ABSTRACT: Issue 2 of GR-385, Automatic Message Accounting Teleprocessing System (AMATPS) Generic Requirements, replaces Issue 1.

Automatic Message Accounting (AMA) is a switching system process that generates the data from which the Revenue Accounting Office (RAO) bills carriers for network access and customers for their usage of the network and of various telephony services. AMA data items that a switch generates for a typical phone call include calling party phone number, called party phone number, date and time when conversation starts, and total conversation time. The RAO uses the calling phone number to determine the account to be billed. It uses the calling and called phone numbers to determine the distance of the call, then uses the distance, date, and time to determine the applicable rates.

Generic requirements for the AMA capabilities, features, and functionality of a LATA switching system are in GR-508. The GR-508 requirements also apply as fundamental requirements for other kinds of switching systems, such as tandem switching systems, operator services systems, and packet switching systems.

GR-385 supplements the core requirements identified in GR-508. This GR provides the Telcordia view of the generic requirements pertinent to the transport of AMA data from network switching elements to the RAO billing systems. These requirements describe the capabilities and interfaces of the AMA transmitters and collector systems that support AMA teleprocessing.

Issue 2 of GR-385 updates the requirements previously presented in TR-TSY-000385 in three ways: it expands the block sequence numbers for AMA data files to 9,999,999; it provides an update to the Billing AMA Format (BAF) used for AMA audit records; and it provides updated cross references to current Telcordia generic requirements documents.

GR-385 replaced TR-TSY-000003.

The following documents were fully or partly replaced by GR-385: TR-TSY-000385, TR-TSY-000385-ADDM, CB-148, TA-TSY-000223, and TA-TSY-000237.