The article describes features of the Tariscope call accounting and billing system (SoftPI) settings and work with Avaya's PBXs (earlier Nortel's PBXs): Communication Server 1000, Meridian 1.

The article applies to the following systems:

• Communication Server 1000E (CS 1000E);

• Communication Server 1000M Single Group (CS 1000M SG);
• Communication Server 1000M Multi Group (CS 1000M MG);
• Meridian 1 PBX 11C Chassis (Meridian 1 11C Mini);
• Meridian 1 PBX 11C Cabinet ( Meridian 1 11C);
• Meridian 1 PBX 61C;
• Meridian 1 PBX 81C;
• Meridian 1 option 51C;
• as well as earlier versions of Meridian 1.

As you know, Communication Server 1000 (hereinafter CS 1000) is further development of the Meridian 1 family. Therefore, when we will   hereinafter refer on the CS 1000, we are actually will to keep in mind both the Communication Server 1000 family and the Meridian 1 family.

Work of call accounting and billing systems are based on the information from call detail records (CDR). The feature that generates such information is named Call Detail Recording. It has the same abbreviation: CDR. Learn more about CDR feature, set it up for the CS 1000 can read the Avaya's document.

Description of of features of Tariscope, regardless of the equipment with which Tariscope interacts, is available on the site.

The main features of Tariscope for CS 1000 and Meridian 1

1. The   Tariscope Enterprise call accounting system and the Tariscope Provider billing system  (hereinafter referred to as both systems will use the Tariscope name) relieve administrators of these systems from the need to study the structure of CDR format of CS 1000 to configure the equipment. Tariscope independently determines the used CDR format: old or new, one-, two-, three-or four-lines, and so on.
2. Tariscope processes and stores all fields of CDR format.
3. Tariscope correctly processes all types of records that are used in the CDR format of CS 1000.
4. Tariscope can receive CDR data from CS 1000 as a serial port, or via the TCP / IP.
5. CDR data processing is performed in real time and at any given time from previously saved CDR file.
6. Tariscope has the ability to manage CS 1000 by changing the parameters of the subscriber port when the subscriber exceeded the established for him limit on the specific voice type of traffic.
7. Tariscope correctly defines subscriber and charges of call costs for multiple appearance Prime DN.

Next, we discuss in more detail on each of these features.

Setting Tariscope for CS 1000

This article will not be considered all the Tariscope settings, required for its operation, but only those that are specific for the CS 1000. Details about the whole process of Tariscope setting see in the "Tariscope 3.4. Administrator's guide".

The following settings are specific to any equipment, including CS 1000:

• choice of equipment from which CDR are received;
• settings of parameters of Mediation system.

The Tariscope settings can be performed both the Tariscope Management program and the Tariscope program (earlier this program called the CDR Recasting). Both programs have the same features for settings of Tariscope but since the Tariscope program  also enables a number of other features, such as view of calls table, filtering call records, generation of reports and diagram of the routes and trunks traffic, and others, we is recommend to use the Tariscope program, as more integrated solution.

Run the Tariscope program.

If you have not been previously opened All applets tab, then select the Service menu  → Tariscope Management. The tab appears, similar to that shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

Choice of equipment

To define equipment from which Tariscope will receive and process CDR data you should create this equipment in Tariscope. 

In the All applets tree select the All nodes -> a required node -> Equipment, and create a new equipment. The program window will appear as in Figure 2.

Figure 2

Tariscope contains the finished filters for processing CDR data from a list of equipment that it supports, so the Tariscope user for most types of telecommunication equipment does not need to configure anything other than additional parameters.

In addition, Tariscope may even without knowledge of the equipment type, based on the results of the automatic analysis of the data structure, to determine what equipment they belong to, and correctly handle the data.

Thus the user has two options: leave the choice of equipment type on the billing system or to select himself.

Choice of equipment type is performed in the Equipment type list. For automatic selection should leave the Auto value.

If you wish select an equipment type yourself, click on the "..." button near the Equipment type list and select the "Avaya - Nortel Meridian 1, Communication Server 1000, Norstar 1 (SL-1)" item (Figure 3), then click on the "OK" button.

Figure 3

Click on the Advanced settings link (Figure 2). As a result the CDR configuration  window appears (Figure 4). The Advanced settings is not accessible when equipment type is Auto.

Figure 4

In the CDR configuration window you can check the required check boxes. 

Tariscope can store and process both all fields of CDR format of CS 1000 and only part of these fields that are usually use in majority of PBXs or exchanges. Information about the processed CDR data is displayed in the views of the Tariscope program. Detail information about, what is a view in Tariscope, you can see in the document. A list of fields that are displayed in the Tariscope view are shown in Table 1.

Table 1

Full description of CDR fields of CS 1000 you can see in the document. A list of CDR fields of CS 1000, which are not displayed in the Tariscope views, is shown in the Table 2.

Table 2

If you need information about fields from Table 2, you should check the Save full fields set check box in the CDR configuration window (Figure 4). As a result all CDR fields of CS 1000 will be stored in specific table of the Tariscope database. To view information of this table from one or group of entries, select the required entries in the Tariscope view and right-click. As a result the menu appears as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5

Click on the Record details item, the Call details window appears, which contains information on all CDR fields of CS 1000. The example of this window is shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6

Before receiving information on all CDR fields of CS 1000 you can use a filter of entries to select the required data. If you need in filtering on the fields which the Quick filter does not contains, you should use the Query Builder in Tariscope. A list of all tables and their fields are described in the Tariscope 3.4. Database catalog.

If in CS 1000 telephone has the CDMA class of service (CLS) that allows to external station activity records to be generated for the set, CS 1000 will generate D records (Station Activity). In most cases of CS 1000 configurations, the D records duplicate the same information that is reflected in other types of records. In this case we recommend to exclude D records from the treatment. You need to check the Ignore D records check box in the CDR configuration window (Figure 4).

If trunks have Answer Supervision capability, to differ outgoing calls that received an answer from those that did not receive an answer (in both cases records have N type i.e. normal record), we recommend to check the Mark calls without Answer Supervisor as unanswered check box (Figure 4).

Settings of Mediation system  

According to the document the CDR information is assembled by CS 1000 and sent through Serial Data Interface (SDI) ports to any EIA RS-232 compatible output. Indeed there is the undocumented possibility that allows to receive the CDR file from CDR buffer of CS 1000. Tariscope supports both options. But we advise to use the serial port. To receive call information from remote CS 1000 you can use the COM2LAN program by SoftPI company. This program is not included in Tariscope and it is purchased separately. COM2LAN provides data transmission from the serial port to an IP network and vice versa, can encrypt the transmitted data, as well as to buffer the data to a local hard disk, when failure occurs in the network, with theirs further transfer in restoring communications.

If you intend to use the serial port for CDR transmission, after creation of new equipment in Tariscope, click on the Create new profile here link (Figure 2). As a result in the applet tree, in the  Data collection/CDR Observer branch, the new profile is created, which has the same name as the new created equipment (Figure 7).

Figure 7

Click on the Configure link. The Profile window appears, where in the Input/Output tab the Serial port (COM) option was selected as Data source (Figure 8). 

Figure 8

Click on the Parameters link. In the appeared window, select the required parameters of the serial port, which must correspond to parameters of the serial port of CS 1000.

Click on the OK button to save parameters. 

The other parameters are configured the same way as for any other type of data source and in this article will not be considered. To do this, see the document.

In case you wish to receive CDR data via Rlogin protocol, in the Profile window, select the Rlogin or TCP/Telnet/Rlogin/SecureLogin items. The TCP/Telnet/Rlogin/SecureLogin selection should be selected, if you collect CDR through the COM2LAN program.  Click on the Parameters link. In the appeared window, type IP address of CS 1000 (in case of using RLogin), login and password, which are used to connect to CS 1000. In case of using TCP/Telnet/RLogin/SecureLogin, select the RLogin/Telnet/TCP protocol. In case of using the COM2LAN program with encryption, select the SecureLogin protocol.

To save data, click on the OK button.

The full description of other settings in the Profile window, see in the document .

Settings of subscriber's parameters

In addition to setting the parameters of equipment and CDR data collector for the CS 1000, may also be needed one specific settings. If the phones have the multiple appearance Prime DN, then to properly identify the subscriber, who has made or received a call, you must know the terminal number of telephone (TN), since TN information for such telephones exists in the CDR records.
Open the Tariscope Management tab in the Tariscope program (Figure 1). The tab will have a name corresponding to the current open page. If the tab has not been previously opened, in the program menu select: Service → Tariscope Management.
Select in the tree of management pages: All nodes → the required node → the required equipment → Subscribers.
Select the required subscriber, and select the Aux Ids tab in the Subscriber window as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9

Click on the Add button. The window appears as shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10

Type the terminal number (TN) in the Aux ID box. You should type TN in the next format: Loop.Shelf.Card.Unit
For example for Meridian 1 PBX 11C Cabinet you should use the following format: 005.0.00.02, where 005 – card number and 02 – unit number.
If you use Tariscope without the restriction feature, you do not need to select in the Type list box.
The Description box is for informational purposes and is not mandatory.
To save data, click on the OK button.
To analyze the CDR data with the terminal number, the Tariscope system searches the subscriber using its terminal number.
If you need to input a large number of terminal numbers and information about them contains, for example, the Excel file, we recommend using the import information from this file. Information on the import parameters of subscribers in the Tariscope database is described in detail in the Input of subscribers section of the Tariscope 3.4. Administrator's Guide document.
Information about the terminal number in the view of the Tariscope program is shown in the columns:

• Extended scr. - the terminal number of phone from which call was made,
• Extended dst. - the terminal number of phone on which call was made.

Accurate processing of all call types

CDR format of CS 1000 (Meridian 1) contains a wide set of record types. See the detail description of each call record type in the document. 

As a rule the main problems of other call accounting and billing systems appear in the time of processing of CDR data with S, X and E records. These records generate when a call is modified. Depending on settings of CS 1000 and the sequence of call modifications may be the following sequence of those types of records: 

1. S → E. The start and end records are generated. If a call has more than one a call transfers, information about intermediate call stages (Transfer records) is absent.
2. S → X → X → … → E. The call had  more than one a call transfers and information about all  intermediate call stages is stored in call detail records.
3. S → S → E. There two start and one end records.

CDR format of CS 1000 has no explicit identifiers which allow to easy define link between S record with X and E records that belong to the same call. Depending on what was the initial call type (incoming, outgoing, internal), to whom transferred the call - internal or external relative to the CS 1000 subscribers, the number of times a call transfer, there are over a dozen different rules to identify a record type (S, X, or E) to the same call. 

Tariscope correctly processes different options of call transfer, and associates such records using special identifier. The Tariscope user сфт see such records as Linked records . They highlight by a gray background in the view and display as Transfer in the Record column (Figure 11). 

Figure 11

Because the CDR records relating to the same call, can be separated by a large number of other records, for ease of analysis of such calls you can select one of the related records, click on the bottom at the right corner of the window in the Linked records row. As a result, the Linked records partition opens where all the CDR records relating to the same call display (see Figure 11).

Processing of CDR data from file

Tariscope can process CDR information not only that receive from a serial port but and CDR information which was saved in a file. This file can be created by any terminal program, which received CDR data from the serial port of CS 1000, or CDR Observer, CDR Monitor programs from Tariscope. The saved CDR files, which automatically are created by Tariscope for specific time period (day, week, month, year), can be useful for example when need to repeatedly process CDR data if the call database has any violations, to simulate the charges on the telephone calls if work via other telecom provides and etc.

To process CDR file you should use the Tariscope program. In the program you can use the current opened view with calls or create a new view. 

In the program menu, select Parse -> Transfer. The Equipment selection window appears. In the window all equipment, which was entered in Tariscope, is displayed. The example of this window is shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12

Select in the window the equipment name, data from which will be processed, and click on the OK button. The standard window for selection of file appears.

Select the required CDR file and click on the Open button. The window appears where you should select the year to which CDR data corresponds. This is due to the fact that the CDR format of CS 1000 does not contain data on the year. 

Click on the OK button. As a result the processing of CDR data will be performed. Depending on file size, computer settings and the current Tariscope server load of other tasks processing of CDR file may take a different time.

Management of CS 1000 to limit the users and routes

In Tariscope, as an option, there is a restriction feature, which allows enterprises actually to manage the charges on the telephone calls. This feature allows you to set a monthly limit in money or total duration of calls for specific subscriber or department on a particular type of traffic (international, mobile operators, etc.). At the expiration of the limit Tariscope can execute specific actions, for example, to change the class of service of the subscriber or subscriber's group, which would restrict them to make international or other type calls. Restriction feature can be applied not only to the subscribers and departments, but also for the routes. If necessary, you can set restrictions on a particular route, for which Tariscope execute a script, that, for example, turn off the route after exhausting limit.

For users of CS 1000 (Meridian 1) Tariscope includes scripts that provides the restriction feature. But in this case, the user can independently adjust the scripts to your needs.

More information about the restriction feature you can read in the Tariscope 3.4. Restriction feature and Management of enterprise budget on the telephone calls articles.

Since the setting of restriction feature for CS 1000 (Meridian 1) does not differ from similar settings for other devices, this paper will not be considered. See the Section 4.5 of the document.