[SR-Users] Prepaid billing solution for a service provider
Stefan Sayer
stefan.sayer at googlemail.com
Fri Jan 6 11:38:34 CET 2012
For completeness (as it has been mentioned in this thread):
SEMS SBC's pendant to dialog module API is the "SBC call control" API;
if you want to use a B2BUA (e.g. to enforce SST), briefly documented here:
http://git.sip-router.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=sems;a=blob;f=doc/Readme.sbc_call_control.txt
Stefan
o Daniel-Constantin Mierla on 01/06/2012 11:17 AM:
> Just to add here the option of using kamailio's dialog module to
> implement prepaid systems. It will be at signaling level (so no
> ivr/media capabilities), which can fit very well in many scenarios.
>
> If it is the case of 1 call per user at a time, then practically can
> be done from kamailio config only. When call starts, compute the max
> duration for that call based on caller/destination (e.g., call a
> stored procedure via sqlops) and set the dialog timeout to that
> duration. When call ends (BYE in main route or timeout route) update
> the credit accordingly.
>
> For many simultaneous calls, you can write a small module that uses
> the dialog API, to update the timeout of ongoing calls based on the
> costs for new calls.
>
> Also, dialog module can be used as a controller of the signaling,
> being handled by an external billing engine. When a call starts,
> inform the billing engine about it. When there is no more credit, the
> billing engine can send MI/RPC command (e.g., via xmlrpc) to end the call.
>
> Cheers,
> Daniel
>
> On 1/5/12 3:02 PM, Stoyan Mihaylov wrote:
>> Prepaid is very simple task. User must put some money in his
>> account. User selects target. You calculate how long could be the
>> call, and you dial target.
>> At the end of call - you calculate call, and you take money from user.
>> Complications - recharging account. There are lot of problems there,
>> mainly with security.
>> If you would like to allow your users to make more then 1
>> simultaneous call.
>> There are couple of things, you should decide:
>> 1. If you plane to offer some specific solution - then you should
>> select opensource project, or you even should start from scratch.
>> 2. You can look for problems with different solutions on market.
>>
>> "How I can choose the right solution" - mission impossible - in all
>> cases you will see later that there is may be some better solutions.
>> Best you can do is to select more or less good solution which will
>> do job you need.
>> Commercial products, in theory have better support. But they rely on
>> provider.
>> As you see with Kamailio - free products can rely on provider and
>> community, and you can get paid support, you also can easily (more
>> or less) switch supporter.
>> There are hosting solutions also, but I have no experience with them
>> at all.
>> My main experience is with freelance support for Asterisk through
>> ssh, and this is why I cant help with freeswitch. Best advantage of
>> Asterisk (except I know it better) is it allows any language for AGI
>> scripts, and with them you can do everything.
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 3:42 PM, Carlo Dimaggio
>> <jaasmailing at gmail.com <mailto:jaasmailing at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Stoyan,
>>
>> I prefer Freeswitch, but I know that Asterisk can do prepaid and
>> there are different prepaid solutions.
>> Anyway, as the prepaid server is a mission-critical component, I
>> would like to have your (and the community) opinion about the
>> preferred architecture and experiences about
>> opensource/commercial solution (advantages and drawbacks).
>> All the billing solution are good enough for a service provider
>> environment? How I can choose the right solution if all vendors
>> say that their solution is the best one? :)
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>>
>>
>> Il 05/01/12 13.18, Stoyan Mihaylov ha scritto:
>>> I can suggest using Asterisk for prepaid job.
>>> I mean you can use Kamailio and couple of Asterisk servers
>>> behind it to do prepaid. There are lot of prepaid solutions for
>>> Asterisk. But again, if I have to do it I will prefer my
>>> solution, or using parts from what is available.
>>> PS
>>> We did prepaid things for Asterisk.
>>>
>>> On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 1:08 PM, Carlo Dimaggio
>>> <jaasmailing at gmail.com <mailto:jaasmailing at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I'm working in a project for a service provider in which
>>> prepaid is an essential requirement. They have about 12000
>>> subscribers.
>>> The core infrastructure will be Kamailio+RTPProxy while I
>>> have some doubts about the prepaid feature. I'm thinking
>>> about a B2BUA (SEMS or Freeswitch) that is called if the
>>> user belong to a "prepaid group" and perform authorization
>>> and accounting; in this case the SIP flow could be:
>>> Kamailio -> B2BUA(Prepaid) -> Kamailio. Is a good choice?
>>>
>>> At the moment I cannot estimate the effort needed to
>>> develop this section (base prepaid feature) of the
>>> project... Do you have some hints?
>>>
>>> What are the prepaid solution implemented by you? Do you
>>> use your own developed solution or do you think that is
>>> better to choose a commercial solution (that provide also
>>> calling-card and other features)?
>>> I have seen some commercial products (Portabilling,
>>> Jerasoft/Bilberry, ...); what do you think about?
>>>
>>>
>>> Best Regards,
>>>
>>>
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>>>
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>>
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>
> --
> Daniel-Constantin Mierla --http://www.asipto.com
> http://linkedin.com/in/miconda -- http://twitter.com/miconda
>
>
>
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