Datasheet

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Figure 1. The Cisco Content Services Gateway

BENEFITS

The Cisco CSG provides the following benefits:

• Management of multiple concurrent services per user-logon session—The Cisco CSG architecture differentiates user service access by

providing application-aware inspection of the content of the traffic, allowing the operator to offer multiple, simultaneous services to a user,

each charged by a different charging scheme. The provisioning of service charging is transparent to the user device and can be introduced easily

without inflicting any need for end-device configuration. Cisco CSG service definitions are flexible; they can contain wildcards in the form of

URL regular expressions or masks for destination addresses, ports, and protocols.

• Advanced content measurement—The Cisco CSG can be configured to provide application-level billing information. Content matching is

deciphered based on the actual object requested. For example, the Cisco CSG will record the URL for HTTP, WAP, Real Time Streaming

Protocol (RTSP), HTTP, and e-mail headers, or FTP filename and directory path, as applicable, rather than just the server IP address. Different

elements of a URL can have very different meanings in a billing context. Domain names determine that a user has accessed a given site, but

directories, filenames, and extensions allow operators to bill for the particular object requested, such as video streams, MP3 files, and PDF files,

or files in high-value directories versus budget directories. By differentiating the content requests, the Cisco CSG allows billing applications to

charge for the true value of the content. The content measured can be billed on an individual user basis, or billed to the content provider, or even

to a third party for some transactions, such as pushed or banner advertisements.

• Goodput-based charging (billing only for delivered content)—The Cisco CSG has a unique capability to optionally exclude retransmitted

TCP packets from volume measurements so that the billing system can exclude them from the accounting report and in user transaction and

event details. The Cisco CSG can also provide information indicating the complete status of a transaction or event. These capabilities help

ensure consistent charging regardless of user-connection quality or content-access errors, thus helping to increase user willingness and confidence

in using an operator’s services. The Cisco CSG also extracts application-level completion codes (HTTP error codes and FTP completion codes) to

provide the billing system with the additional means to determine if the subscriber received the requested content. For prepaid services, the Cisco

CSG can be configured to automatically apply the adjustments for retransmits and failures back to the prepaid billing system, thus simplifying the

job of the billing system.

• Enhanced user identification—In many environments, the IP address is not sufficient for properly identifying the user. IP addresses can be

dynamically assigned, or hidden by proxies and firewalls. In real time, the Cisco CSG associates the user ID, as captured by the authentication,

authorization, and accounting (AAA) server, with each transaction that it reports, allowing for user-based charging in a broader set of

environments. Using this ability to reliably associate subscribers with their billing plans, real-time control of subscriber service tiers

becomes possible.