Retrieving CDR data from Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise (Alcatel-Lucent OXE) via FTP

The Tariscope Enterprise call accounting system and the Tariscope Provider billing system (SoftPI) can receive CDR data from the Alcatel-Lucent OXE using various PBX ports. This can be done over a local network or the Internet using TCP or FTP protocols, or via a serial port. The latter case is already quite outdated, so we will not consider it, although Tariscope also has such an option. A description of how to receive CDR data from Alcatel-Lucent OXE using TCP is given in the article "Alcatel-Lucent OXE. Receiving CDR via TCP in Tariscope". In the current article, we will consider how to configure Tariscope to receive CDR via FTP.

The Alcatel-Lucent OXE contains files named TAX-----.DAT. These are actually 7z archive files, so if you change the extension of this file from DAT to 7z, the file contents can be unzipped, for example, using the 7-Zip application.

Before starting Tariscope Observer (Observer), it is essential to correctly specify the date format used in CDR files for correct processing of CDR records. If the date format is specified incorrectly, errors will occur when processing CDR records and the data will not be entered into the Tariscope database.

To determine the date format, you need to unpack one of the CDR files (TAX*.DAT). An example of the unpacked file with the date and time value highlighted is shown in Figure 1.

 Figure 1

For the value displayed in Figure 1 in the PBX parameters shown in Figure 2, the following format should be selected: yyyyMMdd HH:mm:ss

Figure 2

Or, if you already have Observer running and it is receiving these files, select Current Data File (CDR/SMDR) from the Observer menu. The Service Log page will be displayed, where you can see the date and time format.

In the Tariscope system, both Tariscope Enterprise and Tariscope Provider, Observer modules are used to collect CDR (SMDR). To create a new Observer, select Data Collection/Observer -> Observer management in the Tariscope system menu. The Data Collection/Observer page will appear, where you can click the Add icon on the toolbar and select New Observer. The New Observer window will appear, where you need to enter its name, for example, Alcatel-Lucent OXE. In the window confirming the creation of the Observer, click the Settings button. As a result, the Tariscope Observer configuration page will appear, an example of which is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3

Creating a new Observer assumes that the user has already created and configured the PBX settings.

To select the created PBX in the Observer settings, click the "here" link and select the name of the created PBX. In the Data source list, select the FTP client value, and click the Data source configuration button to the right of the list. The Data source configuration window will be displayed, an example of which is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4

A feature of the FTP client settings for processing CDR files from Alcatel-Lucent OXE is the setting of the Unpack 7-zip switch. This means that the received files will be unpacked using the 7-zip archive. All other FTP client settings for receiving files from Alcatel-Lucent OXE are no different from those described in the document “Tariscope 4.6. Administrator Guide”.