With the growing complexity of both mobile networks and the services they support, implementing changes to your IR.21 and IR.85 agreements manually is no longer feasible.
Automation is the only option. Find out how the We Are CORTEX Evolved Roaming solution can help you meet these challenges — end-to-end.
In this, our final article in a three-part series of blogs on end-to-end automation of changes that are required when you receive updates to your IR21 and IR.85 agreements, we explore what we think is the last and most important phase: Deploy.
Deploy: The third stage of automating changes to IR.21 / IR.85 agreements
RAEX is described by the GSMA as providing “operators with the ability to electronically exchange operational roaming data (RAEX OpData) and commercial roaming rate information (RAEX IOT) using a centralised tool.”[1]
That’s important. While it aids the sharing of IR.21 and IR.85-related network and configuration changes and updates, it does not enable deployment of these changes. Since many operators have hundreds of roaming partners, every change to these agreements must be absorbed into their network configurations to avoid service disruption, so this is no mean task.
It’s time-consuming, often prone to errors – and occupies resources who might be able to focus on other, strategic tasks.
The only viable option going forward is to automate the entire, end-to-end process – Detect, Assess, and Deploy (see previous blogs in this series). That’s what the CORTEX Evolved Roaming solution enables.
These changes and updates, once detected (catalogued and understood) and then assessed (understanding their impact), must then be deployed into the live network.
This involves not just changing configurations and settings but also tracking changes so that compliance with audit and governance procedures can be assured. Not only that, but the next time changes are received through RAEX, the same processes need to be followed – which means that we need a controlled, repeatable means of automating each step.
So, a key task is to check the integrity of the catalogued and assessed changed before and after they have been pushed to the relevant systems in the OSS and BSS domains. This means that the CORTEX Evolved Roaming solution verifies changes against the requirements and then translated into the specific network settings and configurations. Once deployed, the changes are checked to ensure that they were implemented accurately.
This level of automation eliminates human error and accelerates the whole process – thereby liberating time to focus on strategic, revenue-building tasks.
Automating the RAEX IR.21 / IR. 85 workflow with CORTEX Evolved Roaming
Changes to IR.21 and IR.85 agreements impact multiple systems, so automation demands a comprehensive approach that touches on multiple entities in the OSS and BSS. For example, CORTEX Evolved Roaming solution can enable automation of:
- Pre-configuration tests
- Network configuration commands
- Post-configuration checks
- Validation that the service is working
- Ticket management to track and record changes with both ticket generation and closure
This requires integration and interaction across a wide range of interfaces – today, that mix includes network protocols, proprietary interfaces, APIs and so on – but, in the future, this will also likely extend to Agentic AI interactions facilitated by MCP. CORTEX Evolved Roaming can support them all – which ensures that it can easily be integrated with the different systems and vendor solutions that comprise each network.
Updates and configuration changes also need to be correlated – so, a change to the billing policies may also impact other systems. CORTEX takes care of this through complete mapping of the relationships and dependencies – which ensures operational consistency for service delivery and network operations.
CORTEX Evolved Roaming: Continuous, auditable automation for RAEX IR.21 / IR.85 workflows
CORTEX Evolved Roaming also offers integrated change management, ensuring compliance with security policies and regulations, such as NIS-2, the TSA, CRA, DORA and more, as well as internal procedures. This means that each change to every IR.21 and IR.85 agreement is tracked and can be audited. This is essential for future troubleshooting activities and overall governance.
In other words, it’s an end-to-end solution that spans all activities associated with changes to IR.21 and IR.85 agreements that are distributed via the RAEX. It offers closed-loop automation that covers everything from receipt of the changes to recording the actions taken when they are implemented in your network.
It ensures operational safety, relieving your team of this burden while also reducing risk and protecting your critical assets. To find out more, contact us today to find out how we can help you automate changes to your IR.21 and IR.85 agreements in your network.
[1] https://www.gsma.com/get-involved/working-groups/interoperability-data-specifications-and-settlement-group/standardised-b2b-interfaces-specified-by-ids/
