Configuring BAMS for ASCII Output and Measurements


Revised: March 10, 2011, OL-11618-18

Overview

This chapter describes how to configure the Cisco Billing and Measurements Server (BAMS) for ASCII output and measurements.


Note You enable ASCII and/or measurements output with the NODEPARMS tag ID. For more information, see the "NODEPARMS Tag ID" section.

ASCII Output

Many mediation systems depend on input data that is preformatted as ASCII. You can configure BAMS to create ASCII records. In addition to requiring ASCII records for billing purposes, the same mediation systems might require bearer-level measurements that are produced on BAMS. In order to satisfy both requirements, BAMS can produce ASCII output that mirrors what is currently produced on the Cisco MGC.

To enable ASCII record generation on BAMS, set the parameter asciioutput in the NODEPARMS tag ID to a value of 1 for ANSI output or 2 for ITU output. See Chapter 2 "Setup and Installation," for further details.

BAMS creates ASCII 1110 records when a call has terminated. Filenames are identical to the names that are currently used on the Cisco MGC and BAMS, with the suffix changed to "csv" (that is, comma-separated values). For example, if a Tag-Length Value (TLV) billing file on the Cisco MGC is named cdr_20000714195130_000777.bin on the Cisco MGC, any file that is produced as a result of processing this file is named cdr_20000714195130_000777.csv. Some files are created with zero records, when no calls terminate during the processing of a TLV file from the Cisco MGC.

All fields for records 1110 and 1060 are written in comma-separated format. Tag 6000 (Virtual Switch Controller [VSC] ID) is collected from the 1090 Call Detail Block (CDB). The fields are written in the exact order specified in Table 7-1. When a field was not created by the Cisco MGC, because the field did not apply to the type of call recorded, a blank field or zero field is inserted as a place holder.

A normalized set of fields, or CDEs, is written for every record type, even if that record type does not contain a particular field. In this way, the end user can quickly import the CDR ASCII file into a database with standard data-importing tools. If more fields are added at a later time, they are appended to the end of the record, so you can ignore them, or modify their database import structure by simply adding fields to the end of the layout.

The accuracy selection for time points is configurable in seconds or milliseconds. When you are using ASCII output from BAMS, either choice is possible, because a place holder for each type has been provided in the ASCII formatting layout. For each type of time point, two entries are contained in the output format, one for seconds and one for milliseconds of granularity.

A downstream mediation or billing system can parse these ASCII records easily. Each record is prefixed in the ASCII file with a record identifier field. For example, an 1110 record would begin this way: 1110,1234,5678,2222

Table 7-1 ASCII Output Field Ordering: ANSI and ITU 

Field
Tag
Description
Format

1

1060, 1090, or 1110

CDB (record) identifier

Decimal

2

4000

CDB Version

Decimal

3

4001

CDB Timepoint

Seconds (decimal)

4

4002

Call Reference ID

Hex

5

4003

IAM Timepoint

Seconds (decimal)

6

4004

ACM Timepoint

Seconds (decimal)

7

4005

ANM Timepoint

Seconds (decimal)

8

4008

Originating Trunk Group

Decimal

9

4009

Originating Member

Decimal

10

4010

Calling Number

Text

11

4011

Charged Number

Text

12

4012

Dialed Number

Text

13

4014

Called Number

Text

14

4015

Terminating Trunk Group

Decimal

15

4016

Terminating Member

Decimal

16

4028

First Release Source

Decimal

17

4031

VSC Info Field

Hex

18

4100

IAM Timepoint rcvd ms

Seconds, milliseconds

19

4101

IAM Timepoint sent ms

Seconds, milliseconds

20

4102

ACM Timepoint rcvd ms

Seconds, milliseconds

21

4103

ACM Timepoint sent ms

Seconds, milliseconds

22

4104

ANM Timepoint rcvd ms

Seconds, milliseconds

23

4105

ANM Timepoint sent ms

Seconds, milliseconds

24

4106

First REL Timepoint ms

Seconds, milliseconds

25

4107

Second REL Timepoint ms

Seconds, milliseconds

26

4108

RLC Timepoint rcvd ms

Seconds, milliseconds

27

4109

RLC Timepoint sent ms

Seconds, milliseconds

28

2000

ANSI Calling Party Category

Decimal

29

2001

ANSI User Service Information

Hex

30

2003

ANSI Calling Number Nature of Address

Decimal

31

2004

ANSI Charged Number Nature of Address

Decimal

32

2005

ANSI Dialed Number Nature of Address

Decimal

33

2007

ANSI Called Number Nature of Address

Decimal

34

2008

ANSI Reason Code

Decimal

35

2013

ANSI Transit Network Selection

Hex

36

2015

ANSI Carrier Selection Parameter

Decimal

37

3000

ITU Calling Party Category

Decimal

38

3001

ITU User Service Information

Hex

39

3003

ITU Calling Number Nature of Address

Decimal

40

N.A.

Blank

N.A.

41

3005

ITU Dialed Number Nature of Address

Decimal

42

3007

ITU Called Number Nature of Address

Decimal

43

3008

ITU Reason Code

Hex

Note The format for field 43 for ASCII output is Hex. For Extendable ASCII output the format is Decimal.

44

6000

VSC ID

Text

45

Derived

Subscriber Duration (4106 minus (whichever is greater: 4104 or 4105))

Seconds, milliseconds

46

Derived

Network Usage Duration (whichever is greater: 4108 or 4109) minus (whichever is less: 4100 or 4101))

Seconds, milliseconds

47

4060

Redirecting Number

Decimal

48

5000

Global Call Id

Text


Correlation of Billing Information

BAMS collects information about calls with the various Primary Interexchange Carrier (PIC) CDBs; therefore, at any point in time, some calls are terminating and some calls are just being set up. BAMS must collect the information from the various records, just as with a BAF output, and then output records only upon receipt of either a long-call duration record or a call termination event.

Files and Records

The ASCII file contains the following records:

090 - File Header

110 - End of Call Record

060 - Long Call Duration Event

These files and records are written as if they had been produced from the Cisco MGC. The most significant information from the 1090 records is the VSC ID, and the time stamp and other information on that record should match corresponding entries in the 1090 record from the file that triggered the current file processing.

Extendable ASCII Output

Extendable ASCII is based on ASCII output, but it includes four supplementary fields. These fields are appended to the end of a standard comma-separated value ASCII record, to create a new extendable ASCII record.


Note In the table below, the field index is a reference to the field in the comma-separated billing output record. New fields 109 through 132 have been added in BAMS 3.30. CDE tags 4234 and 4235 were present in BAMS 3.20 but are only used in CDB 1071. They will not be generated on any billing outputs.

To enable extendable ASCII record generation on BAMS, use the NODEPARMS tag ID to set the extasciioutput parameter to a value of 1 for ANSI output, or 2 for ITU output. See "Configuring Node Parameters" section for further details. For file-naming conventions, see the "Extendable ASCII Filename Elements" section.

Extendable ASCII Output Format

The following table illustrates the additional fields that are appended to a standard ASCII record. Each record is prefixed in the extendable ASCII file with a record identifier field (for example, an 1110 record would begin like this: 1110,1234,5678,2222). For details about the first 48 fields in an extendable ASCII record, see the "ASCII Output" section.


Note The format of Field 43, Tag 3008, ITU Reason Code for ASCII output is hexadecimal. The format of Field 43, Tag 3008, ITU Reason Code for Extendable ASCII output is decimal.

Table 7-2 Extendable ASCII Output Field Ordering: ANSI and ITU 

Field
Tag
Description
Format

49

2002

ANSI Originating Line Information

Hex

50

4201

Ingress SIP URL

1 to 256 characters

51

4202

Egress SIP URL

1 to 256 characters

52

4203

SIP Callid

1 to 256 characters

53

4204

Source IP Address

String

54

4205

Ingress Media Device Address

String

55

4206

Egress Media Device Address

String

56

4207

Initial Codec

String

57

4208

Final Codec

String

58

4209

Ingress Media Device Port Number

String

59

4210

Egress Media Device Port Number

String

60

4052

Originating Gateway Primary Select

Decimal integer

61

4053

Terminating Gateway Primary Select

Decimal integer

62

4061

Tariff Rate

Decimal integer

63

4062

Scale Factor

Decimal integer

64

4063

Test Line Indicator

Decimal integer

65

4078

Charge Band Number

Decimal integer

66

4079

Furnish Charging Number

String

67

4080

Original Called Number

String

68

4081

T.38 Fax Call

String

69

4082

Charge Unit Number

Decimal integer

70

4034

Ingress Originating Point Code

Decimal

71

4035

Ingress Destination Point Code

Decimal

72

4036

Egress Originating Point Code

Decimal

73

4037

Egress Destination Point Code

Decimal

74

4046

Ingress Packet Info

Decimal

75

4047

Egress Packet Info

Decimal

76

4068

Ingress BearChanId

Decimal

77

4072

Egress BearChanId

Decimal

78

4083

Charge Indicator

Decimal

79

4084

Outgoing Calling Party Number

Text

80

4085

MCID Request Indicator

Decimal

81

4086

MCID Response Indicator

Decimal

82

4087

Ingress MGCP DLCX (Delete Connection) return code value

Decimal

83

4088

Egress MGCP DLCX (Delete Connection) return code value

Decimal

84

4089

Network Translated Address Indicator

Decimal

85

4090

Reservation Request Accepted

Decimal

86

4091

Reservation Request Error Count

Decimal

87

4092

ATM Ingress Configured Profile

Text

88

4093

ATM Egress Configured Profile

Text

89

4094

ATM Negotiated Profile

Text

90

4095

Route List Name

Text

91

4096

Route Name

Text

92

4097

MGCP Script Response String

Text

93

4211

Originating VPN ID

Text

94

4212

Terminating VPN ID

Text

95

4213

Meter Pulses Received

Decimal

96

4214

Meter Pulses Sent

Decimal

97

4215

Charge Tariff Info

Decimal; CDE minimum length 8 characters, CDE maximum length 68 characters (MGC Billing Specification Rev 86)

98

4216

Advice of Charge Indicator

Decimal

99

4217

Short Call Indicator

Decimal

100

4218

Charge Limit Exceeded

Decimal

101

4219

CALL Recovered Indication

Decimal

102

4220

Partial CLI

Hex

103

4221

Service Activation

Decimal

104

4222

PRI AOC Invoke Type

Decimal

105

4223

PRI AOC - S Charge Information

Decimal; CDE minimum length 6 characters, CDE maximum length 68 characters (MGC Billing Specification Rev 86)

106

4224

PRI AOC - D Charge Information

Decimal; CDE minimum length 10characters, CDE maximum length 70 characters (MGC Billing Specification Rev 86)

107

4225

PRI AOC - E Charge Information

Decimal; CDE minimum length 10characters, CDE maximum length 70 characters (MGC Billing Specification Rev 86)

108

4226

PRI AOC Invoke Failure

Decimal

109

4227

Route Optimization/Path Replacement Action

Hexadecimal

110

4228

Route Optimization/Path Replacement call reference of associated call instance

Hexadecimal

111

4229

Route Optimization/Path Replacement trunk group information

Decimal

112

4230

Route Optimization/Path Replacement channel information

Decimal

113

4231

Route Optimization Switchover Timestamp

Decimal

114

4232

Rejecting Location Label

String

115

4233

Rejecting Location Label Direction

Hexadecimal

116

4236

H323 Destination

String

117

4237

Ingress Redirecting Number

String

118

4238

Currently undefined in BAMS 3.30

 

119

4239

Service Usage Data

Hexadecimal

120

4240

Indicates whether or not CNAM is invoked.

Decimal integer:

0 = NO QUERY

1 = QUERY

121

4242

Terminating Remote SIP Host

String

122

4243

Terminating Local SIP Host

String

123

4244

License Reject License Protocol

String

124

4245

License Rejecting Direction

Hexadecimal

125

4013

LRN number

String

126

2018

ANSI Egress Calling number Nature of Address

Hexadecimal

127

2019

ANSI Egress Redirecting number Nature of Address

Hexadecimal

128

2020

ANSI Egress Original Called Number Nature of Address

Hexadecimal

129

3018

ITU Egress Calling number Nature of Address

Hexadecimal

130

3019

ITU Egress Redirecting number Nature of Address

Hexadecimal

131

3020

ITU Egress Original Called Number Nature of Address

Hexadecimal


Redirecting Number and Display Name Enhancement

The Redirecting number and Display name enhancement enables the Cisco BAMS software to deposit Display Name (tag 4059) to Extendable ASCII output.

Operational Measurements

Defining Bucket Size

The bucket size refers to the measurements interval that is set up during installation through use of the NODEPARMS tag ID.

To change the system settings for the measurement intervals, for example, to take measurements every 5 minutes, you can update the Node Parameters table.

Refer to the "Updating the Node Parameters Table" section for further details.

Setting Up the TCA Table

Use the TCA-TBL tag ID to set up the Threshold Crossing Alarms (TCA) table. The table is used to define the types of measurements that BAMS traps and makes available to downstream processes. Refer to the "TCA-TBL Tag ID" section for TCA-TBL tag ID field names, and to Chapter 12 "Obtaining Measurements," for required values and a detailed description of the measuring process.

When a measurement threshold is crossed, an alarm is generated. This alarm is automatically cleared when the measurement statistics fall below the boundary. You set up the conditions to be monitored using the TCA-TBL tag ID. The following example shows which parameters you would set to achieve a specific result:

Objective

Generate a threshold alarm for trunk group 008 that exceeds 10 egress call attempts during a specified interval.

Parameters

id/trkgrp = 0

Egress call attempt condition = 3 (greater than)

Egress call attempt value = 10

Result

A threshold alarm is generated every time the call attempts exceed 10 in the interval. This alarm is set only once until it is cleared. It is cleared when the number of egress call attempts in the measurement interval drops below 10.



Note Set up only those measurement conditions in the TCA table that you are interested in monitoring (that is, not all table values need to be provisioned).