Cocom- Reseller Connect

Cocom- Reseller Connect

FTP User Guide

Germany

Document History

Soft copies of this document are maintained under change control, but hard copies are not. This may not be a printout of the latest version.

Revision history

Reseller Guide / Version / Issue Date / Description of change from previous version / Distributed
Generic Body / 6.0 / 01/03/2005 / Remove Dial-up and VPN specific information to separate documents.
Re-structure sections
DE / 6.1 / 29/07/2005 / New layout.
Includes new messages from Cocom
DE / 6.2 / 31/10/2005 / Update COLT validation and error Codes
(E 1.2)
Correction of typos
Change of CPS request(4.1 Table 1)
Added E.3 Troubleshooting Cocom
DE / 6.3 / 02/03/2006 / Add new description of Error Code in Table 27
Added in Table 1 that an error message will be send for CPS-Requests if CLI activation request is in progress
New chapter 8 Tips, tricks and rules
Update of chapter E 4 Troubleshooting Cocom
Change in chapter A.1.3 Detail records: CPS activation for range is changed (Field CLI and Range Start)
DE / 6.4 / 20/09/2006 / Correction of examples (Reseller IDs)
Adding error message for VoIP
DE / 6.5 / 15/04/2009 / Maintenance & Support updated
DE / 6.6 / 14/02/2011 / Updated to reflect introduction of enhanced Cocom
DE / 6.7 / 01/04/2011 / Section on unrated CDRs updated
DE / 6.8 / 26/08/2011 / Added more detailed information about the new CDR format and updated Error Messages in E.1.2 Request Validation Codes
DE / 6.9 / 17/11/2011 / Clarifications made to the FTP flie validation code 18
DE / 7.0 / 20/01/2012 / Updated with details of the consolidated CDR feature
DE / 7.1 / 06/05/2015 / DTAG decommission their ESAA interface and replace it with WITA as of 30/06/2015. Updates reflect the new appt timeslot field in a CPS request and new DTAG Response Codes & messages.
DE / 7.2 / 13/08/2015 / Updated to reflect the replacement of the optional premise number field with the mandatory Building number field for an Activate CPS request & bulk request.
DE / 7.3 / 01/02/16 / Updated to reflect Colt rebranding.
DE / 7.4 / 04/03/2017 / Replaced VoIP Access with SIP Trunking and change in the notification period for planned maintenance work in section 6

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 5

2 Service Outline 6

2.1 Outline Process 6

2.2 Technical Infrastructure 7

2.2.1 Overview 7

2.2.2 Directory Structure 7

2.2.3 File Naming Standard 10

3 Service Requests 11

3.1 Overview 11

3.2 Request File Processing 14

3.3 Validation Rules and Checks 15

4 Service Responses 17

4.1 Colt Responses 17

4.2 PTT Responses 17

5 CDR Files 18

6 Maintenance and Support 19

7 Tips, Tricks & Rules 20

8 Glossary 21

1  Introduction

Colt Technology Services (Colt) has provided you with an electronic interface for the activation and deactivation of Colt Wholesale Products on your end-customer CLIs (Calling Line Identifier) and for the daily transfer of call detail records (CDR). This system is referred to as Cocom.

This interface allows you to submit individual and bulk requests to Colt, and in return allows you to retrieve the results of your requests and to retrieve the CDRs resulting from your end-customers’ traffic within the Colt network.

Cocom can also be used for Carrier Pre-Selection (CPS) requests on end-customer CLIs. The system will confirm that the CLI is known to Colt and activate the CLI before forwarding the request to the relevant PTT, and passes back the responses received from the PTT.

This document describes the necessary technical details and the processes that allow you to

·  Set up your internal systems and processes

·  Successfully submit and retrieve requests

·  Successfully retrieve CDR files from Colt

The information specific to each country is defined in Appendices to this document.

Examples of this information are:

·  CLI and CPS requests

·  Action codes

·  PTT messages

2  Service Outline

2.1  Outline Process

The communications server itself is generally available except when Colt needs to carry out essential housekeeping and maintenance work. So, you have considerable flexibility in deciding how often you choose to upload and retrieve files.

There are three main activities that you will need to carry out on a regular basis. During a typical session you will:

·  Upload a request file, followed by a matching job file

·  Retrieve response and any error files from previous upload sessions

·  And twice a day retrieve CDR files for processing within your own systems

Each of these activities is described in greater detail in later sections.

Figure 1 Colt Reseller support infrastructure

2.2  Technical Infrastructure

2.2.1  Overview

The Cocom server currently supports FTP access to dedicated and protected directories that have been created specifically for your business. Additionally access via XML and a graphical user interface is available.

Access to the server is via a dedicated VPN client, provided by Colt. This method is detailed in separate documents accompanying this guide. Colt will assign a temporary IP address on successful access that will remain valid and available only for the duration of your connection to the service.

When you connect with Colt, you will be prompted to enter two User IDs and passwords; the first to gain access to Colt’s customer network, and the second to gain access to your home directory on the Cocom server.

After you have successfully gained access to the server you will be connected to your home directory. Your home directory has been created specifically for you and can only be accessed using the User ID provided to you by Colt.

To use the service you will need to integrate these processes and file interface into your own IT environment. For a stand-alone operation you can use a standard FTP client. Any of the commonly available FTP clients should be satisfactory, for example ReflectionFTP.

2.2.2  Directory Structure

Files within this directory are protected from access by others in a secure environment. The key directories in your home directory on the Cocom Server are shown in the diagram below.

From here you can download your unrated CDRs for existing Colt products which you resell and across one or more Colt countries. You can also do Reseller Connect transactions – i.e. place CLI activation / deactivation and CPS requests.

Diagram notes

ü  Note lower case values above

ü  Reseller Domain ID is an auto-generated ID, a combination of your company name & random digits, minimum length of 5 and max length of 8

ü  Country code in ISO 2 character format, note gb is used

ü  The product will be one of the following - all lower case:-

·  reseller-connect

·  sip-trunking

·  voice-line

·  carrier-voip

·  ip-voice-line

·  in-for-resellers

·  reseller-voip-connect

ü  The profile is up to 5 alphanumerics and is either the account profile or the service profile

Account profiles are set up based on your billing account (BCN), whereas service profiles are set up per service instance. Account profiles will apply to products such as SIP Trunking and Voice Line, and service profiles will apply to Reseller Connect.

If you have more than one product on the same billing account (BCN), e.g. SIP Trunking & Voice Line, then they will have the same account profile. The unrated CDR files will be generated in separate files by product and made available under each product as per the FTP folder structure above.

The files provided by Colt such as CDR files, and response files are available in separate sub-directories in a standard format (detailed in the Appendices to this Guide):

/request / the directory where you must upload your request files
/response / the directory where Colt will deposit response files
/jobin / the directory where you must upload job request files, one for each request file
/jobout / the directory where Colt will deposit job files, one for each response file
/err_in / this is the directory that will contain any error files
/cdr / this directory will contain your CDR files, delivered twice daily as well as any consolidated CDR files you have requested using the consolidated CDR request feature in Cocom Web Manager
/cli_list / at the end of each day, Colt will provide a report of your CLI activity for the day and leave these in this directory for your collection

2.2.3  File Naming Standard

Files transferred to and from Colt are all uniquely identified and adhere to the following naming convention.

The filenames will consist of three parts:

1. The first digits are assigned by Colt and will be your unique identifier / profile, which is up to 5 alphanumerics
2. The next eight (8) digits are the file sequence number with leading zeros, for example 00000001. These must follow strictly in sequence for each request file submitted to Colt and each response file will always match its corresponding request file.
3. A suffix separated by a dot that describes the type of the file

·  req request file

·  rsp response file

·  error error file

·  cdr CDR file

The corresponding job files have the additional suffix “job”.

For example a request from a new reseller with service profile abc would be a pair of files:

abc00000001.req
abc00000001.req.job

The Colt response would be another pair of files:

abc00000001.rsp

abc00000001.rsp.job

3  Service Requests

3.1  Overview

Colt allows service activation, and deactivation requests for Resellers’ end-customers CLIs on the Colt network and optionally, for Carrier Pre-Selection (CPS) service through the local PTT. Colt also allows you to request the transfer of an existing CLI to you from another Reseller, through a Modify request, but this feature is restricted and available only on special request.

At any time you may be required to provide written proof that the end-customer has signed up for service with you. This may be to verify that the end-customer has consented to transfer their service to you, or may be as a result of a demand from the local PTT to verify that a CPS request is valid. If this is required you will be contacted by Colt directly.

You can request service to be activated or deactivated for a given CLI,

·  on the Colt network only (CLI only),

·  on the Colt network with CPS enabled (CPS or CLI/CPS)

Activate / Deactivate
CLI / CLI must not be active / Only if the CLI is already active
CPS / CLI may be inactive or active
If the CLI is active – no warning message will be given but CPS request is processed
If the CLI is inactive – CLI is activated on the Switch then the CPS is processed
If activation process for CLI is in progress – warning message will be sent / Only if CPS is already active on the CLI.
And only if permitted by PTT (e.g. some PTTs will only accept CPS deactivation requests directly from the end-customer)
CLI and CPS combined (obsolete) / CLI may be inactive or active
If the CLI is active – warning message given but CPS request is processed
If the CLI is inactive – CLI is activated on the Switch then the CPS is processed / Not Permitted.
You need to deactivate CPS first, and then submit another request to deactivate the CLI after the CPS has been deactivated.

Table 1 - CLI and CPS Request Rules

You can include up to 500 individual requests in a single file, and the file must be uniquely identified (see 3.2.3 File Naming Standard for the File Naming Specification). Each request file must also be accompanied by a Job File, and it is the Job File that triggers processing of the Request file by Colt.

The normal sequence of events is as follows:

1)  You will upload a request file

2)  Followed by uploading the corresponding job file

3)  Colt detects the job file and automatically looks for the corresponding request file. If no request file is found then the system generates an error.

It is very important that the request file is uploaded BEFORE its corresponding Job file. If you upload a Job file first then the system will start to search for the request

file, and will continue to look for up to 90 seconds. If it cannot find the file, or more likely it cannot read the file because it cannot get exclusive access to it, the server will create an error response. The request file will then be ignored by the system.

·  Colt will check the request file, and carry some basic validation (detailed in Section 4.3 below)

·  Carry out the request within the Colt network, and return the result

·  If the file contains a CPS request, then Colt will activate the CLI and forward the request to the local PTT. In the case the CLI is already active and no error occurs no message will be send. If the CLI is not active an acknowledgement will be sent.

·  If the file contains combined CLI/CPS requests then Colt will generate an acknowledgement for the CLI element and forward the request to the local PTT for the CPS element, if the CLI request is successful.

The local PTT (incumbent Network Operator) normally has a fixed period of time to process a CPS request, typically between 5 and 10 working days. Their response to the request will be sent at any time in the period from your submission, up to the time limit. When Colt receives these responses they are returned directly to you via the response directory within your home directory on the Colt server.

3.2  Request File Processing

Colt carries out some basic validation of requests and request files before accepting them for processing. The rules are simple and are as follows:

·  Each file pair, Job and Request file, must conform to the naming standard, detailed in Appendix A.

·  Each request file must be numbered sequentially, starting at 1. The file will be rejected if it has a sequence number that is lower or the same or more than 1 higher than the last file submitted.

·  Each file must contain no more than 500 records excluding the file Header and Trailer records.