iller makes it easier for business support systems to work on the billing information. 2. Validation functions: The mediation system performs multiple validation functions on the usage records. Some of them are: a. Duplicate checks: This involves identifying duplicate records and elimi- nating them to avoid discrepancies in billing the customer. Eliminate unwanted record: Call failure and dropped calls should be dropped as nonbillable records based on validation checks on the col- lected records. Edit error records: Some records might contain errors that make it non- compliant for mediation processing tasks like correlation and aggregation. OSS/BSS Functions In these scenarios the mediation system will perform edits and transla- tions to make the content in the record suitable for interpretation. Unique tracking: All data after mediation validation and processing are assigned a unique tag number to make it easier for business modules to identify if the relevant records have been received from the mediation system. This helps to re-transmit lost records or synchronize records with other management modules. A table look up can be implemented for proper tracking of records. Design of the mediation systems tend to be complex due to different factors that needs to be considered when implementing this critical module that has high impact on the final bill presented to the customer (see Figure 20.15). Some of the factors that influence the complexity of mediation system are: Granularity of pricing: The granularity of pricing creates a variety of infor- mation that needs to be collected and formatted before feeding the data to business support systems. Real-time constraints: Data from the network elements has to be processed at real-time when the mediation system has to support a real-time billing Network Collection Mediation system Distribution Billing Billing Billing Archival system system system system Network usage Interconnect Roaming Processing and charges charges charges reference Service Licensed Foreign provider