Subject: Re: [Ieprep] requirements document(s) (Accounting)

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 22:39:58 EDT

In a message dated 10/10/2002 5:34:07 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
[email-masked] writes:

> I think it is a business issue.  If the carrier (circuit switched or packet 
> switched) is going to bill someone (end user or government entity) on the 
> basis of call volume (number, or number and duration), then a detailed 
> accounting record is needed by both parties.  if the carrier is going to 
> bill independent of call volume, detailed accounting may not be needed.
>  
> But I don't see that emergency services would need accounting any more or 
> less than other VOIP services (maybe slightly different accounting data if 
> one is generated).
>  
> The CSN itself will almost certainly generate a CDR.  But I don't think 
> that that, in itself, means that SIP needs to generate a CDR.
> 

[MAP] You are generally correct regarding "billing", but that is not the 
issue here.

When a network provides the capability for a user to place a voice call and 
get priority over others, including possible preemption, it must keep a 
record of the uses of that priority service. (Whether or not that record must 
include duration of the call may be open, but I'd bet they would want it.)

I believe this requirement exists no matter what technology is being used to 
transport the communications, whether circuit switched networks, packet 
networks, or carrier pigeons.

Mike Pierce
Artel

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From: Henning Schulzrinne <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 03:31:07 -0400

This is clearly good advice to operators, but not something that affects 
protocol design, as far as I can tell. If we were to write a BCP for 
operators of VoIP emergency services, this might be useful to include. 
As far as I know, we're not (at the moment).

> 
> When a network provides the capability for a user to place a voice call 
> and get priority over others, including possible preemption, it must 
> keep a record of the uses of that priority service. (Whether or not that 
> record must include duration of the call may be open, but I'd bet they 
> would want it.)
> 
> I believe this requirement exists no matter what technology is being 
> used to transport the communications, whether circuit switched networks, 
> packet networks, or carrier pigeons.
> 
> Mike Pierce
> Artel

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From: RJ Atkinson <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 08:22:31 -0400

On Thursday, Oct 10, 2002, at 22:39 America/Montreal, [email-masked] 
wrote:
> When a network provides the capability for a user to place a voice 
> call and get priority over others, including possible preemption, it 
> must keep a record of the uses of that priority service. (Whether or 
> not that record must include duration of the call may be open, but I'd 
> bet they would want it.)
>
> used to transport the communications, whether circuit switched 
> networks, packet networks, or carrier pigeons.

Disagree.  Here is a counter-example.

	A service provider might offer "routine" and "preferred" service using 
DiffServ
for packet marketing.  It likely will charge on a flat-rate basis for 
this,
with a customer falling into one of two categories:
		routine-only service
		routine-or-preferred service

	In this case, it would be up to the end-user to mark the DiffServ bits
correctly prior to the packet arriving at the service provider.  And
the service provider would probably merely configure the edge device
to re-write the DiffServ bits to "routine" for all customers having the
routine-only service offering.  Existing network equipment often has
this capability because this is what IP service providers have been 
asking
for over the past few years.

	I'll observe that today nearly all IP service providers primarily offer
flat-rate billing.  The next most common method (far less common than 
flat rate)
is to count the sum of the traffic moving through an interface over 
some unit of time
and charge based on a percentile (often 90 percentile) of that traffic 
count.
Most IP service providers do not have the capability to perform packet 
accounting today.
So if accounting is really a requirement, then this service will not be 
widely
available from IP service providers anytime soon.

	Note that in my example the IP service provider is deliberately not 
participating
in any application-layer services (e.g. VoIP).

Ran
[email-masked]