DiameterApp

Diameter Application Configuration

The N2SVCD Diameter Application is a protocol gateway application which can perform client requests using the Diameter protocol. The N-Squared Tester Application requires a Diameter Application instance to be installed in order to execute Diameter tests.

The following configuration is used to create a Diameter Application instance to act as a protocol gateway to a Diameter server. A single Diameter Application instance will maintain a single connection to a single Diameter Server Address. If you need to connect to more than one remote Diameter Server Address, you must configure multiple Diameter Application instances (each with unique names).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<n2svcd>
  ...
  <applications>
    ...
    <application name="DIAMETER-S1" module="DiameterApp">
      <include><lib>../apps/diameter/lib</lib></include>
      <parameters>
        <parameter name="remote_host" value="10.42.2.154"/>
        <parameter name="remote_port" value="4999"/>
        <parameter name="origin_host" value="IN Tester"/>
        <parameter name="vendor_id" value="10415"/>
        <parameter name="reconnect_interval" value="30"/>
      </parameters>
      <config>
        <avps>
          <avp code="9043" vendor_id="20901" name="Extension-Int-3" mandatory="1" type="Unsigned64"/>
        </avps>
        <handlers>
          <handler app_id="4" application="ChargingServer"/>
        </handlers>
      </config>
    </application>
    ...
  </application>
  ...
</n2svcd>

Configuration Details

The application element attributes for a Diameter Application instance may include the below.

For details of the various parameter types used, refer to Common Configuration.

Note: Typical Diameter Servers will allow multiple outstanding requests per client connection.

Handshake Additional AVPs

Additional AVPs may be sent as part of the CER / CEA handshake between the Diameter application and its connected client or server. These AVPs may specify Diameter Vendor-Specific-Application-Id or Vendor-Id values. Each AVP is specified as a grouped name = value inside a named parameter list, e.g.

      <parameters>
        ...        
        <parameter name="vendor_specific_application_ids">
          <item group="diameter_sy" name="vendor_id" value="10415"/>
          <item group="diameter_sy" name="auth_application_id" value="16777302"/>
          <item group="diameter_sh" name="vendor_id" value="10415"/>
          <item group="diameter_sh" name="auth_application_id" value="16777217"/>
        </parameter>
        <parameter name="supported_vendor_ids">
          <item group="3gpp" name="vendor_id" value="10415"/>
          <item group="oracle" name="vendor_id" value="3512"/>
        </parameter>
        ...        
      </parameters>

The example configuration above would result in the following additional Diameter AVPs sent:

• Vendor-Specific-Application-Id containing
  • Vendor-Id with value 10415
  • Auth-Application-Id with value 16777302
• Vendor-Specific-Application-Id containing
  • Vendor-Id with value 10415
  • Auth-Application-Id with value 16777217
• Supported-Vendor-Id with value 10415
• Supported-Vendor-Id with value 3512

Note that the group parameter is a freeform identifier and is not validated or sent.

Diameter Custom AVPs

The avps section of the config block allows the definition of custom AVP codes for use in both inbound and outbound Diameter messages.

For outbound messages, custom AVPs allow for the encoding of non-string types, and also allow you to reference AVPs by name instead of by code.

For inbound messages, the Diameter standard says that an inbound message must be rejected if it contains an unknown AVP code with the mandatory flag set. Use this avps configuration section to define any custom AVPs. This also allows inbound custom AVPs to be referenced by names instead of codes, and allows for the decoding of non-string types.

Diameter Handlers

Handler rules define which Application is used to process inbound Diameter Requests. Each handler Object in the config.handlers Array is configured as follows.

The handlers will be checked in order, and the first matching handler will be used.

Message Handling

In addition to the common Application management messages, the DiameterApp uses the following messages:

• DIAMETER-C Messages (DIAMETER-C-REQUEST inbound).
• DIAMETER-S Messages (DIAMETER-S-REQUEST outbound).