CDR collection deals with retrieving the Call Detail Record (CDR) from the various switches of a fixed/mobile telephone network and passing them through to the billing system and other downstream applications of the carrier back-office information system (BSS).

CDR collection interfaces the carrier BSS to its telephone network for conveying usage data which are critical for revenue generation. CDR collection represents a strategic investment; it has to be robust and reliable.

The MARBEN CDR Collection in Telco OSS/BSS

MARBEN CDR Collection is component of carrier OSS/BSS that bridges the gap between the network of heterogeneous telephone switches and the billing system. It connects and retrieve CDR file from switches offering FTAM and CMIP interfaces over various types of networks like X.25, TCP/IP and LAN.

MARBEN CDR Collection interoperability has been proven against the most widely deployed wireline and wireless telephone switches in the market:
Alcatel E10, Ericsson AXE 10, Lucent PRXA & 5ESS, Siemens EWSD, Nortel DMS 250

MARBEN CDR collection software features all necessary functions to perform CDR collection either standalone or to be integrated in mediation or billing application. It includes the following components:

• OSI Network Services (ONS) which implement an FTAM and CMIP protocol stack over both WAN (i.e. X.25) and LAN (i.e. Ethernet and TCP/IP) networks. The FTAM implementation has been adapted and qualified to work with most widely used telephone switches. It supports the full set of FTAM protocol features, in particular transfer interrupt and recovery. The CMISE implementation embedded in ONS supports both Agent and Manager roles. The ONS stack allows for real-time billing over FTAM and/or CMISE when switches have such ability.
• A File Transfer Client (FTclient) and a File Transfer Server (FTserver). FTclient is an end-user application that provides an FTP-like command interface for performing FTAM file transfer and management. This is a quick and simple way to interact with switches that acts as FTAM responders.

  FTserver is an is an autonomous ready-to-run daemon which serves FTAM requests coming from remote hosts. The FTserver suits configurations where switches push the CDR files downward to billing systems. FTserver is capable of handling multiple simultaneous FTAM connections and requires very little setup.

• A development toolkit that allows the development of custom collection applications or direct integration of CDR Collection in the mediation billing software. The development toolkit offers two levels of API:
  • A protocol independent CDR Collection API which abstracts all the underlying interactions for collecting charging data from the switches. This API is available in both C++ and Java. It is very simple and exposes only the notions of CDR file or CDR stream and switch. Therefore integration in the mediation/billing software is straight forward. Details of interactions with the switch like protocols to be used, actions to perform for retrieving the CDR are hidden below. This API is extensible with a plug-in mechanism which allows adapting to communication protocols or type of switch MARBEN CDR Collection does not support.
  • Two low level protocol dependent APIs: a File Transfer API (FT API) and a Telecom Management API (TM API). FT API is a high level API that completely hides the complexity of the FTAM protocol and requires little knowledge of the FTAM protocol. It gives access to all file manipulation services (open/close connection, put/get file, create/delete file, …). The TM API exposes the CMISE service as it is described in the OSI standard with an extension that ease the implementation of CMISE applications: automatic association management. Both of these APIs are available in C and Java.
• Transfer tasks scheduler. The transfer task scheduler enables to run any collection applications developed with the toolkits (but not only these ones) automatically for collecting CDR from the various switches of the telephone network. The transfer task scheduler has the knowledge of all the switches from which data has to be collected (address, type of data to collect…) and schedule the collection on a per switch basis. The transfer task scheduler Graphical User Interface makes its configuration and operation very easy.

MARBEN CDR Collection is a complete and flexible solution that can be tailored to your specific requirement and environment. The MARBEN™ CDR collection integrates all networking aspects of CDR collection enabling billing system implementers to concentrate on activities with high added value.

ISO 8571 FTAM Protocol
ISO 9595, 9596 CMIP protocol
ISO 8823 Presentation protocol
ISO 8650 Association Control Service Element (ACSE)
ISO 9072 Remote Operation Service Element (ROSE)
ISO 8327 Session protocol
ISO 8073 Transport protocol over CONS
RFC 1006 Transport protocol over TCP/IP
ISO 8602 Transport protocol over CLNS
ISO 8878 Connection Oriented Network Protocol (CONP)
ISO 8473 Connectionless Network Protocol (CLNP)
ISO 8473 add1 SNDCF X.25/CLNP
ISO 9542 ES to IS Protocol

Operating systems: