A Relationship is a network configuration between your company and your customers or vendors. By creating a Relationship, you will set up the routing logic and rates that enable you to capitalize on the phone calls made on your network.
A Termination-Vendor configuration will enable you to send traffic whose termination point is a Vendor (traffic originates with you and terminates at the Vendor).
Here is a high level description of each Relationship component:
Relationship Info: basic information about the Relationship such as Name and Contacts
Trunk Group: a collection of associated Trunks which can be managed through a single dashboard. Each trunk describes the end-to-end connectivity of your network
Rating: the model for charging the customer's usage
Routing: the traffic routing configuration, containing filters and routing rules
Balance: credit and debit notifications and alerts for customers
Invoicing: invoice generation
Portals: generating login credentials for users with specific permissions
Agents: independent external contacts which can refer new customers for your business in exchange for a commission
Logs: history of all changes made to the Relationship
Create a new Relationship
Modify an existing Relationship
Export all Relationship entries as a .csv file
Activate and Deactivate Relationships
Delete Relationships
Relationship > Modify
Whenever you Modify a Relationship, you will notice the menu featured in the image below on every tab of the Relationship. It will outline basic information about the Relationship as a reference when modifying the configuration.
Relationship Name
Status: enabled or disabled
Last Modified: date the Relationship was last modified
Billing Cycle: associated billing cycle
Last Invoiced: date for the last invoice created
Account Number
Current Balance: amount of credit or outstanding charges
Modifier: last user who modified the Relationship
Trunk Groups: the number of Trunk Groups configured for this Relationship
Relationship > Create/Modify
Contains basic information about the Relationship which act as identifiers. It is split in two sections: Relationship Information (alongside Address and Phone) on the left, and Relationships contacts on the right.
Relationship > Create/Modify > Relationship Info
This page allows for configuration of basic information about the Relationship. The information here is fed into other functions such as Invoices, Trunks and Billing.
Select a logo for the Relationship - This will be displayed on invoices.
Toggle Send Trunk Group Notification - This will send notifications any time there is a change made to any Trunk to any contacts of the Type ‘Technical’.
Relationship Name - This is the main identifier of the Relationship.
Website - This will be displayed on invoices and notifications.
Account ID
Time Zone - this is used for calculating billing cycles and logging actions.
Relationship > Create/Modify > Relationship Info
The Address and Phone information is used to generate invoices for your customers and vendors.
Relationship > Create/Modify > Relationship Info
Contacts are entries which hold your customer or vendor details. In this section you can select the number of Contacts displayed per page, search for a Contact by keyword or:
Create a new Contact
Export contacts as a .csv file
Delete Contacts
Relationship > Create/Modify > Relationship Info > Relationship Contacts
Contacts are designated to receive notifications and emails regarding specific aspects of Perimeter.
If you do not have contacts set up, you will not be able to send notifications or other emails to your customers or vendors.
To create a new contact, you will need to complete the following fields:
Contact Type:
NOC - These contacts will receive notifications whenever there is a change made to a Trunk or Trunk Group.
Billing - Will receive invoices produced by the platform.
Sales - These contacts are known as ‘agents’ and will receive emails containing details about their commissions.
Balance - Will receive emails with balance limit warning and outstanding payments.
Rate - Will receive list of rates associated with specific Trunk configurations.
Email Address: This is the email address where the person will be contacted
Name: Name of the Contact
IM Address: Instant Messenger address such as Skype
Phone number: Mobile or Landline contact number
Relationship > Create/Modify > Relationship Info > Relationship Contacts
In the Relationship Contact section, click on Export
You will begin downloading a .csv containing the Relationship Contact details
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group
In the Dashboard, you can select the number of Trunk Groups displayed per page, search for a Trunk Group by keyword or:
Assign Routeplan to the Trunk Group
Assign Rate Deck to the Trunk Group
Modify a Trunk Group
Create a new Trunk Group
Export Trunk Groups as a .csv
Activate/Deactivate Trunk Group
Delete Trunk Group
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group
Rate Decks contain the pricing models used for calls depending on the geographical/geopolitical location of the origination and termination devices. Without assigning a Rate Deck to a Trunk Group, Perimeter will not be able to charge your customers and vendors for the network usage.
You need to select a specific Rate Deck for each type of call in order for the correct rating to be applied to each type of call.
Depending on the type of call that you are configuring, you can assign a Rate Deck as follows:
Select a Trunk Group from the list in the Dashboard by clicking on the any column of the list item (except for the name column)
Click on Assign Ratedeck
In the pop-up window, select a Routeplan from the drop-down menu and press Assign
After receiving a message saying ‘Assigned Successfully’, you can close the pop-up Window
To unassign a Rate Deck:
Select a Trunk Group from the list in the Dashboard by clicking on the 2nd column of the list item
Click on Assign Rate Deck
In the pop-up window, click on the ‘-’ button on the right of the drop-down menu
After receiving a message saying ‘Unassigned Successfully’, you can close the pop-up Window
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group
This section will describe every field of creating or modifying a Trunk Group. If you are interested in setting up a specific Trunk Group configuration for Wholesale or DID, click here.
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group > Create/Modify
In this section you will need to provide core information about Trunks such as:
Name
Direction: Termination: you are sending traffic to someone, either a Vendor or Customer. A Termination-Vendor configuration would be that you are sending and traffic whose termination point is a vendor. (traffic originates at you and terminates at the Vendor)
Relationship: Vendor
Enable NAT: NAT helps improve security and decrease the number of IP addresses an organization needs.
Ext. Name:
Copy
Tech prefix: May be assigned to an originating or terminating Trunk Group to differentiate it or to provide an added level of security. We always recommend that you set a Tech Prefix on an Originating trunk group, even if you don't plan on having multiple originating Trunk Groups.
Limit Options:
Ports: Number of ports that you want to assign to the Trunk Group.
CPS: The number of calls which can be pre-selected. We recommend a default ratio for Ports:CPS of 10:1
Max PDD: Maximum delay between the time the call is dialed until it the caller hears ringing
Max Call Duration: Calls which exceed this duration will be terminated
Capacity Group: enables the creation of a group based on Port/CPS limit that can be assigned to multiple trunk groups and count their individual usage towards the group limits. For example, in order to use 500 ports in the capacity group, then you can either NOT set a limit on TG and let the capacity group limit the ports (i.e. anything up to 500 on either or both) OR set a higher limit like 250 to allow each trunk group to have a limit.
B-Timer: An extension of PDD and designed to work as a smaller subset timer to roll over to the next Trunk or Trunk Group if no response is received from the vendor. B-timer is activated when INVITE is sent to the outgoing Trunk and if no 100 Trying is received within allocated time it will expire and roll over to the next Trunk or Trunk Group available. The B-timer value can be between 1-10 and must always be smaller than PDD value. The default value for B-timer is empty which means it will not be considered unless integer value between 1 to 10 is set for it.
Call Extension:
Off
Always On: Provide the Minimum Duration
Intelligent Extension: Provide the Duration Threshold and Minimum Duration
Send NPDI: This tells downline carriers that you have LRN dipped the call. (for US calls only)
Send E. 164: By default calls are normalized in our system to not include a “+” in front of outbound numbers. Some carriers require a "+" in the from/to/rpid/ruri SIP headers to comply with specific routing rules. This will prepend the "+" before sending the calls out and will not duplicate a "+" if the inbound call comes with a "+" already.
Trunk Monitoring: A feature that checks to see if the trunks are alive and automatically adds/removing IP(s) based on their state. Perimeter checks through option pings every 10 seconds so you must also accept option pings if you enable Trunk Monitoring
Time Limit of Day: Limits calls between specific hours in the day.
Preserve Caller ID: The CallerID part of the INVITE is stripped by default from the FROM field. If you enable Preserve Caller ID, then it will not be stripped.
Stop Route Advance on 180/183 Failure
Enable Triggers - If you enable triggers, you can receive messages when certain thresholds are reached. For example, if the trunk group reaches 10,000 attempts an email will be sent to the contact selected.
Bursting Threshold- Bursting Threshold is a soft limit that can be specified on ports usage for elasticity purposes. Bursting Ports limit is used to generate elasticity files which specifies when a TG went over the threshold on any given day. The report can be requested on a monthly basis from support.
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group > Create/Modify
Note: Only 1 [IP, Port, and Protocol] configuration can be added against 1 Origination Trunk and 1 Termination trunk
You can reuse the same [IP, Port, and Protocol] configuration only if you add a Tech Prefix for the other Trunk Groups. More information about Tech Prefixes can be found here.
To add a Trunk, you will need to provide the following:
Trunk Type:
IP address: provide IP Address and Port
or
Registration: Provide Username and Password
Protocol: UDP/TCP/TLS
Switch IP: You will need to give the Switch IP to your customers and vendors in order to run traffic through the trunk. Only one IP is necessary for both Termination Vendors and Customers. This IP is located at the bottom of the ADD trunk section. You can also find your Switch IP and your Media IPs in the Settings Tab, under General Settings.
All the trunks defined will appear under the Trunks section.
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group > Create/Modify
This section enables you to:
Select the Hunting Mode
Load Balance
Failover
Weighted
Delete the Trunk
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group > Create/Modify
Line hunting is the method of distributing phone calls from a single telephone number to a group of several phone lines. Specifically, it refers to the process or algorithm used to select which line will receive the call.
Load Balance: Improves the distribution of workloads across multiple computing resources.
Failover: Switching to a redundant or standby computer server, system, hardware component or network upon the failure or abnormal termination of the previously active application, server, system, hardware component, or network.
Weighted: Calls are distributed according to a configurable weight.
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group > Create/Modify
There are 4 settings for handling media content:
Filtering: This setting allows you to specify which codecs are allowed on this trunk group. Note: All codecs are passed through by default.
Anchoring: This setting allows you to anchor (proxy) the media through the Peeredge Platform. This feature is useful for media topology hiding or going through firewalls. Note: The new Peeredge supports on-demand transcoding for media anchored calls. If the SBC determines that there is not a suitable codec negotiation on anchored calls, the system will automatically negotiate the suitable originating and terminating codec and transcode the session.
Dynamic Transcoding: This setting allows for automatic switching to a different format or bitrate without compromising on the original quality.
Secure RTP: Provides message authentication and integrity, encryption and replay attack protection to the RTP data.
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group > Create/Modify
This section will enable you to set up a rule to find and replace a string in a packet with anything of your choice. This is achieved using Regular Expressions.
To create a manipulation expression provide:
Header
ANI
DNIS
SIP Code
IP
Search: The section of a string to be replaced.
Replace: What to replace the searched section with.
Press Create
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group > Create/Modify
Given a list of HTTP status codes, you can select set up routing based on the responses received.
Route Advance Logic converts all codes mentioned in the regex to a 503. If you remove a code from the regex, as well as UNchecking “normalize sip code” in the trunk group settings, you will return that code back to the customer.
Find out more about Regular Expressions here.
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group > Create/Modify
This feature allows users to sample up to 5 minutes of data for all performance metrics available. Triggers can be stacked on top of each other and multiple triggers can be set for the same metric.
To create a trigger you must provide:
Name
Type
Attempts
Completions
Minutes
ASR
ALOC
Revenue
Cost
Profit
Margin
PPM
MOS
SDR
NEPR
Ports
CPS
Condition
Value
Trigger Expiration
Contact Type
Time Frame
Always
Custom
Start Time
End Time
Weekdays
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group > Create/Modify
After clicking on the Export button, you will need to type in a name for the .csv file.
The export will contain:
Relationship Name
Trunk Group Name
Status
Directions
Relationship Type
Rating Assigned
Routeplan
Trunk (Count)
Monitoring
Media Anchor
Ports
CPS
Last Modification Date
External Name
NAT
Tech Prefix
Max Call Duration
Filter Media
Anchor Media
Transcoding
Codecs
Regexp Rule
Hunting Type
Egress IP
Send NDPI
Exporting the Configurations willi include:
IP Address
Port
Protocol
Weight
Trunk Monitoring
Name of Modifier
Hunting
Username
Server IP
Trunk Type
ANI Override
Failover Order
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group
This section will allow you to choose which Routing Configurations are Active and Inactive for the selected Trunk Group.
To change a configuration from Active to Inactive and vice-versa, you will need to:
Check the box to the left of the Routing Configuration name
Press on the highlighted arrow icon between the two lists
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group
Use the toggle switch on the Trunk Group list entry to Activate or Deactivate it.
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group
Press on the red delete icon and confirm to delete a Trunk Group and all its associated configurations.
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group
This feature will allow customers to create a special capacity group based on port/CPS limits that can be assigned to multiple Trunk Groups and count their individual usage towards the group limits. This will allow customers to share capacity within the same relationship without limitations of each individual Trunk Group.
From the Capacity Groups Dashboard, you can:
Create/Modify a Capacity Group
View assigned Trunk Groups
View Capacity Group Triggers configuration
Delete a Capacity Group
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group > Capacity Groups
To create a Capacity Group, provide the following:
Capacity Group name
External name
Port Limit
CPS Limit
Description
Bursting Threshold
Port Limit
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group > Capacity Groups
To assign a Trunk Group
Select a Trunk Group from the drop-down menu
Press Assign
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group > Capacity Groups
Provide a Name
Select the Type
Ports
CPS
Select a Condition
Less Than
Greater Than
Provide a Value
Select a Trigger Expiration
Select a Contact Type
NOC
Billing
Sales
Balance
Rate
Trigger
Select a Time Frame
Custom
Always
Relationship > Create/Modify > Trunk Group > Capacity Groups
To Delete a Capacity Group
In the Capacity Dashboard, click the red Delete Button
In the pop-up window, click on Delete
Relationship > Create/Modify > Rating
In the dashboard, you can see the current Rate Sheets available, including details such as the Type of the Rate Sheet, Direction, Relationship and Effective Date.
Select the Rating Template - click here to find out more about Templates
Assign to Trunk Group - this process is mandatory for applying the charges to calls
Modify an existing Rate Sheet
Create a new Rate Sheet
Export the list of Rate Sheets as a .csv file
Distribute the Rate Sheet - sending the Rate Sheets to Rating Contacts
Download a single Rate Sheet as a .csv
View the Ratedeck history - see changes made to the Ratedeck
Modify the Rates
Delete the Rate Sheet
Relationship > Create/Modify > Rating
Using the drop-down menu, you can choose which Rating Template you want to use as a default. To find out more about setting up templates, click here and navigate to the Template section.
Relationship > Create/Modify > Rating
Only after assigning a Ratedeck to a Terminating Vendor Trunk Group you will be able to charge your customers and vendors for using your network. To assign a Ratedeck:
Press the Assign to Trunk Group button
In the pop-up window, press Add Trunk Group
Select a Trunk Group from the drop-down menu
Press Assign
To unassign:
Press the Assign to Trunk Group Button
Press the Minus icon at the right of the respective Trunk Group
Relationship > Create/Modify > Rating
To Create or Modify a Rate Sheet
To create a new Rate Sheet, press on the blue Create button
To modify an existing Rate Sheet, click on an item from the list to highlight it and press on Modify
Provide a name for the Ratedeck
Select a Location for the geopolitical area in which the call will be set up
US & Canada
International - every other country including the EEA
Set the Direction of the configuration as Termination - you are sending traffic to an terminating device
Select the Deck Type - Different Deck Types are available depending on the Location and Direction
Set the Relation as Vendor
Select the number of Rounding Digit
Select the Expiration Date
Select the Effective Date - By default, this is set to the current date
Download a Sample - For use as a template for creating Ratedecks
Select File - To import a .csv file as a Ratedeck source
Save
Relationship > Create/Modify > Rating
When you upload a Rate Sheet, you must align the headers from your .csv file to the headers provided in Perimeter:
Select an existing Rate Sheet (by clicking on the list item in the second row) and click on Modify
Click on the Select File
Select your .csv file and click Open. A new section named Ratedeck Mapping will appear in Perimeter
All the headers from your .csv file will appear in the drop down menus. You will need to assign a header to each of the drop-down menus.
(International Only) - You can select whether to Delete and Insert or the Append Rates checkbox. If you choose to Append, you will be able to upload change of rates effective at different times as per international rates distribution.
After you finish mapping all the headers to the drop-down menus, click on Save & Upload
When appending International Rates, you can choose between the following options:
Keep Future Dates
Overwrite
Orphan Codes: Allows you to load a full A-Z deck on top of the previous deck and clean out any remaining codes from the system not present in the new deck. You can select how many days out you want to orphan the codes so that you can continue to use the existing rates until they are to be deleted.
Relationship > Create/Modify > Rating
In the Rating Dashboard, click on Export
You will begin downloading a .csv file containing all the Rate Sheets associated to this relationship
Relationship > Create/Modify > Rating
In the Rating Dashboard, click on the email icon at the right of the list items
In the pop-up window, press on Distribute (please ensure that you have added a contact type “Rate” in the Relationship Info tab to receive the Rate Sheet)
Relationship > Create/Modify > Rating
In the Rating Dashboard, click on the download icon at the right of the list items
You will begin downloading a .csv containing the Rates
Relationship > Create/Modify > Rating
In the Rating Dashboard, click on the view icon at the right of the list items
A pop-up window will display the latest changes
You can download the rates for each version using the download button at the right of the list items
You can distribute all the entries from the Ratedeck History
Relationship > Create/Modify > Rating
In the Rating Dashboard, click on the green icon at the right of the list items
A pop-up window will display all the previous rates that were applied from this Rate Sheet.
Relationship > Create/Modify > Rating
In the Rating Dashboard, click on the red icon at the right of the list items
If the Rate Sheet is assigned to a Trunk Group, you will need to unassign before deleting
Press on Delete
This section keeps logs of your customer’s usage and credit. You can send notifications containing balance and usage to the Balance Contacts.
Note:
Relationship > Create/Modify > Balance / Payment
From the dashboard, you can set the following:
Balance Warning Amount - Send out a warning notification to your customer when their usage reaches this value
Balance Warning - Select the Balance Warning Template used to send out the warning notification
Disable Balance Offsets - Check this option to disable balancing between customer and vendor trunks
By default, the system will attempt to balance your spending between what you send to a vendor and what they sent to you as a customer within the same Relationship. When disabled the balance will show purely what the customer trunk has spent and the vendor trunks has spent.
Balance Suspend Amount - Suspend your customer’s services when their usage reaches this value
Balance Suspend - Select the Balance Suspend Template used to send out the warning notification
Send Daily Balance Email - Toggle daily notifications containing the balance at the end of the day
Create/Modify a Transaction
Export Transaction List as a .csv
Delete Transaction
Relationship > Create/Modify > Balance / Payment
Press on the Create/Modify button
Select a Transaction Type
Payment
Credit
Select a Payment Type
Debit
Credit
Type in the Transaction Amount
Provide the Date when the transaction took place
Select the currency in which the transaction took place
Enter a Payment Memo
Relationship > Create/Modify > Balance / Payment
In the Balance/Invoice Dashboard, click Export and provide a name for the file
You will begin downloading a .csv containing the Transaction details
Relationship > Create/Modify > Balance / Payment
In the Rating Dashboard, click on the red icon at the right of the list items
In the pop-up window, press on Delete
Portals allow external contacts to access a page outlining select details about the relationship.
You can select which information to provide on your portals from the following:
Daily Performance Email: A daily email sent to the configured contacts containing a performance report for the Relationship
Show Costs
Show Balance
Display Rates
Re-enable on Payment
Apply PayPal Percentage and Fee
Percentage Fee
Total Fee
Allow carrier to change IPs
Display Accounting Info (allows the Portal user to access the Send Payments page)
PayPal Limit
Portal Template
Show Carrier Payments
Create/Modify a Portal User
Export a list of Portal Users
Relationship > Create/Modify > Portals
To enable a user to access the portal, you will need to provide:
Username
Name
E-mail address
Phone number
Relationship > Create/Modify > Portals
In the Portals Dashboard, click Export and provide a name for the file
You will begin downloading a .csv containing the Portal User details
Relationship Portal Dashboard View:
Relationship Portal Reporting View:
Relationship Portal Diagnostic View:
Relationship Portal Accounting Send Payment View (requires the Display Accounting Information checkbox to be set when creating the user):
Relationship Portal Accounting Rates View:
Relationship Portal Accounting Invoice View:
Relationship> Agents
In the dashboard you can:
Create/Modify agents
Export a list of agents as .csv
Relationship> Agents
You can assign Agents to the appropriate Trunk Groups and determine the Commission Type and Rate.
Select a Trunk Group to be associated the Agent
Select the Commission Type
Profit
Revenue
Select the Agent - you can set up Agents by following the instructions in the quickstart guide.
Type in the Commision Rate
Select the start date for the commissions