RALs
RALs is a standalone subsystem within CGRateS designed to handle two major tasks: Rating and Accounting. It is accessed via CGRateS RPC APIs.
Rating
Rating is the process responsible to attach costs to events.
The costs are calculated based on the input data defined within TariffPlans in the following sections:
RatingProfile
Binds the event via a fixed number of fields to a predefined RatingPlan. Configured via the following parameters:
- Tenant
The tenant on the platform (one can see the tenant as partition ID). Matched from event or inherited from JSON configuration.
- Category
Freeform field used to “categorize” the event. Matched from event or inherited from JSON configuration.
- Subject
Rating subject matched from the event. In most of the cases this equals with the Account using the service.
- ActivationTime
Date and time when the profile becomes active. There is no match before this date.
- RatingPlanID
Identifier of the RatingPlan assigned to the event.
- FallbackSubjects
List of rating subjects which will be searched in order in case of missing rates in case of defined RatingPlan. This list is only considered at first level of iteration (not considering FallbackSubjects within interations).
Note
One RatingProfile entry is composed out of a unique combination of Tenant + Category + Subject.
RatingPlan
Groups together rates per destination and relates them to event timing. Configured via the following parameters:
- ID
The tag uniquely idenfying each RatingPlan. There can be multiple entries grouped by the same ID.
- DestinationRatesID
The identifier of the DestinationRate set.
- TimingID
The itentifier of the Timing profile.
- Weight
Priority of matching rule (DestinationRatesID*+*TimingID). Higher value equals higher priority.
DestinationRate
Groups together destination with rate profiles and assigns them some properties used in the rating process. Configured via the following parameters:
- ID
The tag uniquely idenfying each DestinationRate profile. There can be multiple entries grouped by the same ID.
- DestinationsID
The identifier of the Destination profile.
- RatesID
The identifier of the Rate profile.
- RoundingMethod
Method used to round during float operations. Possible values:
- *up
Upsize towards next integer value (ie: 0.11 -> 0.2)
- *middle
Round at middle towards next integer value (ie: 0.11 -> 0.1, 0.16 -> 0.2)
- *down
Downsize towards next integer (ie: 0.19 -> 0.1).
- RoundingDecimals
Number of decimals after the comma to use when rounding floats.
- MaxCost
Maximum cost threshold for an event or session.
- MaxCostStrategy
The strategy used once the maximum cost is reached. Can be one of following options:
- *free
Anything above MaxCost is not charged
- *disconnect
The session is disconnected forcefully.
Destination
Groups list of prefixes under one Destination profile. Configured via the following parameters:
- ID
The tag uniquely idenfying each Destination profile. There can be multiple entries grouped by the same ID.
- Prefix
One prefix entry (can be also full destination string).
Rate
A Rate profile will contain all the individual rates applied for a matching event/session on a time interval. Configured via the following parameters:
- ID
The tag uniquely idenfying each Rate profile. There can be multiple entries grouped by the same ID.
- ConnectFee
One time charge applying when the session is opened.
- Rate
The rate applied for one rating increment.
- RateUnit
The unit raported to the usage received.
- RateIncrement
Splits the usage received into smaller increments.
- GroupIntervalStart
Activates the rate at specific usage within the event.
Timing
A Timing profile is giving time awarness to an event. Configured via the following parameters:
- ID
The tag uniquely idenfying each Timing profile.
- Years
List of years to match within the event. Defaults to the catch-all meta: *any.
- Months
List of months to match within the event. Defaults to the catch-all meta: *any.
- MonthDays
List of month days to match within the event. Defaults to the catch-all meta: *any.
- WeekDays
List of week days to match within the event as integer values. Special case for Sunday which matches for both 0 and 7.
- Time
The exact time to match (mostly as time start). Defined in the format: hh:mm:ss
Note
Due to optimization, CGRateS encapsulates and stores the rating information into just three objects: Destinations, RatingProfiles and RatingPlan (composed out of RatingPlan, DestinationRate, Rate and Timing objects).
Accounting
Accounting is the process of charging an Account on it’s Balances. The amount of charges is decided by either internal configuration of each Balance or calculated by Rating.
Account
Is the central unit of the Accounting. It contains the following fields:
- Tenant
The tenant to whom the account belogs.
- ID
The Account identifier which should be unique within a tenant. This should match with the event’s Account field.
- BalanceMap
The pool of Balances indexed by type.
- UnitCounters
Usage counters which are set out of thresholds defined in ActionTriggers
- AllowNegative
Allows authorization independent on credit available.
- UpdateTime
Set on each update in DataDB.
- Disabled
Marks the account as disabled, making it invisible to charging.
Balance
Is the unit container (wallet/bundle) of the Account. There can be unlimited number of Balances within one Account, groupped by their type.
The following BalanceTypes are supported:
- *voice
Coupled with voice calls, represents nanosecond units.
- *data
Coupled with data sessions, represents units of data (virtual units).
- *sms
Coupled with SMS events, represents number of SMS units.
- *mms
Coupled with MMS events, represents number of MMS units.
- *generic
Matching all types of events after specific ones, representing generic units (i.e., for each x *voice minutes, y *sms units, and z *data units will have their respective usage)
- *monetary
Matching all types of events after specific ones, representing monetary units (can be interpreted as virtual currency).
A Balance is made of the following fields:
- Uuid
Unique identifier within the system (unique hash generated for each Balance).
- ID
Idendificator configurable by the administrator. It is unique within an Account.
- Value
The Balance’s value.
- ExpirationDate
The expiration time of this Balance
- Weight
Used to prioritize matching balances for an event. The higher the Weight, the more priority for the Balance.
- DestinationIDs
List of Destination profiles this Balance will match for, considering event’s Destination field.
- RatingSubject
The rating subject this balance will use when calculating the cost.
This will match within RatingProfile. If the rating profile starts with character *, special cost will apply, without interogating Rating for it. The following metas are available:
- *zero$xdur
A *zero followed by a duration will be the equivalent of 0 cost, charged in increments of x duration (ie: *zero1m.
- *any
Points out to default (same as undefined). Defaults are set to *zero1s for voice and *zero1ns for everything else.
- Categories
List of event Category fields this Balance will match for.
- SharedGroup
Pointing towards a shared balance ID.
- TimingIDs
List of Timing profiles this Balance will match for, considering event’s AnswerTime field.
- Disabled
Makes the Balance invisible to charging.
- Factors
Used in case of of *generic BalanceType to specify the conversion factors for different type of events.
- Blocker
A blocking Balance will prevent processing further matching balances when empty.
ActionTrigger
Is a mechanism to monitor Balance values during live operation and react on changes based on configured thresholds and actions.
An ActionTrigger is made of the following attributes:
- ID
Identifier given by the administrator
- UniqueID
Per threshold identifier
- ThresholdType
Type of threshold configured. The following types are available:
- *min_balance
Matches when the Balance value is smaller.
- *max_balance
Matches when the Balance value is higher.
- *balance_expired
Matches if Balance is expired.
- *min_event_counter
Consider smaller aggregated values within event based on filters.
- *max_event_counter
Consider higher aggregated values within event based on filters.
- *min_balance_counter
Consider smaller Balance aggregated value based on filters.
- *max_balance_counter
Consider higher Balance aggregated value based on filters.
- ThresholdValue
The value of the threshold to match.
- Recurrent
Execute ActionTrigger multiple times.
- MinSleep
Sleep in between executes.
- ExpirationDate
Time when the ActionTrigger will expire.
- ActivationDate
Only consider the ActionTrigger starting with this time.
- Balance
Filters selecting the balance/-s to monitor.
- Weight
Priority in the chain. Higher values have more priority.
- ActionsID
Action profile to call on match.
- MinQueuedItems
Avoid false positives if the number of items hit is smaller than this.
- Executed
Marks the ActionTrigger as executed.
- LastExecutionTime
Time when the ActionTrigger was executed last.
Action
Actions are routines executed on demand (ie. by one of the three subsystems: SchedulerS, ThresholdS or ActionTriggers) or called by API by external scripts.
An *Action has the following parameters:
- ID
ActionSet identifier.
- ActionType
The type of action to execute. Can be one of the following:
- *log
Creates an entry in the log (either syslog or stdout).
- *reset_triggers
Reset the matching ActionTriggers
- *cdrlog
Creates a CDR entry (used for example when automatically charging DIDs). The content of the generated CDR entry can be customized within a special template which can be passed in ExtraParameters of the Action.
- *set_recurrent
Set the recurrent flag on the matching ActionTriggers.
- *unset_recurrent
Unset the recurrent flag on the matching ActionTriggers.
- *allow_negative
Set the AllowNegative flag on the Balance.
- *deny_negative
Unset the AllowNegative flag on the Balance.
- *reset_account
Re-init the Account by setting all of it’s Balance’s Value to 0 and re-initialize counters and ActionTriggers.
- *topup_reset
Reset the Balance matching the filters to 0 and add the top-up value to it.
- *topup
Add the value to the Balance matching the filters.
- *debit_reset
Reset the Balance matching the filters to 0 and debit the value from it.
- *debit
Debit the value from the Balance matching the filters.
- *reset_counters
Reset the Balance counters (used by ActionTriggers).
- *enable_account
Unset the Account Disabled flag.
- *disable_account
Set the Account Disabled flag.
- *http_post
Post data over HTTP protocol to configured HTTP URL.
- *http_post_async
Post data over HTTP protocol to configured HTTP URL without waiting for the feedback of the remote server.
- *mail_async
Send data to configured email address in extra parameters.
- *set_ddestinations
Update list of prefixes for destination ID starting with: *ddc out of StatS. Used in scenarios like autodiscovery of homezone prefixes.
- *remove_account
Removes the matching account from the system.
- *remove_balance
- *set_balance
Set the matching balances.
- *transfer_monetary_default
Transfer the value of the matching balances into the *default one.
- *cgr_rpc
Call a CGRateS API over RPC connection. The API call will be defined as template within the ExtraParameters.
- *topup_zero_negative
Set the the matching balances to topup value if they are negative.
- *set_expiry
Set the ExpirationDate for the matching balances.
- *publish_account
Publish the Account and each individual Balance to the ThresholdS.
- *publish_balance
Publish the matching Balances to the ThresholdS.
- *remove_session_costs
Removes entries from the StorDB.session_costs table. Additional filters can be specified within the ExtraParameters.
- *remove_expired
Removes expired balances of type matching the filter.
- *reset_account_cdr
Creates the account out of last CDR saved in StorDB matching the account details in the filter. The CDR should contain AccountSummary within it’s CostDetails.
Configuration
The RALs is configured within rals section from JSON configuration via the following parameters:
- enabled
Will enable starting of the service. Possible values: <true|false>.
- thresholds_conns
Connections towards ThresholdS component, used for Account notifications.
- stats_conns
Connections towards StatS component, used for Account ralated metrics.
- caches_conns
Connections towards CacheS used for data reloads.
- rp_subject_prefix_matching
Enabling prefix matching for rating Subject field.
- remove_expired
Enable automatic removal of expired Balances.
- max_computed_usage
Prevent usage rating calculations per type of records to avoid memory overload.
- max_increments
The maximum number of increments generated as part of rating calculations.
- balance_rating_subject
Default rating subject for balances, per balance type.
Use cases
Classic rater calculating costs for events using Rating.
Account bundles for fixed and mobile networks (xG) using Accounting.
Volume discounts in real-time using Accounting.
Fraud detection with automatic mitigation using ActionTriggers.