Diameter Maintenance and Extensions L. Bertz
Internet-Draft Sprint
Intended status: Standards Track July 6, 2016
Expires: January 7, 2017
Diameter Predicted Units
draft-bertz-dime-predictunits-00
Abstract
This document specifies the conveyance of predicted usage information
for proper dimensioning of network services that use Diameter based
authorization.
Status of This Memo
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Predicted Service AVPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.1. Predicted-Service-Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.2. Service-Cost-Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.3. Service-Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Usage Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1. Introduction
When a User is authorized to use a service via Diameter applications
such as [RFC4006] or [RFC7155], the Client is not aware of the
average load placed upon it by User. This can lead to overload
situations or the Diameter Client redirecting or denying services to
valid Users even though their presence may overload the service.
Given virtualization and the use of many software based services the
service capacity varies on a service instance, i.e. Diameter Client,
basis.
This specification introduces the Predicted-Service-Units Attribute
Value Pair (AVP). This information conveys the predicted usage
introduced on the service by the authorized User. Such information
can be used by the Diameter Client to estimate future load and
proactively manage its resources.
Although this informaiton is conveyed from the Diameter Server to the
Client several system aspects are out of the scope of this document:
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o How the Diameter Server acquired the information contained in the
Predicted-Service-UnitsAVP.
o How the values in the Predicted-Service-Units AVP were determined.
o The accuracy or validity of the values in the Predicted-Service-
Units AVP.
o Specific actions the Diameter Client should take when its service
functions are overloaded.
o Specific actions the Diameter Client takes to bring itself in/out
of service for new or existing Users.
2. Terminology
In this document, the key words "MAY", "MUST", "MUST NOT",
"OPTIONAL", "RECOMMENDED", "SHOULD", and "SHOULD NOT", are to be
interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
3. Predicted Service AVPs
3.1. Predicted-Service-Units
The Predicted-Service-Units AVP (AVP Code TBD1) is of type Grouped
and contains the amount of units that the Diameter credit-control
client can expect to provide to the end user until the service must
be released or the new Credit-Control-Request must be sent, if a
Granted-Service-Unit AVP [RFC4006] has been applied to the user's
service. A client is not required to implement all of the unit
types, and it must ingore unknown or unsupported unit types.
The Predicted-Service-Units AVP is defined as follows (per the
grouped- avp-def of [RFC6733]):
Predicted-Service-Units ::= < AVP Header: TBD1 >
[ CC-Time ]
[ CC-Money ]
[ CC-Total-Octets ]
[ CC-Input-Octets ]
[ CC-Output-Octets ]
[ CC-Service-Specific-Units ]
*[ Service-Cost-Information ]
*[ AVP ]
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With the exception of the Service-Cost-Information AVP, all AVPs are
defined in [RFC4006].
The presence of this information is provided as anticipated load
information to the Diameter Client and is not intended to be
prescriptive in any manner regarding the user's service.
3.2. Service-Cost-Information
The Service-Cost-Information AVP (AVP Code TBD2) is of type Grouped,
and it is used to return the service cost information, which the
client can use, if it understands it, for various purposes inclduing
load prediction and sizing.
A client is not required to implement all of the unit types, and it
must ingore unknown or unsupported unit types.
It is defined as follows (per the grouped-avp-def of [RFC6733]):
Service-Cost-Information ::= < AVP Header: TBD2 >
{ Unit-Value }
{ Cost-Unit }
{ Service-Dimension }
Unit-Value and Cost-Unit are defined in [RFC4006].
3.3. Service-Dimension
The Service-Dimension AVP (AVP Code TBD3) is of type UTF8String. It
specifies the applicable service type (dimension) to the Service-
Cost-Information.
4. Usage Examples
When Predicted-Service-Units are returned as part of an authorization
per [RFC7155] or [RFC4006], the client MAY use this information as
guidance on projected load the new user will generate on the service.
If the client supports/understnds the information provided in the
Predicted-Service-Units AVP, it can update it's projected load.
Based upon this information it MAY take one or more of the following
actions (this is not exhaustive):
o Redirect at the service / protocol level any new service requests.
o Begin enforcing mechanisms to reduce the amount of service load on
a subset of services already established.
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o Remove itself from any system that directs new service requests to
it.
o Initiate administrative functions to increase its capacity or
start the process of creating new intances to service requests.
5. IANA Considerations
IANA allocated AVP codes in the IANA-controlled namespace registry
specified in Section 11.1.1 of [RFC6733] for the following AVPs that
are defined in this document.
+--------------------------+---------+-----------------+------------+
| AVP | AVP | Section Defined | Data Type |
| | Code | | |
+--------------------------+---------+-----------------+------------+
| Predicted-Service-Units | TBD1 | Section 3.1 | GROUPED |
| Service-Cost-Information | TBD2 | Section 3.2 | GROUPED |
| Service-Dimension | TBD3 | Section 3.2 | UTF8String |
+--------------------------+---------+-----------------+------------+
6. Security Considerations
The Diameter base protocol [RFC6733] requires that each Diameter
implementation use underlying security; i.e., TLS/TCP, DTLS/SCTP or
IPsec. These mechanisms are believed to provide sufficient
protection under the normal Internet threat model; that is, assuming
that the authorized nodes engaging in the protocol have not been
compromised, but that the attacker has complete control over the
communication channels between them. This includes eavesdropping,
message modification, insertion, and man-in-the-middle and replay
attacks. Note also that this application includes a mechanism for
application layer replay protection by means of the Session-Id from
[RFC6733] and CC- Request-Number, which is specified in this
document. The Diameter credit-control application is often used
within one domain, and there may be a single hop between the peers.
In these environments, the use of TLS/TCP, DTLS/SCTP or IPsec is
sufficient. The details of TLS/TCP, DTLS/SCTP or IPsec related
security considerations are discussed in the [RFC6733].
Because this application conveys past usage information (directly or
indirectly), it increases the interest for various security attacks.
Therefore, all parties communicating with each other MUST be
authenticated, including, for instance, TLS client-side
authentication. In addition, authorization of the client SHOULD be
emphasized; i.e., that the client is allowed to perform credit-
control for a certain user. The specific means of authorization are
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outside of the scope of this specification but can be, for instance,
manual configuration.
The attributes provided by this solution MUST be assumed to be
privacy sensitive by both the client and server.
7. References
7.1. Normative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[RFC4006] Hakala, H., Mattila, L., Koskinen, J-P., Stura, M., and J.
Loughney, "Diameter Credit-Control Application", RFC 4006,
DOI 10.17487/RFC4006, August 2005,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4006>.
[RFC6733] Fajardo, V., Ed., Arkko, J., Loughney, J., and G. Zorn,
Ed., "Diameter Base Protocol", RFC 6733,
DOI 10.17487/RFC6733, October 2012,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6733>.
7.2. Informative References
[RFC7155] Zorn, G., Ed., "Diameter Network Access Server
Application", RFC 7155, DOI 10.17487/RFC7155, April 2014,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7155>.
Author's Address
Lyle Bertz
Sprint
6220 Sprint Parkway
Overland Park, KS 66251
United States
Email: lylebe551144@gmail.com
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