USSD Gateway

www.procescom.com

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Procescom USSD Gateway

Unstructured Supplementary Service Data service (or USSD for short) is one that is today present in almost any mobile network anywhere in the world, yet it is highly underrated and in most cases not utilized to it’s full potential. Typical uses of a USSD service include but are not limited to prepaid call- back services, mobile payment services, menu-driven services such as balance-query service, for automatic configuring mobile stations on the network, or any other service that requires immediate and assured interaction between subscriber and service platform.

Procescom USSD Gateway helps operators to minimize Opex costs, protect existing and grow new customers by equipping them with a fully scalable and expandable platform that each mobile operator can adapt according to its specific needs and targeted market segment. It also enables new revenue streams by giving the Internet based part of the industry access to the mobile network.

Our USSD Gateway is one of the first fully modular USSD Gateways available on the market. It is suitable for all mobile network technologies and carrier sizes, it enables interworking between 2G, 3G and IP-based core networks, and is fully 4G LTE compliant. It complies for GSM phase 1 and phase 2 standards for push and pull session-based USSD services.

When scalability is in question, Procescom USSD Gateway follows “pay-as-you-grow” approach, as our platform may be scaled both horizontally and vertically so to be able to cope with increased traffic loads. What this means is that each operator can purchase only the infrastructure needed for existing operation levels, as it can add additional software and/or hardware components at a later time as the increased traffic needs appear.

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Figure 1 – Procescom USSD Gateway services sequence flow

Procescom USSD Gateway makes use of HTTP, SMPP, XML, SS7/Sigtran and other industry-standard protocols available to enable complete and unrestrained communication between the Gateway and additional service modules (Procescom VAS modules or remote third party applications). How this works is that incoming requests from customer mobile stations are received through a MSC, HLR or VLR connections by using SS7/Sigtran protocol, are then processed on the Gateway itself, translated to

HTTP, SMPP, XML or any other industry-standard protocol necessary, and finally handed over to additional service modules over the IP network.

As all Procescom mobile solutions, Procescom USSD Gateway has been constructed with flexibility in mind. It’s open design enables it to seamlessly combine and connect with various platforms supplied by different vendors. This enables operators to combine USSD service with other types of mobile services, like text messaging services, collect call/SMS services, mobile banking services, etc. to create unique service offerings no other operators have in their portfolios. Integration with Procescom USSD Gateway is easy and straightforward and significantly shortens the Time-to-Market.

Ideally, Procescom USSD Gateway should be combined with Procescom Service Delivery Platform in order to provide for rapid service development environment. Better yet, it could be expanded with other solution platforms available in the Procescom’s portfolio. Some of the choices here are Collect Call and Collect SMS (both of which use USSD for communicating with calling/called parties), Vehicle Tracking (uses USSD to retrieve vehicle’s GPS coordinates), Lite SMS and Text.Me services (use USSD to deliver short text messages), and Balance Portal (provides balance inquiry and top-up functionality, weather, sports, news information services and such).

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Figure 2 – Procescom USSD Gateway combined with other Procescom solution platforms provides turn-key service deployment

Procescom USSD Gateway comes with a web-based administration interface to enable configuration management, add-on integration, service status tracking, event-logging and fault management. Real- time billing and CDR generation are supported for paid services.

Procescom USSD Gateway has been thoroughly tested and proven in practice. It is a fully redundant, scalable, fault tolerant carrier-grade platform, deployable in all GSM/CDMA/UMTS networks built on robust industry standard hardware platforms. Polished through commercial service in some of the Europe’s finest mobile operators, it brings you great functionality, flexibility and value at a reasonable price. With it, there are no boundaries, only possibilities!

Key features:  Cost-efficient support for existing and new USSD based services;  Convergent multi-network support (including 4G LTE networks);  Multi-protocol support (HTTP, SMPP, XML, …) for connecting to external VAS modules;  Supports remote configuration of mobile stations for MMS, GPRS, WAP and other settings via USSD downloaded configuration files;  Agile services development and deployment via an optional Procescom SDP platform which features a powerful GUI driven service design environment;  Scalable to provide for increased traffic loads;  Expandable to provide for combining USSD services with other mobile services to create unique service offerings;  Very high service availability;  Fault management support.