The billing strategy is the most divisive part of a network-based system. Operators want to take more, users want less, and both look at the table. In the system, the billing strategy is not so simple as to set prices but rather combine time, flow, holster, user identification dimensions, and consider exceptions such as preferences, superimposed, and fee waivers.
NatShell V7 Authentication & Billing, which covers several models common to operations. The time dimensions are packaged in years, months, days, sometimes long and flow billings by usage dimensions, and there are also prepaid fees, after-payment and fee-free strategies. These categories are not mutually exclusive and can be used by operators according to the user group.
Applicable boundary between long-time and traffic-based charges
The time-to-time charge is a user’s fee over the life cycle, which is appropriate for the user’s time-to-use pattern and for locations where bandwidth costs are not sensitive, such as campus accommodation or apartment rental. The flow-to-flow rate is based on the traffic that users consume, and is suitable for scenarios with high bandwidth costs and precise control of consumption.
V7 supports precision flow billing in traffic billing: it is done through a flow quota, which matches the NAC equipment. Users receive flow value parameters under the crediting fee after certification and the system is charged to actual consumption. This pattern is almost immediate in the satellite setting, because bandwidth costs are dozens of times fibre optics and must be accurate to bytes to avoid waste.
The package system and the preferential combination
V7 supports custom product packages, which can be set as complex costing strategies such as year, month, day, hour and flow, and also supports preferential and superpacking packages. For different user groups, different product packages may be set without interference between projects.
Volume modifications are a practical capability in operation: just changing products, and the user rules for all matching accounts will be modified accordingly. For example, the student package prices will be adjusted uniformly during the start-up season, managers will change the product definition and the entire school associate users will be synchronized without changing them by account number.
Operating differences between prepaid and post-payment
Prepaid fees are paid by users after they start operating, and the system closes daily; then the payment is made after use, which is suitable for better-credited fixed users. The two models require a different flow of cash from operators, risk of arrears, and a more catalytic process, with their creditworthiness and collection capacity taken into account when choosing to do so. For campuses, apartments, such as those that are open to individual users, advance payments are mainstream and avoid significant recovery problems.
Use of fee-free strategies
The fee-free strategy is used for special users or special settings."No charge."Instead, the rules should be clearly defined in the system to avoid a mix of free and fee-based users that could lead to a breakdown in the reconciliation.
The location of the billing strategy also depends on user group systems. V7 supports the division of multiple user groups, sub-user groups and no limit levels. Different user groups can link different packages to different sets of menus, or they can assign different NAS products to different user groups, generating different downfall rules such as speed limits, shutdowns, etc."Different people have different food packages, different rules of the network."。
Common error in policy design
The first error is to equate the billing strategy with..."Make a few prices."The second misperception is that the more strategies are pursued, the better the user cannot understand and the customer’s service is not explained. The third is to ignore the flow and long-term boundary conditions, such as whether the remaining traffic is zero or no, the flow is out of order or used at a lower speed, often in hard-to-use bid documents, which must be clearly designed.
The accompanying functionality determines whether the strategy really runs. V7 supports user first-time start billing, bulk opening, bulk changing products, support user suspensions, shutdowns, suspensions, automatic shutdowns when users are due or have insufficient balances. These rules and billing strategies are tied together, and they are set to be beautiful, without which the enforcement mechanisms are empty.
The choice of the billing method is also matched by access. V7 supports various authentication access methods such as WebPortal, PPPoE, 802.1X, IPoE, IPv4/IPV6 single-stores, double-tocks and WEB Portal and PPPOE, L2TP, and 802.1X mixed-group networks. The costing strategy and access approach should be right: PPPoE dialling users are fit for account time, Portal users for package months, and IPv6 dual-trip users consider how to count traffic time-timed double-trench traffic."Time flow segment billing"The essence of the requirement is to allow operators to combine multiple numeric dimensions in a product, rather than replace one system with another.
The implementation of the billing strategy ultimately falls on Authentication & Billing. V7 supports the use of traffic quotas, time limits and speed controls under a strategy to support COA online control, without requiring recertification when user strategies change. For multiple operators, multi-AC networks, different user groups can assign NAS products from different manufacturers and generate different downfall rules such as speed restrictions, stoppages, etc.; users swim to different ACs and follow their accounts instead of following equipment. These details of implementation are those details that allow the costing strategy to move from one facility to another."Paper Design"Changed"Actual fees"Keys.
The ultimate goal of the costing strategy is to make operations predictable and understandable to users. Clear policies lead to clear accounts; clear accounts allow sustainability.