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This document describes the Answer Supervision Reporting feature that is introduced in Cisco IOS Release 12.1(1)T. This document contains the following sections:
The Answer Supervision Report feature is an enhancement to the information request (IRR) Registration, Admission, and Status protocol (RAS) message that enables Gatekeepers to maintain call accounting information by reporting the call connection time of connected calls to the Gatekeeper.
In H.323 configurations, direct call-routed signaling is utilized by the endpoint (Gateway). Gatekeepers do not have real-time knowledge or control over the state of a call and are dependent on the endpoints to provide them the necessary real-time information, such as the call connect time, call termination time, and call termination reason.
When a call ends, the Gateway sends a Disengage Request (DRQ) message with the BillingInformationToken (which contains the duration of the call) to the Gatekeeper. However, if the Gatekeeper does not receive the DRQ message for some reason, the Gatekeeper will not have the information about when the call started or the duration of the call, which is necessary to maintain accounting information.
The Answer Supervision Reporting feature addresses the need to report the call connection time to the Gatekeeper upon the connection of a call and at periodic intervals thereafter. The Answer Supervisor Reporting feature adds a proprietary Cisco parameter, the call connection time parameter, to the perCallInfo parameter in the nonStandardData field, which is located in the IRR message. When a CONNECT message is received, the originating Gateway sends the unsolicited IRR message to its Gatekeeper. On sending a CONNECT message, the terminating Gateway sends the unsolicited IRR message to its Gatekeeper. If the admission confirmation (ACF) message has a nonzero value for the IRR frequency parameter, the Gateway sends the unsolicited IRR message to its Gatekeeper at periodic intervals, which are determined by the value in the IRRfrequency parameter.
With the exception of containing the call connection time in the perCallInfo parameter, the IRR message and its functionality remains the same.
The Answer Supervision Reporting feature enables Gateways to maintain information about when a call was connected and the duration of a call for accounting purposes.
The Answer Supervision Reporting feature is related to the H.323 VoIP Gatekeeper for Cisco Access Platforms feature.
The Answer Supervisor Reporting feature is supported on any existing Cisco IOS Gatekeeper platform, including the following:
Standards
No new or modified standards are supported by this feature.
MIBs
No new or modified MIBs are supported by this feature.
For descriptions of supported MIBs and how to use MIBs, see the Cisco MIB web site on CCO at http://www.cisco.com/public/sw-center/netmgmt/cmtk/mibs.shtml.
RFCs
No new or modified RFCs are supported by this feature.
The Answer Supervision Reporting feature requires the Cisco H.323 VoIP Gatekeeper for Cisco Access Platforms feature.
There are no configuration tasks for the Answer Supervision Reporting feature.
Because there are no configuration tasks associated with the Answer Supervision Reporting feature, no configuration examples are provided.
There are no new or modified commands for the Answer Supervision Reporting feature.
There are no new or modified Debug commands supported by the Answer Supervision Reporting feature.
ACF---A RAS message sent as an admissions confirmation.
endpoint---H.323 terminal or gateway. An endpoint can call and be called. It generates and terminates the information stream.
E.164---ITU-T recommendation for international telecommunication numbering, especially in ISDN, BISDN, and SMDS. An evolution of standard telephone numbers.
gatekeeper---A gatekeeper maintains a registry of devices in the multimedia network. The devices register with the gatekeeper at startup, and request admission to a call from the gatekeeper.
The gatekeeper is a H.323 entity on the LAN that provides address translation and control access to the LAN for H.323 terminals and gateways. The gatekeeper may provide other services to the H.323 terminals and gateways, such as bandwidth management and locating gateways.
gateway---A gateway allows H.323 terminals to communicate with non-H.323 terminals by converting protocols. A gateway is the point at which a circuit-switched call is encoded and repackaged into IP packets.
A H.323 gateway is an endpoint on the LAN that provides real-time, two-way communications between H.323 terminals on the LAN and other ITU-T terminals in the WAN, or to another H.323 gateway.
GRJ---A RAS message sent as a gatekeeper rejection.
GRQ---A RAS message sent as a gatekeeper request.
H.323---An International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) standard that describes packet-based video, audio, and data conferencing. H.323 is an umbrella standard that describes the architecture of the conferencing system, and refers to a set of other standards (H.245, H.225.0, and Q.931) to describe its actual protocol.
IRR---A RAS message sent as an information request.
POTS---Plain old telephone service. Basic telephone service supplying standard single line telephones, telephone lines, and access to the PSTN.
PSTN---Public switched telephone network. PSTN refers to the local telephone company.
RAS---Registration, Admission, and Status protocol. This is the protocol that is used between endpoints and the gatekeeper to perform management functions. The RAS signaling function performs registration, admissions, bandwidth changes, status and disengage procedures between the VoIP gateway and the gatekeeper.
RRJ---A RAS message sent as a registration rejection.
RRQ---A RAS message sent as a registration request.
VoIP---Voice over IP. The ability to carry normal telephone-style voice over an IP-based Internet with POTS-like functionality, reliability, and voice quality. VoIP is a blanket term which generally refers to Cisco's standards based (H.323, etc.) approach to IP voice traffic.
Posted: Fri Mar 24 12:34:30 PST 2000
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