How do I use the Accounts, Packages and Services views?

An account represents a customer of an operator.  

• For example, a person or a company.

• Typically, operators generate a monthly bill for each active account.

• Other industry names used for this are “customer”, “user”, “subscriber”.

• An account has zero or more services.

Service

A service is something of value (such as Internet access) provided to the account holder by the operator. 

• A service can be thought of as a line item on the monthly bill generated for each active account.

• An Internet service can have an upstream and downstream rate limit defined. Preseem can enforce these limits.

• When Preseem is shaping, it is enforcing a maximum up and down bitrate for each service.  If multiple IP addresses owned by an account should be shaped together, they must be part of the same service in Preseem.  If they should be shaped independently, they must be part of different services.

Preseem requires that services define how they are attached to the network by specifying at least one network coordinate that can be used to link the service to the network topology. Supported data fields that can be used for this include:

• CPE MAC address: a MAC address of a CPE device at the subscriber’s premises.

• Device MAC address: a MAC address of the customer device (e.g. wifi router).

• CPE IP address: the management IP address of a CPE device.

• IP Address: the IP address assigned to the data service.

• IMSI: the IMSI assigned to the LTE UE radio (via a SIM card)

• Serial Number: the serial number of a CPE device.

• Username: A radius/PPPoE username.

• CPE Name: the name of a CPE device.

The way Preseem defines a service constrains a service to be attached to the network at exactly one point. Preseem shaping (using the recommended two-level-mq shaping policy) assumes this, and will only bundle IP traffic into the same shaper if the IP traffic attaches to the network at the same topology location.

Package

A package represents the service characteristics sold to customers which are applied to a set of Services.

A package can be thought of as a template for a service; it gives the service a name and a standard set of attributes. For example, an operator may have a “Business Internet” package with 50Mbps down, 10Mbps up and unlimited monthly usage.

Other industry names for this are “service definition”, “plan”, “tariff” and “service”.

In the Preseem data model, a service may reference a package to inherit its attributes such as up and down rate limits.

If the rates defined in a package are changed in the system of record, it is expected that shapers for all services that package is assigned to are immediately and automatically changed as a result.

A service may override some attributes of its package by defining them on the service. In this case, the attributes on the service take precedence.

Functionality

These views can be accessed under the Customer menu item.

Accounts View

The Accounts view shows all accounts that Preseem has imported from the systems of record. This table allows accounts to be searched, sorted, and filtered to verify that Preseem has correctly imported data and to quickly get a sense of the number of accounts in Preseem and the different account statuses.

Table Columns:

Clicking on the Display Name opens up an Account Details screen for the account:

The Overview tab shows the attributes of this account, as explained in the table above.

• The 80th Percentile line represents the typical experience of the customer.  Values under 75 are considered an excellent experience, values from 75-125 are considered fair, and values over 125ms are considered poor.
• The 95th Percentile line represents the worst case experience of the customer.
• The 5th Percentile line is used to understand the minimum latency.  This line smooths out inconsistencies due to in-home wifi problems and helps to understand the impact of the backhaul and access point RF conditions in the access network.
  
  

The Polled Data Usage Daily chart shows how much data the customer uses, as measured by polling the CPE devices the services of the account are attached to.  It is used to understand the customer's typical level of usage.

This chart will have data if there is a CPE device assigned to the services of the account, and this is the only service attached to that CPE device.  
 

The Experience Data Usage Daily chart chart shows how much data the customer uses, as measured by the Preseem appliance.  It is used to understand the customer's typical level of usage.

This chart will have data if there is a Preseem appliance measuring the services of the account.

The Polled Data Usage Monthly chart shows how much data the customer used over the past four months, as measured by polling the CPE devices the services of the account are attached to.  It is used to understand the customer's long-term usage patterns.

This chart will have data if there is a CPE device assigned to the services of the account, and this is the only service attached to that CPE device.  

The Experience Data Usage Monthly chart chart shows how much data the customer used over the past four months, as measured by the Preseem appliance.  It is used to understand the customer's long-term usage patterns.

This chart will have data if there is a Preseem appliance measuring the services of the account.

The Metrics tab shows detailed metrics for the account.  The Monthly charts will show data when the selected time range is at least a month in duration.

The Services tab shows the list of Internet services that are active for this account.  See the next section for an explanation of the service table.

Services View

The Services view shows all services that Preseem has imported from the systems of record. This allows services to be searched, sorted, and filtered to verify that Preseem has correctly imported data and to quickly get a sense of the number of services in Preseem.  The Services view also provides convenient links to the system of record, for systems that support this functionality.

Table Columns:

Clicking in the Service column opens up an Service Details screen:

The Overview tab shows the attributes of this service, as explained in the table above.

The Download Rate and Upload Rate charts show the download and upload rates over time for the service.  This shows at a glance whether the customer is achieving their provisioned plan speeds.

• The Service line shows the maximum active upload or download rate for the service.  This can change due to plan changes or status changes (such as blocking of past due accounts).
• The Experience - Peak line shows the peak achieved bitrate as measured every 10 seconds by the Preseem network appliance.  This is a good indication of whether the customer is able to hit their active rates.  If the peak rate does not come close to the active rate, there may be a problem with the customer's Internet access.
• The Experience - Average line shows the average achieved bitrate over the time interval of the chart.  This gives a measure of the continuous network load being consumed by the service.
• The Polled line shows the average achieved bitrate as measured by polling the customer's CPE device, if the CPE device is known.  If the service is transiting a Preseem appliance and the CPE device is known, the Experience - Average line should closely match the Experience - Polled line.

The Latency chart shows the latency measured for the service by the Preseem appliance.  This can be helpful in understanding the quality of the customer's experience of their Internet service.  

• The 80th Percentile line represents the typical experience of the customer.  Values under 75 are considered an excellent experience, values from 75-125 are considered fair, and values over 125ms are considered poor.
• The 95th Percentile line represents the worst case experience of the customer.
• The 5th Percentile line is used to understand the minimum latency.  This line smooths out inconsistencies due to in-home wifi problems and helps to understand the impact of the backhaul and access point RF conditions in the access network.