS is required. Vendors are then required to supply detailed CDR specifications to the suppliers of the TPS in order to enhance the TPS to recognize the CDR formats and also detailed explanations of which information is contained within the CDR about a particular subscriber's activity on the network. Upon successful completion of the decoding, the decoded CDR batches are then checked for duplicate records. Duplicate CDRs are discarded and reported on. The TPS administrators are responsible for verifying the CDRs flagged as duplicates, are in fact true duplicates. Depending on the TPS software used, the processes following the CDR duplicate level checking can differ. Some high-end TPS combines information from various elements to create master CDRs before being loaded into the 'datastore', whilst a lower-end or entry-level TPS directly loads data upon completion of CDR duplicate checking. The 'datastore' used by the TPS consists of a Relational database management system. Some high-end enterprise RDMS includes the likes of ORACLE, Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL. The choice of RDMS to use, is usually driven by company policy, price and recommendations from the TPS supplier. The RDMS should at least be able to support the volumes of CDRs generated by the particular network. Once all intermediate processing on the CDR batches have completed, the TPS can now load the data into the particular 'datastore'. Separate entities within the RDMS is used to store the data from the different network platforms. The architecture and layout of the RDMS is usually dictated by the particular TPS. The different entities within the RDMS now contains detailed records of each transaction which occurred on any particular platform within the network. Advanced application administrators can now query the detailed data by means of SQL. Depending on network size and subscriber base and particular network platform, the different RDMS entities can become extremely large and queries on these entities requires a high-end hardware architecture. In order to speed up recurring queries and reports on the CDR detail within the RDMS entities, the TPS often summarizes the data based on certain dimensions, also known as aggregates.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Telecommunication transaction processing systems

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Telecommunication transaction processing systems claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Telecommunication transaction processing systems before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Telecommunication transaction processing systems ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Telecommunication transaction processing systems

In research: Telecommunication transaction processing systems appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Telecommunication transaction processing systems in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Telecommunication transaction processing systems is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Telecommunications infrastructure, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Telecommunication transaction processing systems outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Telecommunication transaction processing systems in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Telecommunication transaction processing systems means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Telecommunication transaction processing systems out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Telecommunication transaction processing systems in simple terms?

Why does Telecommunication transaction processing systems matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Telecommunication transaction processing systems?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Telecommunication transaction processing systems.