The charging gateway is responsible for collecting
CDRs from multiple CDFs, and for providing a variety of functions, including validation
and error handling. CDR storage is also a function of the charging gateway.
This is really where operators can implement CDR management. Storage should
be kept to a minimum at the CGF and only used for disaster recovery. Larger storage
capacities are best suited for data warehouses in the core network where all data,
including usage data and network inventory data, can be stored together for business
intelligence and analytics.
The CGF does not process the CDRs but simply manages the delivery of the CDRs
under its responsibility. Consider it a collection point within a region or within a network.
The charging gateway then manages the transfer of all CDRs to the billing system
and can be used to correlate like CDRs, storing them by session type, and even
separating by filtering criteria such as originating charging trigger function (CTF).
The CGF could be provisioned to forward all messaging CDRs to the billing system
at a specific time, for example, and all voice CDRs at another time. This of course is
implementation specific but presents some advantages to the operator in the area of
billing management.
It also presents an opportunity to forward different CDR types to different billing
presentment systems during the migration to IMS, in the event the operator is transitioning
multiple billing platforms to support the new technology.
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