DRA SESSION

Introduction

 The Alcatel-Lucent 5780 DSC Diameter Control Point

(DCP) is a high-performance Diameter Routing Agent
(DRA).
 Ability to manage and control network behavior by
connecting, translating, inter-operating Diameter
traffic and facilitates signaling from a network
element to the correct Diameter realm, based on
standard Diameter realm-based routing, as specified
in IETF RFC 3588
DCP in the 3GPP Architecture
 Capabilities
 Relay
◦ A Relay agent is used to forward a Diameter message to the appropriate
destination, depending on the information contained in the header of the
message
 Proxy
◦ A Proxy Agent can also be used to forward messages, but unlike a Relay
Agent, a Proxy Agent can modify the message content and, therefore,
provide value-added services and enforce rules on different messages
 Redirect
◦ A Redirect Agent acts as a centralized configuration repository for other
Diameter nodes. When it receives a message, it checks its routing table, and
returns a response message along with redirection information to its original
sender.
 Translation
◦ A Translation agent is used to convert a message from one Authentication,
Authorization and Accounting (AAA) protocol to another
 FQDN

 FQDN stand for ‘Fully Qualified Domain Name.’

 FQDN is the complete domain name for a specific
computer, or host, on the Internet
 The FQDN consists of two parts: the hostname and
the domain name.
 Example: dcp.dca.mnc001.mcc206.3gppnetwork.org
 Diameter Peers

 DCP supports the following:

 DCP-initiated Diameter connections to peers, provisioned

through programmatic interfaces (OSSI or GUI)
 Peer-initiated Diameter connections
 Both TCP and SCTP as a Transport Layer
 TCP: Strict order-of-transmission delivery and byte-stream
oriented
 SCTP: ordered or unordered (default) transmission type
 Configurable in the diameter.properties file:
 diameteragent.sctp.unordered = true or false
 Configuring Diameter Peers

 Diameter peers can be created through the GUI

 Administration→Diameter→Diameter Peers

 Port number (TCP or SCTP) and primary and secondary IP

addresses can be configured

 DCP can connect to some peers using TCP and to others

using SCTP, specify the protocol TCP or SCTP as required

 Default is TCP
 Diameter Routes
 If DCP is not directly connected to the clients with which it is
interacting, routes must be provisioned
 Routes can be:
 Provisioned through a programmatic interface (OSSI or GUI)
 Dynamic configuration of routes so that the relay agent
capabilities of the DCP are used
 Route learning through Diameter messages which is enabled
or disabled system-wide
 Disabled by default which causes use of configured routes
only
 Once disabled, all the learned routes will be removed
 Creating a Diameter Route

 Diameter route can be created through the GUI

 Administration→Diameter→Diameter Routes
 The combination of FQDN, realm, application must be
unique for each entry
 For an FQDN, realm, a route entry can be defined for one or
more applications, or for all (the wildcard), but not both
 A read-only parameter that describes the type of Diameter
routes configured and used in the site
 User defined, System, Learned
Diameter Header
 DCP Diameter Message Types

 A DCP Diameter message type is a combination of a

Diameter application and a Diameter command, as defined
by a Technical Standard (TS) or RFC (Request for
Comments) document

 There is a one-to-one mapping between a rule set and a

Diameter message
 For example, the AIR command for the S6a application is
defined as a S6a AIR message type and is processed by the
S6a AIR rule set.
 DCP Diameter Message Types

 In addition, all Diameter messages are broadly categorized

as either a Diameter Request or a Diameter Answer
message type and a rule set is defined for each category

 The Diameter Request and Answer message type allow the

DCP rule engine to apply generic processing rules to all
Diameter request or Diameter Answer messages that it
handles
 For example, generic processing for a S6a AIR message type is
handled by the Diameter Answer rule set and for the S6a AIR
message type by the Diameter Request rule set
 DCP Diameter Message Types

 In addition there are Diameter CER and CEA message

contexts which do not follow the generic processing
pattern of the application message contexts
 The base message Diameter request/answer rule sets are
never invoked
 The Diameter CER rule set is directly invoked each time the
DCP attempts to initiate a Diameter connection to a peer
 The Diameter CEA rule set is directly invoked each time the
DCP responds to a CER from a peer
Diameter Message Flow
 DCP Rule Engine

 A rule table is a set of rules that may be associated

with a rule set. Each rule contains a set of conditions
and associated actions

 When a rule set is invoked, all rule tables that belong

to the rule set are evaluated and the rules executed in
order of precedence
DCP Rule Engine Functional Blocks
 Rule Engine Operations
 When a Diameter message arrives at the DCP, the rule
engine can be invoked up to two times depending on
whether the message is a Diameter Request or Answer
 The rule engine first parses the incoming message as either
a Diameter answer or a Diameter request message and
invokes the appropriate request/answer rule set
 Once the generic processing is complete, the DCP rule
engine may be invoked again to execute the rule set for the
specific message type
Rule Engine Operations
 Rules
 Rules are logical expressions constructed as If/Then
statements
 Rules can be prioritized and enabled/disabled within a rule
table
 The condition statement can be configured with a single
criterion or with multiple criteria which are constructed
with AND/OR statements
 Actions represent the “Then” statement in the processing
logic, which is the action performed when a condition is
matched
 Rule Sets
 Rule set corresponds to a type of Diameter message that
can be processed by the DCP and are a list of trigger points
that provide callout points into the rule engine
 There is a one-to-one mapping between a rule set and a
Diameter message type
 Default rule sets cannot be deleted but custom rule sets can
be added (On the Linux system and through the dictionary file)
 The DCP rule sets can be broadly categorized as follows:
 Generic message rule sets
 Diameter application-specific rule sets
 Rule Set Types

 Diameter Request
 This rule set is invoked when the incoming Diameter message is a
request. Example: S6a AIR
 Diameter Answer
 This rule set is invoked when the incoming Diameter message is
an answer. Example: S6a AIA
 DCP provides a rule set for each Diameter application and
command combination, which may be invoked to process
the diameter message once the generic processing by the
Diameter request/answer rule set is complete
 Example: S6a AIR
 Rule System Version Types

 Active: a read-only system configuration that is the active

version of the rules and is currently running on the DCP;
there is only one version in this state at any given time

 Release: a version that is configured but allows you to

modify the description without creating a new version;
only the release version is available to become the Active
version

 Draft: a version of the rule system version that can be

modified
 Default Rule System Version
 A read-only Default rule system version is created
automatically when you start the DCP for the first time after
installation

 The Default rule system version contains all of the rule sets
and rule tables that are required for startup and it appears
in the DCP GUI in the Active state upon initial startup of the
DCP

 Modification to the Default rule system version is prevented

and can only be in Active or Release states
 LTE IMD’s

 The LTE IMD’s are categorized as follows:

 Roaming-In
 Roaming-Out
 Roaming-Out Launch
 Roaming-In configuration

 In Roaming-In configuration, the following steps are

followed:
 Creation of Routes.
 Request operator whitelisting.
Diameter Route Creation
Request Operator Whitelisting
 Roaming-Out Configuration

 In Roaming-Out configuration the following steps are

followed:
 Creation of Routes.
 Request operator whitelisting.
 Implementation of IMSI restriction.
Implementation of IMSI restriction

 IMSI restriction is applied on the S6a/S6d AIR and S6a/S6d ULR

 Diameter Result Codes

 The Result-code data field contains an IANA-managed

32-bit address space representing the errors.
Diameter provides following classes of errors:
 1xxx (Information Error)
 2XXX (Success)
 3xxx (Protocol Failures)
 4xxx (Transient Failures)
 5xxx (Permanent Failures)
Q&A