Diameter Credit Control

Application Tutorial - IETF67

IETF67 Diameter Tutorial

Diameter Credit Control Application

Tolga Asveren
Ulticom Inc.
Diameter Credit Control
Application Tutorial - IETF67
Tutorial Outline

Diameter Credit Control Application
Overview
Messages
Operation Modes
Other Protocol Features
Timers
Subsessions/Multiple Services
Duplicate Detection
High Availability/Failure Handling
Notes for Authors of New Applications
Diameter Credit Control
Application Tutorial - IETF67



Credit Control Application Overview

Specified in RFC 4006
Can be used to provide real time credit control for various
applications, e.g. messaging services, gaming services
Used between the network element providing the service
(client) and credit control server (server)
Uses Application-Id 4

Diameter Credit Control
Application Tutorial - IETF67
Credit Control Application Messages
Credit Control Request (CCR)
Sent from client to server to request authorization for a
given service
Credit Control Answer (CCA)
Sent from server to client and carries the result of the
corresponding authorization request
Reauthorization Request (RAR)
Sent by server to trigger a new CCR, e.g. after
successful credit replenishment during a service
Reauthorization Answer (RAA)
Sent by client as an answer to RAR
Diameter Credit Control
Application Tutorial - IETF67
Operation Modes

Event Based
A single CCR/CCA exchange in each session
Used when it is sure that requested service event will be
successful
Session Based
Multiple CCR/CCA exchanges in a session
Required when there is a need to reserve credits before
providing the service
Requires state maintenance on the server side
Server first reserves the credits and debits them after receiving
the subsequent CCR
Diameter Credit Control
Application Tutorial - IETF67
Some important AVPs
CC-Request-Type AVP
Indicates type of the request for a CCR
Possible values are INITIAL_REQUEST, UPDATE_REQUEST,
TERMINATION_REQUEST for session based scenarios and
EVENT_REQUEST for event based scenarios
CC-Request-Number AVP
Identifies a request within a session
Requested-Action AVP
Used to indicate type of the requested action for event based
scenarios. Possible values are DIRECT_DEBITING,
REFUND_ACCOUNT, CHECK_BALANCE and PRICE_ENQUIRY
Diameter Credit Control
Application Tutorial - IETF67
Event Based Scenario Example

Client Server
CCR, Session-Id = S-Id1, Service-Identifier
CC-Request-Type = EVENT_BASED
Requested-Action = PRICE_ENQUIRY
CCA, Session-Id = S-Id1
Cost-Information
CCR, Session-Id = S-Id2, Subscription-Id,
CC-Request-Type = EVENT_BASED
Requested-Action = BALANCE_CHECK,
Service-Identifier
CCA, Session-Id = S-Id2
Check-Balance-Result
CCR, Session-Id = S-Id3, Service-Identifier
CC-Request-Type = EVENT_BASED
Requested-Action = DIRECT_DEBITING
Subscription-Id
CCA, Session-Id = S-Id3
Granted-Service-Unit
Diameter Credit Control
Application Tutorial - IETF67
Session Based Scenario Example


CCR, Session-Id = S-Id1, Requested-Service-Unit
CC-Request-Type = INITIAL_REQUEST
Subscription-Id
CCA, Session-Id = S-Id1
Granted-Service-Unit, Validity-Time
CCR, Session-Id = S-Id1, Requested-Service-Unit,
CC-Request-Type = UPDATE_REQUEST
Subscription-Id
CCR, Session-Id = S-Id1,
CC-Request-Type = TERMINATION_REQUEST
Used-Service-Unit
CCA, Session-Id = S-Id1
Cost-Information
CCA, Session-Id = S-Id1
Granted-Service-Unit, Validity-Time
Client
Server
Diameter Credit Control
Application Tutorial - IETF67
Credit Control Timers
Tx timer
Used by client to guard against non-receipt of CCA after
a CCR is sent
Cant rely on Tw, configuring Tw to a low value may be
undesirable and Tw on the whole message path may not
be under control of the client administrating entity
Tcc timer
Used by server to guard against non-receipt of CCR for
session based scenarios
Diameter Credit Control
Application Tutorial - IETF67

Subsessions and Multiple Services
Multiple sub-sessions may be included in a credit control
sessions. Each of them is identified by a unique CC-Sub-
Session -Id AVP and have their own credit control life
cycle
Credit control for multiple services could be performed in
a credit control session
The goal is to limit use of network and client/server resources
Multiple-Services-Indicator AVP is sent by client to indicate
support for multiple services
Multiple-Services-Credit-Control AVP carries credit control related
information from server to client

Diameter Credit Control
Application Tutorial - IETF67
Multiple Services Related Terms
Service-Id
Identifier for a specific service
Rating-Group
A group of services subject to the same cost and rating type
Quota
Authorized amount of resources for a specific service or rating
group
Credit Pool
Authorized amount of resources for services/rating groups with
different charging characteristics


Diameter Credit Control
Application Tutorial - IETF67
Tariff-Change

Server can inform client when a tariff change will
occur with Tariff-Time-Change AVP
Client reports used units before and after tariff change
with Tariff-Change-Usage AVP
Diameter Credit Control
Application Tutorial - IETF67
Duplicate Detection

Session-Id AVP, CC-Request-Number AVP and CC-
Request-Type can be used to detect duplicates
(mechanism described in RFC3588 will work too, i.e.
using Origin-Host AVP and End-to-End Identifier

Diameter Credit Control
Application Tutorial - IETF67
High Availability/Failure Handling Features
CC-Session-Failover AVP
Used by servers to inform clients whether a backup instance is
present ( Client needs to know identity of backup peer by other
means )
Credit-Control-Failure-Handling AVP
Used by server to inform client about the expected behavior for
session based scenarios, when CCA for a CCR is not received
Direct-Debiting-Failure-Handling AVP
Used by server to inform client about the expected behavior for
event based scenarios, when CCA for a CCR is not received



Diameter Credit Control
Application Tutorial - IETF67
Notes for Authors of New Applications
Define application layer timers, to guard against non-
receipt of expected messages
Carrying state related information in messages facilitates
development of highly available implementations
If there is some application specific information, which
can be used for duplicate detection purposes, it is useful
to mention about this

Diameter Credit Control
Application Tutorial - IETF67
End of Tutorial
Thank You