This solution addresses the needs of a cable system operator who needs to perform capacity management on a multi-service digital cable network.

Service elements are sometimes required (often via mediation systems) to export usage information to operations support systems (OSS) and business support systems (BSS).  This facilitates such activities such as accounting, capacity planning, revenue assurance, quality control, etc.  Though there are several other mechanisms for usage information export, they are becoming inadequate to support the evolving business requirements from Service Providers. 

For example, some of the export mechanisms are legacies of the telco world.  Typically usage information is stored in service elements as log files (e.g., CDR files), and exported to external systems in batches.  These are reliable methods; however, they do not meet the real-time, flexibility and high-performance requirements of today’s rapidly evolving data networks. 

The Internet Protocol Detail Record Organization (IPDR.org) business solution suite, including its streaming protocol, is designed to address these critical requirements.  This document defines the streaming protocol that enables efficient and reliable deliver of any data, mainly data records from service elements, to any systems, such as mediation systems and BSS/OSS.  The protocol is developed to address the critical needs for exporting high volume of data records from the service element with efficient use of network, storage and processing resources. 

The illustration below demonstrates the application of this interface for a cable system operator who needs to perform capacity management on a multi-service digital cable network. 

The Resource Usage Data Collection Solution Package provides a mechanism to collect data from various network elements using a push model, opposed to a traditional polling mechanism.  In this example, once the utilization data has been collected, it is handed off to a collector for processing by both multi-service capacity planning and OSS/BSS systems.

The IPDR Streaming protocol referenced in this solution is specifically designed for reliable export of usage data from a network element.  It offers features available from SNMP, RADIUS, Netflow, or any other alternative today:

Real-time and highly reliable at a low cost:
                Windowed application-level acknowledgement, tunable keep-alive, fail-over sequence boundaries, and other reliability features enable robustness at a low implementation cost.

Minimizes CPU and storage demands:

• Utilizes XDR (RFC 1832) binary format
• Capability negotiation eliminates unwanted details
• Event-based record generation permits optimized measurement algorithms

Widespread compatibility:

• 100% convertible to IPDR File
• Ensure compatibility with major BSS packages

The scope of the solution is any application of the IPDR.org technologies as implemented in a CableLabs® DOCSIS® SAMIS solution.

There are several layers of technology in play in this solution:

• TM Forum eTOM—elements of Fulfillment, Assurance, and Billing are addressed by this solution.  Fulfillment is addressed in that there is an implicit or explicit request for a unit of capacity which this solution Assures is available, and for which the Service Consumer may be Billed after the fact of delivering said capacity.
• IPDR.org Business Solution and Protocol
• CableLabs® DOCSIS® SAMIS