Overview

General information

AA accounting statistics provide information about application use in a network. You can configure AA accounting to collect and report statistics when at least one ISA-AA MDA is active. The AA accounting statistics provide information about application use on a SAP or spoke SDP, or by a subscriber.

Note: You cannot use a local AA accounting policy on an NE of a different release to update a global policy using the policy synchronization function; you must use a local policy from the same release of an NE.

AA accounting collects statistics on traffic flows. The NFM-P can collect the following AA statistics types:

• AA application

• AA application group

• AA protocol

• AA subscriber protocol (special study)

• AA subscriber application (special study)

• AA subscriber custom record

The statistics data can be viewed in graphical or tabular form using the NFM-P GUI, or forwarded for reporting and analysis to systems such as a third-party server, and used to create reports in the Analytics application. You can also configure the NFM-P to export the data to XDR-encoded IPDR files for OSS client retrieval. See IPDR data export in this section for more information.

AA uses the NFM-P and NE accounting statistics and logging capabilities to collect AA accounting statistics. See “Statistics collection in the NFM-P” in the NSP NFM-P Statistics Management Guide for general information about configuring and collecting accounting statistics. See To configure an AA accounting policy for information about configuring an AA accounting policy.

The NFM-P can be configured to collect statistics for each protocol and application of a specific subscriber. For more comprehensive traffic monitoring, you can enable AA statistics collection on a specific NE for a subset of subscribers. An NE can have only one policy for each AA statistics type that is enabled.

IPDR data export

To support data analytics and reporting functions, the NFM-P can export AA accounting statistics data to files on a main or auxiliary server station in one or both of the following formats:

• IPDR format, using XDR encoding

• format for NSP Analytics reporting

The exported files are stored in the aaAccountingStats directory under the OSS XML output directory on a main or auxiliary server station. Each filename has an AA_type prefix, where type represents the statistics type. Each filename also includes the associated NE IP address.

Note: The tethering statistics type is modeled and represented differently in each format:

• IPDR:

  TETHER—filename prefix is AA_TETHER

• NSP Analytics::

  SUMMARY—filename prefix is AA_SUMMARY

You can enable and configure the export function during an NFM-P system installation or upgrade, or afterward, using To configure AA accounting file export.

Special study statistics

The AA subscriber protocol and AA subscriber application statistics are special study statistics for detailed accounting statistics collection on a limited number of subscribers, SAPs, or spoke SDPs on an NE. The number of subscribers, SAPs, or spoke SDPs is limited to constrain the volume of generated statistics.

Special study statistics collection is required for certain reports in the Analytics application.

Special study statistics are enabled by adding subscribers, SAPs, or spoke SDPs to a list in an ISA-AA group or partition on an NE for detailed traffic monitoring. When a subscriber is on a special study list, the ISA-AA creates one statistics record for each application and application group that is associated with the subscriber. When a SAP or spoke SDP is on a special study list, the ISA-AA creates one statistics record for each application, application group, and protocol flow on the SAP or spoke SDP. See To configure an ISA-AA group and ISA-AA partitions for information about configuring special study objects in an ISA-AA group.

Subscriber custom record statistics

An AA subscriber custom record accounting policy applies to all subscribers, SAPs, and spoke SDPs in an ISA-AA group or partition for a specified set of AA protocols, applications, and application groups. The policy enables statistics collection on only the specified objects, which limits the volume of collected data and the statistics collection processing load. For example, an NFM-P operator may require statistics for only three application groups and 10 applications. You can view and configure the AA statistics objects of an AA group or partition from the AA Subscriber Stats Objects tab of an application, application group, or charging group properties form.

DSM AA statistics export

When the Subscriber Scale of an ISA-AA Group is set to Lightweight Internet, you can enable the export of AA statistics according to the settings in a RADIUS accounting policy. You enable the function in the application, application group, and charging group configured as subscriber statistics objects in an AA group policy, and in the AA Subscriber Custom Record accounting policy configuration of an AA accounting policy.

Monitoring usage by charging group

You can enable usage monitoring in an AA Subscriber Custom Record accounting policy, and optionally export the usage statistics to a RADIUS accounting policy. See To configure subscriber usage monitoring for configuration information.