Least Cost Routing (LCR) with A2Billing

Introduction:
One way A2Billing supports least cost routing using multiple providers is when each provider’s data have the exact same length prefixes for each area. But most (probable 95%) of the time this is not the case so just importing providers rates and expecting a2billing to find the least cost route will give one a very sad disappointment. Many providers will have many of the same prefixes but almost all will have many that are different length for same areas.
Example:

• Provider A gives USA rates by area code and prefix 812 which is three digits. (Rate = 0.015)
• Provider B gives USA rates by area code and prefix 812739 which is six digits. (Rate = 0.01)
• Provider C gives USA rates by area code and prefix 8127392 which is 7 digits. (Rate = 0.03)

When a call is made to 812-739-2340 the call will go out Provider C even though its double the rate of Provider A and three times the rate of Provider B. This is because A2Billing looks for the longest prefix.
The best way at the moment to use the A2Billing least cost routing is by converting all the prefixes for all the providers to match the longest used prefix for any giving area.
Solution:
Here is a free program to help converting prefixes from different providers to the same format. I can send sources on demand (Created with Delhi 7).
http://www.data4ict.com/download/lcr.zip

User manual:

1. Create a csv file with longest prefixesFormat: Prefix,Destination
2. Create a csv file with the rates of your provider (One csv file by provider)Format: Prefix,Destination,Price
3. Generate the LCR output table
4. Export the generated file (csv format)

Demo:
Here are four files (Prefixes, Provider1, Provider2, Provider3) to test the program.
http://www.data4ict.com/download/lcr_demo.zip

VoIP Billing & Termination

There are three main customer types for Voice over IP, and A2Billing supports all of them with flexible VoIP Billing and charging options.

Residential VoIP

Residential VoIP - Providing VoIP services, VoIP Billing and DID redirection to the general public. The endpoint is usually a PC-Dialler (or softphone) a physical VoIP phone or ATA. The latest smartphones also support VoIP.

Business VoIP

Business VoIP - Providing VoIP termination to IP-PBX systems for companies, billing the calls, as well as providing invoices for VoIP services as well as supplying DID directed to the IP-PBX via VoIP or PSTN.

Wholesale VoIP

Wholesale VoIP - Terminating and billing large numbers of calls from a customer who has an A2Billing Softswitch or similar class 4 or class 5 switch.
The only difference between the above types of service as far as A2Billing is concerned in in terms of volume. Configuration is broadly similar for each service.
The A2Billing Softswitch supports both the SIP and IAX2 protocol as well as a range of VoIP codec protocols, such as g711 which is a high quality uncompressed codec. Where bandwidth is limited, the supplied GSM codec can be used or commercial g729 licenses or g729 voice compression cards for high capacity systems are available.
The customer’s end-point is configured to pass its VoIP traffic through the A2Billing Softswitch, where the call is then least cost routed via the lowest cost carrier, the call is rated, and the customers available balance decremented.