[OpenSIPS-Users] OpenSIPS-CGRateS Integration

[Dan Christian Bogos]

Hey Guys,

We have completed these days the integration between OpenSIPS and CGRateS.

I would like to ask your opinion on the approach we took, maybe you can 
find lacks or ways to improve.

General concepts:

  * We use 2 modules in OpenSIPS: event_datagram to generate packets 
from OpenSIPS -> CGRateS and mi_datagram to generate packets from 
CGRateS -> OpenSIPS.
  * In order to detect OpenSIPS being up, we dynamically subscribe 
events handled by CGRateS every x interval (configurable to nanoseconds 
if required). On subscriptions not replied after a configurable number 
of attempts, we shut down CGRateS SM component.
  * On OpenSIPS start/restart we have configured a special event, which 
will be sent to CGRateS and will reset the subscription loop.
  * We make use of 2 events: E_CGR_AUTHORIZE (custom made using 
raise_event, serving the purpose of authorizing the INVITEs considering 
credit control) and E_ACC_CDR (which will generate CDR and process it 
further in CGRateS for storing/charging purposes).
  * For feeding data back and process it in the script we use 
cache_local with keys prefixed by callid+fromtag.
  * We are able to handle 3 different charging modes out of 4 supported 
by CGRateS: pseudoprepaid (prepaid out of CDRs), postpaid (keeping the 
account balances), rated (rate CDRs only, not involving accounting 
subsystem/balances). Full prepaid support (with debit loops) is planned 
in the near future and maybe there we can agree about the best approach.

About call flow:

  * On INVITE, for pseudoprepaid/prepaid accounts, we will raise the 
E_CGR_AUTHORIZE event and process it inside CGRateS. On insufficient 
balance or controller errors, we will set a variable 
(accid+fromtag+cgr_notify) inside cache_local. We block the INVITE in 
the script using while+usleep function until we are able to read an 
answer or timeout. In case of no errors, we will set the $DLG_timeout 
variable to the accid+fromtag+cgr_maxdur value received from CGRateS 
again via local cache.
  * On call completion/BYE an automated E_ACC_CDR is being raised by 
OpenSIPS and due to our automatic subscriptions this will reach CGRateS 
SessionManager which will process it (store, rate, debit balances in 
case of pseudoprepaid/postpaid accounts).

The whole setup works fine for us and we will be able to demo it on 
Monday at OpenSIPS Summit in Chicago.

The basic configuration we have used  in our tests is here:
https://github.com/cgrates/cgrates/blob/master/data/opensips/etc/opensips/opensips.cfg

Would be interested to hear your feedback!

Thanks,
DanB
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