Plans

The plans view presents the scaffolds that configure usage plans that are offered to end-users for purchase.

Usage Plans

Each record in the usage plans scaffold represents a service offering that the end-user may select.

The name field is an arbitrary string descriptor used only for administrative identification. Choose a name that reflects the purpose of the record. This field has no bearing on the configuration or settings determined by this scaffold.

The optional description field will be displayed to users in the captive portal if you want to add further detail. The data in this field has no bearing on the provisioning or billing of the service offering represented by this record.

The note field is a place for the administrator to enter a comment. This field is purely informational and has no bearing on the configuration settings.

Provisioning

The account group field specifies the group that the end-user will be placed in upon selecting this usage plan. This field enables zero operator intervention provisioning. The end-user experience is determined by the policies that are associated with a group. By automatically putting an end-user into group based, end-users are instantly provisioned into defined of service offering upon plan selection.

The splash portals and landing portals fields define which captive portals that this plan may be purchased from. Use these fields to limit the availability of certain plans to specific portals which in turn are displayed based on geographic location, the expected class end-users, etc.

The social login strategies field defines which Social Login Strategies may use this plan. If an account has logged in via social login, they will only see usage plans that include their strategy in the list of available usage plans.

The PMS guest matches field defines which users will see this plan in the portal. PMS guest match rules are configured in the Billing::Gateways page of the admin console.

The automatic login field configures end-users that selects this plan with a flag that causes the rXg to log the end-user in without displaying the captive portal. When combined with recurring billing, this feature enables operators to use the captive portal as a zero operator intervention end-user self-service provisioning system for long term recurring subscriptions.

The automatic provision field configures the rXg to automatically add devices in the same subnet to an end-users account. This is useful when deploying dynamic pre-shared keys. This enables an end user to input their pre-shared key to gain access to their VLAN, and automatically register the new device to their account, without requiring captive portal input.

The lock MAC field sets the corresponding field in the account record when the usage plan is purchased. Devices with locked MAC addresses may only purchase usage plans when they are logged in as the account with the corresponding MAC. This feature is most often used in fixed wireless broadband environments to prevent end-users from avoiding disconnect, reconnect and late fees. This feature is incompatible with quick purchase and other transient specific portal methodologies where accounts are created automatically. Attempting to user this feature in portal workflows that involve automatic account creation will result in the denial of subsequent transactions initiated by the same end-user using the same piece of equipment because a new user account cannot be created for the same MAC address.

Lifetime

The fields in the lifetime section allows the operator to configure how the utilization defined by the time and quota portions of the usage plan will expire.

The relative lifetime configures how long the utilization will remain usable relative to the time that the end-user selects the usage plan. The absolute lifetime configures a specific date and time in the future when the utilization will expire. If both a relative lifetime and an absolute lifetime is configured, the shorter of the two defines the actual lifetime of the utilization. If the unlimited lifetime check box is set, the utilization defined by the associated quota and time never expires.

If the do not set lifetime check box is set, then the utilization lifetime present in the account record is carried forward unmodified. If there is no utilization lifetime present in the account record, then the behavior specified by the absolute lifetime , relative lifetime and unlimited lifetime fields is then configured.

Included Plan Features

This section defines the plan attributes that will be provisioned if the user does not select any Plan Addons.

The Quota selection specifies the Quota Plan that will be applied if the user does not select an alternate Quota Plan from the Optional Quota Plans section.

The Time selection specifies the Time Plan that will be applied if the user does not select an alternate Time Plan from the Optional Time Plans section.

The max sessions field specifies the maximum number of simultaneously logged in devices for the account.

The max devices field specifies the maximum number of devices that may be stored in the account. When more devices exist in an account than its max sessions value, subsequent login attempts require logging out another device before logging in.

The max party devices field specifies the maximum number of devices that may be joined to LAN parties for the account in order to allow guest devices from another account to join a temporary shared VLAN to have direct access to one another while the LAN party is active.

The max dedicated IPs field specifies the maximum number of dynamic WAN IP addresses that the account may use for port forwarding and DMZ purposes. The IPs may change between sessions, unless the Dedicated IPs are static option is enabled.

The Dedicated IPs are static option specifies that the number of public IPs specified in the max dedicated IPs field will be assigned to the account and remain constant for the lifetime of the account. This is useful when accounts wish to host servers and require consistent IPs.

The UPnP permitted option allows the user to enable UPnP (Universal Plug-N-Play) so that devices may negotiate port forward requirements with the Rxg automatically. This is required for some games as well as some applications.

Available Plan Addons

The Plan Addons selection makes Plan Addon packages available to the user in the portal so that they may customize the usage plan's contents. Plan addons that have the included with plan option selected will be included in this plan automatically and will not be displayed to the user in the portal.

The optional Quota Plans selection makes additional Quota Plans other than the one specified in the included Quota Plan available to the user as options in the portal. The user's selection will override the included Quota Plan.

The optional Time Plans selection makes additional Time Plans other than the one specified in the included Time Plan available to the user as options in the portal. The user's selection will override the included Time Plan.

Billing

The fields in the billing section allows the operator to configure fully automated end-user billing. For example, if the operator wishes to automatically charge credit cards, these fields configure where the charges will be sent.

The merchant field relates this usage plan to a payment gateway defined by an entry in the merchant scaffold. Each usage plan is related a merchant independently from all other plans. Thus it is possible for an operator to use different merchants for different classes of service to facilitate separation of revenue by account.

The currency field specifies the localized currency that will be used to whenever the aforementioned merchant is contacted to execute a transaction. The currency must be supported by the payment gateway specified by the merchant merchant in order for the transaction to be processed.

If the prorate credit check box is set, then the account is refunded for unused usage time when purchasing a different plan. The refund is given in the form of credit and is automatically deducted from the price of the purchase. Any remaining credit is stored in the user's account. Additional credit may be given to a account manually by the operator via the users scaffold, or the account may redeem a coupon to obtain credit.

The manual billing check box dictates that transactions must be approved by an admin before applying the usage to the account. This billing method assumes that the user physically exchanges money with an operator (reseller) who then approves the user's transaction via the AR Transactions scaffold or FOM Operator Portal to complete the login process.

The fields in the recurrence section contains fields that allow an operator to configure this usage plan to repeatedly bill the end-user on a specified schedule. These fields enable the operator to offer recurring services (e.g., monthly billed IP-data similar to DSL and cable modem).

The interval field defines the recurring billing interval. By default, the interval field is set to none which indicates that the usage plan will only be billed when the end-user selects it. Choosing any other interval will enable recurring billing. Note that off site merchants such as PayPal Website Payments Standard do not support recurring billing.

The recurring day field configures the number of days into the interval during which the end-user will be billed. If the relative checkbox is set, then the recurring day will be configured relative to the day that the end-user first selected the plan. For example, if the interval is set to monthly, the recurring day is set to 5 and the relative checkbox is unset, then the end-user will be billed on the 5th day of every month regardless of when they first selected the usage plan. Given the same scenario with the relative checkbox set would result in the end-user being billed 5 days after the day that they first selected the usage plan.

The charge retry grace time specifies the interval between billing attempts if a billing transaction failure occurs. When an end-user selects a plan that has a recurring method other than none, the end-user is billed automatically according to the predefined interval. If the transaction fails for any reason, the rXg will retry the transaction repeatedly according to the rate specified by the recurring retry grace time until the number of retries is exhausted. The number of retries is defined by the max charge attempts field.

The permit unpaid A/R checkbox allows the operator to offer a usage plan on A/R terms. If this checkbox is set, then the policy associated with a usage plan will continue to be provisioned to an end-user even in the event of billing transaction failure. If this happens, a receivable will be posted to the end-user's journal.

The aged A/R penalties field associates the usage plan with one or more records in the aged A/R penalties scaffold. Each of these associations triggers the posting of a receivable given the conditions set in the associated record. Associated records may also disable the account. The use of aged A/R penalties requires the setting of the permit unpaid A/R checkbox.

Account Validation

A usage plan may be configured to require that the end user validate either their Email address or mobile phone number or both prior to the usage plan being applied to the account.

The validation method field specifies which forms of validation must take place before applying the plan.

The validation grace minutes field allows the plan to be applied to the account for a limited amount of time, allowing the end user time to access their Email and retrieve the validation code. This value will be set to 0 if the validation method does not include Email.

The SMS Gateway field specifies the SMS Gateway that will be utilized when sending validation codes via SMS.

Time Plans

Usage plans consist of three elements. This is the time element. This is where you configure how long the customer will have access.

The Price entered will make up a part of the total usage plan price a customer will see when signing up for a plan.

The optional Description will be displayed to users in the captive portal if you want to add further detail.

The Time and Time unit make up the actual amount of time provisioned to an associated account. Check the Unlimited checkbox if you want to allow unlimited online time.

The Rollover checkbox will allow an associated account to keep any unused time when purchasing a new plan from a captive portal.

Check the Usage Plans that this time configuration should be a part of. This is usually configured in the usage plans configuration section.

The note field is a place for the administrator to enter a comment. This field is purely informational and has no bearing on the configuration settings.

Quota Plans

Usage plans consist of three elements. This is the quota element. This is where you configure how much data the user can transfer over the period of the usage plan.

The Price entered will make up a part of the total usage plan price a customer will see when signing up for a plan.

The optional Description will be displayed to users in the captive portal if you want to add further detail.

The Upload and Upload unit make up the upload portion of the quota provisioned to an associated account. Check the Unlimited U/L checkbox if you want to allow an unlimited amount of upload.

The Download and Download unit make up the download portion of the quota provisioned to an associated account. Check the Unlimited D/L checkbox if you want to allow an unlimited amount of download.

The Rollover checkbox will allow an associated account to keep any unused quota when purchasing a new plan from a captive portal.

Check the Usage Plans that this quota configuration should be a part of. This is usually configured in the usage plans configuration section.

The note field is a place for the administrator to enter a comment. This field is purely informational and has no bearing on the configuration settings.

Aged A/R Penalties

Each record in the Aged A/R Penalty scaffold defines an action to take given certain A/R conditions. This scaffold is used to define late fees and reconnect fees. It is also used to automatically disconnect delinquent users.

The days field specifies the number of days that the A/R must be aged in order for the penalty specifies in this record to take effect.

The amount field specifies a monetary amount to post to the end-user's journal when the conditions are met. For example, if a late fee or reconnect fee is to be imposed, field should be populated with the amount of the fee that should be collected from the end-user.

Setting the suspend user checkbox will cause an end-user to be suspended if the conditions in this record are met.

Selecting a custom message will email the end-user when the conditions in this record are met.

The usage plans field associates the penalty defined by this record with one or more usage plans. An aged A/R penalty must be associated with a usage plan that has the permit unpaid A/R checkbox set to have any effect.