Cisco press network management accounting and performance strategies jun 2007 ISBN 1587051982 (1)

Network standards, technologies, and Cisco solutions covered in depthinclude Simple Network Management Protocol SNMP and Management Information Bases MIB, Remote Monitoring RMON, IP acco

Network Management: Accounting and Performance Strategies

by Benoit Claise - CCIE No 2686; Ralf Wolter

Publisher: Cisco Press Pub Date: June 20, 2007 Print ISBN-10: 1-58705-198-2 Print ISBN-13: 978-1-58705-198-2 Pages: 672

Table of Contents | Index

Overview

Network Management: Accounting and Performance Strategies

The definitive guide to collecting usage information from Cisconetworks

Benoit Claise, CCIE® No 2868

Ralf Wolter

Understanding network performance and effectiveness is nowcrucial to business success To ensure user satisfaction, bothservice providers and enterprise IT teams must provide service-level agreements (SLA) to the users of their networksâand thenconsistently deliver on those commitments Now, two of theCisco® leading network performance and accounting expertsbring together all the knowledge network professionals need to

Benoit Claise and Ralf Wolter begin by introducing the role of

performance standards and definitions, along with today's bestpractice methodologies for data collection

Next, they turn to Cisco devices and the Cisco IOS Software,illuminating embedded management and device

instrumentation features that enable you to thoroughly

characterize performance, plan network enhancements, andanticipate potential problems and prevent them Network

standards, technologies, and Cisco solutions covered in depthinclude Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and

Management Information Bases (MIB), Remote Monitoring

(RMON), IP accounting, NetFlow, BGP policy accounting, AAAAccounting, Network Based Application Recognition (NBAR), and

IP SLA (formerly known as SAA) For each, the authors presentpractical examples and hands-on techniques

The book concludes with chapter-length scenarios that walk youthrough accounting and performance management for five

different applications: data network monitoring, capacity

planning, billing, security, and voice network performance

Network Management: Accounting and Performance Strategieswill be indispensable to every professional concerned with

network performance, effectiveness, or profitability, especiallyNMS/OSS architects, network and service designers, networkadministrators, and anyone responsible for network accounting

or billing

Benoit Claise, CCIE® No 2868, is a Cisco Distinguished

Engineer working as an architect for embedded managementand device instrumentation His area of expertise includes

accounting, performance, and fault management Claise is acontributor to the NetFlow standardization at the IETF in theIPFIX and PSAMP Working Groups He joined Cisco in 1996 as acustomer support engineer in the Technical Assistance Centernetwork management team and became an escalation engineerbefore joining the engineering team

He leads the Cisco Core and NMS/OSS consulting team for

Europe, works closely with corporate engineering, and supportslarge-scale customer projects He specializes in device

instrumentation related to accounting and performance

management

Compare accounting methods and choose the best approachfor you

Apply network performance best practices to your networkLeverage built-in Cisco IOS network management systemcomponents to quantify performance

Uncover trends in performance statistics to help avoid

service degradation before it occurs

Identify under use of network paths, so you can improveoverall network efficiency

Walk through hands-on case studies that address

monitoring, capacity planning, billing, security, and voicenetworks

Understand Cisco network performance, deliver on yourSLAs, and improve accounting and billing

This book is part of the Networking Technology Series from

Cisco Press®, which offers networking professionals valuableinformation for constructing efficient networks, understandingnew technologies, and building successful careers

Records

Security Considerations: How to Ensure Data Authenticityand Integrity

Summary

Chapter 3 Accounting and Performance Standards and

Definitions

Understanding Standards and Standards OrganizationsArchitectural and Framework Standards: The TMN/FCAPSModel (ITU-T)

Architectural and Framework Standards: the eTOM Model(TMF)

Informational IETF Standards

Information Modeling

Data Collection Protocols: SNMP, SMI, and MIB

Data Collection Protocols: NetFlow Version 9 and IPFIXExport Protocols

Data Collection Protocols: PSAMP

Data Collection Protocols: AAA (RADIUS, Diameter, andTACACS+)

MIB Functional Area Comparison Table

Technology-Specific MIBs for Accounting and PerformanceCreating New MIB Objects: EXPRESSION-MIB

Summary of All Four BGP Policy Accounting CombinationsFundamentals

permission from the publisher, except for the inclusion of briefquotations in a review

Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0First Printing June 2007

accurate as possible, but no warranty or fitness is implied

The information is provided on an "as is" basis The authors,Cisco Press, and Cisco Systems, Inc shall have neither liabilitynor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to anyloss or damages arising from the information contained in thisbook or from the use of the discs or programs that may

accompany it

The opinions expressed in this book belong to the authors andare not necessarily those of Cisco Systems, Inc

Corporate and Government Sales

The publisher offers excellent discounts on this book when

ordered in quantity for bulk purchases or special sales, whichmay include electronic versions and/or custom covers and

content particular to your business, training goals, marketingfocus, and branding interests For more information, pleasecontact:

trademark or service mark

RFC 4150, Transport Performance Metrics MIB Copyright © The

Internet Society, 2005

RFC 4710, Real-time Application Quality-of-Service Monitoring (RAQMON) Framework Copyright © The Internet Society,

Feedback Information

At Cisco Press, our goal is to create in-depth technical books ofthe highest quality and value Each book is crafted with careand precision, undergoing rigorous development that involvesthe unique expertise of members of the professional technicalcommunity

Reader feedback is a natural continuation of this process If youhave any comments about how we could improve the quality ofthis book, or otherwise alter it to better suit your needs, youcan contact us through e-mail at feedback@ciscopress.com.Please be sure to include the book title and ISBN in your

Tychon, Jan Bollen, MichaelBehringer

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc All rights reserved CCVP, the Ciscologo, and the Cisco Square Bridge logo are trademarks of CiscoSystems, Inc.; Changing the Way We Work, Live, Play, and

SlideCast, SMARTnet, StackWise, The Fastest Way to IncreaseYour Internet Quotient, and TransPath are registered

trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc and/or its affiliates in theUnited States and certain other countries

All other trademarks mentioned in this document or Website arethe property of their respective owners The use of the wordpartner does not imply a partnership relationship between Ciscoand any other company (0609R)

Dedications

Benoit:

First, and most important, I would like to thank my family fortheir ongoing support during the very long journey of writingthis book Expressed differently: "Lore, Julien, and Jocelyne,please accept my apologies for the multiple evenings and

weekends I should have spent with you."

I also would like to thank Luc David and Frank Van Steenwinkel

—respectively, my manager and director when I was at the

Technical Assistance Center—for giving me the freedom to dowhat is important

Finally, I express my gratitude to the numerous people who

encouraged me during the first stage of the project and

throughout the completion of the book: some by reviewing thetext, some by testing in the lab, and some simply for offeringkind words Special thanks for the always-positive attitude ofRalf, my coauthor

Ralf:

First, I thank my wife Miriam for her love and patience duringthe course of this book Without her commitment to me and thekids, I would not have been able to succeed in my professionallife, and this book would have remained a nice dream Instead,

Henry, for releasing me during uncountable weekend hours I'mlooking forward to the day when they can read and understandthis book

Next, I want to thank my coauthor, Benoit, for his commitmentand for constantly reminding me that quality and consistencycannot be neglected, even for the price of missing a deadline.Taking this journey together is an experience I will never forget.Finally, and certainly most important of all, I give all thanks toGod the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for all that I am

Benoit Claise, CCIE No 2686, is a Cisco Distinguished

Engineer working as an architect for embedded managementand device instrumentation His area of expertise includes

accounting, performance, and fault management Claise is acontributor to the NetFlow standardization at the IETF in theIPFIX and PSAMP working groups He joined Cisco in 1996 as acustomer support engineer in the Technical Assistance Centernetwork management team He then became an escalation

systems engineer He has provided technical leadership for

many large network management projects in Europe, the MiddleEast, and Africa Before his current position, he worked as anetworking consultant at AT&T/NCR, focusing on the design andmanagement of data networks

Dr Alexander Clemm is a senior architect with Cisco He has

been involved with integrated management of networked

systems and services since 1990 He has provided technicalleadership for many leading-edge network management

development, architecture, and engineering efforts, from

conception to delivery to the customer His current

responsibilities involve embedded management and

instrumentation of devices for management purposes OutsideCisco, Clemm is on the organizing or technical committees ofthe major IEEE management-related conferences He is the

author of the Cisco Press book Network Management

Fundamentals.

Chris Elliott, CCIE No 2013 in Routing and Switching, has

recertified in NMS and security, among other topics He hasextensive expertise in all aspects of networking, starting 30years ago with ARPAnet He has focused on network

management for the last 17 years and is involved in severalIETF protocol standardization efforts He is the author of the

Enhancement and Response Team (PERT), a service addressingend-to-end performance issues experienced by research

network users

John Strassner is a Motorola fellow He is also the Director of

responsible for directing Motorola's efforts in autonomic

computing, policy management, knowledge engineering andidentity management Previously, John was the chief strategyofficer for Intelliden and a former Cisco fellow John inventedDEN (Directory Enabled Networks) and DEN-ng as a new

paradigm for managing and provisioning networks and

chair of the Reconfigurability and Autonomics working group ofthe WWRF He is the past chair of the TMF's NGOSS metamodel,policy, and Shared Information and Data modeling work groups,

networked applications John is the chair of the ACF and vice-as well as being active in the ITU, OMG, and OASIS He hasauthored two books (Directory Enabled Networks and PolicyBased Network Management), written chapters for three otherbooks, and has authored over 145 refereed journal and

conference publications Finally, he is an associate professor atWaterford Institute of Technology in Ireland

This book is the result of a team effort, finally during the writingand before throughout years of teamwork and cooperation indriving the technology We would like to acknowledge those whomade it possible to write this book

A big thank-you goes to several Cisco colleagues for their

support, encouragement, and constructive feedback during thereviews, especially Marisol Palmero for the Data-Collection MIB,Bulk-MIB, and NBAR; Emmanuel Tychon for IP SLA; Alex Clemmfor the scenarios; Jan Bollen for voice management; MichaelBehringer for security; Chris Elliot for SNMP; Greg Weber forIPDR; and Stuart Parham for lab support Their professionalinput helped add the missing pieces

We would like to say a special thank you to Simon Leinen andJohn Strassner for their due diligence and encouragement

during the writing and reviewing of the book We really

appreciate your constructive feedback!

A special thanks to our senior development editor, ChristopherCleveland, for the right combination of pushing and patience,and to our executive editor, Mary Beth Ray, for being flexibleand always supportive and encouraging

[View full size image]

The conventions used to present command syntax in this bookare the same conventions used in the IOS Command Reference.The Command Reference describes these conventions as

follows:

Bold indicates commands and keywords that are entered

literally as shown In configuration examples and output(not general command syntax), bold indicates commands

Square brackets ([ ]) indicate an optional element

Braces ({ }) indicate a required choice

Braces within brackets ([{ }]) indicate a required choicewithin an optional element

For today's network operators, understanding the performanceand effectiveness of their networks is critical to business

success The age of largely overprovisioning networks to boostbandwidth already seems like the distant past The economicclimate has moved toward maximizing the return on investmentinto the network infrastructure At the same time, as the wideadoption of network applications seamlessly converges

business-critical data, voice, and video into the same networkinfrastructure, any performance degradation and downtime cancost businesses tens of thousands of dollars each hour In

addition to performance issues caused by failures, outages, andmisconfigurations, peer-to-peer traffic increases almost daily.From a business perspective, enterprises need to ensure thatbusiness-critical applications receive proper treatment, defined

by a service-level agreement (SLA), and keep the networkinginfrastructure in an appropriate balance between costs and

benefits Service providers generate revenue by delivering

connectivity, potentially bundled with value-added services.They can differentiate themselves either through cheaper prices

or by offering their customers better SLAs, proactively

monitoring them, and notifying customers about outages andpotential bottlenecks From the enterprise perspective, this is amajor step toward increasing application reliability and

through accounting and performance management There is aclose relationship between accounting and performance

management, which is the justification for combining these two

This book's focus is on accounting and performance device

instrumentation It delves into the details of the Cisco devicefeatures related to accounting and performance management,with limited emphasis on applications, mediation devices, andhigher-level functions Accounting and performance

management help you understand these data collection

concepts and distinguish the different methods In addition,detailed guidance and scenarios help you apply these concepts

performance management, and to illustrate these with real-knowledge in your own network

This book can be a reference for experts as well as a "read itall" book for beginners Its objectives are as follows:

To help you understand the relationship between accountingand performance and to teach you how to use them in

conjunction with each other

To address both enterprises and service providers Basically,both groups can collect similar types of data with potentiallythe same accounting features, while targeting different

goals An example is gathering NetFlow data for monitoringpurposes for an enterprise customer while a service

to solve

To briefly describe accounting and performance scenariosand examples, such as IP telephony, security, traffic

engineering, and billing

Who Should Read This Book?

To get the most out of this book, you should have a basic

understanding of NMS and OSS concepts and be familiar withthe command-line interface of Cisco devices The primary

strategies

How This Book Is Organized

When developing the outline for this book, we had two differentgroups of readers in mind: beginners and experts You can readthis book from cover to cover and get a good understanding ofaccounting and performance management You also will learnhow to implement the described solutions in your network Thechapter structure follows a logical path for newcomers to

accounting and performance management If you are alreadyfamiliar with the basic technologies and are more interested inthe implementation details and how to apply them, you canjump directly to the chapter of your main interest Last but not

"dictionary" for performance and accounting techniques,

allowing an easy comparison of features

Figure I-1 provides a map to help you quickly make your waythrough the large amount of information provided

Figure I-1 How to Read This Book

[View full size image]

Part I, "Data Collection and Methodology Standards,"

accounting and performance purposes It also describessome typical scenarios and discusses related standards

- Chapter 1, "Understanding the Need for

Accounting and Performance Management,"

discusses the basic concepts of accounting and

performance management, distinguishes the two areas,and applies the relevant parts of both technologies tonetwork design and applications

- Chapter 2, "Data Collection Methodology,"

discusses relevant questions for any accounting or

performance management project: What type of

information should you collect? What level of detail isrequired in the data records? How should you meter,collect, and process the data records?

- Chapter 4, "SNMP and MIBs," describes the

capabilities of the different SNMP protocol versions onCisco network elements SNMP and MIB configurationexamples as well as feature comparison tables help youunderstand and apply the information The chapter alsosummarizes the most relevant accounting and

- Chapter 5, "RMON," describes the capabilities of theRemote Monitoring (RMON) series of MIBs A command-line reference plus SNMP MIB details and configurationexamples make the chapter content quickly applicable

- Chapter 6, "IP Accounting," describes IP

accounting features in Cisco IOS It covers the different

IP accounting functions and includes a command-linereference as well as SNMP MIB details

- Chapter 7, "NetFlow," describes NetFlow features inCisco IOS It covers the different NetFlow versions, thelatest NetFlow features, and the natural NetFlow

evolution toward IPFIX Platform-specific details also arediscussed, along with some command-line references,examples, and SNMP MIB details

- Chapter 8, "BGP Policy Accounting," describesBGP Policy Accounting features in Cisco IOS You'll seehow to apply the features for a source- and destination-sensitive billing scheme, as well as the practical

configuration details on the routers Furthermore, youwill understand the similarities between BGP Policy

Accounting and the "Destination-Sensitive Billing"

feature

- Chapter 9, "AAA Accounting," describes

Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA),with an emphasis on accounting The chapter starts

with a general introduction to AAA, RADIUS, and

Diameter The various standards are discussed, and adedicated section covers voice-specific extensions Youwill be able to identify which AAA functions to use forwhich requirements and what Cisco has implemented

- Chapter 10, "NBAR," provides an overview of theNetwork-Based Application Recognition (NBAR) feature

accounting and performance management Based onconcrete examples, you will be able to identify the

appropriate CLI commands and MIB functions and

quickly get NBAR setups operational

- Chapter 11, "IP SLA," describes Cisco IP SLA This

is an embedded feature set in Cisco IOS Software thatallows you to analyze service-level agreements for

protocols, applications, and services

- Chapter 12, "Summary of Data Collection

Methodology," summarizes the high-level technical

characteristics of the features covered in Chapters 1through 11 It provides a way to structure, categorize,and compare the features In addition, this chapter

themselves: "How should I check the device's health inthe network?", "How do I evaluate the link capacity?",

"When should links be upgraded?", "How should I verifynetwork connectivity?", "How can I evaluate the

relationships with network performance monitoring,peering agreements, and traffic engineering

- Chapter 15, "Voice Scenarios," illustrates scenarios

in the area of the Cisco voice accounting and

performance measurement It describes the technicalbackground of voice accounting and performance

management, which combines the device

instrumentation features from Part II with managementapplications, such as Cisco CallManager and others

- Chapter 16, "Security Scenarios," provides a

security scenario that is closely related to accountingand performance measurement It describes how toleverage metering information to identify and block

security attacks and to use performance management

to proactively secure the network

- Chapter 17, "Billing Scenarios," highlights howaccounting and performance management technologiescan be used for billing It applies technologies and

products associated with accounting and performancemanagement

Part I: Data Collection and Methodology Standards

Chapter 1 Understanding the Need for Accounting and Performance

Management

This chapter defines the foundation for this book and answersthe following general questions:

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to grasp the basicconcepts of accounting and performance management,

distinguish the two areas, and apply the relevant part of bothtechnologies to network design and applications

During the last decade, the Internet has changed our ways ofcommunicating more than anything else The Internet is almostubiquitous today, and we take connectivity for granted until forsome reason we cannot connect At that point, we suddenly feel

available anytime, anywhere Most of us realize that this is

impossible without intelligent systems managing the network.This leads us to technologies, processes, and applications in thearea of Network Management and Network Management

Systems and Operations Support Systems (NMS-OSS) NMSwas a set of niche applications for quite some time, until

businesses realized that their performance depended on thenetwork Then, suddenly, network downtime became a businessissue instead of just a minor problem Therefore, notions such

as service level agreements (SLA) are imposed on the network

to support specific business application requirements

Nobody questions the need for fault and security managementthese days, and there is obviously a need for performance

statistics, but still some questions are left open: "Do I reallyneed accounting?" "Is accounting the same as billing?" "Whatcan accounting do for me?" In this chapter, you will find

another application, such as performance management, securitymanagement, or billing

An example is collecting usage records to identify security

attacks based on specific traffic patterns or measuring whichapplications consume the most bandwidth in the network

This book focuses on accounting, but because accounting is soclosely related to performance, this chapter also discusses

performance aspects in detail and identifies how accounting andperformance can be used together to support each other

Because many more networks have deployed performance

management than accounting solutions, this chapter starts with

a deeper inspection of accounting before addressing the

between performance management and service level

agreements The objective is to enable you to distinguish

between accounting, performance management, service levelmonitoring, and fault management This chapter briefly

introduces management standards and concepts to help youunderstand common areas and demarcations between

accounting and performance management Chapter 3,

"Accounting and Performance Standards and Definitions,"

describes these concepts in more detail and also describes theroles of the various standards bodies, along with their main

objectives and directions

Most network administrators ask themselves whether they needaccounting when looking at the Fault, Configuration,

Accounting, Performance, and Security (FCAPS) managementmodel The FCAPS model is an international standard defined bythe International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that describesthe various network management areas

The FCAPS model was chosen as a structure even though othermodels exist, such as FAB and eTOM (which are introduced inChapter 3) The advantage of the FCAPS model is that it clearlydistinguishes between accounting and performance

Fault Alarm surveillance, fault

localization and correlation,testing, trouble

administration, networkrecovery

Configuration Network planning,

engineering, andinstallation; service planningand negotiation; discovery;

provisioning; status andcontrol

Accounting Usage measurement,

collection, aggregation, andmediation; tariffing andpricing

Performance Performance monitoring and

control, performanceanalysis and trending,quality assurance

Security Access control and policy;

customer profiling; attackdetection, prevention,containment, and recovery;

security administration

See ITU-T M.3400 and ISO/IEC 7498-4 (Open Systems

Interconnection—Basic Reference Model, Part 4: ManagementFramework)

Fault management is compulsory for managing networks

proactively Unless you want to configure all devices

sequentially via Telnet or Secure Shell (SSH), an application isrequired to configure multiple devices in parallel and automateactions such as backup, rollback, and inventory A new virushits the Internet almost every day, so the need for securitymanagement is critical Measuring and monitoring networkperformance is required in today's complex networks; still, theimportance of accounting is not as well understood

One of the reasons the ITU was formed in 1865 was in

recognition of the need to agree on a common method of

between the originating and destination countries According tothe billing paradigm in those days, a network element eithercould account for data to be transmitted or would drop it Forexample, phone calls were set up only if charging and billingcould be achieved Accounting was solely considered the task ofcollecting usage data, preprocessing it, and feeding it into abilling application Service providers usually developed theirown accounting and billing applications, and most enterpriseswere not interested in accounting information With the

introduction of data networks and the Internet Protocol (IP)becoming ubiquitous, the billing paradigm changed quickly

Internet access was only billed on access time, and services onthe Internet were offered free of charge Over time, accounting

complexity Although collecting interface counters is quite

simple, mediation and correlation of large accounting recordsfor a billing application can be difficult It requires detailed

knowledge of the underlying network architecture and

technology, because collecting usage records from a legacy

voice network is a completely different task than collecting

usage records in data networks Content switches generate adifferent set of records than an IP phone does Likewise, there

is not much similarity between an accounting record from anauthentication server and the retrieval of a device interface

counter, even though all of these are valid accounting sources.Figure 1-1 shows different networking devices and the variousaccounting records created Do not be concerned by the figure's

accounting sources and different transport mechanisms Thefollowing chapters describe each mechanism in detail, with

emphasis on how they relate to each other

Figure 1-1 Accounting Sources/Usage Data Generation

[View full size image]

In addition, we distinguish between connectionless Layer 3 IPcommunications, connection-oriented Layer 2 services, session-oriented communication (for example, dialup) and legacy voicecalls All data records generated in these examples are

different For example, the Cisco IP device would export a CiscoNetFlow record A Layer 2 Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)switch stores connection details in a text log file and stores

voice call results in a Signaling System 7 (SS7) record for

legacy voice or call data records for voice over IP (VoIP) In ascenario of accounting for a phone call, each of the collecteddata sets describes a "phone call," but the technologies usedare completely different This causes the resulting records to bedifferent in format and content; thus, they cannot simply be

The trend toward IP as the unique communication protocol willcertainly reduce the described complexity in the future, but thiswill take another couple of years Therefore, it is important tounderstand the different accounting techniques and also identifythe various sources in the network for generating usage datarecords

Previously, the level of complexity combined with the close

association of accounting and billing drew little attention fromnetwork administrators and operators Although legacy

telephony services are still charged on call duration, new

broadband data services offer customers flat-rate billing Theadvantage for the service provider is the simple business

model One price fits all, and it does not take a lot of additionalequipment to collect usage data, because neither the user's

total online time nor the transmitted volume is an input

parameter for the monthly bill Unfortunately, this model

generates only limited and fixed revenue and provides no

unique positioning or competitive advantage Some providershave changed their billing model to be volume- or destination-sensitive, but these are still exceptions A solid business model

is required to justify the level of complexity and required

investments, both for capital expenditures (CAPEX) and

operational expenditures (OPEX) related to usage-based billing

In the future, it is much more likely that providers will increasetheir focus on accounting This is because competition is rapidlyincreasing, and providers need ways to differentiate their

service offerings Providing multiple offerings under a "one price

To answer the question "What benefits do I get from

accounting?", we have to expand our perspective We shouldnot limit the focus to service providers We should consider thehistorically close linkage between accounting and billing Theoutsourcing trend at the enterprises often results in

independent IT groups, which are moving from a cost center to

a profit center, offering services to internal customers Otherdepartments are using these services and either get a flat bill orare charged based on the usage of the service The flat model isnot different from the described service provider model and can

be addressed in a similar manner The usage-based model

requires the collection of usage data, which means that

suddenly accounting becomes relevant for enterprises, eventhough a full-blown billing application is not required Instead,these enterprises only want to assign costs per department—forinstance, having the ability to charge back the cost of Internetconnectivity to the different departments that used the service.Challenged to reduce operational expenditures, IT departmentsare investigating accounting solutions from both a performanceand billing perspective Questions such as "How do I efficientlytrack network and application resource usage?" and "Which

applications are active in the network?" and "Who is using thenetwork, what is the traffic's destination, and when is the

network utilized?" are becoming increasingly relevant End

users, on the other hand, are unwilling to pay the bill for otherusers and departments Instead, they want to be charged forexactly the resources and services they have been using

Network planners ask, "How do I plan the allocation and

deployment of resources and services most efficiently?"

Network operators realized that collected accounting data

records are not limited to billing applications In addition, theycan also be used as input for other applications such as

performance monitoring, checking that a configuration changefixed a problem, or even security analysis This is in reality aparadigm change, because suddenly the "A" part of the FCAPS