What’s The Difference between IPDR Vs DPI?

We all know that the telecom sector has been happy to offer voice call techniques for the past 50 years and to ensure appropriate accounting, they have been producing a straightforward Call Detailed Record (CDR) for every call. These records comprise informational elements such as the caller’s name and phone number, call time, call cost, call route, and type of call.

But, at the same time, do you know that there has been a huge evolution in this field? Yes, over the past 35 years, even “type” of call has evolved, moving from straightforward voice calls to brief text messages, and then further, incorporating data packets from online searches and app use. The contrasting emergence of record kinds has been driven by the traceability of who pays what and why.

IPDR: What Does It Mean?

We can say that the records from the network are known as Internet Protocol Detailed Records (IPDR) when the call’s “type” contains data from apps. IPDRs were primarily developed for fixed broadband in the cable business, but they are now essential for mobile broadband and fixed wireless access systems as well.

• It can be looked at as a software-based technique that is used to gather and store statistics on network data traffic from an OLT or CMTS.
• It includes details on each flow that occurs within a CMTS, OLT, or OLT EMS.
• It offers information on the network’s subscriber devices’ consumption and usage statistics.

DPI: What Does It Mean?

You should keep in mind that other than IPDR, some systems also produce Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) records. As we are talking about DPI here, we can say that DPI examines all network activity and generates records based on predetermined criteria.

• DPI is a subscriber-to-Internet positioned application-based data collecting technique.
• In order to generate statistics based on particular criteria, it scans all network traffic and examines unencrypted data included within a packet.

IPDR And DPI: How Are They Different?

Now that we are aware of what IPDR and DPI are, let us understand what are the things that make them different from each other. We can notice the distinctions between them in terms of various basis or aspects including:

• Difference In Purpose

IDPR is supposed to provide network intelligence services for service diagnostics, congestion management, quota and top-ups, subscriber metering, policy management etc.

DPI, on the other hand, provides network intelligence services for network intelligence and the application of policy and for reducing the speed of some kinds of network traffic.

• Difference in functioning

When we talk about IPDR, cable modem-based usage records are to be defined, gathered, encoded, transported, and exchanged by CMTS. An OLT or OLT EMS may also create IPDR data, based on the vendor. Other than that, statistics are asynchronously and regularly provided to a collector where data is processed and examined for other divisions to understand.

On the other hand, when we talk about DPI, it controls bandwidth usage based on established regulations and enables the network to identify which applications are the most bandwidth-intensive. Moreover, it examines each data packet as it crosses an inspection point to acquire intelligence. After that, flows are constructed, traffic rules are implemented, and data can eventually be retrieved through an application.

The Bottom Line

It is true that both Internet Protocol Detailed Record and Deep Packet Inspection are similar at some points as both of them are a way of recording data. But, at the same time, they are different in various aspects as mentioned above. If you are looking forward to hiring a DPI or IPDR collector, you can get in touch with OpenVault.