[Asterisk-Dev] Callingcard (again, sorry!)

[Jeremy McNamara]

Apollon Koutlides wrote:
> I'm developing a prepaid platform myself on asterisk (will be in a
> release-able state soon enough, I hope) and encountered the
> charge-on-termination dilemma myself. Initially I tried to go for the
> hangup extension, but ended up using the CDRs which I would have to
> consult anyway. I am currently checking two different approaches: a) use
> csv CDRs, open the file in pipe mode, capture new records, charge
> customer and store charging record to database. b) use postgres CDRs and
> triggers to implement charging. The second approach has some extra
> merit, since you can host the charging engine outside the asterisk box.
> I intend to experiment with the radius application too, at some point in
> time. I am also using pretty complex tariffs, and have created a daemon
> to do tariff lookups - this helps a whole lote to improve redundancy and
> offload the * box.


Both solutions do not scale.  Trying to process CSV's are completely 
wrong and triggers are going to be a loosing battle for CPU time as your 
volume increases.

AGI and/or RADIUS are not the solution either. Use the power of 
Asterisk, don't side step it.

Jeremy McNamara