 operators operators Storage Customer invoices Customers Figure 20.15 Mediation data usage. Fundamentals of EMS, NMS and OSS/BSS model. This requires the mediation system to scale up in performance based on requirements. The processing should ensure that all relevant billing infor- mation is mapped at real-time without any loss of data. Regulatory requirements: The billing systems have strict regulatory requirements to comply with in terms of satisfying the SLA and secu- rity of content. The mediation systems that supplies data to the billing modules must ensure that the standards of compliance are satisfied. Any security or compliance failure at the mediation will have a huge impact on billing. Multiple connection points: On the network side the mediation system has to collect data from multiple network elements and on the business modules side the mediation system has to interact with multiple billing and business support solutions. The mediation system should be designed to provide easy integration with its interacting modules. Use of standard and published inter- faces can reduce the implementation overhead, however in most cases there will be multiple interfaces defined by standardizing bodies and the mediation system, and hence may have to support multiple interface standards or have adapters to work with different solutions. Heterogeneous infrastructure: The scale and diversity of network elements is continuously increasing with new technical innovations. The mediations systems have to support aggregation and correlation of billing records on the new elements in the network. Most next generation networks have a new billing defined by standardizing bodies, which the mediation system has to adapt while formatting the records. Complex validation checks: There can be scenarios where correction is required for inconsistent formats, access, and semantics. Identification of these issues and fixing them are not straight forward and will require intelli- gent algorithms. The mediation system should be designed to h