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•Important: For more information on IPCF function and supported interfaces, refer Cisco ASR 5000 Series Intelligent Policy Control Function Administration Guide.
SSC provides a centralized and simplified policy management for the network. It interfaces with IPCF over Sp interface which is based on standard Sh protocol, for subscriber profile and usage related transactions. SSC also supports a proprietary interface to receive event notification data from IPCF.Important: For more information on PPT function and supported interfaces, refer PolicyProvisioning Tool Installation and Administration Guide.
• Exchanging profile and service usage data with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, using Ud interface, if CRM is storing data in different database format.
• Sp: This interface is used by SSC to communicate with IPCF for subscriber profile operations. Such as getting or updating the subscriber profile, periodically or at the end of session. Subscribing to profile change notifications, the Sp interface is also used by SSC to query data related to usage and balance. Sp interface uses a standard Sh protocol. SSC uses Sp interface to exchange information such as QoS profile, dynamic rules and time of day objects with IPCF.
• XML-RPC over HTTP: This interface is used by SSC to exchange information with PPT application. This interface is used over HTTP protocol. SSC uses the XML-RPC interface to exchange information such as data plans, SMS and e-mail notification templates, subscription tires and dynamic profile attributes with PPT application.
• SOAP/XML: This interface is used by SSC to connect to external Operation Support Systems (OSS) or Billing Support Systems (BSS) and exchange profile and usage data.
• FTP/SNMP: This interface is used by SSC to connect to Web Element Manager (WEM) and exchange SNMP traps for SSC as well as administrative data.
• SMTP: This interface is used by SSC to send the e-mails containing event notification information, to subscribers thru an e-mail server.
• SMPP: This interface is used by SSC to send the text messages containing event notification information, to subscribers thru the Short Message Service Center (SMSC).
• Telnet or SSH: These interfaces are used by SSC to provide administration and configuration functionality using Command Line Interface (CLI). These are deployed over RS-232 connection.
• Open Ud: This interface allows SSC to query data from other nodes or LDAP servers including User Data Repository (UDR). It allows SSC to integrate in the network by supporting transactions with multiple third party databases.Using this interface data can be written or read from existing Light weight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) or 3GPP R9 Ud compliant databases. SSC can act as Ud server or Ud client for other PCC solution components. When acting as Ud server, SSC allows other components of PCC solution such as CRM and OSS or BSS to query data stored in SSC. It can also send notifications to these components when this data is updated. When acting as Ud client, SSC can query and fetch data from other PCC solution components.
• Management Interface: This interface is used by SSC for configuration and scheduling of nodes in a deployment cluster. The system controller component of this interface is used for configuration and management of the SSC deployment. The scheduler component is used to push the SSC performance data to Web Element Manager (WEM). The log daemon component is used to log important SSC host parameters.
• EN: This is the Event Notification interface and used by SSC to receive a notification trigger from IPCF upon execution of certain actions, such as provisioning rules to Policy Charging and Enforcement Function (PCEF). SSC can communicate with primary and backup interface for notifying the event to subscriber using either e-mail or SMS. Primary interface is used for delivering the notification, where as backup interface can be used as a temporary provision in case of failure of primary interface.
• SPR-API: SPR-APIs are used by web portals to connect to SSC and provision the subscriber profile data using SOAP /XML interface. The APIs can also be used to control catch management and request queue. The web portals can be used by subscribers to view plan or usage related data. Subscribers can also view the volume, time or currency usage associated with their account. SSC provisioning frame-work provides appropriate web services. Using specific URLs subscribers can connect to the server that provides these web services and view as well as update the information.Important: Refer to IBM Blade Center documentation for detailed Blade server system requirements regarding IBM Blade Center HT chassis and IBM HS22 blade.
Important: The Cisco MITG SSC RHEL v5.5 OS is a custom image that contains only those software packages required to support compatible Cisco MITG software applications. Users must not install any other applications on servers running the Cisco MITG RHEL v5.5 OS. For detailed software compatibility information, refer to Cisco MITG RHEL v5.5 OS Application Note.
The source data file is stored as external table in the database, the BulkLoad_sub script executes SQL statements that load actual data into database tables. This script can be scheduled to execute during the low activity period.The bulkload_sub script creates a log file that stores the execution status as well as errors. If your bulkload data requires multiple CSV files, you can name such files as ssc_<batchnumber>_bulk_load_subscriber<YYYYMMDDHH24MISS>_<n>.csv, where <n> indicates the number of files.Important: This script is located in SSC/tools directory. Bulk load script has been enhanced to support latest schema changes. For more information, refer Bulk Loading Subscriber Data topic, from Before You Begin SSC Administration section in SSC Administration chapter of this guide.
• Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number (MSISDN): A character data type that indicates subscriber’s MSISDN.
• International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI): A character data type that indicates subscribers IMSI.
• Sub Type: A numeric data type that indicates subscription category. Value 1 indicates default, 2 indicates Group and 3 indicates Admin category of subscription.
• Tire Name: A character data type that indicates the subscription tire associated with this subscriber.
• Enable E-mail Flag: A numeric data type that indicates e-mail is being used to send the notifications to this subscriber.
• Sub E-mail: A Character data type that indicates e-mail address of the subscriber.
• Enable SMS flag: A numeric data type that indicates SMS is being used to send notifications to this subscriber.
• Subscription Status: A numeric data type that indicates current status of the subscriber. Value 1 indicates active status value 0 indicates in-active status. Depending upon your business model, you can use additional values to indicate current status of the subscriber.
• Flag Name: A character data type that indicates the flag name associated with subscriber.
• Flag Value: A character data type that indicates whether the flag option has been used or not. Value 1 or Y indicates that the option is being used, where as value 0 or N indicates that the option is not being used.
• Service or Data Plan Name: A character data type that identifies name of service or data plan associated with the subscriber.
• Sub Opt Out: This is a numeric data type.
• Billing Start Date: A date data type that indicates the date on which billing is started for this subscriber.
• ShApp Schema: Bulk statistics schema for Sh application.
• EnApp Schema: Bulk statistics schema for Event Notification application.
• ProfApp Schema: Bulk statistics schema for Profile application.By default the Bulk statistics is stored in a .txt file and then can be transferred to Web Element Manager (WEM) to parse and archive for further analysis where WEM provides graphical interface for data representation.Important: Notification templates can be configured using PPT application, a component of PCC solution.
Caution: In the current release, IMDB failure recovery requires manual intervention in form of attaching working blade to grid and cleaning up entries in database, this may introduce a down time of up to 60 minutes.
Important: Currently database redundancy is supported using the stand-by database either at local site in cluster configuration or at a geographically distant site. Both categories of stand-by database instances cannot co-exist in a given deployment.
• Database: SSC stores the subscriber data using RDBMS servers in highly available i.e. active- standby mode. Database can be configured using local hard disk or an external storage array.
• Applications: SSC provides various application interfaces such as Sp, SOAP-XML and Open Ud. Using these interfaces applications such as CRM,OSS, BSS or other components of PCC solution such as IPCF and PPT exchange data with SSC. Users with administrative privilege can use a console based User Interface (UI) to administer an SSC deployment.
• System Management Controller (SysCtrl) and System Manager (SysMgr) Tasks: These manage resource sharing for individual hosts as well as entire SSC deployment.
• Heart Beat daemon (HBd): This task monitors all SSC processing tasks and re-starts a failed task in case of a process failure.
• Logging Daemon (Logd): This task controls log generation for the SSC deployment.
• Subscriber Profile: A subscriber profile identifies various subscription plans associated with subscriber along with their privileges and entitlements that can be availed by the profile owner.
• Subscription Plan: A subscription plan identifies the treatment regarding the service usage to be made available to the user of your network. A subscription plan can be categorized as data plan, service plan, service pack or add-on for the plan.
• Usage Account: A usage account stores current status of the subscriber's service usage, using service units such as volume and time.
• Subscriber Group Profile: A subscriber group profile contains group name, subscriber Id such as IMSI or MISDIN, e-mail address, a flag to enable e-mail, and a flag to enable SMS.
• Subscriber Profile: A subscriber profile is a separate component it is not a part of subscriber group profile. It contains subscriber profile Id such as IMSI or MSISDN, subscriber name, subscription tire and other executable profile attributes.
• Data Plan: A data plan contains subscriber profile Id, plan Id, volume usage, time usage, start date, end date, and a flag to enable notifications.
• Service Plan: A service plan contains subscriber profile Id, plan Id, volume balance, time balance, recharge day, recharge duration, and usage monitoring key.
• Threshold: A threshold contains threshold id, template id, absolute and percentage value of service usage.
• Notification Template: A notification template contains notification template id, subscriber id such as MSISDN and e-mail address.
3.
7. SysMgr then requests HBd to start list of applications. HBd starts AppMgr along with all the mentioned components, and informs status to SysMgr.
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