Radiator - R16
Overview
Radiator is a 'Radius AAA' server that is used to provide Internet services to subscribers. Radius is a AAA protocol, where AAA stands for Authentication - Authorisation - Accounting of internet services.
- Authentication: Customers accessing the internet need to be authenticated first by the Radius server based on their credentials (e.g. passwords, one-time tokens, digital certificates)
- Authorisation: After successful authentication the Radius server allows access (i.e. authorizes) to specific types of services (IP address filtering, address assignment, route assignment, encryption, QoS/differential services, bandwidth control/traffic management, etc.)
- Accounting: Radius server is also responsible for tracking the consumption of network resources by a subscriber. This information can be used for billing the subscriber since it includes the service which was consumed and the period (start and end time) of the customer using the service
CRM.COM integration to Radiator allows you to offer internet services and manage it. It supports 2 internet service models which can exist concurrently.
- Prepaid, where a customer prepays for a specific quota that can be consumed within a predefined period
- Termed where a subscriber enjoys unlimited access and pays on a recurring basis a standard fee
Setting Up Radiator
Provisioning Provider
The setup of the Radiator provisioning provider is the same as the one described at Provisioning.
For information on the parameters required to connect to Radiator please contact a CRM.COM consultant.
Important Information
If the internet service you provide is prepaid (i.e. customer prepays for a specific quota that can be consumed within a predefined period) then Radiator is responsible to disconnect the services when the quota is reached and not CRM.COM.
In case that your business model supports to prepaid services then on adding the available services (i.e. broadband services) to the provisioning provider, you must also define the quota and the duration in the parameters, and they must have the following format:
Quota=70;Quota_unit=MB-Duration=50;Duration_UOT=HOUR
In case that the internet service you offer is termed i.e unlimited usage at 10 MB/sec for 1 month, then there is no need to provide the parameters.
Using Radiator
Settings & Admin / Billing Application / Subscription & Billing Settings / Radiator
Managing subscription signals
Radiator integration supports real time communication between CRM.COM and Radiator. This means that at any point in time, given that there exists a communication between CRM.COM and Radiator, when a subscription action takes place which affects the signals sent to the subscriber's device, such as, activation or deactivation of internet service, then Radiator will instantly receive a request from CRM.COM to act accordingly.
Depending on your business model, prepaid or termed, the disconnection of the service may be initiated by Radiator or CRM.COM.
If prepaid then Radiator is in charge to deactivate the service when quota is reached, while if termed disconnection will occur only if CRM.COM sends the specific request to
Reset multiple Subscriptions
Reset subscription runs are used as a backup to identify and synchronize subscriptions that have gone out of sync, by communicating the necessary commands to the CA/OTT platform. Subscriptions may get out of sync (for example, active in CRM.COM and inactive in Radiator) if any of the two systems suffers from downtime or if the connection from CRM.COM to the platform is lost.
It is possible to preview the subscriptions that will be reset by the run, by using Preview from the Actions menu. The run must be scheduled and executed.
You can limit the subscriptions which will be checked and reset by providing the period during which the subscriptions to be processed were created as well as the Subscription Types.
Reset Single Subscription
Like in the reset subscription run you can use the utility to update an out of sync subscription, so that the provider reflects the state in CRM.COM.
Change Subscription Information
It's possible to change the password and the IP assigned for a subscriber if requested manually through the Utility, 'Change Subscriber Information'.
The subscriber is identified either through the username or the subscription and it is possible to change the password and the IP address. In case the IP address is static then it must be explicitly defined; however if it is not static then it is automatically selected from an IP pool.
Business Flows
Scenario
Aluxsat Co. wants to be able to update subscriber information such as password or IP
Solution
- Navigate to Change Subscriber Information
- Fill in the Users information used to identify the user (i.e. username)
- Provide updated information
- Submit
It is mandatory to always have a password on the Subscriber's table
Scenario
Aluxsat Co. offers its customers the option to have multiple viewing points for each subscription. Customers can have a separate 'box and card' pair in each room, and choose to have a different selection of channels available from each pair. Up to four viewing points can be added to a subscription.
Solution
CRM.COM must have a different provisioning distributor available for each pair (box and card) offered to subscribers, as channel availability and restrictions can be set separately for each box.
To support this, the following distributors must be set up in the provisioning provider.
- Main
- TWIN1
- TWIN2
- TWIN3
For each of the provisioning distributors you must define that all services should be available. For each distributor you can provide a required distributor, that is, a distributor which should already be in use in order to activate a second one. I.e. to have Twin 1 you must already have Main.
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