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When PPL Auditing is enabled on a card, all state machine activity on the card is recorded in an audit log on either a per-PPL component basis or an individual entity basis. A log consists of a number of audit entries, each representing a state transition on a specific entity (channel). The length of the audit entries varies per PPL component.
Under busy call conditions, the user has the option initiating PPL Auditing on an Entity Basis instead of PPL Auditing on a Component Basis. This option provides the user with more accurate error auditing. Enabling the auditing function on an entity basis allows the auditing buffer to store only the information pertaining to user-selected entities. When auditing on a component basis, the ability to determine the cause of a problem can be lost. This is because the multi-entities that overload the auditing buffer can be overwritten due to a large volume of incoming voice traffic.
IMPORTANT: Before initiating the PPL Audit function, contact Cantata Technical Support for information on selecting the Audit Type options in the PPL Audit Configure and PPL Audit Query messages.
PPL Audit Configure
PPL Auditing is enabled on a per-card basis using the PPL Audit Configure message. This message accepts and validates all AIBs that correspond to the provided component ID. A message received with a Slot AIB will be processed as in previous releases. A message received with an AIB, other than a Slot AIB, will be processed as an Individual Entity Audit configuration message. The Audit Type field is a bit mask that provides bits 0 through 3 to enable or disable PPL Auditing features on a component or entity basis. For example, setting bit 0 enables PPL auditing. See the PPL Audit Configure message for the Audit Type information.
There are two new bit options in the Audit Type field. Bit 3 allows configuration of individual entities, and bit 2 enables the configuration. Both bits can be set at the same time or bit 2 can be enabled or disabled at any time to activate or deactivate individual auditing.
To support PPL Auditing on an Entity basis, the PPL Audit Configure message supports AIBs that are associated with the following PPL components:
• E1 (0x0001)
• T1 (0x0003)
• ISDN L3P Call Control (0x0005)
• ISDN L3 Call Reference (0x0008)
• SS7 ISUP CPC (0x0012)
• Channel Management (0x0061)
• Call Management (0x0062)
PPL Audit Query
The PPL Audit Query message supports Slot AIB, and all AIBs that are associated with the PPL components. This message supports the querying of all PPL Audit configurations. For example, when this occurs a single byte of Audit configuration data will be returned. This byte will contain the current settings for board level PPL Auditing, board level PPL Error Alarm settings, and Individual PPL Auditing.
If the AIB specifies an entity other than a Slot AIB, the byte will also contain entity level PPL Auditing and entity level Error Alarm settings. For example, this information will be queried by setting the Audit Type to 0x02 in the PPL Audit Query message. The PPL Audit Query message Audit Types are as follows:
• An Audit Type of (0x00) requests the PPL Audit information for the specified entity.
• An Audit Type of (0x01) requests a PPL ERROR audit on a per card basis.
• An Audit Type of (0x02) requests the current PPL Audit configuration. It will return a PPL Audit Query response containing the status, the AIB, the component ID, the Audit Type, and an Audit Configure byte containing the current Audit Configuration setting. The slot AIB will be supported when the Audit Type is Audit Configuration (0x02). The bits (0 through 4) of the Audit Configuration byte are listed in the PPL Audit Query message.
The exact data in an audit log varies per audit type and PPL component. See the PPL Audit Query message for the exact data returned. The following information is included in all audit entries:
• State Status
• Protocol-specific Information
An audit log can be retrieved by sending a PPL Audit Query message. There are two audit query types: PPL State Transitions and PPL Errors. PPL State Transitions are queried on a per-PPL component/entity basis. All state transitions for a specified PPL component on a specified entity are reported. PPL Errors are queried on a per PPL component/card basis. All PPL errors for the specified PPL component on the specified card are reported.
An entire log cannot always be retrieved with one message. Audit entries are grouped into audit blocks. When you query a log, you specify audit block 0 in the first message, audit block 1 in the second message, and so on until all audit entries have been returned. When there are no audit entries remaining, the response status to the PPL Audit Query message will indicate 0x00D7 (End of PPL Audit Data).
By enabling the PPL Error Alarm, the host will be notified with an Alarm message when a PPL Error occurs on an entity. The PPL Error Alarm is enabled by setting bit 1 of the Audit Type field in the PPL Audit Configure message. The Alarm message will indicate Entity - 0x04 (Channel) and Alarm # - 0x03 (PPL Error). The Alarm Information fields contain the audit entry data from the PPL Audit log.