TM Forum - FAQ

Q:	What do IPDR and NDM-U stand for?
A:	IPDR stands for the Internet Protocol Detail Record, the name comes from the traditional telecom term CDR (Call Detail Record), used to record information about usage activity within the telecom infrastructure (such as a call completion).
	NDM-U stands for Network Data Management - Usage. It refers to a functional operation within the TM Forum's Telecom Operations Map (TOM). The NDM function (now in eTOM it is called Resource Data Collection & Distribution, a.k.a. RDC&D) collects data from devices and services in a service providers network. Usage refers to the type of data that is collected.
	IPDR.org used to be the non-profit organization that promotes use of the IPDR and other related standards. IPDR.org merged with TM Forum in 2007. The principle deliverable of IPDR are the IPDR specifications and related development tools.

Q:	How is the IPDR standard different than existing wireline standards?
A:	Ability to describe next-generation digital services. Billable attributes such as Quality of Service, Bandwidth, and Latency that never existed in the wireline world are easily supported by the IPDR technology.
	Ability to evolve on Internet time. One underlying premise of the IPDR approach is that the nature of the Internet is to create new, exciting services with new powerful features and capabilities 10x more rapidly than the wireline world. Thus, flexibility is a key requirement observed by the protocols.
	Standardization yet Protocol-independence. As vendors and standards wage a war to become the dominant interoperability platform, IPDR abstracts the content from the transport protocol in order to support any or all. Advanced capabilities such as discovery, real-time communication, and introspection can be supported as additional IPDR protocol implementations are published in new versions of the IPDR specifications.

Q:	Is the IPDR standard just for measuring IP packet switching?
A:	No. IPDR is intended to address all potentially billable layers of the OSI stack, including Application Services, Voice over IP, Electronic Mail, Authentication and Authorization, Internet Access, GPRS and WAP, Wholesale Services, Video on Demand Services, and more.

Q:	What is "IPDR Compliance"?
A:	Announced in Q3 of 2001 and started in Q1 of 2002, IPDR.org recognized vendors who have demonstrated interoperability using version 2.1 or higher of the IPDR specifications. Such vendors are permitted to announce and advertise their systems as "IPDR Compliant" ™. IPDR Compliant systems have a demonstrated ability to interoperate with a variety of other IPDR Compliant systems under multiple light-usage real-world scenarios.
	For more information, refer to the IPDR Compliance section on this web site.

Q:	What is the status of the IPDR documents?
A:	The IPDR specification document represents a set of work produced by the IPDR product delivery team and agreed upon by its members. In order to solicit broader review and understanding of the work done to date, it is released for public review shortly after ratification by the members.

Q:	How can I use IPDR today?
A:	Download the latest public version of the IPDR specification free of charge from the web site. The IPDR document lays a framework for a standard mechanism to exchange usage data between systems. The IPDR XML record structure and service definitions provide a means to begin representing service usage information in a consistent, self-describing, human readable format.

Q:	What are Service Specifications?
A:	Service Specifications define the fields that should be present in IPDRDocs for each class of service. For example, the usage data captured for a Voice over IP call is very different from a query made to a Content-hosting Application Service Provider, so each requires its own Service Specification. The formal definition language for Service Specifications is XML DTD's.
	Service Specifications are updated or inaugurated to reflect changes in industry practice and new-generation capabilities that can roll out every month in the Internet world.

Q:	Why was XML selected?
A:	XML is a proven industry standard formatting protocol that permits great flexibility without inhibiting real interoperability. XML is extensible and XML-based schemas may be mapped to other transport protocols in order to gain advantages that XML encoding does not enjoy (real-time, compactness, etc).

Q:	How do two systems communicate using the IPDR standards?
A:	For systems that are IPDR Compliant, communication should be as simple as configuring the servers to identify one another, possibly configuring the type of data to be monitored, and turning the systems on for operation. IPDRDocs will begin to flow between producing and consuming systems, permitting advanced business analysis or billing of detailed data from next-generation services.

Q:	How "real" are IPDR standards?
A:	IPDR.org has been in existence since 1999 and more than a dozen vendors have actual IPDR implementations "etched in code". Their systems are actually able to talk to each other and interoperate. The IPDR specifications represent a stable basis for developments.