23 Jul
2005
23 Jul
'05
7:41 a.m.
Here is my two pence ( having just found a problem with my accounting ! ) :-
SER timestamps the first INVITE the same as the first ACK, so the start of
the call is correct.
The last BYE is timestamped with the end of the call. So the difference IS
the duration of the call.
The catch is that if your UA has session timers enabled, then they will send
out further INVITES to SER every 3 minutes in my case. SER responds with
additional ACKs. This is a mechanism to ensure the call stays up.
The problem is that you need to ignore all these other INVITEs and ACKs
which have the same called anyway.
So make sure you measure duration between the FIRST INVITE and the last and
only BYE.
This caught me out for a bit ! !
Hope this helps.
Simon
ONSip.org Editor
-----Original Message-----
From: serusers-bounces(a)iptel.org [mailto:serusers-bounces@lists.iptel.org] On
Behalf Of Jon Mansey
Sent: 22 July 2005 20:11
To: serusers(a)lists.iptel.org
Subject: RE: Rv: Re: Rv: Re: [Serusers] accounting accuracy
Regarding accounting using INVITE, unless Im mistaken, the billable
talk-time of a call is between the ACK after the invite, ie when the call
actually goes live, and the BYE. If you bill from the INVITE, you would be
billing for ringing time also, maybe error messages etc.
Having said that I notice that SER accounting doesn't log the INVITE
immmediately as it is sent from the caller, it in fact logs it almost
simultaneously just before the ACK, so the difference in accounting is
probably minimal if your account is driven from the acc module and not from
the actual event.
This may not be your issue because you say the error is in favor of your
provider.
In order to tell which INVITEs resulted in billable calls, you have to do
missed-call accounting so as to ignore the invites that resulted in 4xx
failures. Only INVITE/ACK pairs with a matching BYE are billable.
jm
-----Original Message-----
From: serusers-bounces(a)lists.iptel.org
[mailto:serusers-bounces@lists.iptel.org] On Behalf Of Iqbal
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2005 11:51 AM
To: Nhadie
Cc: serusers(a)lists.iptel.org
Subject: Re: Rv: Re: Rv: Re: [Serusers] accounting accuracy
You can, but from what I have heard (when I looked at it a few months
ago) it was pretty useless, so I would avoid it.
If you have alot of BYE, then that is where the difference
is, all those
INVITES without a BYE you are not accounting for, but the gateway
provider always gets a BYE. Now you need to work out why you are not
getting the BYE, either the gateway is not sending them to
you, which I
find strange, or if they are sending you are not
recording...which again
is strange because you would either record none, OR all.
Maybe the calle is not hanging up the call for whatever
reason, if that
is the case no BYE will get sent, but what your gateway
provider should
do is to send you a BYE if their is a period of inactivity,
if they dont
, u might need to find other clever solutions, by using
session-timers,
to ask for re-invites from the user, and if you dont get
them, insert a
BYE yourself.
Iqbal
PS I have cc'd this to the list, just in case others have
similar problems,
Nhadie wrote:
able to send
provider will
call, time it
say it
cannot
happen.
>>>
>>>iqbal
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Nhadie wrote:
>>>
>>>>Hi list,
>>>>
>>>>I'm having problem with my accounting, I have a SIP
>server
and I'm
>>>
>>>
>>using a
>>
>>
>>>>commercial gateway provider where I can terminate
>calls. >>> >>>Unfortunately,
there's a big
more
minutes
diiference.
>>>>
>>>>For my billing system, i used the following fields
to
someone
told me
anyone
can
help me. TIA
>>>>
>>>>Regards
>>>>Nhadie
>>>>
>>>>_______________________________________________
>>>>Serusers mailing list
>>>>serusers(a)lists.iptel.org
>>>>http://lists.iptel.org/mailman/listinfo/serusers
>>>>
>>>>.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>.
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>
.
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I see some INVITES that doesn't have a BYE.
sip_status are 200 don't
know if that's a cmplete call are not, but there's really alot.
by the way it's in the favor of the provider, tough luck for me.
can I just simply implement an open source billing system?
like trabas
www.trabas.com.
--------- Mensagem Original --------
From: Iqbal <iqbal(a)gigo.co.uk>
To: Nhadie <nhadie(a)cbcpworld.com>
Cc: serusers(a)lists.iptel.org
Subject: Re: Rv: Re: [Serusers] accounting accuracy
Date: 23/07/05 10:35
>The fields seem to be correct at a first glance, as long as you are
>matching INVITE and BYE, it should be okay. I presume your not
>allowing users to do anything like call forwarding, if you are the
>accounting fields for that are slightly different.
>
>10% diff per month is alot, is it in the favour of the gateway...if
>its in your favour...dont tell anyone :-)
>
>Is the number of calls to a particular country add up, i.e
ser shows
>10 calls to India, does the gateway also, is
there a particular
>country destination which is showing the largest incorrect minutes.
>
>When you hang up a call, have u checked to see how quickly the BYE
>hits your acc table, and what the time stamp on it is,
especially if
>the callee hangs up, i.e the BYE comes from
the gateway. Do
you have
any
unmatched calls, i.e INVITES without a BYE, if so how
many.
>Any problems with power failures i.e endpoints not being a
BYE.
>Iqbal
>
>PS I haven't been knighted as yet, hence you dont need to call me
>Sir...but I am petitioning the Queen as soon as I get a chance :-)
>
>Nhadie wrote:
>
>>We are averaging 17000 minutes a month. The gateway give
us a
>weekly report that has number of minutes
per country, it's not
detailed per
>call.
>
>actually sir i'm more worried if it's a problem on my billing
system,
am I
>using the right fields to extract the
data?
>
>--------- Mensagem Original --------
>From: Iqbal &lt;iqbal(a)gigo.co.uk&gt;
>To: Nhadie &lt;nhadie(a)cbcpworld.com&gt;
>Cc: serusers(a)lists.iptel.org
>Subject: Re: [Serusers] accounting accuracy
>Date: 23/07/05 10:13
>
>
>
>>Hi
>>
>>Are you/is your provider rounding up/down the number of
minutes,
or do
>>you get raw CDR from them.
>>
>>1000 mins different out of how many total ?, and does the
gateway
show
>>>more than SER or less each time.
>>>
>>>Have you looked at one call, try making a test on
your
>>stop watch for 60 secs, and see
what ser shows and what the
gateway shows.
>>
>>I have run for sometime, and I havent really seen much
discrepancy
in
>>>the cdrs from upstream gateways...this is not to
discrepancy on the number of
minutes I
>>
>>
>see on
>
>
>>&gt;my billing system, compared to the billing of the
gateway
provider.
>>>
>>>
>>Every
>>
>>
>>>&gt;month there's always almost a thousand or get
the start of
>>
>>
>call,
>
>
>>&gt;sip_method=INVITE sip_status=200 and
username='username of
caller',
>>
>>
>then to
>
>
>>&gt;get the end of call, sip_method sip_callid totag and
fromtag. are
>>>
>>>
>>these
>>
>>
>>>&gt;correct?
>>>&gt;
>>>&gt;Am I doing something wrong there? Also I
need a B2BUA
>>>
>>>
>>for
>>
>>
>>>&gt;the calls to be accurate, is this true?Hope