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

Client

Event Based Scenario Example

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

Client

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
CCA, Session-Id = S-Id1
Granted-Service-Unit, Validity-Time
CCR, Session-Id = S-Id1,
CC-Request-Type = TERMINATION_REQUEST
Used-Service-Unit
CCA, Session-Id = S-Id1
Cost-Information
Diameter Credit Control
Application Tutorial - IETF67

Server

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-SubSession -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 CCRequest-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 nonreceipt 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

Diameter Credit Control

Application Tutorial - IETF67