A new brew for IP detail records

IP pioneers within the IP Detail Record working group have embraced the challenge of defining an open standard for gathering and transferring IP-based transactions to billing, business and operations support systems.

Rather than muddle through the bureaucracy of a typical standards body, founding members Narus and AT&T built their own group. Following a July announcement at Billing World '99, the companies gathered billing, mediation, network equipment providers and consultants to create a standard format they hope will permeate the industry.

The group has bitten into an apple that may be difficult to swallow, but it's very ripe. Carriers are hunting for tools that will allow them to charge for IP services.

"Right now, carriers are assembling equipment that was never meant to be put together in that way and then bill for it," said Paul Hoff, senior manager of market development at Portal Software. "With a standard, we're allowing a huge market to grow up, which should grow the pie for everyone participating."

The difficulties that confront the IPDR group include building a standard that accommodates all the business processes and models and the multitude of interfaces and elements currently within the networks.

"It may be a lofty goal to see all of the requirements rolled into a data record. If we can target applications and business models, we may be able to define the content," said Kalyan Ramanathan, senior product marketing manager at Portal. "We're dealing with a fast-changing market, and we're trying to make a flexible system that will accept services that have not even been created yet."

Despite the momentous task before them, the 60 zealots from 20 companies seemed undaunted by the expansive goals or aggressive timeline set in the two-day meeting. Most seemed to take the final submission date in stride, confident in the flexibility of schedules.

To expedite the process, Narus' Stas Khirman presented a first draft of the IPDR to the group during the first day's meeting. But rather than acquiescing to Khirman's plan, the group chose to step back and describe a framework that showed where each company fit in, and created a common language. "[Khirman] presented a proposal that was too detailed for the group to accept. It was good work, but we needed to unravel it so that people could catch up with the assumptions," said Lee Rhodes, program manager for Hewlett-Packard's Smart Internet Usage. "We needed to get people to feel [that] they were participating rather than rubber stamping."

On the second day of meetings, the gathering divided into three subgroups to further define their focus and set goals in the areas of billing, protocol and analysis, and services and applications.

"At the moment, there's a noncompetitive attitude among the members," said Bill Gougler, director of business development at CiTR. "Vendors who look at maintaining their proprietary solutions could quickly be on the outside looking in."

To solidify its noncompetitive nature and speed the process, members will post their work on a shared Web site so that all can leverage the group's labor.

As the IPDR working group unfolded, inquisitive insiders were anxious to hear Xacct Technologies' take on the subject. While Narus and AT&T announced the IPDR effort, Xacct simultaneously launched its XacctReady Alliance, a group of billing companies that have partnered with Xacct to provide IP mediation for carriers.

"We have probably the most battlefield experience in this space. We've worked with 30 partners and integrated our engine [with their billing software]. It's a tough challenge, and the cause is noble, but the process is not easy," said Anil Uberoi, vice president of marketing at Xacct. "We will work on the standard, but we will also continue our one-on-one strategy because our customers need problems solved today. They have customers who are not going to wait for standards to happen."