MNP - Mobile Number Portability

              Mobile Number Portability (MNP) enables Mobile telephone users to RETAIN their mobile telephone number, when changing from one service provider to another or their Location.
              In this, if a customer is dissatisfied on the service by mobile operator either he has to reluctantly accept the service or switch to another service provider that he wishes. In the later case, he has to drop his identity, the mobile number. In most cases when the mobile number is used for all business and family correspondence, it becomes generally impossible to leave the number. To overcome these hardships, the concept of MNP (Mobile Number Portability) was introduced.

Types of Number Portability :-
               The various types of number portability are:

• Service Provider Number Portability: Subscribers can change the service provider while retaining the same phone number It is also called operator portability.
• Location Number Portability: Subscribers can change their service location while keeping the same mobile telephone number.
• Service Portability: Subscribers can change the subscribed services while retaining the same telephone number. It allows the subscribers to enjoy the subscribed services in the same way when they roam outside their home networks.

Concept :-
              MNP functionality is used only in MT (Mobile Terminating) transactions of voice and messaging. For MO (Mobile Originating) transactions, the current flow scenario remains unchanged.
             Only for the MT functionality, the mobile number has to be identified and the corresponding service provider has to be interrogated for optimal routing of the service.

Basic Terms :-

• Ported out – If a subscriber moves to new service provider, for the old service provider, he is a “ported out” subscriber.
• Ported in - If a subscriber moves to new service provider, for the new service provider, he is a “ported in” subscriber.
• Donor – The service provider left by the subscriber. OR  It is the network that first assigns a telephone number to a subscriber
  
• Recipient – The service provider joined by the subscriber. OR  It is the network that currently serves the ported number. A recipient network is a network that a subscriber’s number is ported to when the subscriber switches the service provider.
• Old Serving Network – The old serving network is the network that previously served the ported number before the number was ported to the new serving network. Since a subscriber can switch
  service provider any number of times, the old service provider is not necessarily the same as the donor network.
• Participant – A Participant is a service provider who is not related to the porting process in any way and still needs the routing information for call routing and various other activities.
  
• CDB / NPDB – Central Database or Number Portability Database.
  
• ACQ – All Call Query

There are two basic implementation of MNP.

• Indirect Routing or decentralized or bilateral architecture: 

This model works bilaterally between the donor and recipient service providers who are responsible for informing all others of the change. It would suit to markets with less number of service providers. Each provider will have a dedicated setup and comprehensive database of ported out and ported in subscribers. As the number of service providers increases, the bilateral approach becomes a great burden to all service providers involved in terms of time, cost and resources. FNR (Flexible Number Register) will help the service providers have the ported database in addition to the original HLR database.

• Direct Routing or centralized architecture:

In direct routing, the concept of CDB comes into picture. This central database or Central clearing house will handle all activities related to porting of subscribers between service providers. This model is suited for markets with several service providers and this model is currently used almost in all MNP implementations. Two options are available with this model with all the service providers updating the ported number database in synchronization with the CDB and the other is to query the CDB for all call interrogation to get proper routing procedure. After obtaining the rules, rest of the call is handled normally.

Call Routing Schemes :-

    There are 4 schemes of call routing that support number portability.

1. All Call Query (ACQ) - Most Efficient (No dependency on other network for routing the call, Easy Billing, Minimum Call Set-Up Time, Minimal Impact on Signaling, Impact on network complexity is very less, etc.)
   
2. Query on Release (QoR).
3. Call Dropback.
4. Onward Routing (OR) - Least Efficient. 
   

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