IPDR'org Standardizing NextGeneration Accounting

1
IPDR.orgStandardizing Next-Generation Accounting

• Reducing the time and cost of usage measurement
  and exchange for next-generation services

2
Telecom Industry Trends

• Market
• Desire for choice between flat-rate and
  usage-based billing
• Unrealized revenue from value-added services
• Complex content/connectivity partnerships
• Industry mergers and acquisitions
• Competitive pressures imposing shorter
  time-to-market
• Technology
• Increasing complexity of convergent networks
• Rapid service evolution
• Diverse accounting requirements of
  next-generation services

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The Solution Internet Protocol Detail Record
Organization (IPDR.org)

• Objective
• To reduce the time and cost of usage measurement
  and exchange for next-generation services.
• Method
• Implement de-facto open standards for IP-based
  support system interoperability, enabling
  providers to deploy next-generation services
  profitably.

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Industry Support

• Board of Directors - 2003
• ACECOMM, Amdocs, Billing Concepts, Cisco,
  Convergys, Hewlett-Packard, Sprint PCS, Telus,
  XACCT Technologies
• Members
• BSS Amdocs, AMS, Billing Concepts, Convergys,
  CSG Systems, etc.
• OSS ACECOMM, DST Innovis, ECtel,
  Hewlett-Packard, NEC, Openet, etc.
• Equipment Cisco, Marconi, etc.
• Service Providers Infosys, Rogers ATT Wireless,
  Sprint PCS, Telus, TSI Telecommunication
  Services, etc.

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An Overview of the IPDR.org

• Member-driven, nonprofit organization serving the
  communications industry.
• Established in 1999
• Membership from five continents includes
• Service Providers
• Equipment Vendors
• Support System Vendors
• Clearinghouses

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Business Drivers Behind IPDR Network Data
Management Usage Specification (NDM-U)

• Migration from flat-rate to usage-based billing
• Increasing network utilization
• Integration of voice, video data networks
• Push for convergent billing capabilities
• Content billing
• Revenue sharing and intercarrier settlements

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Technology Drivers Behind IPDR NDM-U

• Introduction of new and increasingly
  sophisticated telecommunication services
• Rapidly changing networking technologies
• Industry consolidation
• Fraudulent network access
• Requirements for service level agreement
  monitoring

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IPDR.org Achievements

• Public distribution of the NDM-U V3 Specification
• Major carrier deployments underway
• Compliance program testing to v.3.1
• Reference Libraries in C Java
• XML XDR binary encodings
• Joint projects with other industry associations
• Cable Laboratories
• TeleManagement Forum
• OSS/J
• IETF

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Where Does IPDR NDM-U Fit?



Gateways/

gatekeepers


Billing

IPDR


Application
Mediation


Decision support


-
Who

E
-
commerce

Marketing



servers
-
When


Network ops



Aggregation
-
What


Fraud



-
Where

Correlation

CRM


-
Why


Normalization

...



Router

Firewall

Bandwidth Mgmt RSVP, DiffServ

MPLS, Traffic shapers, Proxies
Other NE
Network Service Elements
BSS

Usage Collection

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NDM-U 3.x

• Stable version complete!
• Forward compatibility
• Compact encoding 51 reduction over XML
• Uses IETF XDR RFC 1832
• Direct translation to/from XML format

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IPDR NDM-U v3

• Next generation
• Supports all evolving services
• IP-VPN, VOIP, Video, Email, Etc.
• Stable with v3.X
• Forward compatibility
• XML compact encodings
• Binary encoding provides scalability for Tier 1
• XML provides easy interface to any software
• Extensibility
• XML schema supports custom contract definition

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IPDR Compliance Program

• Provides a buyers guide for purchasers
• Standard format permits apples to apples
  comparisons
• Evaluates results interoperability
• Inexpensive and easy enrollment and testing for
  vendors
• Free to IPDR.org members

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IPDR v3 Reference Code

• Read/write IPDRs as easily as plain text
• Supports all IPDR flavors
• Available in C and Java
• Liberal license permits use and modification
• Simple APIs hide complex logic
• Read foreign schemas to absorb custom IPDR
  records
• Manage rolling log files and automatic updates to
  partner systems

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Implementations Underway

• Major carrier deployments
• Multiple wireless heavyweights
• Emergency calling leader
• Smaller VOIP ASP projects
• Continued Envelope-pushing trials
• TMF Catalyst projects
• Service level agreements
• Packet wireless
• hybrid wireline/wireless
• EU-FORM

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Future Direction Equipment

• IPDR just as applicable for bits as for services
• Joint projects refine and apply service specs for
  manufacturer communities
• Cable Labs
• OSS/J
• International Softswitch Consortium
• 3GPP
• Demands streaming and prepaid capability
• Alignment with service activation and
  provisioning?

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Future Direction
Inter-Carrier Exchange

• NDM-U technology fully supports exchange
  scenarios
• Joint work ensures support of existing
  settlements networks and technologies
• ATIS OBF EMI settlement
• ITU-T
• Other open dialogs GSM TADIG TAP3, ETIS, etc.

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Recapitulation

• Usage metering today is overly complex
• Standards are the best solution
• IPDR NDM-U is tried and proven
• What can you do?
• Review www.ipdr.org
• Join IPDR.org general mailing list for updates
• Implement share experiences
• Participate in IPDR.org

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Further Inquiries

• Aron Heintz
• President
• IPDR Organization
• 1 202-258-5544
• AHeintz_at_IPDR.org
• www.ipdr.org
• Marianne Jenkinson
• Membership Director
• IPDR Organization
• 1 908-735-0956
• MJenkinson_at_IPDR.org
• www.ipdr.org

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• Addendum Slides
• (The following slides will only be available on
  the members version of the presentation, and will
  not be included on the public version posted to
  the IPDR.org web site)

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IPDR GenerationEvent Record Generation
1) A call is placed on an IP network
2) A log file is generated
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IPDR Generation Mediation
3) VoIP usage data is assembled into an IPDR
containing the call details (customer, usage,
etc.)
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IPDR Generation Billing
4) The IPDR record is sent to a BACC system for
automated, usage-based subscriber billing
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The Model Driven IPDR Approach

• Service Definition
• (Subset of W3C XML-Schema 1.0)

• Alternative Encoding
• XML Document
• XDR based binary encoding
• Others (e.g. RADIUS, Diameter AVP)

Service Data Encoding

• Alternative Transport
• File based exchange (of XML or XDR)
• Streaming (XDR only)
• Others (e.g. RADIUS UDP, Diameter TCP/SCTP)

Service Data Transport