Open APIs

Hi Anton
I'm not aware of an API that handles the revenue sharing. I'm not an expert in this area, but I have the feeling that typically this type of activity is done by batch, rather than online APIs. However perhaps the trends are changing and there are needs for synchronous behaviors. In that case, bear in mind that the TM Forum is a member-driven organization, and you might want to consider contributing such an API.

------------------------------
Jonathan Goldberg
Amdocs Management Limited
Any opinions and statements made by me on this forum are purely personal, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the TM Forum or my employer.
------------------------------

Jonathan,

I very much agree with your reasoning. A batch file is suited better in this situation.

 I got just a bit confused, because in my opinion the usage use-case could also very much be a batch kind of interface rather than API -  but still, it has an API definition in TMF.

Why would I consider usage also to be suited for batch; here is an example:

If a company A leases fibers in 5000 different cable segments (of different length) from another company B, 5000 usage data points (for fiber usage) are generated per month. (One cable segment can have up to 288 fibers in it). So in some cable segments in one particular month they might use only 10 fibers, in others 50, depending on the number of internet products they sell to the end-consumers.
If company A has to pay for the usage of fibers in all those 5000 cable segments on yearly basis. That would be 12 x 5.000 = 60.000 usage data points that need to be collected/transferred once in a year in one go. In that case a batch would be more advantageous, wouldn't it be?
So am I correct to assume that the TMF635-Usage Management should be used in cases with low volume data points then?

Best Regards
Anton

------------------------------
Anton Tsapko
conology
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: May 23, 2023 15:22
From: Jonathan Goldberg
Subject: API around Revenue Sharing Data

Hi Anton
I'm not aware of an API that handles the revenue sharing. I'm not an expert in this area, but I have the feeling that typically this type of activity is done by batch, rather than online APIs. However perhaps the trends are changing and there are needs for synchronous behaviors. In that case, bear in mind that the TM Forum is a member-driven organization, and you might want to consider contributing such an API.

------------------------------
Jonathan Goldberg
Amdocs Management Limited
Any opinions and statements made by me on this forum are purely personal, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the TM Forum or my employer.

Definitely, Anton - TMF635 is for manipulation of discrete usage records, not for bulk.

Jonathan,

I very much agree with your reasoning. A batch file is suited better in this situation.

 I got just a bit confused, because in my opinion the usage use-case could also very much be a batch kind of interface rather than API -  but still, it has an API definition in TMF.

Why would I consider usage also to be suited for batch; here is an example:

If a company A leases fibers in 5000 different cable segments (of different length) from another company B, 5000 usage data points (for fiber usage) are generated per month. (One cable segment can have up to 288 fibers in it). So in some cable segments in one particular month they might use only 10 fibers, in others 50, depending on the number of internet products they sell to the end-consumers.
If company A has to pay for the usage of fibers in all those 5000 cable segments on yearly basis. That would be 12 x 5.000 = 60.000 usage data points that need to be collected/transferred once in a year in one go. In that case a batch would be more advantageous, wouldn't it be?
So am I correct to assume that the TMF635-Usage Management should be used in cases with low volume data points then?

Best Regards
Anton

------------------------------
Anton Tsapko
conology


Original Message:
Sent: May 23, 2023 15:22
From: Jonathan Goldberg
Subject: API around Revenue Sharing Data

Hi Anton
I'm not aware of an API that handles the revenue sharing. I'm not an expert in this area, but I have the feeling that typically this type of activity is done by batch, rather than online APIs. However perhaps the trends are changing and there are needs for synchronous behaviors. In that case, bear in mind that the TM Forum is a member-driven organization, and you might want to consider contributing such an API.

------------------------------
Jonathan Goldberg
Amdocs Management Limited
Any opinions and statements made by me on this forum are purely personal, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the TM Forum or my employer.

Hi,

I don't have any additional further answer to the original question but I wanted to share that I see a similar issue when I consider Product Rating.

Usage events are well covered but other types of events such as lifecycle events are not. TMF635 is very explicitly tied to usage. Another similarity is that Product Rating is also a scenario where volume could bring into question whether an API should be the only ingress mechanism.

It would be good if the specification for the proposed Product Rating component covered these points.

Thanks,
Phil

Definitely, Anton - TMF635 is for manipulation of discrete usage records, not for bulk.

Jonathan,

I very much agree with your reasoning. A batch file is suited better in this situation.

 I got just a bit confused, because in my opinion the usage use-case could also very much be a batch kind of interface rather than API -  but still, it has an API definition in TMF.

Why would I consider usage also to be suited for batch; here is an example:

If a company A leases fibers in 5000 different cable segments (of different length) from another company B, 5000 usage data points (for fiber usage) are generated per month. (One cable segment can have up to 288 fibers in it). So in some cable segments in one particular month they might use only 10 fibers, in others 50, depending on the number of internet products they sell to the end-consumers.
If company A has to pay for the usage of fibers in all those 5000 cable segments on yearly basis. That would be 12 x 5.000 = 60.000 usage data points that need to be collected/transferred once in a year in one go. In that case a batch would be more advantageous, wouldn't it be?
So am I correct to assume that the TMF635-Usage Management should be used in cases with low volume data points then?

Best Regards
Anton

------------------------------
Anton Tsapko
conology


Original Message:
Sent: May 23, 2023 15:22
From: Jonathan Goldberg
Subject: API around Revenue Sharing Data

Hi Anton
I'm not aware of an API that handles the revenue sharing. I'm not an expert in this area, but I have the feeling that typically this type of activity is done by batch, rather than online APIs. However perhaps the trends are changing and there are needs for synchronous behaviors. In that case, bear in mind that the TM Forum is a member-driven organization, and you might want to consider contributing such an API.

------------------------------
Jonathan Goldberg
Amdocs Management Limited
Any opinions and statements made by me on this forum are purely personal, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the TM Forum or my employer.

@Anton Tsapko before using the TMF 635 for managing the collection of usages, did you create the related UsageSpecification, defining the characteristics of the partner service (usage definition: numbers, start and stop date-and-time) to communicate to the charging system the description of the usage (comprised of characteristics, which define all attributes known for a particular type of usage.)?

Hi,

I don't have any additional further answer to the original question but I wanted to share that I see a similar issue when I consider Product Rating.

Usage events are well covered but other types of events such as lifecycle events are not. TMF635 is very explicitly tied to usage. Another similarity is that Product Rating is also a scenario where volume could bring into question whether an API should be the only ingress mechanism.

It would be good if the specification for the proposed Product Rating component covered these points.

Thanks,
Phil

Definitely, Anton - TMF635 is for manipulation of discrete usage records, not for bulk.

Jonathan,

I very much agree with your reasoning. A batch file is suited better in this situation.

 I got just a bit confused, because in my opinion the usage use-case could also very much be a batch kind of interface rather than API -  but still, it has an API definition in TMF.

Why would I consider usage also to be suited for batch; here is an example:

If a company A leases fibers in 5000 different cable segments (of different length) from another company B, 5000 usage data points (for fiber usage) are generated per month. (One cable segment can have up to 288 fibers in it). So in some cable segments in one particular month they might use only 10 fibers, in others 50, depending on the number of internet products they sell to the end-consumers.
If company A has to pay for the usage of fibers in all those 5000 cable segments on yearly basis. That would be 12 x 5.000 = 60.000 usage data points that need to be collected/transferred once in a year in one go. In that case a batch would be more advantageous, wouldn't it be?
So am I correct to assume that the TMF635-Usage Management should be used in cases with low volume data points then?

Best Regards
Anton

------------------------------
Anton Tsapko
conology


Original Message:
Sent: May 23, 2023 15:22
From: Jonathan Goldberg
Subject: API around Revenue Sharing Data

Hi Anton
I'm not aware of an API that handles the revenue sharing. I'm not an expert in this area, but I have the feeling that typically this type of activity is done by batch, rather than online APIs. However perhaps the trends are changing and there are needs for synchronous behaviors. In that case, bear in mind that the TM Forum is a member-driven organization, and you might want to consider contributing such an API.

------------------------------
Jonathan Goldberg
Amdocs Management Limited
Any opinions and statements made by me on this forum are purely personal, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the TM Forum or my employer.

Hi,

I don't have any additional further answer to the original question but I wanted to share that I see a similar issue when I consider Product Rating.

Usage events are well covered but other types of events such as lifecycle events are not. TMF635 is very explicitly tied to usage. Another similarity is that Product Rating is also a scenario where volume could bring into question whether an API should be the only ingress mechanism.

It would be good if the specification for the proposed Product Rating component covered these points.

Thanks,
Phil

Definitely, Anton - TMF635 is for manipulation of discrete usage records, not for bulk.

Jonathan,

I very much agree with your reasoning. A batch file is suited better in this situation.

 I got just a bit confused, because in my opinion the usage use-case could also very much be a batch kind of interface rather than API -  but still, it has an API definition in TMF.

Why would I consider usage also to be suited for batch; here is an example:

If a company A leases fibers in 5000 different cable segments (of different length) from another company B, 5000 usage data points (for fiber usage) are generated per month. (One cable segment can have up to 288 fibers in it). So in some cable segments in one particular month they might use only 10 fibers, in others 50, depending on the number of internet products they sell to the end-consumers.
If company A has to pay for the usage of fibers in all those 5000 cable segments on yearly basis. That would be 12 x 5.000 = 60.000 usage data points that need to be collected/transferred once in a year in one go. In that case a batch would be more advantageous, wouldn't it be?
So am I correct to assume that the TMF635-Usage Management should be used in cases with low volume data points then?

Best Regards
Anton

------------------------------
Anton Tsapko
conology


Original Message:
Sent: May 23, 2023 15:22
From: Jonathan Goldberg
Subject: API around Revenue Sharing Data

Hi Anton
I'm not aware of an API that handles the revenue sharing. I'm not an expert in this area, but I have the feeling that typically this type of activity is done by batch, rather than online APIs. However perhaps the trends are changing and there are needs for synchronous behaviors. In that case, bear in mind that the TM Forum is a member-driven organization, and you might want to consider contributing such an API.

------------------------------
Jonathan Goldberg
Amdocs Management Limited
Any opinions and statements made by me on this forum are purely personal, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the TM Forum or my employer.