QuantumSI News:
CCM CDR Collection Manager
QuantumSI's CDR Collection Manager drastically reduces the cost of collecting, archiving, and disseminating customer billing
data for telecommunications operators. QuantumSI is a proven leader in reliable data collection, distribution, and
management systems. Customers trust QuantumSI software to collect, archive, and distribute their critical data, such
as cellular billing records, in sites all around the world. QuantumSI's solutions are designed as mission-critical
applications, working reliably without the need for administrative care, ensuring critical enterprise information
is not lost.
Billing data is arguably one of the most important pieces of information for a telecommunications company. Yet
many companies use inefficient or non-automated means to collect billing data. This can result in slow turnarounds
to create bills, or potentially lost or duplicated data due to human error.
Worse yet the archiving retreival and searching paridigms of yesterday can't support real-time analysis, interactive customer searches,
or legally required retention obligations and also law enforcement and subpoenas
QuantumSI's CDR Collection Manager (CCM) reliably and automatically collects CDR/AMA billing data from a variety
of switch types, and manages the information for processing by a third party billing system.
CCM has been developed to work with many common switch types and protocol layers, and has been modularly designed
such that support for other equipment can be "plugged-in" without code changes. These layers
include pure X.25, XPT, and where supported numerous current TCP/IP (FTP,SFTP,SCP,SOAP,etc.) protocols
to the switch which allow harvesting of the generated CDR records.
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In the case of old legacy X.25 systems CCM's use of the QuantumSI's software XOT network protocol stack results in
drastically reduced hardware costs by allowing many X.25 applications to communicate over a standard ethernet WAN TCP/IP
infrastructure
The benefits of using CCM over conventional or home-spun methods:
The power of CCM technology brings all CDR data from remote and diverse telecommunication switches into one central location for processing. By encapsulating legacy standards like the X.25 along with current current IP based protocols CCM can manage a network of switches located anywhere in the world and still process and manage the data in one location.
The current release of CCM (3.0) provides support for the following switch types and protocols:
Switch Types:
- Nortel CDMA P-MSC
- Nortel DMS 100, 250, 500
- Nortel DPP
- Motorola EMX-2500
- Ericsson AXE
- Lucent 5ESS
Session-layer protocols
- BX.25 (aka AMATPS)
- AFT
- MFT
- XFR
- FTP
- SFTP
- SCP
Network-layer protocols:
- Legacy X.25 via XOT (TCP/IP)
- Legacy X.25 via SunLink card
- Legacy X.25 via HP9000/X.25 card
- TCP/IP
CCM can be configured by the user to mix and match any of the above switch types, session layer protocols, and
network layer protocols. The software has been developed such that new protocol layers can be developed and "plugged-in"
without modifying any of the existing CCM software.
The protocol choices, as well all other system parameters, are fully configurable via a Java-based GUI. The GUI
also allows you to bring CCMs up and down, monitor their collection state, view lists of collected files, and track
system status and problems.
CCM is unique among CDR billing collectors in that it encapsulates every access technique
ranging form the venerable B.X25 XOT protocol to new vendor connectors like SOAP via SSL.
However in the case of many legacy telecommunication switches (lacking Ethernet interfaces) they
communicate via X.25, but computers that talk X.25 require additional hardware (X.25 interface cards) for each
X.25 connection, plus an X.25 capable enterprise backbone. For example, if your system manages 20 switches, you
will need 20 X.25 cards and probably additional workstations and infrastructure to collect this information.
In these cases CCM uses XOT ("X.25 over TCP"), which encapsulates X.25 information within standard TCP/IP communication.
Thus, with a XOT-capable router (available from Cisco, ACT Networks, and others), CCM can communicate with potentially
hundreds of switches from a single workstation with only one standard ethernet interface.
There is often more than one use for the collected CDR data, such as fraud analysis or comparison analysis with a second billing house. CCM provides a "client" interface to the collected data, where each client can manage its own distinct or overlapping set of CDR data.
Like most QuantumSI products, CCM is hosted on fault tolerant RAID disk suites using data mirroring technology to drastically reduce the possibility of data loss. Data can also be mirrored across the enterprise.
Although CCM can run as a standalone system, it can also run as a peer in a larger network management system (NMS) such as Micromuse's Netcool and OSI's NetExpert systems. For example CCM can be completely configured as a native Netcool "probe" or NetExpert "gateway", with all CCM parameters configurable as parameters. CCM can thus be brought up and down any operational status messages and/or alerts will appear in the Alert Window.
CCM's API both integrates with existing Quantum solutions for CDR analysis and allows custom solutions to be quickly deployed to meet specific customer needs. Quantum has developed a several different analysis modules the specifically meet widely varying customer performance and scalability requirements. All of Quantum's data analysis tools rely on QuantumSI's generic AMA API toolkit.
In the area of CDR analysis one approach simply can not meet every conceivable customer need at an efficient price point. Solutions based on QuantumSI's technology have resulted in four major backend storage implementations that automatically partition and/or populate the entire Call Detail Record or a specific defined subset of data:
Once data is present in a backend storage implementation the utilities or custom applications of the AMA API toolkit can examine the data to determine various measurements and trends useful for tracking call volume, call duration, termination type, customer service help desks, roaming settlement, and fraud analysis.
Like all QuantumSI products, CCM has been extensively tested for reliability. By strictly adhering to each session layer and network layer protocol, and by using well-organized local storage procedures, CCM ensures that data is not lost or duplicated.
CCM technology is currently collecting data 24 hours/day in systems worldwide, including Cablevision (Eastern United States), Metronet (Canada), Telebrasilia (Brazil), Mobi PCS (United States), IT&E (Guam & Saipan). It should be noted that many other companies base their CDR solutions on OEM software derived from Quantum's rock solid CDR collection technology.
Whether you need to archive store and analyze massive amounts of CDR data for internal purposes (billing, roaming settlement or fraud detection) or perhaps meet the growing legal burdens placed on carriers world wide such as Call Detail Records (CDR) Requests, Pen Register / Trap and Trace, Content Wiretaps, E911 Pings, E911 Verification, Tower Dumps, or Stingrays / IMSI Catchers - QuantumSI is your goto vendor.
Currently available (shipping two weeks ARO) in cost effective pre-configured systems for turn key deployments for both high end and low end situations:
LARGE configuration
Large Server: | Server: | Sun Server X4-2L running Solaris 11, OpenIndiana, or OmniOS |
(5-24 switches) | RDBMS: | Informix OWS/ODS 11.X/12.X, Oracle Database 9.X/10.X |
Storage: | Hardware RAID or ZFS Storage: SAS/SATA from 8TB to 48TB |
SMALL configuration
Small Server: | Server: | Sun Server X4-2L running Solaris 11, OpenIndiana, or OmniOS |
(1-4 switches) | RDBMS: | Informix OWS/ODS 11.X/12.X, Oracle Database 9.X/10.X |
Storage: | Hardware RAID or ZFS Storage: SAS/SATA from 4TB to 48TB |
For further information or a live demonstration of our CCM product suite, please contact the the Wireless Products Division at Quantum Systems Integrators,Inc. at (714) 428-1133.