How-to: Set usage limits

Control usage with Limits

When deploying large numbers of SIM cards, it can be challenging to keep track of usage. That’s why we built 'Limits’. A Limit keeps track of the usage of your SIM card. It can warn you when usage is above a set limit and can automatically pause a SIM.

A few things to consider:

  • Limits verify usage per SIM cards. Usage per SIM card is calculated when a network operator creates a Call Detail Record (CDR). An operator sends a CDR when:

- An SMS is sent
- A data session closes, or the SIM switches to another operator
- Every 6 hours

  • Olivia processes CDR’s after receiving the record from the operator. The limit rule is checked and executed. It can occur that usage on notification is higher than set in the limit rule. This happens because the CDR was not created yet when the limit had been met.

  • Triggers for limit rules are set for usage per calendar month and therefore equal to the billing cycle. If the data limit is set for 5MB, the SIM is allowed to use 5MB until the end of the calendar month.

  • Once a SIM card triggers a limit, it will not trigger the limit rule again in that month. You can stack limit rules. For example, send a notification at 10MB and disable the SIM card at 15MB. After disabling, you can activate the SIM card by changing the status manually or via API.

  • Limits are automatically reset at the beginning of a new calendar month.

  • Limits can be applied on all SIM cards or to a specific group of SIM cards.

  • Per account or group you can set more than one rule. We apply a fair use policy to the usage of these limits.

Setting up limits

To provide flexibility many options are available. Check the description of every step to understand what you can set up in detail.

Login to your account at oliviawireless.io and go to limits. To setup your first limit rule, click ‘Add limit’. You will see the pop-up below:

Limit usage

Details

Active:

Only active rules trigger actions. If you would like to delete a rule, deactivate the limit first.

Limit name:

Give the limit a name to identify it.

Apply the rule to:

All SIM cards: The limit applies to all SIM cards in your account

Specific group: The limit will only apply to SIMs in this group. A drop down will appear to select a group.

Usage limits:

Data limit:

Set the allowed data limit per SIM card to use in a calendar month. The limit is per SIM per month in Megabytes. Leave blank if you don’t want to set a Data limit

SMS limit:

Set the number of allowed SMS per SIM to use in a calendar month. The limit is per SIM per month. Leave blank if you don’t want to set an SMS limit.

Actions:

Pause SIM:

By default the rule is set to ‘No’. If set to ‘Yes’, the SIM card state will switch to Paused when the limit (data or SMS) is reached. The SIM remains Paused until you reactivate it again manually or via API.

Notification email:

Enter an email address that will receive a notification email when the limit is reached. Leave blank if you don’t want a notification email.

Notification web hook:

Enter a URL (including the https:// prefix) to receive a message on your webhook. You will receive:

Body type: raw

Content type: JSON (application/json)

Method: post

Body:

{
   “sim_barcode”: “89123456789012345678“,
   “device_name”: “test device“,
   “policy_name”:"test policy“,
   “policy_id”: “policy id“,
   “type”: “MB” or “SMS”,
   “usage”: “1.015“,
   “limit”: “1.0”,
   “block”: “true” or “false“
}

If you have any further questions, open a ticket in the SIM Management Console or send an email to support@oliviawireless.com

Roel van der Meer