Cisco CDR data versus Cisco CMR data?
What's the difference between Cisco Call Detail Records (CDR) and Call Management Records (CMRs)? 
Within the Cisco Unified Communication Manager (CUCM), CDRs focus on call details and billing, while CMRs provide deeper insights into call quality and performance. Both records play crucial roles in managing and optimizing your communication system.
CDR (Call Detail Records)
Cisco CDR contains essential information about each call processed by Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CallManager). They serve various purposes, including billing, troubleshooting, and capacity planning.
Cisco CDR Data Contains:
- Call Origination and Destination: CDR captures the calling and called numbers, offering a granular view of the communication flow.
- Timing Details: Precise timestamps, including start time, connection time, and end time, enable a meticulous analysis of call timelines.
- Call Duration: Knowing the exact duration of each call is crucial for various applications, from billing to troubleshooting.
- Call Type: CDR classifies calls into categories such as incoming, outgoing, or internal, providing insights into communication patterns.
- Call Termination Cause: Understanding why a call terminated (e.g., normal call clearing, busy, no answer) aids in troubleshooting and optimizing call performance.
CDR Use Cases
- Billing and Invoicing: CDR serves as the foundation for accurate billing, ensuring organizations can account for every call made and received.
- Analyzing Call Patterns: Precise timestamps, including start time, connection time, and end time, enable a meticulous analysis of call timelines.
- Identifying Call Quality Issues: CDR contributes to troubleshooting efforts by pinpointing potential call quality issues, allowing administrators to address them promptly.
- Troubleshooting Call Failures: In cases of call failures, CDR acts as forensic tools, offering insights into the events leading up to the failure.
- Capacity Planning: By analyzing call volumes and patterns, administrators can use CDRs for effective capacity planning, ensuring the communication system meets the organization's demands.
CMR (Call Management Records)
While CDRs focus on the logistical aspects of calls, CMR provides additional diagnostic information related to call quality and performance for the Cisco PBX. CMR is especially useful for assessing audio and video quality experience.
CMR Data Contains:
- Quality of Service (QoS) metrics;
- Jitter (variation in packet delay)
- Latency (delay between sending and receiving packets)
- Packet Loss
- Video-related Metrics:
- Frame rate
- Resolution
- Bitrate
- Call setup and teardown details
CMR Use Cases
- Diagnostic Insights: CMR provides detailed diagnostic information, offering a comprehensive view of factors affecting call quality (e.g., choppy audio, video freezing).
- Audio and Video Quality Assessment: Unlike CDR, CMR specifically assesses the quality of audio and video components during calls, aiding in the identification and resolution of multimedia issues.
- Performance Metrics: Metrics such as jitter, packet loss, and latency are captured by CMRs, allowing administrators to address performance bottlenecks and optimize the network for seamless communication.
Final Thoughts
While CDRs and CMRs both provide critical insights into call activity on a Cisco VoIP network, their purposes differ. CDRs serve largely as an auditing tool – tracking detailed metadata like call parties, durations, routing, and other logistical information. CMRs take a deeper dive into call quality itself by recording quality metrics, troubleshooting data, and diagnostics. Both record types enable administrators to monitor, analyze, and optimize their VoIP infrastructure and calling experience.
The key for administrators is recognizing when to utilize CDRs for compliance, utilization analysis, and tracking overall calling trends and when CMRs may provide more robust diagnostics around real-time call performance and health of VoIP components. By leveraging these complementary capabilities in tandem and tailoring Cisco Unified Communications Manager settings appropriately, telecom managers can unlock the full value of their network’s call data. This allows for informed decisions around troubleshooting, capacity planning, and maximizing ROI on UC investments down the road.
