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Cisco Media Gateway Controller Software Release 9 Billing Interface Guide
OL-1089-11
1
Billing Interfaces
This chapter describes the Cisco Media Gateway Controller (MGC) billing interface capabilities and its
call detail records (CDRs). This chapter is primarily a reference that contains the following sections:
• Billing Capabilities Overview, page 1-1
• Cisco MGC Billing Interfaces, page 1-19
Billing Capabilities Overview
The generic interface to the CDR dumper interface carries all the billing information in the form of call
detail blocks (CDBs). When the CDR dumper receives the CDB, it writes the record in the CDR file.
CDB generation is based on a point in call (PIC). The MGC predefines several PICs that can trigger the
generation of CDBs. Examples of PICs include Answered, Long Duration, and Released. For example,
the MGC triggers the generation of the Answered CDB when an Answer message (ANM for SS7) is
received.
Each CDB has a type associated with it that distinguishes the PIC.
CDB required events that are triggered are passed to the CDR manager module. When an event is
received, the action the CDR manager module takes is determined by its configuration. The CDR
manager module either handles or ignores the event.
System Interfaces
System interfaces vary according to the configuration. The configuration can be either dual MGC
(hot-standby) or standalone. The physical interface is described in the following section.
Physical Interface
The physical interface between the MGC and the mediation software (for example, Billing and
Measurements Server (BAMS)) relies on guaranteed delivery of the CDB information between both
MGCs. The interface consists of dual Ethernet links. Each link is physically isolated for redundancy.