06-03-2013, 02:56 PM
Online Mobile Phone Recharge System in Nigeria
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Abstract
An e-portal system that allows mobile phone users to recharge their phones online without necessary purchasing any recharge card is proposed. With this e-portal system, users simply provide the amount to be loaded on the specified phone number and some series of validation are performed before finally recharging the phone with the specified amount. This e-portal system also eliminates the burden of generating random numbers as recharge cards and the subsequent huge database accompanied with the storage of these randomly generated numbers. Mobile service providers are still faced with the challenges of inefficient bandwidth utilization and congestion in the transmission channel. One of the main reasons for this congestion is the toll placed on the network by the need to reload/recharge phone credits in order to enable calls. The solution proposed in this paper is meant to improve bandwidth utilization by taking the process of recharging off the mobile clients.
Introduction
The Global System for Mobile (GSM) was first introduced in 1992 with approximately 23 million subscribers, rising to over 200 million in 1999 on over 300 GSM networks. The aim was to provide a global mobile telephone network that could be implemented using standard building blocks not tied to specific hardware vendors. The uptake of GSM by subscribers is far higher than any industry predictions and typifies the increasing need for personal mobility. The 1st generation GSM mobile
telephone networks provide subscribers with high quality voice communications and low bandwidth
(9.6Kb/sec) data connections for FAX, Short Message Service (SMS) and full dial-in connection to the Internet for email and web browsing, usually requiring a mobile computer or intelligent handset. The addition of overlay communication protocols, such as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), allow mobile handsets on 1st Generation networks to be used for secure connection applications such as mobile banking and other transaction based services.
Mobile Recharge System Model
The flow chart in Figure 2 gives the process flow for the recharging of mobile phones in a typical GSM
network. The subscriber buys the recharge card, scratches it and enters the recharge number into the mobile and then sends to the network. The information goes to the network through the BSS (BTS and BSC) to the MSC. The MSC in conjunction with the HLR performs the authentication and other location related functions. After the authentication process the information is sent to the IN application.
The IN has a database server that stores the subscribers’ current balance information and requests for the monetary value of the recharge card from the Central Voucher Server (CVS) and update the current balance of the subscriber and sends back to subscriber. Then the subscriber receives the new current balance on his/her mobile phone.
Project Methodology and Result
The flow chart in Figure 3 shows the proposed online recharge system where the Central Voucher
Server is eliminated from the recharge flow chart. This reduces the burden on the already limited bandwidth and also prevent the extra cost of recharge card production and the burden of randomly generate numbers and the consequent huge database for the vouchers.
Conclusion
The online recharge solution system can also be improved and made operational by integrating it with
the network operators’ users and central voucher servers directly. Further work in this area include the mathematical modeling of the various charging models on simulated mobile network data, covering both voice and Internet data services. The future work will include the examining of combined charging models and the resultant effect on the income of the Mobile network providers. The cost impact on different types of subscribers using the mobile networks will also be investigated. There will always be a trade-off between the complexity of the billing system to be implemented and supported and the advantage the network provider will receive for having the systems in place. Fixed price charging schemes reduce the overhead of the charging and billing systems infrastructure, as they tend to provide the simplest charging scenarios. Usage based charging models provide incremental and harder to predict income for the network providers as well as requiring high investment in the charging and billing infrastructure required. This includes increased cost in network traffic involved in the collection of the billing data required.