Interactive Voice Response€¦ · 30 years. eServGlobal invests heavily in product development, using carrier-grade, next-generation technology and aligning with the requirements

Interactive Voice Response Product Description

Product IVR

Document Version 09.00

Status Approved

Reference eSG_PD_IVR_EN

Distribution Confidential

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Interactive Voice Response: Product Description

eSG_PD_IVR_EN09.00 Confidential eServGlobal | 2

Document Scope

This document provides a complete description of the eServGlobal PayMobile solution.

Warning: The screenshots are for demonstrative purpose only and are not contractually binding.

Audience

This document is intended for:

The Pre-Sale - Technical Sales Managers Prospects and customers to detail product functionalities in the technical proposals

Document Filename

eSG_PD_IVR_EN09.00

Reference Documents

Reference Title

Copyright

This document contains proprietary, confidential, or customer-sensitive information, and may not be copied or circulated without prior approval. Those who rightfully receive this document are entitled to copy or reproduce this document only for internal use.

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Contents

1. Introduction 5

1.1. About eServGlobal 5 1.2. About IVR 5 1.3. Definitions 6

2. IVR Implementation case 8

2.1. Call management by the Intelligent Network 8 2.2. Call management by the IVR 8 2.3. Call and service logic management by the IVR 8

3. Features 9

3.1. Call management 9 3.2. Announcement playback 9 3.3. User input collection 9 3.4. Voice recording 9 3.5. Service logic management 10

4. Technical solution 12

4.1. Architecture overview 12 4.2. Scalability, reducdancy and high availability 12 4.3. Dimensioning guidelines 12 4.4. Operation and maintenance 13 4.5. Standard compliancy 13

5. Annex 1: typical implementation example 15

5.1. Call management by the IN – SCP implementation Case 15 5.2. Call management by the IN – AS implementation case 16 5.3. Call management by the IVR – External AS implementation case 17 5.4. Call and service logic management by the IVR - implementation case 18

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Table of Figures

Figure 1: SCEE interface ................................................................................................................................. 10 Figure 2: Report creation using the SCEE ...................................................................................................... 10 Figure 3: Report scheduling using the SCEE .................................................................................................. 11 Figure 4: Viewing report using the SCEE ........................................................................................................ 11 Figure 5: IVR general architecture diagram..................................................................................................... 12 Figure 6: IVR deployment architecture – SCP case ........................................................................................ 15 Figure 7: Call management by IN – AS implementation ................................................................................. 16 Figure 8: Call management by IVR – External AS implementation ................................................................. 17 Figure 9: Call and service logic management by the IVR ............................................................................... 18

1. Introduction

1.1. About eServGlobal

eServGlobal has been a source of innovative solutions for mobile and financial service providers for more than

30 years. eServGlobal invests heavily in product development, using carrier-grade, next-generation technology

and aligning with the requirements of more than 65 customers in over 50 countries.

Our mobile money solutions put feature-rich mobile financial services at the fingertips of users worldwide,

covering the full spectrum of mobile wallet, mobile commerce, recharge and agent management features.

Together with MasterCard and BICS, eServGlobal is a joint venture partner of the HomeSend global payment

hub, a market leading solution based on eServGlobal technology and enabling cross-border money transfer

between mobile money accounts, payment cards, bank accounts or cash outlets from anywhere in the world

regardless of the users location.

eServGlobal also offers a comprehensive suite of sophisticated, revenue generating Value-Added Services to

engage subscribers in a dynamic manner. These services can be seamlessly integrated with our mobile money

portfolio to extend loyalty and promotion offers.

eServGlobal is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ESV) and the London Stock Exchange AIM

(ESERVGLOBAL).

For further information, connect to www.eservglobal.com

1.2. About IVR

The eServGlobal Interactive Voice Response product delivers a highly scalable Interactive Voice Response

capability solution. IVR brings to the market a high performance solution that is easy to deploy and to operate

and that supports a large set of standards at its interfaces which therefore widens its use to not only

eServGlobal designed solutions. IVR is a generic Voice Resource platform which can interoperate which any

third party solution thanks to the standardized set of protocols supported at its boundaries.

Users will benefit from more than 30 years of company knowledge in the area of IVR features, especially in

terms of implementing foreign language grammar rules for more than 35 languages, which enables voice

synthesis of date, time and amounts.

IVR has been designed to provide telecom operators with flexible and open media resource function.

Depending on deployment scenarios an IVR can interact with ASR or TTS servers when relevant.

There are three methods to deploy an IVR platform, depending on the party that manages the incoming calls:

Call management by the Intelligent Netowrk (for details, see chapter 2.1) Call management by the IVR (for details, see chapter 2.2) Call and service logic management by the IVR (for details, see chapter 2.3)

A Service Creation and Execution Environment can optionally be delivered. It provides operators with capability

to create, manage, monitor and supervise IVR call flows. The service logic is built on an Application Server

using a user-friendly graphical interface. The service logic can include access (read and write operations) to

business data stored on remote back-ends.

http://www.eservglobal.com/

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1.3. Definitions

3GPP 3G Partnership Project

5639L InterPhase PCM board, supporting 4 E1/T1 connectors

AS Application Server

ASR Automatic Speech Recognition – the ASR server interoperates with IVR on a

shared MRCP interface

CAPS Call Attempt Per Second

CS1 INAP Intelligent Network Application Part – Capability Set 1. The term refes to a set of

capabilities defined by managed interactions between SCP and IP – between a

Service Control Point and an Intelligent Peripheral.

CSCF Call Session Control Function

DTMF Dual Tone Multi Frequencies - regular way to transmit user inputs from the user

handset. Several methods exist, such as in band or out band the media stream.

IMS IP Multimedia Subsystem, as defined by 3GPP

INAP Intelligent Network Application Part

ISUP ISDN User Part – call signaling protocol supported on SS7 networks and TDM

network

IVR Interactive Voice Response

KPI Key Performance Indicators

MRCP Media Resource Control Protocol

MVNO Mobile Virtual Network Operator

NGN New Generation Network

PCIe PCI express

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RTP Real Time Protocol – transport method defined by IETF to stream media data flow

over an IP-based network

RU Rack Unit – unit defined to measure the place used by an equipment with a rack

SCEE Service Creation and Execution Environment

SCP Service Control Point – term that defined an Intelligent Network component

responsible for controlling the establishment of calls

SIGTRAN Set of solutions that extend SS7 node access over IP-based networks, such as

SUA or M3UA

SIP Session Initiation Protocol – RFC issued by IETF WG, is part of IMS as specified

by the 3GPP

SMAPS Send Short Message Attempt Per Second

SMS-MT SMS Mobile Terminated – capability to send an SMS to a user handset

SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol

SRF Specialized Resource Function

SS7 Signaling System no 7

TDM Time Division Multiplexing - transmission method used over legacy digitalized

telecom network (core fixed network)

TTS Text To Speech server – interoperates with the IVR on a shared MRCP interface

IVR Interactive Voice Response

VXML Voice XML – markup language defined by W3C, which supports IVR instructions

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2. IVR Implementation case

2.1. Call management by the Intelligent Network

In a deployment where the Intelligent Network (IN) is equipped with a Service Control Point (SCP), a Call

Session Control Function (CSCF) or an Application Server (AS), the IN uses the IVR for message playback

and information collection.

In this mode, the IVR does not embed any service logic, as the IN manages the calls and hosts the service

logic. The IVR executes the service logic that has been implemented on the external party.

The following requests are supported by the IVR in this mode (information about IVR requests and features

can be found in the chapter 3):

media playback user input collection message recording

2.2. Call management by the IVR

When the IVR manages the calls, it offers, to any VAS provider, the capability to expose their content over a

voice solution.

Incoming calls are sent directly to the IVR. The Application Server of the VAS provider controls the service

executed on the IVR.

The following requests are supported by the IVR (information about IVR requests and features can be found

in the chapter 3):

media playback user input collection message recording call management (call transfer and call termination)

2.3. Call and service logic management by the IVR

In such a setup, any content provider is offered the capability to create services and expose them over a voice

solution.

The incoming calls are sent directly to the IVR.

The IVR solution is delivered with its own Service Creation and Execution Environment (SCEE), to create,

execute, manage and monitor the service logic.

The following requests are supported by the IVR and SCEE (information about IVR requests and features can

be found in the chapter 3):

media playback user input collection message recording call management (call transfer and call termination)

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3. Features

3.1. Call management

When a user initiates a call, it first reaches the telecom operator’s network. Depending on the deployment

architecture, the call can be redirected immediately to the IVR to handle the complete session. As an

alternative, the network elements in the operator’s network can handle the call session and only redirect the

call to the IVR when some interactions are needed.

Depending on the service logic, the IVR can terminate a call or transfer a call to a live agent.

3.2. Announcement playback

IVR offers the capability to play pre-recorded announcements or messages in several languages. Depending

on the defined scenario, the IVR may allow subscribers to bypass listening to the entire message, or may force

that the message be listened to in full before allowing them to advance in the scenario.

IVR also offers voice synthesis in more than 35 languages for date, time, numbers and amounts.

The IVR supports built-in voice synthesis properties that can be configured to enhance the way variables are

handled. For example, a date variable may contain a value for tomorrow’s date. The variable properties can

be set to allow the system to deliver the actual value of the date – “July 23rd” – or the term “tomorrow”.

Grammar files are supported by the IVR and allow the creation and delivery of complex prompts, such as “You

have one hundred and fifty one Euros on your account. The validity period expires after the tenth of December”.

The prompt consists of variables that are sent to the IVR and grammar items that are defined in configuration

files. The system combines this information and uses voice synthesis to deliver personalized messages to the

users.

3.3. User input collection

The IVR collects user input to advance the scenario. For example, menu items are numbered and “read” to

the users and, after the message has been played, they enter the corresponding menu item number on the

keypad of their device and the scenario advances accordingly.

Additionally, if required, the IVR can capture other numerical inputs, such as an account number or a telephone

number.

3.4. Voice recording

The IVR can record and store voice messages from end-users.

The IVR platform is delivered with a predefined scenario that allows the service provider to record voice

messages to build the announcement base.

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3.5. Service logic management

A Service Creation and Execution Environment (SCEE) is offered as an option alongside the IVR. The SCEE

offers a graphical interface for users to design the service logic to be implemented and also controls the service

logic execution by sending commands to the IVR.

Figure 1: SCEE interface

The SCEE supports live testing of the created/modified service logic and live deployment of scenarios without

any service interruption.

It also offers reporting capabilities to monitor the calls and service logic.

Figure 2: Report creation using the SCEE

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The reports can be generated on-demand or according to a set schedule:

Figure 3: Report scheduling using the SCEE

Once the reports are generated, users can choose which report they wish to view. The report results can

also be exported as Excel files:

Figure 4: Viewing report using the SCEE

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4. Technical solution

4.1. Architecture overview

IVR offers great flexibility to integrate with third party components whether they are third party IN solutions or

Value Added Solutions. IVR does support for that aim a large set of standard protocols at its interfaces.

Figure 5: IVR general architecture diagram

4.2. Scalability, reducdancy and high availability

IVR is normally deployed in an N+K architecture for resilience. This architecture is engineered so that ‘N’ IVRs

provide the full capacity required to meet service announcement / collection requirements with an additional

‘K’ machines being deployed to meet the resilience requirements of the operator. For many small to mid-sized

deployments ‘K’ will require the deployment of a single additional IVR box, whereas for large centralized

deployments, ‘K’ may require an additional two or more units to be deployed.

Further aspects of resilience on the IVR will normally include:

Mirrored internal disk (hot swappable) Dual network connection

4.3. Dimensioning guidelines

The standard IVR platform offers the following performance per server:

3000 concurrent sessions 70 CAPS

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4.4. Operation and maintenance

IVR supports a synchronization method to keep all IVRs in line with the same announcement capability set.

The master point of duplication contains all elements to enforce announcement definition on an IVR:

announcement definitions and audio files.

When the IVR is started, it automatically checks the announcement set with the master and performs

synchronization when required.

IVR supports Alarms which are sent as SNMP traps upon issue detection. A clear Alarm is also sent when the

issue is resolved.

IVR provides a list of KPI which can be queried through SNMP by a remote monitoring party to obtain

information about the performance of the IVR platform. IVR generates CDR files which can be retrieved by a

remote monitoring party.

4.5. Standard compliancy

The IVR Solution complies with the following standards:

4.5.1. Telecom-GSM

TCAP

ITU : Q771 to Q775 blue and white book ETSI : ETS 300 287

MAP

MAP Phase 1 and Phase 2 GSM MAP 09.02 IS41-D

INAP

INAP CS1- CS1 ITU-T spec 1218 (release 10/95); ETSI ETS 300 374-1 (09/1994)

CAP v2

CAMEL Application Part Phase 2

4.5.2. SIP/SIP-I and relatives

Core: RFC-3261 to RFC-3265 SDP: RFC-2327 RTP Real-Time Transport Protocol (RFC 3550) Netann (RFC-4240: Basic Network Media services with SIP) DTMF user inputs carried as RTP payload (RFC-2833)

4.5.3. Codecs

• G711 (uLaw, aLaw)

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4.5.4. Others

VoiceXML 2.0 HTTP 1.1 (RFC-2616) SNMP V1.2 (RFC-1901 / RFC-3417) MRCP V.1 (RFC-4463)

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5. Annex 1: typical implementation example

The purpose of this Annex is to detail a number of possible IVR implementation solutions.

5.1. Call management by the IN – SCP implementation Case

The interaction between SCP (Service Control Point) and IVR always occurs in three steps, as described

below:

User dials a number. Switching components routes the call to the destination number. Switch triggers or not an SCP upon criteria set on Called and Caller party numbers. If trigger criteria are met then the switch triggers the SCP on shared interfaces.

When an SCP is triggered by a switch, a given control plan runs on the SCP and performs a various types of actions among them to play announcement and/or to get User inputs. To play announcement and or get user inputs, SCP instructs the switch to establish a temporary connection to an Intelligent Peripheral on their shared interfaces.

When a switch is tasked to establish a temporary connection between a caller and an IVR-IP, the call is routed to an Intelligent Peripheral by the switch. IVR handles the call and binds with the SCP for IVR instructions. By default the IVR binds with the SCP based on either INAP CS1 or CAP v2 protocol. SCP instructs the IVR on their shared interfaces, by default INAP CS1. The connection with the IVR is dropped upon SCP instruction.

MultimediaPSTN

EnterpriseIntegration

Operations

CRM

InternetMGC

MGW

OSA/ParlayApplications

Mediation & Billing Systems

CDMA, GSM, GPRS, NGN

SGSNHLR MSC SRF SMS/MMSASP's

GGSN

WAPMMS

USMS

Signaling Control Point

(SCP)

3rd party Intelligent Network platform

SIPRTP

InteractiveVoice

Response(IVR)

Service Management

System(SMS)

SignalingControl Point

(SCP)

Figure 6: IVR deployment architecture – SCP case

The IVRs are deployed in an N+K redundant configuration to ensure sufficient capacity to handle the forecast

load at a required reliability regardless of the failure of individual nodes.

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5.2. Call management by the IN – AS implementation case

A user places a call which is handled by AS (Application Server) which acts as CSCF (Call Session Control

Function) which upon control criteria may route the call to the IVR. Upon connection, IVR starts an IVR session

which, in this case, is Vxml based. IVR and AS share a client/server http interconnection mode to request and

deliver Vxml content. The AS is responsible for delivering well formed Vxml pages to the IVR. IVR’s Vxml

browser is responsible for interpreting the Vxml pages received from AS.

AS AS

IVR IVR

MSC

1. User places a call to short number 2. MSC routes call to MGW which presents the call to AS

3. AS runs a control plan and routes the call the an IVR. 6. AS provides a Vxml page to each http request sent byIVR until the session ends. …

4. Upon connection established, IVR-MS. starts an IVR session. 5. IVR sends http request to AS to get Vxml pages. 7. IVR interprets any Vxml pages rceived from AS and follows instructions until the session ends.

Vxml SIP RTP

MGW

3

1, 2

2

3

4, 7

5

6

Figure 7: Call management by IN – AS implementation

IVR protocols supported in this scenario are:

Network Interface:

- Call Control protocol, SIP.

- Voice transmission based on RTP (Real Time Protocol), G.711 µ-law and A-law are supported

- DTMF detection in band or out band.

Application Interface:

- Media control protocol: Vxml Client/server HTTP schema.

IVR supports a list of IMS’s MRFP interfaces as specified by GPP3 standardization group. It integrates with

the IMS network on its SIP and RTP interfaces. SIP supports a list of 3GPP SIP headers to enforce services

such as Call Line Identification Restriction.

External Application server can trigger IVR-MS based on information presented in SIP.

IVR supports VoiceXML 2.0 which allows an AS to send an entire set of IVR instructions at the same time. IVR

instructions are either as simple as prompt a message, collect DTFM, record or more sophisticated such as

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setting rule for re-prompting a message several times in case of false DTMF entries, including help message,

handling exceptions and so on. IVR-MS ensures the sustainability of the interactivity with the user in

accordance with IVR instructions defined in the VoiceXML page.

IVR supports level of cache which avoids retrieving the same content if it already present in the cache.



5.3. Call management by the IVR – External AS implementation case

A user places a call which is presented to the IVR. Upon connection IVR starts an IVR session which is based

on Vxml. IVR and AS share a client/server HTTP interconnection mode to request and deliver Vxml content.

The AS is responsible to deliver well formed Vxml pages to the IVR. IVR’s Vxml browser is responsible to

interpret Vxml pages received AS.

AS AS

IVR IVR

MSC

1. User places a call to short number 2. MSC routes to MGW which presents the call to the IVR-

SN-

5. AS provides a Vxml page to each HTTP request sent by IVR until the session ends.

3. Upon connection established, IVR-SN starts an IVR session. 4. IVR-SN sends http request to AS to get Vxml pages. 6. IVR-SN interprets any Vxml pages received from AS and follows instructions until the session ends.

Vxml SIP RTP

MGW

1, 2

3

4, 6

5

Figure 8: Call management by IVR – External AS implementation

IVR protocols supported in this scenario are:

Network Interface:

- Call Control protocol, SIP.

- Voice transmission based on RTP (Real Time Protocol).

Application Interface:

- Application control protocol: Vxml Client/server HTTP schema.



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5.4. Call and service logic management by the IVR - implementation case

A user places a call which is presented to the IVR. Upon connection IVR interacts with its built-in SCEE to

deliver the service logic.

IVR IVR

MSC

1. User places a call to short number 2. MSC routes to MGW which presents the call to the IVR-

SN-

SIP RTP

MGW

1, 2

3

Figure 9: Call and service logic management by the IVR

- END-