LTE and Diameter

Routing Use Cases

Peter Nas
Sr Solution Architect Sales

Agenda

LTE & Diameter signaling, the market

Existing customers and their use cases

New Diameter Routing use cases

Summary

F5 Agility 2014

Why Diameter? Signaling Growth Predictions

IP-based services multiply

Data and Signaling Growth

Usage patterns change

Realtime charging

Policy

LTE
Network architecture changes
and growth
New trends increase signaling
load (M2M, VoLTE, RCS,
virtualization)

Source: F5 and various secondary research

LTE is happening now 288 networks >+100 from last Agility

F5 Agility 2014

May 2014: 288 Launched LTE networks

F5 Agility 2014

With LTE next is VoLTE (and RCS)

VoLTE status:

T-Mobile US launches VoLTE (Total Telecom, Friday 23 May

2014)

AT&T meanwhile launched as well, Verizon and

others to follow

VoLTE live in South Korea and soon SingTel,

Japan and Hong Kong
Other priority: enhanced single radio voice call
continuity (eSRVCC),
ensures seamless hand-off to the 3G network when
a customer wanders outside an LTE coverage area.

Voice quality is
T-Mobile: wifi calling and Rich Communications
Launching VoLTE is our first step toward a host of
rich communication services and additional
innovations around WiFi calling that we're looking to
deliver to our customers over the coming months"

F5 Agility 2014

Key LTE Challenges

Element Connectivity
Designing a scalable network architecture
Increased number of network elements and traffic growth
Message Normalization
How to deal with different vendors Diameter implementations
Routing and Subscriber Guidance

How to guide transactions toward specific servers

How to manage network-wide routing and session binding (like to PCRF, OCS)

Roaming for LTE

How to manage LTE - LTE global roaming
How to manage LTE 2G/3G interworking (IWF)

F5 Agility 2014

F5s Traffix Signaling Delivery Controller (SDC)

Mature Product with Dedicated Focus on Diameter
Contextual routing management
Routing between Diameter nodes
Routing between home network and roaming networks
Enforcement of security policies
Protocol
Protocol connectivity
Message manipulation and normalization
Gateway functionality for legacy protocols
Scalability management
Bi-directional Diameter load balancing
Non-disruptive service introduction
F5 Agility 2014

Diameter Load
Balancer

Gateway

Diameter Router

F5 Traffix: The Diameter Market Leader

2014

55+ deployments* in Tier 1/2, MVNO, IPX providers

worldwide
*May 2014, highest number of deployments than any other Diameter vendor

2013
F5
Acquisition

2012

2011
2009
2005
F5 Agility 2014

First Diameter solution optimized for SDN and NFV

architectures

First to implement new Diameter base protocol RFC

6733

Signaling Delivery Controller, multi-solution platform for

DRA/DEA/IWF
First standalone Diameter Routing Agent

First Diameter stack OpenBlox

9

IOT....
SDCSDC
is the spider
in the web
Traffix
Overview
ZTE IN, MME,
P-GW, HSS,
PCRF, MMTel,
P-CSCF

SMSC, MMSC

IN (Billing)
DSC, DEA
PCRF, DSR,
DRA, DEA
OCS, PCRF

v-PCRF
PCEF

MME
SGSN
S6a/S6d

S9

ASN.GW,
MME, P-GW,
MMTel
EIR

OSS / BSS

AF, CSCF

HSS

AS

Rx, Cx
Ro, Rf

Sh, Cx

Sh, Dh

IMS

PEC, x-CSCF,
DRA, DEA

HSS, PCRF, MME, P-GW,

GGSN, OCS, AS, C-CSCF,
P-CSCF, CDF/CGF
Untrusted
non-/3GPP
PCRF
PCEF

AAA

ePDG
SWm, SWa

other Access
Networks

Roaming

OCMC, OCPC

3G Core

Signaling
Delivery
Controller

PCRF
AAA
Billing

S6b/Sta, Gxa

LTE EPC

HLR

Gr/Gr
EIR
PCRF, AS (MMS,
SMS, WAS)
S13, Gf
PCRF, OCS SGSN

Policy and Charging Control

GGSN
PGW
S6d
SGW
Gx,
Gf
PCRF Gr,
PCS5000,
Gy,
Gx,
PCRF
MMSC
Gy MMTel, DSC, DEA OCS
Billing, GGSN,
Gz
MMTel
PCEF
BBERF
TDF
Gxc
OFCS
IN (Billing)
Gx, Gxx, Rx,
x-CSCF
HSS, AS, MME,
SMSC Gx,
Gy/Ro,
Sd
Gz/Rf,
Gxx GGSN,
S9,
Sy,
Sd,
HSS ,
EIR, P/I-CSCF,
Gz/Rf,
Gy
Gxa, Gxc
MMTel, MME,SyP-GW,
S-CSCF
Sy
x-CSCF, SBC

F5 Agility 2014

Trusted
non-/3GPP

P/AN GW

Provisioning

MME, P-GW,
MMTel,
x-CSCF

Sb/STa
SWm/SWa
SWx/Wx
Radius

IN (Billing),
AAA, HSS,
PCRF, OCS

HSS

PCRF, CSG
(GGSN), DPI,
MME, x-CSCF,
RTBS (OCS) P-GW, (ASR5k)

S6a/S6d
P-GW, CCN (OCS),
SWx/Wx
MME
PEM (PCEF) MME, HSS, GGSN,
S6a, S13
Policy, SASN, SAPC
PCEF

10

SDC Use Cases

EMEA Operator
Deployment:

VPMN1
S6a
MME

MME

Redundancy:

HSS

S6a

HSS

2 Geo redundant systems

Local Redundancy

HW:

MME

MME

MME

HSS

HSS

Signaling
Delivery
Controller

HSS

IPX

S6a

S6a

HP Rack Mount Servers

PCRF

Signaling
Delivery
Controller

DEA (S6a)

VPMN2

PCRF

MME

HSS

Business cases
DEA in EPC core
Provide interconnectivity between all local HSS and MME and IPX providers
Solves interoperability problems

AVP manipulation due to un-proper format of one of multiple vendors

Why F5 Traffix SDC was selected

Out of the Box IOT , flexibility and advanced scripting capability
Extensive feature set
VIP for client and server
F5 Agility 2014

12

EMEA Operator: S6a, Gx and Gy Routing

HSS

Deployment:

DRA (S6a, Gx and Gy )

Redundancy:

Gx
PGW/
GGSN

PGW/
GGSN

Gy

S6a
Signaling
Delivery
Controller

Gx
Gy

OCS

2 Geo redundant systems

Local Redundancy

Site 1
S6a

HW:

PCRF

MME

HSS

MME

HP Rack Mount Servers

S6a
Gx
Signaling
Delivery
Controller

PCRF
Gy
OCS

Site 2

Business cases

DRA in EPC core

Provide interconnectivity between all Diameter nodes (PGW, MME, HSS, OCS and PCRF)
Diameter normalization between ZTE, Ericsson and OCSs from various suppliers

Why F5 Traffix SDC was selected

F5 Agility 2014

Gx Routing based on Application_Id and APN_Id

Gy Routing based on IMSI and S_Char
(which is AVP 3GPP_Charging_Characteristics)
S6a Routing based on Application_Id and IMSI Range

IOT experience
Extensive set of routing of routing rules
System footprint and capacity
Rapid introduction of new capabilities
13

Tier1 NA
Deployment:

Gx and Sh

Redundancy:
4 Geo redundant systems + Lab
Local Redundancy

HW:
HP Blade servers

Business cases
DRA in EPC core
Provide interconnectivity and high availability between all local PGW, HA-GW, DPIs (Cisco) and PCRF (Openet) and HSS
Overload protection

Why F5 Traffix SDC was selected

Overload protection
Flexibility
F5 Agility 2014

14

Use Case: MVNO/MVNE Gateway

HPLMN

Secure the network from Diameter traffic in direction of GGSN/PGW,

for example: load control between OCS and GGSN/PGW
MVNO-A

Gy
Gx/S9
S6

GGSN/PGW

Gy
Gx/S9
S6

GGSN/PGW

OCS-A

Gy
Gx/S9

Signaling
Delivery
Controller

GGSN/PGW

HSS-A

MVNO-B

OCS-B
GGSN/PGW

PCRF-A

PCRF-B

HSS-B

MVNO-C

Gy
Gx/S9
S6

OCS-C

PCRF-C

HSS-C

S6

Diameter Router for Gy, Gx/S9 & S6 and

Firewall to protect host network

PCRF

HSS

MME

F5 Agility 2014

EU Roaming Regulation III, July 2014

15

Use Case: LBO for SS7 (next to Diameter)

If STP is configured to route SS7 MAP messages to SDC, the MAP content
can be modified and routed back to STP
If location update is received from VPLMN in list of LBO allowed then ISD is
modified with configurable APN and VPLMN_Allowed = Yes (eg allow LBO)
Eg provisioning on the fly
Can be used for EU Roaming Regulation III but not limited to that
SCCP Screening

ULR, UpdateLocationRequest

SGSN

ULR, UpdateLocationRequest

ISD, InsertSubscriberData (modified)

STP

ISD, InsertSubscriberData

HLR

M3UA Routing

SDC logic
F5 Agility 2014

Signaling
Delivery
Controller
16

Use Case: Charging Proxy

By analyzing the Charging Requests content by the Proxy, it can decide
to have the OCS or the Proxy answer the request
Allows for offloading OCS from certain traffic, like zero charged traffic
At the same time it also protects the OCS for overload

Charging Requests
OCS answer
Proxy answer
GGSN/PGW-1

Charging System
Server 1

GGSN/PGW-2
GGSN/PGW-3
GGSN/PGW-4

F5 Agility 2014

Signaling
Delivery
Controller

Charging System
Server 2

17

Use Case: Signaling Router / LB for WiFi Offload

3GPP AAA

SS7
RAN

Gr/Gf

AUC

AAA

HSS

LDAP

IPX
SWd/S6a/S6d/S13/S13/S9/Gy

SGSN

SWx,SWd, SWm, Swa, STA, S6b

S13/S13/Gf

S6d/Gr/S13/Gf

S6a/S6d
Radius/Diameter
LDAP

S6a/S13
Rx
Gy

SWa/STA

Gx/S9

Signaling
Delivery
Controller

UTRAN

S6b, Gy/Gx

Wm

MME
eUTRAN

PCRF
GTM

Gi

PEM CGNAT AFM

GGSN/PGW

S2a
802.11x

Wu

S2a

WAG
VIPRION

Wi
F5 Agility 2014

AS

OCS

S/Gi Network
Access
+ WAG

GRX/IPX
Internet
18

Conclusions
Diameter signaling is a fundamental part of LTE but also for 3G and IMS
networks
Network usage, signaling, is very different than before
Unpredictable
Users, handsets and applications driven

Purpose built centralized (redundant) Diameter

Routers are needed
Best place for DRA, DEA and more

Diameter Routers are ideal place to add more value and enabling more
business models
Spider in value-add web .... with all the uncertainties.... FLEXIBILITY is key

F5 Agility 2014

19

Thank you. Questions?

Peter Nas
Sr Solution Architect Sales
Mobile: +31 628 02 59 28
E-mail: p.nas@f5.com

F5 Agility 2014

20