This blog post is about Billing with NetFlow using NetFlow Analyzer which is quite a rarity in any other product of its kind in the market.
Advantages of Billing Module:-
The Billing feature in NetFlow Analyzer offers you the following benefits:
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Using existing technology (NetFlow) already available on your routing or switching devices.
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Not only supports NetFlow, but also other flow formats like sFlow, jFlow, NetStream, IPFIX etc.
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No additional hardware or software purchase.
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Detailed traffic reports & bandwidth consumption reports for cross verification
NetFlow data has highly granular information about the source and destination involved with the traffic, the application used, the traffic volume and so on. Even if your customer or client asks for details about a bill you presented for charge back, the requested information is not just at your fingertips, but highly professional, neatly formatted, detailed PDF reports which are presentable to back-up your bills.
Billing Module in NetFlow Analyzer:-
Billing Module in NetFlow Analyzer lets you create Bill Plans for Various monitoring entities like Interfaces, IP groups etc. You can create Bill Plans in NetFlow Analyzer based on:
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Speed
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Volume
Interface Billing:-
This is commonly used by ISPs to bill their customers that use their internet service. A Service provider Edge Router is deployed in the customer’s environment and all the traffic from the customer’s environment passes through this edge router. The ISP will have a Service Level Agreement that he will provide X mbps of service and they bill their customer based on the same. The ISP could configures the NetFlow export at the edge router and monitor the traffic using NetFlow Analyzer. The ISP can create the bill plan to charge the customer based on his usage.
Once the bill plan is created, the bill will be generated and emailed on the billing date which has been set. A user can also create the bill when needed using the on-demand billing feature which is useful when a plan is terminated before the end of the bill period or when you need an intermediate bill before the bill generation date. NetFlow Analyzer allows you to create bills on demand and also view the previously generated bills.
Will see other options available on Billing module to generate report in our next blog.
