Routing

Factors that influence the routing decisions

Allowed or supported route — Establishing or understanding the allowed routes, such as who can service the transaction and whether multiple service providers can support it. If only one service provider supports a certain service or product, then only one routing option is available. If multiple service providers support the same service or product, then routing needs to be determined through preferential routing or load balancing.

Preferential routing — This involves understanding whether any routing preferences are in place for the service. For example, if the preference is set for a Mobile Network Operator (MNO) to be routed via a particular service provider, then all transactions for that MNO will be routed accordingly. Preferential routing is also supported in other services, such as Prepaid Utilities.

Load balancing — If there is no preferential routing set, the load balancer weighs up the supported providers against each other. The load balancer is the final determiner of routing when there is no preferential routing set.

Prefix routing for Billpay — This feature uses the identifier, or prefix, of the account reference number for each service provider to ensure that transactions are accurately routed and processed by the respective service provider.

Broadcasting for PPU — This allows the switch to send a message to multiple service providers simultaneously. Broadcasting seeks responses from multiple service providers to confirm authorised and available providers who can support a transaction.