Araxxe, a supplier of monitoring services, has introduced new extensions of its interconnection and roaming control service, Arconnex, that detects routing errors and traffic corruption in networks.
According to Arraxe, the revenue linked to incoming interconnection and to roaming services can represent up to 20% of a mobile operator's margin. At present, new voice over IP transport technologies, increasingly complex roaming architectures and the extension of least-cost routing and roaming steering multiply the risks of routing errors or packet corruption. International actors use methods that are more and more sophisticated (SIM box, SIM multiplexer), even fraudulent (illegal trunks, fraudulent SLA) to run very profitable arbitrations between different traffic routing methods. Whatever the strength and the accuracy of their internal monitoring systems, operators at the beginning or end of the calls are often unaware of what has happened in-between, says Araxxe.
To address the risks, Araxxe says its Arconnex, the monitoring offering for interconnection and roaming, represents an original control approach under the form of a ‘service bureau' based on remotely managed robots deployed across the world. This allows Arconnex to fully monitor routing of any telecom operator in the world, whether for interconnection or for roaming traffic.
The Arconnex service is built upon a statistic sampling method leveraging Araxxe's experience in detecting interconnection frauds around the world. The method has been patented by Araxxe and is said to be key to delivering a pointed monitoring that delivers value.
The robots deployed globally generate all kinds of transactions coming from and going to operators. Then, each transaction is verified to know if it has been correctly routed by checking a number of technical parameters of the call: presence of user name on the calling line, interconnection trunks used, etc. Based on this analysis, Araxxe produces monthly reports that provide detailed information and performance indicators. Routing errors and fraudulent corruptions are detailed so that the operator can identify and fix the problem. Specific reports can be used to support or defend against litigation between the operator and the concerned cheating companies.
The benefits of the service are immediate, easily quantifiable and directly contribute to operating margins improvement by eliminating SIM boxes, increasing international call durations or increasing roaming traffic volumes, says the company.
"As the cheating companies toughen their interconnection frauds, especially in Central America where we operate and where fraud is very high, we had to adapt our detection methods", declared Philippe Orsini, manager of the Arconnex service at Araxxe. "The algorithms for call generation detection are regularly optimized to become more accurate and more discreet".