General Operations
Generally, call accounting systems collect data from a key system, a PBX, iPBX, or Voice over IP (VOIP) gateway generated by service activity on all or selected phone extensions or devices. The system attaches costs and possibly revenues to that activity. Call accounting systems in the United States and its territories must cost and surcharge phone activity using metered rates structured round the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). More sophisticated call accounting systems will actually provision services on the PBX's and communications servers. Traditional PBX's send calling activity information out of a serial port or via a proprietary TCP/IP network service. The call accounting system has a capturing module or a capturing hardware device that is then able to store the data and feed data to and from the rating engine. More recent iPBX's provide access to information by retaining it in online data bases for extraction by external systems. The voice related data collected usually includes calling party, date, time, duration, destination party and authorization or account code. This data is sometimes called call detail recording (CDR) or station message detail recording (SMDR).
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