A framework for model-driven proposal and evaluation of TABAC strategies

Trust, Accounting, Billing, Auditing and Charging (TABAC) are crucial functions of productive IT and telecommunication systems. However, they are often not considered in early stages of development, but have considerable impact on commercial success at later stages. On the one hand, these functions are costly to be added after having a running prototype. On the other hand, they should not be burdens in early development stages. In order to solve this dilemma, we propose a framework for model-driven proposal and evaluation of TABAC strategies. This framework allows both: evaluating the possibilities to add TABAC functions at an early development stage and adding TABAC strategies to running prototypes by using existing interfaces and applying general models from a model pool. The framework not only proposes suitable strategies based on capabilities and requirements of the existing system. Moreover, it aims at instantiating the TABAC functions in a runtime environment for feeding them with real data from the existing system. This outstanding feature allows compiling a proposal for the best suiting strategy based on realistic interactions with the prototype.