| Usage Data Management for IP-based Services
| Overview | | Internet Protocol Detail Record (IPDR) technology enables the collection of metrics on user behaviour and simplifies integration of third-party applications. Service usage may be monitored and analyzed in order to bill a subscriber for their consumption (e.g., bandwidth used) or to manage service consumption, abusers of acceptable use policy, Quality of Service, or Quality of Experience. IPDR provides information about IP-based service usage, performance, and other activities as cost-effective, application-agnostic usage measurements and exchange requirements. IPDR’s flexibility is critical for next-generation services, whose usage requirements are difficult to predict and which may use a variety of complex accounting models. IPDR allows the operator to monitor service patterns and usage and to establish differentiated services or service levels, such as with different SLAs or prices. IPDR has applicability for capacity management, traffic analysis, user trending, revenue assurance, billing, digital advertising, and other use cases currently under exploration by TM Forum’s Cable Interest Group. IPDR records are created by cable modems, enhanced multimedia terminal adapters, set-top boxes, and other devices and are used by OSS and BSS applications. The IPDR specifications provide more robust data than can be captured with other standards. The IPDR specifications include
- Requirements for IPDR collection and encoding, and transport protocols to exchange IPDR records
- IPDR service specification design guidance
- Sample IPDR Service Definition Documents
CableLabs® has adopted IPDR/SP as a mandatory part of DOCSIS™ (Data over Cable Service Interface Specification) and OpenCable™. Other adoptions of IPDR have been made by ATIS, ANSI, SCTE, JCP, 3GPP, and ITU. The ongoing development and adoption of the IPDR specification is made through CableLabs® and TM Forum MSO member contributions. In addition to maintaining the IPDR technology standard, TM Forum hosts an IPDR Users Group that collaborates on implementation specific challenges.
To contribute to the evolution of the IPDR specifications, please join the Interface Program's Usage Data Management Team. You may also want to subscribe to the Usage Data Management discussion thread in the Interface Program on-line community and the IPDR User Group on-line community.
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| Business Benefits | | Easily implement usage-based billing by deploying industry standards
| Monitor service patterns and usage to increase revenue and manage operational efficiency | Bill for complex, next-generation IP-based services without lengthy development
| Gather usage data 95% faster than alternative methods | |
| Current Deliverables | - Document Set 1: IPDR Streaming Protocol Specification, IPDR/XDR Encoding Format, IPDR Service Specification Design Guide, and IPTV Usage Data Accounting Requirements
- Document Set 2: Business Solution Requirements and File Transfer mode protocol specifications into the TM Forum's standardized document repository
- Document Set 3: Key Service Specifications
- Reference Implementation for IPDR Streaming Protocol Specifications v2.1 and IPDR XDR Encoding Format v3.5
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