Diameter routing &

interworking in NFV
Jrgen Trnk
Strategic Product Manager
Tieto Signaling

CONNECTIVITY EXPERIENCE IN ALL DIMENSIONS

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In Europe

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World-wide
customer base

>25 years
of Signaling
experience

>500 Signaling
experts

TIETO ARE LONG TERM EXPERTS IN SIGNALING

World class
signaling
products for all
connectivity
needs

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Deep
signaling
expertise

Full Range
of Professional
Services

Long term
commitment
and
partnership

Diameter in 4G/LTE

Diameter routing in 4G/LTE networks

4G/LTE Network Signaling

HOME MOBILE NETWORK

LTE
ROAMING

Diameter
Load
Balancer

MME

DEA
Diameter
Edge Agent
GSMA IR-88

Diameter
Signaling
Controller

SGSN

GGSN

SGW
PGW
(PCEF)

DRA
Diameter
Routing Agent
3GPP TS 29.213

MME

PCRF

V-PCRF

DA

OCS

Diameter Agent
RFC 3588

OFCS
HSS

Tieto Corporation

EIR

LTE traffic complexity and traffic explosion

Number of
devices
growth

Number of
users
growth

Mobile traffic
growth

Tieto
Virtualized Diameter Signaling Controller

Tieto Corporation

Services
and legacy
integration

Diameter in NFV cloud

Impact of NFV cloud on Diameter

signaling.
Challenges for scalable Diameter routing
in the cloud.
7

Tieto Corporation

EPC/IMS in NFV
EPC/IMS functions (nodes) are considered to be
Virtual Network Functions in the ETSI NFV
architecture
Dynamic use of resources and the ability to
upscale/downscale VNF resources and resize
clusters of VNFs must be transparent
Multi vendor environment should be supported by the
infrastructure
Load balancers are components for building a cloud
solution
Lower level of load balancers are part of the NFV
infrastructure

Tieto Corporation

VNFC

VNFC

VNF
(E.g. PCRF)

VNFC

VNFC

Handling control plane traffic in NFV

3GPP defined control signaling protocols used in EPC/IMS (e.g.
Diameter and SIP) are:

Point to point protocols

Multiple users share the same peer to peer connection.
Users are identified by logical information within the protocols
Session 1

Session n
Common peer connection

EPC/IMS protocol aware load balancers are essential for building

and cloud solution
9

Tieto Corporation

Diameter Load Balancers in NFV

Diameter enabled VNFs require Diameter aware load balancers:

10

Re-distribute load in a controlled way to support VNFs dynamic behaviour

Dynamically adding/removing peers to a VNF pool

Perform topology hiding

Session aware

Provide essential security

Tieto Corporation

Orchestrator
VNF
VNF
(PCEF)
(PCEF)

VNF
VNF
(Diameter LB)
(Diameter LB)

VNF
VNF
(OCS)
(OCS)

Diameter Signaling Controller in NFV

Controllable from a Cloud
Orchestrator
Performs load distribution
Provides input and statistics to
orchestrator
Protect peers from overload
Provide an overview of network
status

11

Tieto Corporation

Be prepared!
Have the future architecture in mind when
designing your network today

12

Many of the Diameter load balancing and routing features are

very useful, regardless if NFV is used or not

Early introduction gives you an opportunity to learn and

provide feedback to suppliers that will benefit when moving
into the cloud

Tieto Corporation

Diameter Interworking

Diameter interworking and mediation use

cases.

13

Tieto Corporation

Importance of Mediation & Interworking

Ensure monetization of existing network equipment

Ability to adapt to any type of Diameter flavor
Provide service continuity over network borders
Enable roaming between operators/networks
SSF

SS7
LEGACY
OPERATOR

WIFI
PROVIDER

EIR
HLR

SOAP
LDAP
RADIUS

14

Tieto Corporation

SS7
MAP/CAP

DIAMETER

Diameter
Mediation
GW

HSS
MME
OCS
PCRF

3G/4G
OPERATOR

Case 1: Connection to 2G/3G HLR and EIR

2G/3G subscriber with LTE device visiting an LTE network
MAP-Diameter Interworking according to 3GPP TS 29.305
MME

EIR

Gf

S6a+S13
Diameter

S6d+S13
SGSN

15

Tieto Corporation

IWF
MAP-Diameter Gateway

MAP/SS7

Gr
HLR

Case 2: Service continuity across networks

Provide WiFi access for 3G/4G subscribers
Support
Server

SOAP
WLAN
Access

16

RADIUS

Tieto Corporation

Diameter
Gateway

HSS

Diameter
S6
MAP
Gr

HLR

Case 3: Diameter translation & mediation

Diameter is by nature extensible and causes issues
Diameter Mediation solves this problem

DPI

17

Tieto Corporation

Diameter
Gx

Diameter
Mediator

Diameter
Gx

PCRF

Case 4: Multi-network charging

Common prepaid charging system for 4G, 3G and 2G

One single instance for prepaid charging

Reduce charging traffic
Less maintenance cost and complexity
Simplified maintenance

MSC

CAP/SS7
SGSN

18

Tieto Corporation

CAP-Diameter
Interworking

Diameter
Gy/Ro

OCS

Requirements for Diameter Mediation

19

Support for multiple interfaces/protocols

Ability to map and modify parameters between protocols
Possibility to chain operations
Easily and live configurable
Easily adaptable to new situations/scenarios
Carrier Grade solution
Virtualization support (NFV)

Tieto Corporation

Tieto Diameter Mediation Gateway

20

ANY TO ANY protocol interworking

Integration enablement WITHIN HOURS OR DAYS
ADVANCED service logic
WIDE RANGE OF IT, LEGACY AND DIAMETER PROTOCOLS
POWERFUL flow creation environment
Fully CONFIGURABLE INTERWORKING
ON-THE-FLY updates
NFV ready running on COTS servers

Tieto Corporation

Diameter
Mediation
Gateway

Changing perspectives
Jrgen Trnk
Strategic Product Manager
Tieto, Signaling Products
jorgen.trank@tieto.com