Integrating prepaid control into your softswitch
Prepaid control does not replace your softswitch. It sits alongside it, making the real-time authorise, rate, and disconnect decisions while the switch continues to handle media and signalling.
Operators rarely want to rip out a working switch to add prepaid credit control. The switch is already good at what it does: routing calls, handling SIP signalling, and managing media. What it usually lacks is the real-time commercial brain that decides whether a specific call can proceed, how fast it should burn credit, and when it must end.
Seshnova fills that role as a control layer. The switch stays in charge of the call path, and the platform makes the authorise, rate, and disconnect decisions against live balances and rate decks. The two communicate over a documented API surface, so the integration is an addition to the existing stack rather than a rebuild of it.
The integration points
Prepaid control touches a call at a few precise moments. Each one is a clear exchange between the switch and the platform rather than a vague coupling.
Authorise at call setup
Before the call connects, the platform checks the PIN or account, confirms there is enough balance, and validates the dialled destination against the active A-Z rate deck. The switch only proceeds once it has an authorisation decision.
Live rating and balance reservation
While the call is up, the platform rates per second against the destination rate and reserves balance as the call burns through it. This keeps the remaining credit accurate in real time rather than only at the end of the call.
Forced disconnect and teardown
When credit reaches zero or a fraud cap is hit, the platform issues a disconnect instruction. The switch tears down the session immediately so the operator never carries unfunded traffic past the cut-off point.
Concurrency tracking
Active sessions are tracked across the switch so simultaneous calls on the same balance cannot each spend the full amount. Concurrency limits and fraud caps are enforced against the live session count.
CDR capture and reconciliation
Every authorised, rated, and terminated call produces a CDR. These records support reconciliation against switch logs and downstream reporting, so charged usage and switched usage stay aligned.
What you integrate vs what the platform handles
A clean integration depends on a clear split of duties. The operator owns the call path and the signals; the platform owns the money, the entitlement, and the records.
You provide
- Switch and SIP events for call setup, answer, and release.
- The dialled destination, calling identity, and PIN or account reference at setup.
- Honouring of disconnect instructions so sessions end on the cut-off signal.
- Routing and media handling, which remain entirely on the switch side.
The platform handles
- Real-time per-second rating against A-Z rate decks.
- Balance and PIN control, reservation, and live deduction.
- Entitlement and enforcement, including hard cut-off and fraud caps.
- CDR generation, multi-brand and reseller separation, and records for reconciliation.
Fits existing carrier stacks
The control layer is designed to work with the environments operators already run. SIP, softswitch, and proxy deployments can all sit in front of the platform, because the integration relies on call events and disconnect instructions rather than on any one vendor or topology.
A documented API surface keeps the work contained. Teams integrate against defined exchanges for authorisation, live rating, and teardown, so they can add prepaid control without re-architecting the switch or replacing components that already work. The same surface supports multi-brand and reseller separation, so several products can share the infrastructure while keeping their balances, rate decks, and records apart.
The result is an addition rather than a migration of the call path. The switch keeps routing and media; the platform supplies the real-time credit control, hard cut-off enforcement, and CDRs that prepaid voice and calling cards depend on.