SIM for Things Glossary

Authentication, authorization and accounting

Account is primary representation of a customer with which the parent account maintains a direct relationship, it keeps all the relevant information linked to a customer e.g. associated Plans, Balance, Monthly Limit, Connection Type, Tier, Language, Currency, activated features etc. Account can be of two tiers (types), an enterprise or a reseller. Accounts have associated users with different user roles providing different access levels to the platform. See “user roles” and “user” definitions for related information.

Prepaid or Postpaid; On a prepaid account, you pay for your usage in advance. On a postpaid account, you pay for your usage at the end of each month.

Two different tiers (types) are supported, an enterprise or a reseller. Different types of functionalities are supported by different account tiers for more details see "Account Tier - Enterprise" and "Account Tier - Reseller" definitions.

Enterprise account tier is the last node of an account hierarchy tree, thus enterprise account tier has a parent but never a child account. This is the only account tier that can be have endpoints (devices) and SIMs associated with them. The parent account could be BICS or a Reseller account.

Reseller account tier is the middle node of an account hierarchy tree, thus reseller account tier has a parent and will have one or more child account. This is the only account type that can be parent to other accounts below him (both enterprises & resellers). The parent account could be BICS or a Reseller account.

A plan that provides additional benefits (Data usage or/and SMS) for the devices over the base plan, may or may not be linked to the billing cycle (see Addon Plan - One-time & Addon Plan - Recurring). Addon plan benefits can be pooled (at account level) or Individual (at endpoint level) . An addon plan always takes precedence over the base plan and will be consumed first. Addon plan can be configured to be activated immediately on subscription or on the first usage in the configured rate zone. No rating and charging is done for the data or SMS benefits provided by the addon plan as its already considered in the charges accrued for subscribing the add on plan. An account/endpoint can have 1 or more addon plans attached at the same time.

An addon plan with a predefined term (in days or months) that is not confined to a monthly cycle. The account/endpoint is charged immediately on activation of the addon for the entire term of the addon plan. The plan can be pooled (at account level) or individual (at endpoint level).

An addon plan with a monthly subscription term that renews automatically each month. The account/endpoint pays for the charges defined in the addon plan at the start of each month and the benefits defined in the plan are added again at start of each month considering the previous benefit as zero. The plan can be pooled (at account level) or individual (at endpoint level). Prorating is not possible for the first month even if activation is done during the month, full charges are accrued and full benefits are provided.

Advanced device lifecycle also referred as OEM module is a value added service that can be activated for an Enterprise or a Reseller. OEM feature is designed to provide device manufactures to do production testing and then inventory storage without incurring any cost on their side and actual charging only starts when the actual end-user starts using the device. OEM feature when activated have additional Endpoint/SIM states through which their Endpoint/SIM transitions. These additional states are “Active-Test” & “Active-Inventory” before reaching to “Active” state where the actual charging starts.

“Active-Test” state provide pre-agreed free services (for e.g. Data/SMS) of fixed value for use during production test.

“Active-Inventory” state provides a non connected state with time validity so that device can be stored in inventory with accruing any connectivity cost.

An Application programming interface allows you to manage the platform information through an external application rather than through the web interface. Platform supports both push and pull forms of API.  Pull APIs allows an external application to trigger requests towards the platform and push APIs (callback API) provide the capability to the platform to trigger requests towards an external application.

An Application Programming Interface that allows the platform to send programmatic alerts to an external application. In order to use these alerts, the account or customer must set up an application server to receive and process the sent data.

Access Point Name - Any device making a data connection must be configured with an APN to present to the MNO. The MNO provides this APN to the platform and based on the configuration of the endpoint the platform can allow or deny the connection. Private APNs specific to an account can also be used for specific traffic routing or customized session timers for an account.

A set of APNs clubbed together as a group for assignment to an account/endpoint.

An APN group which can be created as per the need by an account user from the default set of APNs provided by the parent account (will always be a subset of the APN Group - DEFAULT).

A default set of APNs provided by the parent account for an account to use, both general BICS APN or any private APNs configured specifically for the account will be part of the APN Group - DEFAULT.

A customer’s external server that runs the applications that process the data coming from the remote devices.

An account/endpoint’s remaining balance in monetary terms. Only valid for prepaid account/endpoints. All chargeable services are pre-deducted from this balance, also the recurring monthly fees are deducted from it.

A base plan is a plan type that is unique to an endpoint/account, thus they can have only one base plan. A base plan is always configured by the parent account and provided to the child account, e.g. for an endpoint, the account either uses the default base plan or defines a custom made base plan. Base plans can be either prepaid or postpaid. It brings together the allowed service profile (services), destination group/roaming profile (coverage), tariffs & rate zones (price), notifications, charges (recurring & non recurring) & benefits. A base plan defines how each endpoint/account will be charged for both subscription fees (charges) and usage of the network (tariffs). Benefits of base plan can be recurring monthly for postpaid base plans and non-recurring for a prepaid base plans. A postpaid base plan can be prorated, check "Base Plan Prorating" definition for the details.

When a parent activates "Custom ON" feature for a child enterprise account then the child enterprise has the rights to define its own rate zones and tariffs for the base plan that will be assigned to his endpoints. With "Custom ON" enterprise has the ability to monetize his services to the endpoints and provide them with a different tariff for different rate zones from what was provided by his parent thus having a different cost and revenue possibilities. 

When a parent creates a child enterprise account and assigns a base plan to him then under the child enterprise account two default base plans are created (one prepaid and one postpaid) for him to assign to his endpoints. These default base plans already have the default service profile, default roaming profile, same tariffs as defined between the parent and the child enterprise based on the same rate zones. If the child enterprise wants they can edit the default base plan and adapt the benefits, charges and the notifications as per his needs, he cannot adapt the tariffs or the rate zones for the default base plan.

Platform prorates the charges and the included benefits for the first month for post-paid base plans only. An endpoint/account that begins a base plan in the middle of the month will pay half the charges and receive half the benefits allotment for that month. Proration is available for the first month of an endpoint/account is activated on the base plan, but not for the last month.

Defines the amount of data/messages included in the charges accrued for the plan. Benefits could be one-time or recurring every billing cycle depending on the plan type they are attached to.

The length of time during which the platform tracks usage and charges for a single invoice. Currently billing cycle is one calendar month in length, and always starts on the 1st of the month according to the customer’s time zone.

To make an endpoint (device) work several steps need to be done by an enterprise account e.g. create an endpoint, link a SIM, activate an endpoint. As these activities need to be repeated for each endpoint (device), the platform provides a bulk provisioning interface which gives the possibility to provision four thousand endpoints in one request. All the three steps of endpoint creation, linking SIM and activation can be done within one request or endpoint creation and linking SIM in bulk request and then activation one by one as per the need.

Cancel location request is used for operational reasons, in scenarios when a SIM is required to be detached from the network and reattachment procedure needs to be triggered e.g. if the SIM is stuck with the wrong network and is not switching to the right one or a device is frozen and cannot establish a session.

Call Data Record (also used where the ‘usage’ is not strictly speaking a ‘call’), generated for both data and SMS services. As the platform supports multi-level rating and charging, two different kinds of CDRs are generated for an account cost CDR (based on parent rate plan) and revenue CDR (based on child rate plan). An Account will always be charged based on the cost CDR. A single data session will generate several CDRs e.g. an initial CDR, several update CDRs and a stop CDR are recorded for a long running data session.

All fees (other than service usage charges) either recurring or one-time are considered under charges. Normally configured under a plan and then associated with an account or an endpoint. Example of recurring charges are SIM management fees, platform management fees, etc., example of one-time fees are SIM activation fees, setup fees, branding setup fees, vpn setup fees, etc. Charges in case of an addon plan are applied to the account/endpoint either one-time or recurring depending if the addon plan is one-time or recurring.

To control the data usage of an account or an endpoint, counters can be configured with the base plan associated with the respective account or endpoint. Counters count the data usage and based on the threshold defined can either throttle (with different speeds) or block the data usage. Counters are reset back to zero based on the configured frequency (day or month), thus they are a configurable way to define a threshold of data usage limit for a defined period of time and the action that needs to be taken when the limit is reached.

Closed Used Group feature if activated restricts SMS based communication only between the endpoints (devices) of an account. Both SMS-MO and SMS-MT to and from outside the group of account's endpoints is blocked. The OTA service with SMS-MO as delivery is still supported to manage the SIM cards if required.

Currency is the unit of measure for all an account's charges. There can only be one currency supported at an account level.

First landing page of the portal after logging in, showing critical information for an account covering stats on current month service usage, six month historical charts etc.

Data stream is a feature to provide extensive granular data to the application server (external) of the customer, so that customer can build its own logic to handle specific scenarios. Currently the two data types supported are mobility events and usage events, mobility events provide all events concerning the network connection/session establishment by any of the SIMs under the account whereas usage events provide all the usage CDRs of any SIMs under the account for all the allowed services with rated cost. Currently two transfer mechanisms are supported SFTP push/pull (pseudo-real-time with 10 mins delay) and callback API (almost real-time with 1 min delay).

A group of mobile networks clubbed together to be attached to a plan for an account, it is defined either by BICS or a reseller for a child account below them to provide the roaming coverage as defined in the contract. The coverage defined in the destination group becomes the default roaming profile coverage for an enterprise or default coverage available to create destination groups for a reseller.

Dynamic Benefits is an optional value added service available as a part of Base Plan configuration where based on the pre-agreed contract both BICS/Resellers can create service benefit bundles which provides free services (for e.g. Data volume) to an Enterprise with a fixed charge which is calculated based on number of activations done during the billing cycle. BICS can define these Dynamic benefits for the Resellers to use for their Enterprises or Resellers can define their own Dynamic benefits.

Both Pooled and non-pooled version of these dynamic benefits are available and both of them can be a one-time benefit or a monthly/yearly recurring bundle.

if the “Dynamic benefits only” is activated for an Enterprise account then it mandates to use at least one Dynamic benefit while activating any endpoint under that account.

Dynamic Benefits - Pooled can be defined by BICS or Reseller as a part of Base Plan and becomes available to Reseller/Enterprise for assigning to Account/Endpoint respectively below them. Each “Dynamic benefit - Pooled” can have multiple benefits included in it where each benefit provides free Data/NB-IoT/SMS per rate zone for an enterprise account accumulated based on number of Endpoints/SIMs activated with a specific “Dynamic benefit - Pooled” and any Endpoint/SIM in the Enterprise account can use this free service.

Dynamic Benefits - Non-Pooled can be defined by BICS or Reseller as a part of Base Plan and becomes available to Reseller/Enterprise for assigning to Account/Endpoint respectively below them. Each “Dynamic benefit - Non-Pooled” can have multiple benefits included in it where each benefit provides free Data/NB-IoT/SMS per rate zone for an enterprise account exclusively linked to the Endpoint/SIM with which this Dynamic Benefit - Non-Pooled was activated and only that particular Endpoint/SIM can use this free service.

Representation on the portal of a hardware device containing a SIM that uses wireless services and maintains information linked to the device e.g. associated Plans, counters, benefits, events, usage etc. Each endpoint is associated with a single account and managed through the platform. The terms "endpoint", "device,"  and "SIM" are often used interchangeably.

All endpoint generated events, either network connection events or session creation events are considered as events and are presented under the events sub-menu of the Endpoint tab on the portal.

All CDRs generated for the services (data/SMS) used and the charges incurred by the endpoint (device) are considered as usage and are presented under the usage sub-menu of the Endpoint tab on the portal.

Dynamically allocated public IP addresses to the endpoint (device), if dual sessions are created by the endpoint then two different public IP addresses could be allocated, thus there could be two framed IP at the same time.

A Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) forms the gateway between the wireless data architecture and the Internet.

Graphical User Interface also referred to as "UI" or "portal" sometimes.

A Home Location Register (HLR) authenticates any device trying to attach to an MSC or SGSN. It confirms whether or a not a device is allowed on its network, what services that device can access, which APNs that device is allowed to use, and whether that device has any roaming restrictions.

Primary unique identifier for a SIM in the portal. The ICCID is typically printed on the SIM card itself. It is similar to a serial number and cannot be changed.

The International Mobile Station Equipment is used to uniquely identify the device. Can be utilized in fraud detection and can be locked with a particular SIM for preventing misuse.

The International Mobile Subscriber Identity is a unique identifier that associates the device's SIM card with a particular mobile network. This code is composed of a country code, a mobile network code, and a mobile subscription ID number.

Customers who have Advanced device lifecycle (OEM) feature activated have additional Endpoint/SIM states through which their Endpoint/SIM transitions. These additional states are “Active-Test” & “Active-Inventory” before reaching to “Active” state. During the “Active-Inventory” state the Endpoint/SIM uses the Inventory Plan and transitions to “Active” state based on the configuration in the Inventory Plan. This plan is created and provided by BICS to both Resellers and Enterprises to use for their Enterprises/Endpoints respectively. An Enterprise can have only one Inventory plan assigned from his parent account Whereas a Reseller can have several Inventory plans with him.

Contains all the billing information for an account during a particular billing cycle of the account. That information includes activation fees, subscription fees, overage fees, and other charges along with rate zone information.

Low powered wide area network radio technology (e.g. NB-IoT, LTE-M).

LTE machine type communication, also referred as LTE Cat-M1.

Machine-to-Machine.

M2M in the Cloud Platform customer type.

Mobile Country Code.

A type of pricing plan which when activated for an account will lead to an invoice with a minimum monthly configured value if the "services usage fees" + "SIM management fees" + "platform management fees" remain below the configured minimum value. This fee is configured as per the contract signed with the customer. One-time fees like SIM activation fees etc., do not impact the minimum monthly invoice calculations.

Mobile Network Code.

Maximum limit in monetary terms that the monthly invoice of a postpaid account/endpoint cannot exceed to (non blocking for services, only notifications can be triggered). This limit is reset back to zero at the start of the month.

A Mobile Switching Center (MSC) is part of the original GSM network providing mobile voice and SMS services. Many MSCs are needed to cover a country.

Mobile Station International Subscriber Directory Number. The phone number associated with a device. 

Narrow Band Internet of Things, also referred to as LTE Cat-NB1.

Mobile Network Operator, is a provider of wireless communications services that owns or controls all the elements necessary to sell and deliver services to an end user including radio spectrum allocation, wireless network infrastructure, back haul infrastructure, billing, customer care, provisioning computer systems and marketing and repair organizations.

It is the connectivity status of an endpoint (device), based on the available radio access type in the visited mobile network there could be different network status like "Empty", "Not Attached", "GPRS attached", "Attached", "Connected".

Notifications can be configured as part of any type of plan and can be assigned to an account or an endpoint. Several events for an account and endpoint lifecycle are available to be notified and the customer can configure any message they want to be delivered in the notification e.g. Volume based notification triggered when a certain consumption is reached or money based notification triggered when a certain balance is reached. Notifications can be delivered to the customer through different delivery channels like SMS, email or callback API. Notifications currently can be set by the parent while configuring the plan that is given to the child account or later on edited by the child itself if he wants some different notifications.

Over the Air is a service utilized to update configuration files or applets on a live SIM card.

Different types of plans are supported in the platform like base plan, addon plan, test plan, inventory plan, MDB plan.

Public Land Mobile Network.

SIM for Things platform web interface where the user logs in and manages the platform, also referred as GUI or UI.

Packet Switch – referring to TCP/IP packet data.

Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service used for Authentication, Authorization and Accounting.

Radio Access Network.

Defined as a selected subset of mobile networks from the allowed set (roaming profile) that have the same tariff for a service (data or SMS), commonly linked to a geographic area as tariffs for a geographic area tend to be similar for a service e.g. EU28 countries rate zone.

The overall roaming coverage provided by a parent account (could be BICS or a reseller) to an enterprise account is called a roaming profile, it consists of a list of mobile networks. An enterprise can create several new custom roaming profiles out of the total coverage provided in the default roaming profile as per his endpoint needs, though these custom roaming profiles always remain a subset of the default roaming profile.

An enterprise can create several new roaming profiles with a subset of the roaming coverage provided by the default roaming profile. These custom roaming profiles can be used in custom base or addon plans for the endpoints. So if an enterprise want to differentiate the roaming coverage between his endpoints then he can do it by creating custom roaming profiles.

The overall roaming coverage provided by a parent account (could be BICS or a reseller) to an enterprise account is automatically saved as the default roaming profile. This is the maximum coverage that the enterprise can have and this coverage can be provided to the endpoints by assigning this default roaming profile to the plan associated with the endpoints.

Scheduler is a tool available to configure a monthly schedule for sending out emails with different types of information on a specific day of the month to a specific list of configured email addresses. One of the information possible to schedule is billing details in pdf/csv.

Services provided in the default service profile to an account or an endpoint can be individually barred based on the requirement. Any required service or even radio access type (e.g. 4G) can be barred for an endpoint from the endpoint CRM page, the same can be done for an account from the account CRM page. This barring is temporary and the service can be unbarred in the same way.

Group of services (e.g. data 2G/3G/4G/NB-IoT, SMS-MO, SMS-MT) provided to an account or an endpoint by the parent account. This is the overall set of services the child account can use and also assign to the account or endpoints below him. These services are then available for all other purposes for that account e.g. defining tariffs, charging, rating, reporting etc.

An account can create several new service profiles with a subset of services provided by the default service profile. These customer service profile can be used in a custom base or addon plan for the endpoints. So if an account wants to differentiate the services allowed between his endpoints then he can do it by creating custom service profiles.

The overall services provided to an account or an endpoint by the parent account is automatically saved as a default service profile. This is the exclusive list of services an enterprise can use and provide it to his endpoints by assigning this default service profile in the plan associated with the endpoints.

Different services supported by the platform, currently supported are SMS, DATA & NB-IoT. SMS has its sub types (A2P, P2A, P2P-onnet & P2P-offnet), Data has its access types (2G/3G/4G/5G)

A single data context established between a device and the data center servers for the account that owns the device.

SIM For Things register brand name of the product.

Secure File Transfer Protocol - one of the transfer mechanisms for the data stream feature.

A Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) is an extension of the original GSM network to provide mobile data services. Data connections between a device and the Internet/VPN are established via an SGSN. Far fewer SGSNs are required to cover a country than MSCs.

Subscriber Identity Module, a physical card assigned to an endpoint (device) that enables a device to communicate wirelessly via GSM connectivity. Each endpoint has a state that describes its readiness for use (for example Ready to Activate, Pre-Active, Active, Suspended). The terms "endpoint" "device", and "SIM" are used interchangeably.

A one-time fee charged when the SIM card is activated for the first time, activation of a SIM card can be considered either directly on "subscription" or at "first usage". This fee is configured within the base plan / MDB plan charges configuration for an account as per the customer contract.

A monthly recurring fee applied on every SIM card that was in Active state within the last month for any amount of time. For a newly activated SIM card this fee is applied either directly on "subscription" or at "first usage", once applied it continues every month unless the SIM is in "suspended" state for the entire previous month. This fee is configured within the base plan / MDB plan charges configuration for an account as per the customer contract.

A SIM card in its lifecycle can have different states like Ready To Activate, Pre-Active, Active, Suspended, Deactivated, Active-Test, Active-Inventory. 

An SMPP Server is also a customer server; it sends and receives SMS messages to and from the remote devices via the Short Message Peer to Peer protocol.

Short Message Service.

Short Message Service - Application to Person (Device), enterprise customer application server can use API to send out these A2P SMS towards any of his endpoints (device). API message is converted into a signaling SS7 SMS which is then received by the endpoint (device) and a delivery report is received by the platform. This delivery report is stored in the platform and either can be fetched by the application server by pull API or can be automatically transferred by the platform to the application server by callback API (based on the configuration).

SMS-A2P is considered as an account level service and is directly charged to the account of the customer rather than an endpoint.

A Short Message Service Center (SMSC) relays SMS messages to and from the remote devices.

Short Message Service - Mobile Originated, any SMS originated by an endpoint (device) is considered as mobile originating.

Short Message Service - Mobile Terminated, any SMS terminating at an endpoint (device), where the endpoint provides a delivery report (based on the configuration) is considered as mobile terminating.

Short Message Service - Person (Device) to Application, any endpoint within an enterprise account can send an SMS-MO to a short code (any short code less than 9 digits), when the platform receives this SMS-MO it is categorized as an SMS for the application server of the customer (due to short code) and is converted to an API request and transferred to the application server with help of a callback API. There is a delivery report generated by the platform and forwarded to the endpoint. SMS-P2A is considered as an endpoint level service and is always charged as an SMS-MO to the endpoint.

SMS-P2A is an endpoint level service and is always charged as an SMS-MO on the endpoint level.

Short Message Service - Peer-to-Peer, used to communicate via SMS between endpoints (device). If the SMS is send to a destination within the SIM for Things platform range then its considered as on-net and if the destination is outside world then its considered as off-net, both on-net and off-net can have different pricing in the platform.

SMS-P2P is an endpoint level service and is always charged as an SMS-MO on the endpoint level.

By default an IP address assigned to an Endpoint/SIM keep on changing for each session request from the device, this is termed as Dynamic IP allocation. In certain use cases the IP address of the device needs to be fixed and known by the application server to initiate a communication towards the device. For such use case an IP address (both Public or Private) can be statically linked to a device for its lifetime, the IP allocated statically with the device irrespective of it being public or private is called Static IP.

The tariffs defined within a plan for an account or an endpoint is the price that will be charged for a defined unit of a service for e.g. 1 KB of data or 1 count of SMS-MO. Tariffs are defined for a rate zone, thus services used under any of the networks in that rate zone will use the same tariff. Each tariff is defined for a combination of rate zone and a service and attached to a plan by a parent account (could be BICS or a reseller) as per the contract. If “custom-off” feature is activated then these tariffs can be directly assigned by an enterprise account to their endpoints or if "custom on" feature is activated then the enterprise accounts can define its own set of rate zones and tariffs and attach them to the base plan for his endpoints.

The tariffs defined by the parent account for an child account to use are his cost tariffs. The child account has to pay his usage base on these cost tariffs. If his "custom on" feature is not activated then he will have the same tariff as his revenue tariff, thus his cost incurred and revenue generated by the child below will remain the same. 

The tariffs defined by an account to be used by his child account/endpoint is his revenue tariff,  and all revenue calculations in the platform will be done based on these revenue tariffs. Only an enterprise who has "custom on" feature activated can configure different tariffs for his endpoints.

Customers who have Advanced device lifecycle (OEM) feature activated have additional Endpoint/SIM states through which their Endpoint/SIM transitions. These additional states are “Active-Test” & “Active-Inventory” before reaching to “Active” state. During the “Active-Test” state the Endpoint/SIM uses the Test Plan and transitions to “Active-Inventory” state based on the configuration in the Test Plan. This plan is created and provided by BICS to both Resellers and Enterprises to use for their Enterprises/Endpoints respectively. An Enterprise can have only one Test plan assigned from his parent account whereas a Reseller can have several Test plans with him.

An individual user of the platform. Each user has a user ID and password credentials that grant them access to the platform and assign them with certain role and the privileges associated with it.

Each user has an associated role that defines the privileges the user has for seeing and working with the platform. For example, a read-only role can only view information on the platform but cannot execute any command or change on the platform. The user will also be blocked when trying to use APIs.

A Virtual Private Network allows you to securely send and receive data across shared or public networks. The platform supports several different possibilities to connect a VPN e.g. IP-sec, IPX, direct connect etc.. These VPNs can be in a redundant setup to provide resilience and high availability for the connection.