[Kamailio-Users] prepaid system

[Luciano Afranllie]

On Wed, Dec 31, 2008 at 7:44 AM, Daniel-Constantin Mierla
<miconda at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> On 12/30/08 14:23, Luciano Afranllie wrote:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> I don't know if this has been discussed earlier but it would be nice
>> to point some key requirements for a system supporting prepaid users
>> and possible solutions to those requirements.
>> I think several of us is doing the same things so, we can benefit from
>> other experience and may be we can find a pattern (of course not
>> perfect and "fit all") for this problem using open source
>> alternatives.
>>
>> I am talking about something like this:
>>
>> - How to store and retrieve user category (postpaid, prepaid, etc).
>> LDAP, Radius, SER groups?
>>
>
> this is usually up to what you are more familiar to. If you go for sql-db
> system, then you should have in consideration the load_credentials feature
> provided by auth_db module. With that you can load attributes per user at
> authentication, saving one extra db query.
>
> As I am designed now my systems, I have dropped a lot of modules that were
> hiding behind sql queries, by using config file operations (via
> avp_db_query() and now, with trunk, via the new sqlops module). In this way
> I am not stuck to a predefined db structure and can use tricks that make the
> sql operation faster based on server side features. sqlops module makes
> possible to load caller and callee profiles in one query for each and keep
> them for entire route processing in memory, therefore, very fast access.
>>
>> - Callflows
>>
>
> Usually there are two scenarios
> 1) caller ----- proxy ----- b2bua ----- proxy ----- callee
> 2) caller ----- proxy ----- b2bua ----- pstn ----- callee
>
> First is when you do prepaid for voip-to-voip and you deal with NAT, also
> when you have kind of sbc for the second proxy. The second is the typical
> case for calls terminated to pstn.
>
>> - What IVR to use for user notifications (no credit, etc) and user
>> balance check?
>> Asterisk, SEMS, etc?
>>
>
> I use most of them. I go by default to Asterisk or FreeSWITCH, depending if
> it a more PBX-like service or carrier. SEMS is something I used a lot in the
> past.
>>
>> - How to enforce call tear down when credit is exhausted?
>> What B2BUA to use?
>>
>
> B2BUA, all listed above are good options in certain conditions. The most
> important aspect is to understand scaling vs features requirements.
>
>> - How to manage recharges?
>>
>
> Voucher cards + IVR is an option. Payment gateways (for credit cards) +
> their API.
>

Thanks Daniel for your ideas.

I just have a doubt about call flows (I made this question in another
thread but still it is not clear to me).

My understanding is the call comes into the proxy and it decides to
send the call to the b2bua if the caller is a prepaid user.
My question is, should the b2bua or the proxy make the final routing
decision? How does the b2bua know where to forward the call next? If
we use routing capabilities of the b2bua then we loose the ability to
use routing capabilities of the proxy.

Another approach I am thinking is one b2bua per destination so, if I
want to fw the call to gw01 then in the proxy I fw the call to
b2bua01, if I want to fw the call to gw02, then I fw the call to
b2bua02 and so on.

Regards and Happy new yer for everybody!
Luciano