The Opportunity
The technology (USSD) (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) is a standard service of mobile networks with GSM technology, similar to SMS, which allows the transmission of information on signaling channels and offers an alternative to traditional data channels ( GPRS, UMTS) to access interactive information services.
In USSD technology, to establish a communication, sender and receiver must be connected to the network at the same time, unlike what happens in SMS that is similar to e-mail, sender and recipient use an intermediate device which stores the data, so it does not need to be connected to the network at the same time.
Our client developed a solution called “USSD Center” for the mobile operators market. In this way, new interactive data services can be implemented quickly within its existing network, adding value to its basic services.
The request was to develop a central component of the solution: the “Integration Hub” with the backend services of the Mobile Operator, an ecosystem of heterogeneous services with different protocols, platforms, messaging and API’s.
The Solution
The Solution A solution was developed , it exposes in a SOAP service interface, a unified API built on the basis of a solidly proven multilayer architecture: presentation, business logic, persistence and security. The Integration Hub was built in independent modules together with technologies to minimize maintenance and maximize scalability.
The solution supports the following interfaces against backend services: proprietary messaging over Sockets, Oracle Tuxedo, ASN.1 (BER) over TCP / IP, and operations over different databases. A special requirement of this solution that impacted on the architectural design was the requirement of compliance with a high performance (number of transactions per second) under conditions of high concurrent access load.
The Results
The solution was successfully implemented in the main Mobile Operator of Ecuador and Latin America, allowing our client to comply with their ATP (Acceptance Test Procedure) and certify their services.
In this way, the Mobile Operator achieved the objective of bringing to the market a wide portfolio of services that included cell phone recharge, sale, consultation and transfer of balance and other services, both for prepaid and postpaid schemes.
