Sally Orders Lunch: Retail On-Line Payment

Sally is hungry but she left her wallet at the office. “I know, I’ll go to the Local Diner,” she thought. “Let’s see what looks good.” She opens the website and sees:

“Yum, the hot dog looks good, and I’ll also have a coffee.” Sally clicks the two items and sees:

When Sally placed her order, the Local Diner website established a session with Sally’s mobile service provider to get authorization for the purchase:

The website requests the Diameter Routing Agent to make sure that Sally can pay for her order. Sally has a contract with her mobile provider that allows her to pay via her monthly bill or via a pre-paid account. The Diameter box checks with the carrier’s On-line Charging System and reserves the total amount of Sally’s lunch.

Sally continues her walk to the Local Diner and thanks goodness that she pre-ordered because the line is out the door. She notices a short line, “Pre-Orders here.” Sally walks to the register and sees a placard:

The placard is printed with invisible capacitive ink in a specific pattern that's detected by the touchscreen as multiple simultaneous finger presses. The arrangement of this pattern is used to link Sally’s phone with the Local Diner website. The website triggers a second set of messages to the Diameter Routing Agent that first verifies that the phone is actually Sally’s, then confirms the charge to the carrier’s billing system:

The On-line Charging System assigns a transaction id and the Diameter Routing Agent sends the Local Diner website a receipt. The OCS settles the transaction by transferring funds to the Local Diner at the end of the day.

The clerk sees Sally’s confirmation of payment on his screen so he hands over her order with a big smile. Sally’s phone displays the following:

This customer scenario can be realized today using secure RESTful transactions between the Diner’s website, an F5 Signaling Delivery Controller and proven Diameter Credit Control Application messages to a carrier’s On-Line Charging System.

The touch screen phone’s capability to read invisible ink is new technology but is currently available, without the requirement to download a reader onto the handset.

Next: Sally Goes to the Grocery