Diameter Agents -- The misuse of terms is causing

confusion!

It is my belief that if we all - instructors, equipment vendors, and service providers - use
the diameter terminology correctly the whole diameter environment will be easier to
comprehend, less confusing and ultimately keep down a lot of disagreements.

The Diameter Agents terms are being bandied around with reckless abandonment
causing confusion in the Diameter Network Space. In this post we will discuss the
following agents whether they are real or “MADE UP”. The agents /terms discussed will
be:

 Diameter Relay Agent

 Diameter Proxy Agent
 Diameter Redirect Agent
 Diameter Translations Agent
 Diameter Edge Agent
 Diameter Routing Agent
 Diameter Signaling Controller
Diameter Relay Agent

Diameter Relay Agents are nodes that are placed in the Diameter message flow
between Diameter Clients and Diameter Servers. The Relay Agent provides routing
configuration aggregation, reducing the administration of routing information in each of
the subtending nodes. The Relay Agent is application agnostic in that it advertises itself
as a relay using the Relay Application Id. and will accept any Diameter Application
messages. The Relay Agent by specification cannot modify any portion of a Diameter
Message with the exception of the routing portion.
 Diameter Relay Agent

Diameter Proxy Agent

A Diameter Proxy Agent (defined by IETF- RFC 6733) can forward messages including
requests and responses like a Relay Agent. Also like Relay Agents, Proxy Agents use
their routing tables to forward Diameter Messages to either the next hop or final
destination. The difference between Proxy Agents and Relay Agents is that Proxy
Agents can make policy decisions related to resource usage and provisioning. In order
for Proxy Agents to make policy decisions they must understand the semantics of
particular Diameter Applications. This understanding also means the Proxy can operate
on a specific Diameter Application basis and can only perform proxy functions for those
Diameter Applications that they advertise support for.

Diameter Proxy Agent

Diameter Redirect Agent

Diameter Redirect Agents (defined by IETF-RFC 6733) are used as centralized
repositories for Diameter Routing information. The Redirect Agent does not forward
messages to other nodes and is not in the message flow per say, so the redirect agent
does not maintain state information. The Redirect agent looks for routing information in
it’s database – if found the routing information is placed in an answer message and sent
to the originator of the request message. The receiver of the answer message then
uses the routing information to rout the original request.

Diameter Redirect Agent

Diameter Translations Agent

Diameter Translations Agents are defined in the Diameter Base Protocol to ease the
migration from legacy based protocol networks to Diameter Protocol networks. These
translations agents provide protocol conversion from protocols such as RADIUS, SS7
Transaction Capabilities Application Part (TCAP), SS7 Mobile Application Part (MAP)
and SS7 CAMEL Application Part (CAP) to Diameter and visa versa.
 Diameter Translations Agent

Diameter Edge Agent

GSMA, IR.88, V10.0 defines a Diameter Edge Agents as follows: “In order to support
scalability, resilience and maintainability, and to reduce the export of network
topologies, the use of a PMN-edge Diameter agent is strongly recommended. The
Diameter agent is named Diameter Edge Agent（DEA) hereafter. The DEA is
considered as the only point of contact into and out of an operator’s network at the
Diameter application level. Furthermore IR.88 states “It is recommended that the DEA
advertises the Relay application ID to the outer Diameter peers. By using the Relay,
inter PMN routing is independent from inner domain applications. Note that the DEA is
free to advertise the Proxy ID to inner Diameter peers.” So the bottom line is the GSMA
recommends that the Diameter Edge Agent looks to the outside world as a Diameter
Relay Agent and to the inside network it may look as though it is a Diameter Proxy.

Diameter Routing Agent

According to the ETSI TS 129 213 V10.2.0 (2011-06) the definition of a Diameter
Routing Agent IS “The DRA (Diameter Routing Agent) is a functional element that
ensures that all Diameter sessions established over the Gx, S9, Gxx and Rx reference
points for a certain IP-CAN session reach the same PCRF when multiple and separately
addressable PCRFs have been deployed in a Diameter realm. The DRA is not required
in a network that deploys a single PCRF per Diameter realm.”
Diameter Signaling Controller

Diameter Signaling Controller is not a specific agent at all rather it is a catchall phrase to
describe the Diameter Routing Market inclusive off all Diameter routing agents and
types. Some Diameter Routing equipment vendors have started calling their products
Diameter Signaling Controllers

There are specific definitions for each of the agents mentioned in this post with the
exception of Diameter Signaling Controller. I think if we use the correct terminology for
the different agents including:

 Diameter Relay Agent

 Diameter Proxy Agent
 Diameter Redirect Agent
 Diameter Translations Agent
 Diameter Edge Agent
 Diameter Routing Agent
 Diameter Signaling Controller