Business Control Layer is a software layer in the provider's infrastructure

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...

 residing between the network/OSS and the BSS. It allows providers to address customer service plans from a holistic business perspective bringing state-of-the-art capabilities like bundling, customer-recognition, and hierarchies to the OSS layer. Taking all customer interaction into account, from all services (voice, data, content) and all sources (telecommunications network

Telecommunications network

A telecommunications network is a collection of terminals, links and nodes which connect together to enable telecommunication between users of the terminals. Networks may use circuit switching or message switching. Each terminal in the network must have a unique address so messages or connections...

s, customer-premises equipment

Customer-premises equipment

Customer-premises equipment or customer-provided equipment is any terminal and associated equipment located at a subscriber's premises and connected with a carrier's telecommunication channel at the demarcation point...

, etc.) the business control layer is capable of dynamically adapting network or service behavior, at customer level, in order to improve operators' transaction revenue and at the same time, customer experience.

Business control layer key functions include:

1) Ability to simultaneously collect events from any source;

2) Balance management

3) Business rule engine or Business Control engine

4) Dynamic real-time

Real-time computing

In computer science, real-time computing , or reactive computing, is the study of hardware and software systems that are subject to a "real-time constraint"— e.g. operational deadlines from event to system response. Real-time programs must guarantee response within strict time constraints...

 execution and provisioning

Provisioning

In telecommunication, provisioning is the process of preparing and equipping a network to allow it to provide services to its users. In NS/EP telecommunications services, "provisioning" equates to "initiation" and includes altering the state of an existing priority service or capability.In a...

5) On-line charging and rating.

In the emerging fields of service over the Internet Protocol (IP)

Internet Protocol

The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...

, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)

IP Multimedia Subsystem

The IP Multimedia Subsystem or IP Multimedia Core Network Subsystem is an architectural framework for delivering Internet Protocol multimedia services. It was originally designed by the wireless standards body 3rd Generation Partnership Project , as a part of the vision for evolving mobile...

, and Packet Cable Multi-Media (PCMM)

PacketCable

PacketCable is an industry consortium founded by CableLabs with the goal of defining standards for the cable television modem access industry....

 the need for real-time network changes continues to grow.

Network Business Control allows service providers to

• Inject business sense into the network - Each customer interaction should be analyzed and handled from a business standpoint rather than from just the simple network management or charging perspectives.

• Analyse and monitor of customer-consumed services - Providers should be able to analyze, record and charge for IP services, placing value on every aspect of their service plan
  Service plan
  A service plan is a contract to purchasers of products for an additional fee. While service plans resemble extended warranties, there are several important differences between the two, often cited by retailers that sell them.-Differences from warranties:...
  
   so that their services satisfy customers needs.

• Real-time control for IP sessions and events - IP services should be managed in real time, allowing providers to interact with the network during active sessions, with online responses (provisioning) based on customer or operator-defined business rules.

• Dynamically detecting and charging for IP services.

• Deployments - Integrates with operator legacy billing system or as a full billing for the IP services replacing the existing.

• Example of applications:

Boots an internet connection for a limited time. E.g. Download a movie.

Changing dynamically the bandwidth for a customer when reaching monetary values.

Charging for IP services - E.g. charge for VOIP traffic, charge for P2P.

Telenet

Telenet (Belgium)

Telenet Group is the largest provider of broadband cable services in Belgium. Its business comprises the provision of analog and digital cable television, high speed internet and fixed and mobile telephony services, primarily to residential customers in Flanders and Brussels...

, NV is the first company to deploy such a solution in their network. This solution is the underlying network intelligence behind their Broadband

Broadband

The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...

 service and their TeleMeter (in Dutch). The technology underlying these services are built upon the Cisco SCE DPI

Deep packet inspection

Deep Packet Inspection is a form of computer network packet filtering that examines the data part of a packet as it passes an inspection point, searching for protocol non-compliance, viruses, spam, intrusions or predefined criteria to decide if the packet can...

 device and the FTS Leap Business Control Engine BCE) - FTS Software.

Sources

1. Allot Communications
2. Cisco Systems
3. Reengineering Legacy Application to E-Business with a modified rational unified process
4. Aradial Technologies - Aradial Radius & Policy servers.