Paradigm
The purpose of this testing session is to provide a realistic testing
environment for those companies who want to be IPDR Compliant™.
The IPDR Compliant™ Program recognizes those companies that support
the IPDR.org Network Data Management - Usage (NDM-U) specification.
It also provides guidance to the industry by making it easy for service
providers and other interested parties to learn more about the companies
that support the NDM-U. IPDR.org verifies compliance by observing the
successful exchange of IPDR Records (henceforth called IPDRs) between
applications operating within our test network. This webpage describes
the general requirements for participation, however, testing sessions
may have different formats and requirements.
Companies can participate as either a Producer or Consumer of IPDRs
(or in some cases both). A Producer (as defined in the NDM-U) is an
application that creates IPDRs. A Consumer is an application which takes
an IPDR, reads it, and performs some processing on it.
Basic Requirements
- Must support the creation or consumption of IPDRs, the details of
which specified in the NDM-U
v3.1
- Must support the XML encoding format (note: support for the XDR
encoding is strongly encouraged)
- Must support the IPDR.org file-based transfer protocol
- Must support one or more of the following service specifications:
- Must act as either a Producer or Consumer (or both) of IPDRs
- Must fill out and submit the following forms
Producers must meet three additional requirements
- Must be able to collect usage information from our networks for
one or more services
- Must be able to generate valid IPDRs
- Must be able to demonstrate that two or more Consumers can process
those records
Consumers must meet three additional requirements
- Must be able to read valid IPDRs
- Must be able to demonstrate that they can read IPDRs produced by
two or more Producers
- Must be able to apply some arbitrary processing to those IPDRs and
display the results
Services
Participating companies must support one or more of the following service
specifications: Streaming Media (as defined in the Streaming Media v3.0
specification) or Voice over IP (as defined in the Voice over IP v3.0
specification). The Interoperability Working Group has created two "Interop
Service Specification" documents which describe how these services
should be supported for the Compliance Program testing session. These
documents describe how the service will be deployed within the testing
network as well as describing the format of the log-files containing
the raw usage information for each of these services. The documents
also specify the content of IPDR records for these services. Both of
these documents also provide a concrete example concerning how the file
transfer protocol will be employed during this testing session to exchange
IPDRs between Producers and Consumers. Click on the links below to download
those specifications:
Enhancements have been made to the files containing the schemas for
the services of Streaming Media and Voice over IP. Click on links before
to obtain the latest version of the files:
Preparation
All companies that wish to participate in the IPDR Compliant™
Program must register for the next testing session, fill out the IPDR
Compliant™ forms, and return them via email to Ken
Sarno . The IPDR Compliant™ Application and IPDR Compliant™
Statement forms can be Click
here to download sample XML and XDR based IPDRs.
Consumers are strongly encouraged to download the aforementioned sample
documents and confirm that they can process them prior to attending
the testing session.
Producers are also required to be able to collect usage information
for services deployed within our test network. We have sample log-files
generated by the Dynamicsoft Proxy Server (for Voice over IP) and by
the Real Server 7.0 (for Streaming Media) collected at a previous testing
session. Click on the links below to download these ASCII files:
At the Testing Session
During the testing session companies are expected to hook up their
equipment to the IPDR.org provided network. Each company will be assigned
a range of IP addresses by IPDR.org.
Producers are further expected to set up any software which they require
to collect usage information either by processing network service applications
log-files or by monitoring (or probing) network traffic.
Consumers are expected to configure any software which they require
to process IPDRs and display the results in a human readable format
(for example a customer's bill).
Verifying Compliance
This section outlines the general requirements for IPDR Compliant™
status. Specific requirements will be determined for each session, and
testing sessions may have slightly different requirements.
A Producer will be considered IPDR Compliant™ if they fill out
the necessary IPDR Compliant™ forms, assert that they meet all
of the requirements specified above, and can demonstrate at an IPDR.org
sponsored testing session that two or more Consumer companies can process
99% or more of the XML-encoded IPDRs they produced at that testing session.
A Consumer will be considered IPDR Compliant™ if they fill out
the necessary IPDR compliant™ forms, assert that they meet all
of the requirements specified above, and can demonstrate at an IPDR.org
sponsored testing session that they can read and process 99% or more
of the IPDRs generated by two or more Producer companies.
Additionally, companies can also show support for the XDR encoding
scheme. This will be verified using the same technique as will be used
to verify support for the XML encoding.
In cases where a Consumer has difficulties reading IPDRs the IPDR.org
staff will attempt to ascertain the nature of the problem and suggest
changes which either the Producer or the Consumer could make to remedy
the problem.
IPDR.org will not as a rule be inspecting the IPDRs generated by Producers,
nor will we be subjecting those IPDRs to any pre-set tests. The only
measure of compliance being applied at this time is the ability of products
from multiple companies to exchange usage records using the IPDR.org
NDM-U data formats and file-based transfer protocol.
Please check back to this site for registration information and future
testing dates. In addition, if you have specific questions regarding
the program, send an email to compliant@ipdr.org.
The "IPDR Compliant" term/logo is a registered
trademark of IPDR.org, and is subject to restricted use (trademark pending).
When using the "IPDR Compliant" logo and/or term, companies
must create and publicly post an "IPDR Compliance Statement"
which specifies the NDM-U version and specific services for which they
were successfully tested (see template for format). When the logo is
used, the IPDR Compliance Statement must be referenced along with instructions
on how to obtain a copy of it. Failure to comply with any terms of the
IPDR Compliant program may result in loss of IPDR Compliant status and
legal recourse.
