| 1 | Introduction |
| 1.1 | Purpose |
| 1.2 | Scope |
| 1.3 | Audience |
2 | Overview |
3 | General Impact |
| 3.1 | Configurations and Roles |
| 3.2 | Hardware |
| 3.3 | Characteristics |
| 3.4 | Interface |
| 3.5 | Operation |
| 3.6 | Features |
4 | Terminology |
| 4.1 | Acronyms |
| 4.2 | Terms and Expressions |
Reference List | |
| Copyright |
© Ericsson AB 2011. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright owner. | |||
| Disclaimer |
The contents of this document are subject to revision without notice due to continued progress in methodology, design and manufacturing. Ericsson shall have no liability for any error or damage of any kind resulting from the use of this document. | |||
| Trademark List |
|
1 Introduction
1.1 Purpose
The document provides sufficient early information to users of the SmartEdge Border Gateway Function to enable them to plan the upgrade from release 6.5 to 11.1.1, and also provides a general description of the differences between the releases.
1.2 Scope
Included in this document is a general description of the differences between release 6.5 and 11.1.1 of the SmartEdge BGF to inform you of possible actions required for other network components.
This document provides no detailed information regarding the functionality of the SmartEdge BGF; refer to SmartEdge Border Gateway Function Survey, Reference [2] for a detailed description of the SmartEdge BGF release 11.1.1.
1.3 Audience
The audience of this document is personnel who require overview information about the impact on the existing network when replacing SmartEdge BGF release 6.5 with 11.1.1. This audience includes the following:
- Network operator engineering staff
- Ericsson staff
- Sales support
- Product management
- System management
- Implementation engineers
- Global Services
2 Overview
The SmartEdge BGF enables the router to function as a session-aware device that provides security and service assurance for multimedia telephony traffic such as voice, video, and multimedia messaging. In the Ericsson IP multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network solution, the SmartEdge BGF and the Ericsson Session Border Gateway (SBG) compose the Ericsson Distributed Session Border Controller (D-SBC). For example, see Figure 1.
The BGF handles the multimedia user plane traffic and is controlled by the SBG using the ITU-T H.248 protocol.
The BGF is a one-subrack solution. It includes two redundant XCRP4 processor cards and up to 12 line cards, depending on the hardware configuration deployed. The XCRP4 cards are the controller cards—one active and one standby. Only PPA2 and PPA3 line cards are supported. Line cards can be any combination of:
- Gigabit Ethernet (5-port)
- Gigabit Ethernet 1020 (10-port)
- Gigabit Ethernet 1020 (20-port; requires two slots)
- 10 Gigabit Ethernet (1-port)
- 10 Gigabit Ethernet (4-port)
The SmartEdge BGF implements a grid of cross-connections in its backplane that allows a traffic card to communicate directly with any other traffic card in the chassis. Media can flow directly between two line cards without affecting the XCRPs.
3 General Impact
3.1 Configurations and Roles
As in earlier releases, the 11.1.1 release of the SmartEdge BGF application is used in two scenarios:
- Core Border Gateway Function (C-BGF)—As an access gateway at the border between an access network and the IMS core network. The access network can be any type of broadband access network supported by the SmartEdge router.
- Interconnection Border Gateway Function (I-BGF)—As a generic IP network-to-network interface (NNI) at the border between a core (trusted) network and a foreign network.
In addition to a BGF, the SmartEdge system can simultaneously function as a generic router and a Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS).
The BGF application is supported only on SmartEdge 600 and SmartEdge 1200 hardware configurations. Both hardware configurations have the same maximum simultaneous sessions and session setup capacity.
3.2 Hardware
Release 11.1.1 supports the same hardware as 6.5.
3.3 Characteristics
There are no significant changes in the characteristics for Release 11.1.1 compared to 6.5. For more information on the traffic model used and the characteristics, refer Node Characteristics and Dimensioning Specification, Reference [1].
3.4 Interface
The media inactivity timestamp is passed from BGF to the SGC using a new optional statistics parameter eri_seco/mstime defined in the eri_seco package, version 5. The BGF reports on the media inactivity timestamp at the granularity of 1 second using the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) format (yyyymmddThhmmssssZ).
3.5 Operation
3.5.1 Performance Management
No change in this release.
3.5.2 Alarms
No change in this release.
3.5.3 Events
No change in this release.
3.5.4 Counters
No change in this release.
3.6 Features
3.6.1 Removed Features
No features have been removed.
3.6.2 Changed and Enhanced Features
Media inactivity detection feature is enhanced in this release to report the inactivity timestamp as part of statistics.
IPv4 to IPv6 conversion supports Zero UDP checksum packets.
3.6.2.1 Security
No change in this release.
3.6.2.2 Memory
No significant change in this release.
3.6.2.3 Capacity
No change in this release.
3.6.2.4 Other Nodes
No impact on other nodes.
3.6.3 Operation
3.6.3.1 Configuration Commands
The following new configuration commands are added for bulkstats:
(config)# bulkstats schema profile <profile-type> <profile-name> format <quoted-format-string> [<attribute1>] [<attribute2>][...]
(config)# bulkstats schema profile media-gateway {global | mgc-group} <profile-name>
(config-ctx)# bulkstats policy <policy-name>
(config-mg)# bulkstats schema <profile-name> policy <policy-name> [<context-name>]
3.6.3.2 Diagnostics and Monitoring Commands
No change in this release.
3.6.4 Statistics
Statistics counters are supported through bulkstats.
3.6.5 New features
The following new functions are added:
- Enhanced media inactivity detection
- IPV6 extension header support
- Bulkstats for statistical counters
For more information on these features, refer to SmartEdge Border Gateway Function Survey, Reference [2].
4 Terminology
4.1 Acronyms
| 3GPP | 3rd Generation Partnership Project | |
| A-ALG | Access Application Level Gateway | |
| AS | Application Server | |
| B2BUA | Back-to-Back User Agent | |
| BGF | Border Gateway Function | |
| BRAS | Broadband Remote Access Server | |
| C-BGF | Core Border Gateway Function | |
| CLI | Command Line Interface | |
| CSCF | Call Session Control Function | |
| D-SBC | Distributed SBC | |
| DoS | Denial of Service | |
| DSCP | Differentiated Services Code Point | |
| DTMF | Dual Tone Multi-Frequency | |
| ED1 | External Delivery 1 | |
| ED2 | External Delivery 2 | |
| ETSI | European Telecommunications Standards Institute | |
| FW | Firewall | |
| HNT | Hosted NAT/FW Traversal | |
| HSS | Home Subscriber Server | |
| I-BGF | Interconnection Border Gateway | |
| IBCF | Interconnection Border Control Function | |
| IMS | IP Multimedia Subsystem | |
| IP | Internet Protocol | |
| IP-PBX | IP Private Branch Exchange | |
| IS | Integrated Site | |
| ITU-T | International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector | |
| IVR | Interactive Voice Response | |
| MG | Media Gateway | |
| MRFC | Media Resource Function Controller | |
| MRFP | Media Resource Function Processor | |
| NAPT | Network Address and Port Translation | |
| NAT | Network Address Translation | |
| NW | Network | |
| OLC | Open Logical Channel | |
| OS | Operating System | |
| P-CSCF | Proxy CSCF | |
| PSTN | Public Switched Telephone Network | |
| QoS | Quality of Service | |
| RADIUS | Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service | |
| RFC | Request For Comments | |
| RTCP | RTP Control Protocol | |
| RTP | Real Time Protocol | |
| SBC | Session Border Controller | |
| SBG | Session Border Gateway | |
| SCTP | Stream Control Transport Protocol | |
| SDP | Session Description Protocol | |
| SGC | Session Gateway Controller | |
| SIP | Session Initiation Protocol | |
| SLA | Service Level Agreement | |
| SME | Small Medium Enterprise | |
| SPDF | Service Policy Decision Function | |
| TACACS+ | Terminal Access Control Access Control System Plus | |
| TCP | Transport Control Protocol | |
| TISPAN | Telecoms & Internet converged Services & Protocols for Advanced Networks | |
| UAS | User Agent Server | |
| UDP | User Datagram Protocol | |
| UDPTL | UDP Transport Layer | |
| UE | User Equipment | |
| vMG | Virtual MG | |
| VoIP | Voice over IP | |
| VPN | Virtual Private Network | |
4.2 Terms and Expressions
| Access Application Level Gateway | SIP B2BUA placed between UEs and an external P-CSCF offloading the IMS core network by providing parts of the P-CSCF functions as well as a number of additional services. | |
| Access Network | Fixed broadband access network to which residential and enterprise users with SIP equipment as well as SIP and H.323 IP-PBXs are connected. Private overlapping address spaces can be used in access networks. In this document, the term access network also includes aggregation networks. | |
| Back-to-Back User Agent | In the SBG architecture, the function that terminates SIP signaling from one network and, after modifying incoming messages, originates signaling to another network. The B2BUA function also performs media anchoring and controls the dynamic pinhole firewall. | |
| Border Gateway Function | Packet-to-packet gateway providing dynamic pinhole firewall functionality for media plane traffic. It is defined by TISPAN in Reference [3]. | |
| Core Network | Central part of a multimedia network including, for example, databases, SIP servers, media servers, and media gateways. See also IMS Core Network. | |
| Dynamic Pinhole Firewall | SBG term for the function that, under control of a B2BUA on a per-media-stream basis, opens and closes pinholes for media (audio, video, and fax) over IP. This process is known as media flow gating. | |
| Early Media | According to RFC 3959 (Reference [3]) "Early media refers to media (for example, audio and video) that is exchanged before a particular session is accepted by the called user. Within a dialog, early media occurs from the moment the initial INVITE is sent until the User Agent Server (UAS) generates a final response. It may be unidirectional or bidirectional, and can be generated by the caller, the callee, or both. Typical examples of early media generated by the callee are ringing tone and announcements (for example, queuing status). Early media generated by the caller typically consists of voice commands or dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones to drive interactive voice response (IVR) systems." | |
| Foreign Network | Another network portion in a carrier's network or another carrier’s network. The foreign network can either be a trusted SIP network, an untrusted SIP network, or an H.323 network. | |
| IMS Core Network | The central part of the IMS network architecture including, for example, databases (HSS), SIP call/session servers (CSCF), application servers (AS), media resource functions (MRFC and MRFP), and PSTN gateways. An IMS core network is typically separated from access networks (where users reside) and other operator’s IP multimedia networks by means of an SBG. | |
| Interconnection Border Control Function | Controls SIP traffic between the IMS core network and foreign networks. It is defined by TISPAN in Reference [5] and 3GPP in Reference [6]. | |
| Latching | A method to obtain the IP address and port used by the NAT on behalf of a user behind the NAT. The source address and port of the first packet received from that user is used for sending packets to the user and for the dynamic pinhole firewall when accepting packets from that user. | |
| Media | IP traffic containing audio, video, fax, and so on. Some packets not containing actual payload (for example, RTCP packets or TCP segments for connection establishment) are considered media because they are prerequisites for or closely coupled to the payload. | |
| Media Anchoring | Forcing media to take a certain path by altering source or destination address and port in SDP or OLC in H.245. In the SBG, this is done by the B2BUA, which forces the media streams to pass the media pinhole firewall. | |
| Media Flow Gating | The process of the SBG opening and closing pinholes for media (audio, video, fax, and so on) over IP on a per-media-stream basis. The media part of the function performing this task is known as dynamic pinhole firewall | |
| Media Plane | In this document, the traffic between users or IMS core network nodes containing media. | |
| Pinhole | A set of criteria defining a media stream admitted through the firewall. The criteria include local IP address and port, direction of media, and transport protocol, and may include remote IP address and port for media source filtering and bandwidth for policing. | |
| Service-based Policy Decision Function | A function that decides which media streams are allowed to be set up and the characteristics of the streams. The function requests resources from media plane entities. It is defined by TISPAN in Reference [3]. The BGF is controlled by the SPDF entity in the SGC. | |
| Session Border Gateway | An Ericsson IS-based product that acts as a gateway between IP Multimedia networks. The SBG ensures security, topology hiding, quality of service, service level agreements, NAT/FW traversal, address translation, and other critical functions for real-time IP streams. The SBG consists of the SGC and MP IS application blade systems. | |
| Session Gateway Controller | An IS application blade system containing the B2BUA function and optionally the SIP/H.323 interworking function of the SBG. The SGC contains the SPDF, which controls the BGF. | |
| Topology Hiding | A way to prevent all information regarding IP addresses used in one network from being forwarded in signaling messages to another network. | |
| User | Any entity (for example, a person) that uses IMS features through user equipment (UE). The term user is sometimes also used more widely, including both the UE and the entity using the services. | |
| User Equipment | A device allowing a user access to network services. Defined in 3GPP TR 21.905 (Reference [7]). | |
Reference List
| Ericsson Internal Documents |
|---|
| [1] Node Characteristics and Dimensioning Specification, 3/109 48-CXS 101 399/1 Uen |
| [2] SmartEdge Border Gateway Function Survey, 155 13-CRA 119 1170/1 Uen |