Diameter Overload Control Requirements
RFC 7068

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                        E. McMurry
Request for Comments: 7068                                   B. Campbell
Category: Informational                                           Oracle
ISSN: 2070-1721                                            November 2013

                 Diameter Overload Control Requirements

Abstract

   When a Diameter server or agent becomes overloaded, it needs to be
   able to gracefully reduce its load, typically by advising clients to
   reduce traffic for some period of time.  Otherwise, it must continue
   to expend resources parsing and responding to Diameter messages,
   possibly resulting in a progressively severe overload condition.  The
   existing Diameter mechanisms are not sufficient for managing overload
   conditions.  This document describes the limitations of the existing
   mechanisms.  Requirements for new overload management mechanisms are
   also provided.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
   approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
   Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7068.

McMurry & Campbell            Informational                     [Page 1]
RFC 7068         Diameter Overload Control Requirements    November 2013

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

McMurry & Campbell            Informational                     [Page 2]
RFC 7068         Diameter Overload Control Requirements    November 2013

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................4
      1.1. Documentation Conventions ..................................4
      1.2. Causes of Overload .........................................5
      1.3. Effects of Overload ........................................6
      1.4. Overload vs. Network Congestion ............................6
      1.5. Diameter Applications in a Broader Network .................7
   2. Overload Control Scenarios ......................................7
      2.1. Peer-to-Peer Scenarios .....................................8
      2.2. Agent Scenarios ...........................................10
      2.3. Interconnect Scenario .....................................14
   3. Diameter Overload Case Studies .................................15
      3.1. Overload in Mobile Data Networks ..........................15
      3.2. 3GPP Study on Core Network Overload .......................16
   4. Existing Mechanisms ............................................17
   5. Issues with the Current Mechanisms .............................18
      5.1. Problems with Implicit Mechanism ..........................18
      5.2. Problems with Explicit Mechanisms .........................18
   6. Extensibility and Application Independence .....................19
   7. Solution Requirements ..........................................20
      7.1. General ...................................................20
      7.2. Performance ...............................................21
      7.3. Heterogeneous Support for Solution ........................22
      7.4. Granular Control ..........................................23
      7.5. Priority and Policy .......................................23
      7.6. Security ..................................................23
      7.7. Flexibility and Extensibility .............................24
   8. Security Considerations ........................................25
      8.1. Access Control ............................................25
      8.2. Denial-of-Service Attacks .................................26
      8.3. Replay Attacks ............................................26
      8.4. Man-in-the-Middle Attacks .................................26
      8.5. Compromised Hosts .........................................27