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 Post subject: openser+a2b
PostPosted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:30 pm 
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Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 8:42 am
Posts: 53
Hi

can a2b support with openser

ram


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 11:24 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jun 19, 2006 5:14 pm
Posts: 218
let me try and answer your question ... I can just as easily say NO but let me walk you through the logic that makes me think it will be difficult for you to do OR how you might be able to do it

observations:


1. A2b stays in the media path of the call. meaning that a2b is not passive it is not called after the call is completed and say please compute the price. It is very active in the call. It calls asterisk trunks and uses the asterisk apis to accomplish lots of things ... so you can just throw out asterisk and use a2b

You could certainly use openser to do its SIP routing, NAT traversal, load balancing, authentiaction of the SIP device and pass the call to Asterisk as if Asterisk were the "pstn" portion of the switch. Then asterisk and a2b can dial, rate and bill the call.

But I would be hard pressed to see how a2b in its current state could work with openser by itself.

A2B is in the media path and uses asterisk APIs (AGI) to get the digits, say the prompts, dial the number etc....

so openser + asterisk + a2b would work Openser + a2b NO


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 6:46 am 
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Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2006 3:56 pm
Posts: 4065
Hi

OpenSER or SER has a number of advantages in terms of SIP registration over Asterisk, these are: -

1. For a given peice of hardware, SER can support many more registrations than Asterisk, but Asterisk can manage quite a few anyway, so not as bigger advantage as you might hope.

2. SER can load balance by sending say 20% of calls to one asterisk server and the other 80% somewhere else.

3. SER when combined with say MediaProxy sorts out all sorts of far end NAT problems, which are often experienced with just Asterisk. This is probably the main reason why it would be desirable to come up with a working config to combine A2Billing and SER, so that end users can use SIP devices behind all sorts of NAT without having to reconfigure firewalls and routers.


One way forward is to create a SER configuration that uses the SIP buddies table in A2Billing to authenticate its users. So SIP endpoints are registered to SER, not Asterisk, but in terms of adding new users and general management of customers, this should all be done in A2B.

When a SER registered SIP user wishes to make a call, the call is passed through to Asterisk, and the user recognised by A2Billing on the basis of their SIP address. (caller ID maybe?)

A2Billing then handles the routing and charging of the call.

Given that the A2Billing Database can support many Asterisk servers, and SER can deliver calls to different Asterisk servers, this would make for a highly scalable system.

So if anyone has intimate knowledge of SER, unfortunately I do not, then your challenge, should you chose to accept it, is to: -

1. Install OpenSER
2. Combine MediaProxy module into the installation
3. Create a config that uses the A2Billing SIP buddies MySQL table for SER authentication.
4. Get it to pass through calls to Asterisk so that they are securely and automatically identified and authenticated by A2Billing.

and finally, tell us how you did it with sample configs and plenty of documentation, or get as far as you can, tell us where you get stuck and maybe with a bit of combined knowledge, we can make this config work.

Any offers? I'm sure many would be grateful, including me.

Yours

Joe


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 4:38 am 
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Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 8:42 am
Posts: 53
Hi


thats very clear explanation and come to an idea of my design goals

Now i have to achive following things to make test server running and test.


1. Domain based kind of setup.
2. OpenSER Should send calls on Round Robin basis.
3. how can i dynamically get information to OpenSER, Which asterisks
giving more Accuracy. and send calls to that.

Intially on test lab to see all working or not
below is my configuaration to go about
your suggestions are welcome to change


|--Asterisk1-----Provider
USers--------------Openser| |a2b
|- Asterisk2----Providers



take example , my domain regsiteing xyx.com
openser registers the user
when the user make calls 1XXXXX
send calls to ast.xyz.com, this should happend round robin basis ( how can i do that, any examples)

Both Servers can interact with same A2B Server in real time ?

ram


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:04 am 
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Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2006 3:56 pm
Posts: 4065
Hi

As I understand it, yes, you can load balance using another openSER instance with the dispatcher module, or by using round-robin DNS, or dial plan routing and failover trunks.

However, I reckon that it is probably best to build a simple config as I described earlier, then we can build the bells and whistles on that.

e.g.

1. Get SIP endpoint to talk to openSER
2. SIP endoint authenticates to openSer based on A2Billing SIP buddies table.

Then make a call:-

1. Call picked up by Asterisk and identified/authenticated by A2Billing.
2. A2Billing passes call to Asterisk server and dials out on a trunk.
3. Check call was billed to the right person.

If we can find a config to do that reliably, then we should be able to sort out the rest of your requirements fairly easily using a number of different methods.

Which method is best to use to balance your outgoing calls will depend on what exactly we are trying to achieve.

Yours

Joe


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 7:02 am 
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Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 8:42 am
Posts: 53
Hi

thanks for the information

yes i belive i need to still dig the information about the users

view mode of both a2b and openser

that could be good idea,

when the users are registered, i am looking subecriber table of openser
even that can also can be mentioned when iam doing modparam

now the situation path identification.

like openser send calls to asterisk, and how does that path maintains.


any document 2 asterisk servers interact with one a2billing
or more asterisk servers and one a2b installation.

ram


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 4:48 am 
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Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:42 am
Posts: 21
This thread provided me a lot of information.

Last night i have successfully implemented Openser for register and send call to A2billing.

I use the LCR module in openser. put the a2billing ip as a gateway. call will then send to a2billing.

my idea to more then one a2billing boxes as below

1 openser, 2 x a2billing and 1 x mysql databse. 4 different boxes.

Now i am working on the sign up page on a2billing to have correct user details insert to oepnser subscriber table and somehow linked to the cc_card table in a2billing for correct billing.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:17 am 
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Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2006 3:56 pm
Posts: 4065
Hi Howard

Good effort - when you get it working, any chance of posing the appopriate .conf and .cfg files.

Quote:
Now i am working on the sign up page on a2billing to have correct user details insert to oepnser subscriber table and somehow linked to the cc_card table in a2billing for correct billing


Is it possible to use the sip_buddies table in A2Billling for the openser subscriber table, or at least a view of it in MySQL5?

This may make implemtation much easier.

Joe


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:40 am 
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Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:42 am
Posts: 21
hi jroper,

I will take your suggestion and see if i can work out a way. I am just a beginer to everything, so i may take some time to get an out put.

In regard of openser configuration, i use the configuration creater at http://www.sipwise.com.

I hope this will help everyone. Btw, if anyone want chinese IVR, I got my friend recorded for me, so anyone after the mandarin and cantonese IVR, please drop me an email.

myfourmnameAThowardtangDOTcom


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 5:45 pm 
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Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 8:42 am
Posts: 53
Hi

i would be greate to share some of your success

kindly post the config and setup diagram to take forward
others who are looking to deploy the same

ram


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:15 am 
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Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:42 am
Posts: 21
Hi All,

This is the diagram of what i am doing. I will try to post a step by step "instruction" on what i have done so far once i have time to do so.


Attachments:
openser_a2billing.jpeg
openser_a2billing.jpeg [ 29.31 KiB | Viewed 134273 times ]
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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 2:12 am 
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Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2006 3:56 pm
Posts: 4065
Dear Howard

This looks perfect.

So I imagine you are using OpenSer to both solve NAT problems with MediaProxy, and to load balance between the the A2Billing servers.

Using a single database server - that I assume you can cluster if you wanted to provide further redundancy.

Once in this state, then you should be able to add A2Billing servers ad infintum and with a decent internet connection, the A2Billing servers could be located anywhere in the world to make use of different SIP service providers.

I imagine that the issues to solve are as follows:-

1. Unified login - Sign up to A2Billing but authenticate your SIP endpoint to OpenSER. Looking at the openser database, you may have to add some fields to Sip_buddies - but I do not think that should affect the overall operation of A2Billing - but testing will prove this.

2. Authentication from OpenSER to A2Billing, but I suppose you could use the equivelant of CLI recognition for that, unless you have found something better?

I look forward to seeing the end results.

This must have been a lot of hard work from a standing start.

Joe


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 3:00 am 
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Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:42 am
Posts: 21
jroper wrote:
ct.

So I imagine you are using OpenSer to both solve NAT problems with MediaProxy, and to load balance between the the A2Billing servers.


Yes, I am using mediaproxy for user behind nat and that works very well. About load balance, i am not sure what is the right way to do. what i am doing now is call to usa/canada will go to a2billng 1, call to hong kong/china will go to a2billing 2. I set this on the LCR table in openser.

Quote:
1. Unified login - Sign up to A2Billing but authenticate your SIP endpoint to OpenSER. Looking at the openser database, you may have to add some fields to Sip_buddies - but I do not think that should affect the overall operation of A2Billing - but testing will prove this.

2. Authentication from OpenSER to A2Billing, but I suppose you could use the equivelant of CLI recognition for that, unless you have found something better?

Joe


This 2 points are what i am working on. I am thinking to have user to pick their own usename and password for openser, and openser will have a unique callerid when the call being sent to a2billing, then in the cc_callid table it map the callerid with the card account.

Still trying to work through this. I will post all my conf once i get it working.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 4:59 am 
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Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 8:42 am
Posts: 53
Hi

thats exactly the picture of setup
to handle more calls handling

but howard you are doing, prefix based routing
but it would be good doing round robin basis, so you have loadbalance
and failover for the same

I recomend user to register with OpenSER, and send calls to a2b

how are u doing with 2 a2billing with single database.
i have not come across any documents, found solution till now

my main achivement is billing, how are u doing billing for the user
centrally.. postpaid and prepaid.

ram


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 7:31 am 
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Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:42 am
Posts: 21
Hi Ramindia,

Please correct me if i am wrong (because i am very new to openser and a2billing).

What I have done in regard of billing for 2 a2billing boxes is to have the database configuration pointing to the same database using same username and password in a2billing.conf under asterisk.

[database]
hostname = mydb.server.com
port = 3306
user = a2billinguser
password = a2billing
dbname = mya2billing
dbtype = mysql


It seems to be working fine for me. Not sure if i have missed anything and the call volume i have is just 20 calls a day at the moment and mainly for my friends to make free call to Hong Kong. As a result, I cannot see if this will cause any problem.


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