Is there a need in Diameter cards ? I looked at some SS7 and Sigtran projections a few days ago, there is a market for SS7 and Sigtran cards, this is a market along the stack market and actually even bigger.
I’m personally not sure there is a need for Diameter cards, I think IP based protocols market behave differently, but time will tell.
4/4/09
The amount of Diameter signaling
I come across more and issues regarding the amount of Diameter signaling and how it affects service providers networks.
Diameter is coming out of the labs, and when it’s moving to working environment the real network issues are starting to emerge.
So why Diameter is creating so much signaling, I believe the main issues are:
- Diameter is TCP/SCTP based compared to legacy signaling protocols like RADIUS that where mostly UDP based.
Diameter is coming out of the labs, and when it’s moving to working environment the real network issues are starting to emerge.
So why Diameter is creating so much signaling, I believe the main issues are:
- Diameter is TCP/SCTP based compared to legacy signaling protocols like RADIUS that where mostly UDP based.
- Network fragmentation - in NGN like architectures, the number of network components is increasing, and many components were divided (for example the softswitch was divided to three different CSCF functionalities)
- Nature of new services – many of the services and applications (AS) are heavy signaling generators – like Presence and Location servers that create heavy signaling load or Policy servers (PDF/PCRF/RACS) that are creating heavy policy and enforcement Diameter traffic.
- Direct connectivity – in NGN connectivity between the components was defined directly, point to point - from functionality to functionality, at the time the standard bodies didn’t believe “in-between” components are needed, well I guess they skipped the history lessons especially the chapters about routers, STP’s and SBC’s – this is also contributing to the heavy load, complexity and lack of ability to balance and manage the Diameter signaling.
- New charging models and closer integration of BSS and network, which create heavier network load, in both the network side (Diameter signaling) and the BSS (CDR’s).
I believe this is only the tip of the iceberg, Diameter today is really still mainly in testing and within the labs, I think the amount of signaling issues will only increase in the coming years directly with Diameter adoption. It’s defiantly going to be interesting.
3/20/09
Diameter adoption and network geography
Diameter is used everywhere in the NGN core network – it is in the mobile, wireline, WiMax, Cable, from the ASN’s, GGSN’s and BRAS up to Application Servers. There isn’t a network core entity without at least Diameter interfaces, and some of them network functionalities have up to 4 different Diameter interfaces.
There are dozens of Diameter interfaces defined, over 110 interfaces are actually defined for Mobile, Wireline, Cable and WiMax and it seems also that the number is growing rapidly, new interfaces are introduced all the time, either for LTE (dozen of new interfaces), Lawful interception, interoperability, Roaming, IPTV, advanced policy and other needs.
But in reality most of those interfaces are still on the drawing boards or in the R&D labs, and not deployed and used yet in operators networks.
So what we see in the market, what places have the highest Diameter maturity, here is my view, top to bottom
I believe that the highest maturity is around the Charging and Billing systems ( what is called Rf, Ro, Gy, Gz, CCA interfaces)
It could be the connection from the Application to the Charging system, or from the GGSN to the Billing, or other network functionality, but it seems always to involve some charging component.
2nd place is given to the AAA servers and subscribers databases area, either HSS, NASS or other AAA Server, (interfaces like Sh, Dh, Cx, Dx), it could be CSCF connectivity to HSS, HSS to Application Server or one of many other scenarios of connecting to a AAA and subscriber databases using Diameter.
The 3rd place closely behind is taken by the policy and enforcement area. Policy is a spaghetti of Diameter with more than 9 Diameter interfaces (Gx, Rx, Gq, Gq’, Tx,Ty…) and we see almost any combination you can imagine of those policy related Diameter interfaces nd sometimes requests for all of them.
The rest of the network Diameter interfaces are defiantly behind, we see growing number of requests for almost all the 100+ defined interfaces, but they are still tailoring behind and you can find them today mainly in the vendors and operators labs and not in deployed operational networks.
Actually one of the emerging areas is the LTE related Diameter interfaces, although not finalized yet, and bearing a temporary name those Diameter interfaces are in high demand with strong interest by vendors starting to developing and testing LTE related equipment.
3/3/09
LTE and Diameter
It seems LTE is moving to the manufacturing halls.
The industry has aligned behind it (leaving far behind some potential alternatives such as Mobile WiMax), and in recent weeks we saw some new announcements on first deployments in Tier-1’s in 2010.
What place does Diameter take in LTE architecture ? well it seems much bigger than in the past, even compared to IMS.
There are about 15 new Diameter interfaces (on top of the existing 30 inherited from previous 3GPP versions and that are also used in LTE), and Diameter is getting out of the network core, closer to the edge and to the interconnectivity and roaming connections between operators.
However there are some warning signs – LTE standards are still work in progress, and the same for the LTE Diameter interfaces – so the potential for interoperability, connectivity and vendor lock-in issues is stronger than ever before.
Here in Traffix we supplied a number of network equipment vendors with LTE Diameter interfaces – and surprisingly each one wanted a different version of the still forming LTE (3GPP Rel. 8) specifications.
In some places where the standards and the Diameter interfaces are still too young to do the job, the equipment vendors are using earlier Diameter interfaces – again this wont contribute to connectivity.
So what’s the conclusion – well that the interoperability issues that operators are facing today won’t disappear with LTE, actually I believe they will be even bigger than in the past, especially in the first 2-3 years of LTE deployments.
I believe this might also slow LTE adoption – operators will understand the immaturity and that the “dream” is far from reality, and the related costs and will prefer to wait a bit until LTE will be more mature.
Actually it sounds a bit like IMS all over again (just replace LTE with IMS in the lines above :-) )
The industry has aligned behind it (leaving far behind some potential alternatives such as Mobile WiMax), and in recent weeks we saw some new announcements on first deployments in Tier-1’s in 2010.
What place does Diameter take in LTE architecture ? well it seems much bigger than in the past, even compared to IMS.
There are about 15 new Diameter interfaces (on top of the existing 30 inherited from previous 3GPP versions and that are also used in LTE), and Diameter is getting out of the network core, closer to the edge and to the interconnectivity and roaming connections between operators.
However there are some warning signs – LTE standards are still work in progress, and the same for the LTE Diameter interfaces – so the potential for interoperability, connectivity and vendor lock-in issues is stronger than ever before.
Here in Traffix we supplied a number of network equipment vendors with LTE Diameter interfaces – and surprisingly each one wanted a different version of the still forming LTE (3GPP Rel. 8) specifications.
In some places where the standards and the Diameter interfaces are still too young to do the job, the equipment vendors are using earlier Diameter interfaces – again this wont contribute to connectivity.
So what’s the conclusion – well that the interoperability issues that operators are facing today won’t disappear with LTE, actually I believe they will be even bigger than in the past, especially in the first 2-3 years of LTE deployments.
I believe this might also slow LTE adoption – operators will understand the immaturity and that the “dream” is far from reality, and the related costs and will prefer to wait a bit until LTE will be more mature.
Actually it sounds a bit like IMS all over again (just replace LTE with IMS in the lines above :-) )
Ben
2/21/09
Barcelona – thoughts in Layer 5
This week I been in the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
A lot of words were written about the show, by people with much more knowledge and better writing skills.
I will try to give another view of the show – not from the shiny handsets point of view, but from the Diameter view of things.
I think that from the network side there are three main trends/activities that are happening and have close symbiotic relationship with Diameter
The first one is Convergence, I know it’s been around since the millennium, but it’s really happening, maybe not because of the service transparency and new services, as much as the fact that it can save OPEX and CAPEX and create new revenues by opening new markets. Convergence requires a lot of Diameter, but also presents a huge challenge in the Diameter level – how to connect wireline and mobile infrastructure that use different Diameter standards, or how to connect mobile Diameter based equipment to ISP equipment that is still using RADIUS.
The second trend is LTE, it’s enough to see some of the press releases from Verizon, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent to understand that the industry is aligning behind the technology, and in 2010 we are expected to see the first roll outs.
LTE represent a all new set of Diameter interfaces, with brand new networks that are using (by the standard) more than 45 Diameter interfaces, Diameter is everywhere and actually not limited to the core anymore, it is moving out to the edges, up to the last mile – those Diameter interfaces are not out there yet – so what will NEP’s do – I guess as always – build their own semi standard interfaces – and will continue to sweat on interoperability and lock the operators
The last trend is the Cloud – some heavyweights such as IBM, are pushing it, and they see it taking over the telecom world.
Financially it makes sense, mainly with MVNO’s and small operators but also with the Tier-1’s that don’t want to spend billions on OPEX and CAPEX.
I think one of the main issues that I can see from that level is that there are going to be huge interoperability issues, and the datacenters will need to have Diameter Gateways in the entrance to the cloud to make sure the information can be spread inside the cloud with no vendor and standard lock-in.
There are a few more things that changed this year, such as UMA – one of the big trends of the last few years almost disappeared, and it seems that Mobile WiMax might be going in the same route, unless something drastic will change, most of the people I met weren’t’ optimistic on its future.
That it, next time I will try to dig in Diameter and LTE, what is new, and some of the challenges.
The second trend is LTE, it’s enough to see some of the press releases from Verizon, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent to understand that the industry is aligning behind the technology, and in 2010 we are expected to see the first roll outs.
LTE represent a all new set of Diameter interfaces, with brand new networks that are using (by the standard) more than 45 Diameter interfaces, Diameter is everywhere and actually not limited to the core anymore, it is moving out to the edges, up to the last mile – those Diameter interfaces are not out there yet – so what will NEP’s do – I guess as always – build their own semi standard interfaces – and will continue to sweat on interoperability and lock the operators
The last trend is the Cloud – some heavyweights such as IBM, are pushing it, and they see it taking over the telecom world.
Financially it makes sense, mainly with MVNO’s and small operators but also with the Tier-1’s that don’t want to spend billions on OPEX and CAPEX.
I think one of the main issues that I can see from that level is that there are going to be huge interoperability issues, and the datacenters will need to have Diameter Gateways in the entrance to the cloud to make sure the information can be spread inside the cloud with no vendor and standard lock-in.
There are a few more things that changed this year, such as UMA – one of the big trends of the last few years almost disappeared, and it seems that Mobile WiMax might be going in the same route, unless something drastic will change, most of the people I met weren’t’ optimistic on its future.
That it, next time I will try to dig in Diameter and LTE, what is new, and some of the challenges.
2/10/09
Diameter and the Internet
Diameter and the Internet
Diameter as the primary control and AAA protocol in the telecom arena, is something most of you will shift a bit in your chair but will agree is around the corner.
What about Diameter as the primary AAA protocol in the Internet ? well this is something that might require a bit more imagination (and wider chair).
(OK now take a deep breath) I personally believe there is no other alternative and this is not so far away.
The Internet and the telecom environment are moving closer – FMC, Convergence, unified subscriber databases, mobile operators becoming ISP’s, death of the telecom walled garden and NGN are some of the reasons. Convergence and FMC don’t end up in the flyers and marketing brochures, it goes down beneath the hood, to the wires – to the signaling – to Diameter.
New services – The Internet is shifting, new services are being introduced by ISP’s – few examples are gambling, multimedia, VoIP, QoS, Ads – those require a bit more than the current RADIUS AAA signaling of user name and password used today. ISP’s want it all, they want advanced pre/post billing, insured QoS for SIP and VoIP services, content based billing and so on.
Standard bodies – last but not least, did you know that Diameter was initially defined for the Internet by IEEE ? so this is a good start – Diameter is not seen by the IEEE Internet gurus as another “strange telco feature” that the strange guys in 3GPP and TISPAN want them to adopt . Also there is a lot of ongoing work in IEEE and other standard bodies in this direction(such as the Diameter SIP Application)
Those are some of the reasons why I believe Diameter is on a solid path to become the leading AAA and Control protocol in the Internet arena.
Now if I managed to convince you, the next question is When ?
2/8/09
Diameter reality check
Diameter was adopted by 11 standard bodies as the main protocol for their NGN networks.
There is no other emerging protocol today or on the horizon that can become an alternative.
And Diameter is defiantly happening, as someone who live the Diameter market I can tell you, Diameter is booming.
So it seems the road ahead to world dominance is clear, well not so fast, there are a few bumps on the road that might block the path or at least slow the speed.
I believe that the main reason hampering Diameter adoption is interoperability, there are a few layers of interoperability here:
Legacy to NGN – Full Bottom up NGN deployments are rare we can count them on one hand, especially in today’s climate - operators want to get new multimedia services at least costs as possible. This means operators are launching hybrid semi NGN networks and using existing network functionality. However the two network parts the legacy and the NGN “speak” different protocols Diameter versus RADIUS/LDAP…. which don’t communicate.
Cross technologies – If I had a penny for every time I heard about Convergence and FMC, I wasn’t sitting on the couch and writing this blog, this is one of the industry’s hottest trends (and surprisingly it is really happening) The standard bodies have all lined up behind Diameter but (to make it interesting) they adopted Diameter differently (as usual politics and slightly different view of the world). Now you can imagine this is not helping an operator going FMC and want to connect the mobile Diameter interfaces based on 3GPP to the wireline Diameter interfaces based on ETSI TISPAN.
Vendor-lock in – I promise you this wasn’t written in the 70’s, problems has a strange habit of repapering. In Diameter which was designed to be very flexible and is still half cooked, this is a huge issue. For example there are RFP’s today in the market to connect the NSN Diameter Rf to Ericsson Diameter RF.
Still forming standards - Diameter interfaces are still fresh and changing all the time, more than this it seems Diameter is conquering more and more ground (do you remember COPS in 3GPP release 6 that was kicked out in release 7 ? or have you seen how Diameter spreading in LTE Control Plane – maybe it should be called Diameter plane) – the vast numbers of versions and releases, is certainly not helping adoption.
After this pessimistic blog, a few words of hope- I think those are serious issues on the road to Diameter wide spread adoption, they might slow the adoption, but my personal view is that there is nothing to block the way for Diameter adoption as the main protocol for telecom signaling and control
Next time Diameter and the Internet
There is no other emerging protocol today or on the horizon that can become an alternative.
And Diameter is defiantly happening, as someone who live the Diameter market I can tell you, Diameter is booming.
So it seems the road ahead to world dominance is clear, well not so fast, there are a few bumps on the road that might block the path or at least slow the speed.
I believe that the main reason hampering Diameter adoption is interoperability, there are a few layers of interoperability here:
Legacy to NGN – Full Bottom up NGN deployments are rare we can count them on one hand, especially in today’s climate - operators want to get new multimedia services at least costs as possible. This means operators are launching hybrid semi NGN networks and using existing network functionality. However the two network parts the legacy and the NGN “speak” different protocols Diameter versus RADIUS/LDAP…. which don’t communicate.
Cross technologies – If I had a penny for every time I heard about Convergence and FMC, I wasn’t sitting on the couch and writing this blog, this is one of the industry’s hottest trends (and surprisingly it is really happening) The standard bodies have all lined up behind Diameter but (to make it interesting) they adopted Diameter differently (as usual politics and slightly different view of the world). Now you can imagine this is not helping an operator going FMC and want to connect the mobile Diameter interfaces based on 3GPP to the wireline Diameter interfaces based on ETSI TISPAN.
Vendor-lock in – I promise you this wasn’t written in the 70’s, problems has a strange habit of repapering. In Diameter which was designed to be very flexible and is still half cooked, this is a huge issue. For example there are RFP’s today in the market to connect the NSN Diameter Rf to Ericsson Diameter RF.
Still forming standards - Diameter interfaces are still fresh and changing all the time, more than this it seems Diameter is conquering more and more ground (do you remember COPS in 3GPP release 6 that was kicked out in release 7 ? or have you seen how Diameter spreading in LTE Control Plane – maybe it should be called Diameter plane) – the vast numbers of versions and releases, is certainly not helping adoption.
After this pessimistic blog, a few words of hope- I think those are serious issues on the road to Diameter wide spread adoption, they might slow the adoption, but my personal view is that there is nothing to block the way for Diameter adoption as the main protocol for telecom signaling and control
Next time Diameter and the Internet
2/7/09
Welcome to Diameter Blog
Welcome to the Traffix Diameter Blog.
In this space we will discuss some of Diameter trends and issues.
We will share with you information about Diameter adoption, in different standards and technologies.
The adoption of Diameter in the mobile and wireline domains, in the telecom and the Internet arenas.
Diameter alternatives, the pros and cons of Diameter over existing legacy protocols.
What roll Diameter is taking in coming technologies like LTE and Mobile WiMax.
We will also present some of the technical and market issues affecting Diameter adoption.
The Traffix team will share with you our view of those issues and many more.
Your feedback is welcome and I’m looking forward to interesting and open discussion.
Regards,
Ben
In this space we will discuss some of Diameter trends and issues.
We will share with you information about Diameter adoption, in different standards and technologies.
The adoption of Diameter in the mobile and wireline domains, in the telecom and the Internet arenas.
Diameter alternatives, the pros and cons of Diameter over existing legacy protocols.
What roll Diameter is taking in coming technologies like LTE and Mobile WiMax.
We will also present some of the technical and market issues affecting Diameter adoption.
The Traffix team will share with you our view of those issues and many more.
Your feedback is welcome and I’m looking forward to interesting and open discussion.
Regards,
Ben
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