Introduc tion to Cisco Resource Pool Manager Server

Cisco Resource Pool Manager Server (Cisco RPMS) communicates with the Resource Pool Manager (RPM) component of Cisco network access servers (NASes) to enable telephone companies and Internet service providers (ISPs) to centrally count, control, bill, and manage resources for wholesale (VPDN) and retail dial network services.

Cisco RPMS provides the following:

Customer shared resource management
Advanced wholesale (VPDN) services for enterprise accounts and ISPs
Efficient use of resources to offer different oversubscription ratios and dial service agreements
Combination of retail and wholesale services on the same NAS(es)

Figure 1-1: Cisco RPMS with DNIS, Domain Name, and Retail Service

Cisco RPMS offers three major functions:

Resource management—Uses the call type and DNIS number to accept or reject the call based on the customer profile session limits associated with the DNIS number. If the call is accepted, the call is assigned to a NAS resource.
Dial services—Determines how the call is handled after it is answered. The call can be authenticated locally or sent to a home gateway through a VPDN tunnel (using the DNIS number or a domain name).
Call discrimination—Prevents unapproved call types from accessing NAS resources. When a call is placed, the NAS sends the call type and dialed number information service (DNIS) to the Cisco RPMS. The Cisco RPMS compares this combination to the call discrimination table. If the call type/DNIS number combination appears in the table, it is rejected.

This document describes how to configure each of these functions to support different customer and service types on the same NASes. For a detailed explanation of Cisco RPMS concepts, see the Cisco Resource Pool Manager Server Solutions Guide.

Features

Customer Profiles

Cisco RPMS customer profiles are configurations that provide customer or service-based resource management and dial services.

Resource Management

Resource management determines whether calls are accepted or rejected before they are answered and which NAS resources they will use.

Resource management consists of customer profiles, DNIS groups, and resource groups. Customer profiles set session and overflow limits. DNIS groups contains lists of DNIS numbers that access the NASes using the selected customer profile. Resource groups contain pointers to resource groups on the NASes and modem strings (if applicable).

Cisco RPMS can simulaneously support the following types of resource management on the same NASes:

DNIS-based resource management—Uses the call type and DNIS number to accept or reject calls based on settings in the customer profile.
Default customer profile resource management—Accepts calls from all DNIS numbers that are not assigned to customer profiles.

Dial Services

Dial services determines how a call is handled after it is answered. The call can be sent to a home gateway through a VPDN tunnel or authenticated with the local AAA server.

Cisco RPMS can simultaneously support the following types of dial services on the same NASes:

DNIS VPDN Dial Service—Uses the DNIS number to build a VPDN tunnel
Domain Name VPDN Dial Service—Uses the domain name to build a VPDN tunnel
Local AAA Dial Service—Uses the local AAA server for authentication. Commonly used for retail Internet customers

Call Discrimination

Before answering, the NAS sends the DNIS number (the called telephone number) and the call type (speech, digital, V.110, V.120) of the incoming call to the Cisco RPMS.

The Cisco RPMS compares this DNIS number/call type combination against its call discrimination table. If the combination does not appear in the table, the call is accepted. If the combination appears in the table, the call is rejected.

For example, if someone attempts to make an ISDN call to a DNIS number and the DNIS number is not allowed to receive digital calls, the caller would receive a busy signal.

Report ing

Cisco RPMS reports display real-time data for network analysis and troubleshooting. Several different reports can be generated and displayed on screen, saved to disk, or printed.

Cisco RPMS can generate the following reports:

Call Reports
Customer Profile Reports
DNIS Reports
DNIS Group Reports
Domain Name Reports
IP Endpoint Reports
MLP Bundle Reports
Tunnel Reports
VPDN Group Reports
Recent Call Reports

Accou nting

Cisco RPMS supports two types of accounting: AAA accounting and call detail records. AAA accounting generates standard start and stop records for use with a AAA server. Call detail records store a record of each call in the .csv format which can be viewed with spreadsheet applications such as Microsoft Excel.

Table of Contents

Introduction to Cisco Resource Pool Manager Server