# Subscriber Service Controller (SSC) Changes in Release 14.0

This chapter identifies features and functionality added to, modified for, or deprecated from 14.0 SSC software release.
Topics covered in this chapter are:

- SSC Feature Changes as of July 31, 2012
- SSC Configuration Management Changes as of July 31, 2012
- SSC Performance Management Changes as of July 31, 2012
- SSC Security Management Changes as of July 31, 2012

IMPORTANT:

Enhancements to SNMP MIB in release 14.0 are located in the SNMP MIB Changes chapter.

Enhancements to Web Element Manager (WEM) in release 14.0 are located in the Web Element Manager Changes chapter.

SSC Feature Changes as of July 31, 2012

This section provides information on Subscriber Service Controller (SSC) feature changes in release 14.0.

IMPORTANT:

For more information regarding features in this section, refer to the Subscriber Service Controller Administration Guide for this release.

New SSC Features

This section identifies new SSC features available in release 14.0

Differentiated Billing Using Roaming Determination Support

PCC solution can now support differentiated billing for the subscribers when they are accessing the network either in their defined home region or while roaming out of home region. A home region can be defined using certain geographical and network entities such as:

- Mobile Country Code (MCC).
- Mobile Network Code (MNC).
- Serving GRS Support Node (SGSN) using IP address and subnet mask.
- Serving Gateway (SGW) using IP address and subnet mask.
- Location Area Code (LAC).
- Routing Area Code (RAC).
- Serving Area Code (SAC).
- Cell Identity (CI).
- E-UTRAN Cell Identity (ECI).
- Tracking Area Code (TAC).

This information is used to associate a home region with the subscriber, if home region is not defined, then while provisioning subscriber profile, a default region is associated with the subscriber as their home region.

This feature uses information such as 3GPP ULI, SGSN IP or other Gx attribute value pairs during the session initiation to determine subscriber’s location with respect to their home region. This feature also determines event triggers to be registered with the PCEF to track subscriber’s location. During session establishment or termination whenever the subscriber location is changed, SSC can now store the last location.

IMPORTANT:

Current version supports pure 3GPP Gx location information only.

Dynamic Twenty Four Hours Allowance For Plan Support

PCC solution supports dynamic twenty four hour allowance for plans. SSC can be used to configure plans with such allowance. These plans:

- Are post-paid plans hence applicable only to post-paid subscribers.
- Support lifetime validity, until terminated by subscriber or operator.
- Support volume quota of 10 Mb that is valid for twenty four hours from the activation. These plans are considered active when first byte of data is consumed. After activation subscriber can consume data until all the volume quota is exhausted or time duration is elapsed.
- After exhaustion of volume quota, a dynamic twenty four hour allowance plan can be renewed automatically. New billing cycle is activated when the first byte of data is consumed.
- After activation of new billing cycle, if there is still some volume quota remaining from earlier billing cycle, then such quota cannot be carried forward to the new cycle.
- There is no limit on the number of quota renewals, quota can be renewed perpetually until subscriber opts out of this plan.

IMPORTANT:

Features such as grace period or prorating are not applicable for this plan category.

Grace Period or Pre-paid Parking Support

PCC solution now supports grace period or additional duration for subscription, after expiry of the plan. The duration of this period varies from plan to plan. The grace period feature allows service providers:

- More control on subscriptions in this period, by allowing to retain or apply different policies related to throttling or charging.
- Provide additional time to the subscriber to manually renew the subscription before its expiry.

The grace period is categorized as:

- Activation Grace Period: This is the period when the subscription expires for the first time before the renewal of the plan.
- Renewal Grace Period: This is the period when the subscription expires after first plan renewal.

Plan Categories and Add-on Support

A plan defines services that are being rendered to the subscriber. This feature allows SSC to configure various categories of plans. Depending upon their payment method i.e. either pre-paid or post-paid, different categories of plans can be associated with a subscriber. Following are various plan categories:

- Data Plan: This is the basic category that has an independent existence. A subscriber can be associated with single or multiple data plans.
- Service Plan: A service plan is always associated with a data plan. A service plan cannot have an independent existence from its parent data plan.
- Service Pack: This is a service plan that needs to be explicitly subscribed by the subscriber.

An add on is always associated with the data or service plans or packs. Add on is used to render the customized services by enhancing the attributes of existing plans. Following are the add-on categories:

- Service Add-on: Used to enable tethering.
- Allowance Add-on: Used to increment volume or time usage.
- Validity Add-on: Used to increment subscription validity.

Prorating of Volume and Time Allowance

PCC solution can support proportional assignment of volume or time usage as well as of volume and time usage for a post-paid subscriber. This feature is known as Prorating. All proportional calculations for this prorating feature are based on the calendar units. For example the same monthly plan will be prorated differently for the month of February which has 28 days and for the month of March which has 31 days. Prorating can be implemented in following scenarios:

- Subscriber’s first time subscription to data plan: This scenario can occur when the post paid subscriber subscribes for the first time to a data plan, first validity period for the plan will be over by the end of existing billing cycle and data volume and price will be prorated based on the time difference between the subscription and the end of first billing cycle.
- Subscription expiry is beyond the billing date for the plan: This scenario can occur when the plan is valid beyond the billing date or due to plan restart, new plan cycle is extending beyond the billing period. This scenario can also occur if the subscriber changes the billing data using the provisioning interface.
- Subscriber disassociates a plan: This scenario occurs when the subscriber disassociates the plan before the end of subscription. In such scenario prorating is forcefully implemented based on the subscription end date for this plan.

IMPORTANT:

Prorating is applicable to post-paid subscribers only. This feature cannot be implemented for dynamic 24 hour plans.

SPR APIs Interface - Enhanced Support

SPR API is one of the provisioning interfaces used by SSC mostly for provisioning profile information. Depending upon the business model and system configuration, this interface can also be used for managing:

- Network Definition: By performing add, modify and delete operations on the logical entities such as region or region lists in the network.
- Plans: By performing add, modify and delete operations on various data plans, service plans, service packs and add-on.
- Subscribers : By performing add, modify and delete operations on groups of subscribers as well as associating and disassociating a subscriber from group.
- Subscriptions : By associating or disassociating data as well as service plans and add-on with subscriber groups.
- Subscriber Notifications : By performing add, modify and delete operations on templates for e-mail as well as SMS notifications.

Depending upon the business model and system configuration, this release supports the SPR APIs such as:

- Parent Plan Attachment.
- Parent Plan Renewal.
- Parent Plan Removal.
- Service Activation using Service Add on or Secondary Pack.
- Service Renewal using Service Add on or Secondary Pack.
- Service Removal using Service Add on or Secondary Pack.
- Allowance Add on.
- Subscriber Query.
- Bulk File Handling.
- Bulk File Format.
- Subscriber Deletion.

Time monitoring over Gx

Duration based usage data plans can be implemented using this time monitoring over Gx feature. SSC can store data plans containing available and used quota for time in seconds as well as for volume in bytes. SSC can send this quota along with other subscription and usage information as well as configured thresholds to IPCF.

Enhanced PCC solution architecture allows monitoring of subscriber’s service usage based on time or volume as well as both on time and volume. Time monitoring over Gx feature allows monitoring of session time for a subscriber. Using this feature time based thresholds can be configured for flow level or session level by the IPCF and then this information can be communicated to PCEF over Gx.

Modified SSC Features

This section identifies SSC features modified in release 14.0 and contains two types of modifications: enhancements and behavior changes. Feature enhancements are modifications based on customer change requests. Feature behavior changes are modifications based on software error corrections (bug fixes) that result in a change in the behavior of the feature.

Billing Cycle Date Handling Enhancement

Billing cycle is applicable to postpaid subscribers only.
Billing cycle defines the cycle after which all subscription plans for the subscriber are reset. Enhanced architecture of PCC solution supports the billing cycle by defining a cycle type and cycle offset pair for each:

- Postpaid subscriber.
- Postpaid plan.

For the billing cycle a:

- Cycle Type: Indicates category of the billing cycle such as daily, monthly or weekly.
- Cycle Offset: indicates a value that corresponds to initialization of a cycle type. Such as 5th of every month is a cycle offset value that indicates that the cycle type monthly starts on 5th day of the month.

When the plan subscription for the post-paid subscriber crosses into the next billing cycle, usage quota of such subscription needs to be reset by using appropriate prorating value to align the plan with the subscriber’s billing cycle. SSC allows provisioning of appropriate values by carrying them forward across the billing cycle, when the plan cycle is not required to be aligned with the billing cycle.

Geo Redundancy Archival –Enhancement

In previous version of SSC application for some cluster deployments employing geo redundancy feature, sometimes SSC application used to drop connection to data base, but used to show status of the database related processes as active. SSC application has been enhanced to address this issue. Now the file destination size has been increased by considering the longevity requirements for the deployment.

Keeping Track of Country Last Visited by Subscriber Enhancement

In the previous versions it was not possible to keep track of country of connection for the roaming user. Now with availability of Roaming Determination feature and using enhanced database schema SSC can:

- Maintain the country that is last visited by this subscriber, in the data base table. This location is not visible from SSC user interface. User with administrative privilege for SSC database can query and obtain this value.
- Send an SMS to the subscriber, when the last visited country associated with this subscriber’s profile is changed.

Keeping Track of Subscriber’s Country of Connection Enhancement

In the previous version it was not possible to notify a roaming subscriber whenever a change occurs in their country of connection. SSC can now save the last visited country for the subscriber in the data base table, this value is not visible unless queried by a user with database administrative privileges. Using this information SSC can now send an SMS to the subscriber whenever change in the country occurs.

Notification Template Structure Enhancement

SSC deployment used to crash when notification template size exceed 256 characters. Now, notification template can have maximum 2000 characters.

Pre-paid and post –paid support Enhancement

In the previous version SSC was not able to distinguish between the pre-paid and post paid subscription. Hence it was not able to support the additional functions required for post paid subscription such as enhanced:

- Billing cycles.
- Quota management.
- Usage management.
- Pro-rating using volume and time.
- Parking.

SSC can now distinguish between the pre-paid and post-paid subscription and supports above mentioned functions for post-paid subscription. Enhanced post paid handling adds a post paid attribute to subscriptions and plans. It also provisions the billing cycle. Enhanced post-paid handling allows a subscriber to avail pre-paid as well as post-paid plans. This is achieved by enhancing following interfaces:

- SPR and SOAP.
- PPT.
- Sh.

SPR – API Interface Backward Compatibility Enhancement

Current version supports back word compatibility for the SPR API interface with version 12.1. This allows other components of PCC solution such as OSS or BSS that are using this SPR API interface to exchange data with SSC application to work with the current version of SSC application.

SSC Configuration Import and Export Enhancement

In previous versions it was not possible to export the SSC configuration to XML format. Using SSC console now SSC configuration can be backed up by exporting it to XML format. Enhanced SSC system configuration management using SSC administration console allows you to save SSC system configuration in XML format as well as load such a previously saved valid XML configuration to an SSC instance.

SSC Configuration Import and Export Enhancement

In previous version for some deployments, data base and In Memory Database (IMDB) upgrade used to introduce some errors in the data base, forcing to recreate the database, while upgrading to higher version of SSC application

Enhanced SSC application incorporates schema changes that mitigate this issue. Work around has been provided to such deployments so that they can upgrade to latest version of SSC application. This workaround can also be used to mitigate IMDB upgrade issues.

SSC Installer Management Interface Configuration Enhancement

In the previous version, on its second execution SSC installer used to access values assigned in the previous execution attempt to configure interfaces, even if these interfaces are not being configured during this second execution of the installer. Installer used to access these values from .. /localhome/ssc directory. For example if eth0 interface is configured by the person executing the installer, and then realizing that eth0 should not be changed, SSC installer is executed again, then in second run even if eth0 is not selected the installer used to configure it using previously assigned value.

SSC installer is now enhanced to remove the previously assigned stale values from the configuration file, when interfaces are being configured.

SSC Installer SAN Multi –Path Enhancement

In the previous version SSC installer was not able to initialize the data base for SAN multi-path, while attempting multi path operation over fiber channel. SSC was not able to mount the data base using the script sscdbstartup.sh. A reboot used to cause disk header corruption. Such disk header corruption issues are now resolved in the enhanced SSC installer.

TON and NPI values for SMS Enhancement

Different combinations of Type Of Numbering (TON) and Numbering Plan Indicator (NPI) values are now supported while sending the SMS to SMSC using SMPP interface. Source NPI and TON as well as destination NPI and TON can now be configured for primary as well as backup SMPP server Using SMPP Server Configuration section of Event Application Administration user interface. TON and NPI values are mandatory for establishing connection with the SMPP server.

UCS C Series Support Enhancement

Current version supports UCS C series platform. The redundancy support is limited to geo-redundancy only. This geo redundancy support ensures availability of SSC processes in a catastrophic failure scenario, enhanced SSC architecture ensures that there is no single point of failure for the SSC application.

Binding and Un-binding Interfaces using SSC Console Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In previous versions, using SSC console administrator used to associate the SSC component or interface with the IP or host name of the blade on which this component is supposed to run. Wrong IP association used to lead to unpredictable behavior of SSC deployment.

New Behavior: Console operations for binding and un-binding the SSC interfaces with IP address or host names, are now enhanced to eliminate this manual error. Now SSC console displays a list host s available for binding and un-binding with an SSC interface.

Bulk Load Schema Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In the previous version, for some deployments the .csv file that was used for bulk provisioning subscriber profile was lacking in plan information.

New Behavior: The bulk load schema has been modified to include the plan name field.

editAreaRegion SOAP API Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In previous release , for some deployments. editAreaRegion SOAP API associates area in database but does not update relevant IMDB entries.

New Behavior: Updated the code for roaming related cache groups to resolve this issue. Now the editAreaRegion database updated appropriate IMDB entries after associating the area in the database.

Geo Redundancy Feature and Disk Space Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In previous version, disk space usage used to reach 100% limit in first twelve hours when geo redundancy feature was enabled.

New Behavior: This issue has been resolved by updating the script that cleans up the archive files.

Heart Beat Daemon Process and associated Port Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In the previous version, same port used to get associated with multiple SSC process whenever they become in-active. Whenever a process used to become in-active or get killed, then another process used to get associated with same port. For example if heart beat daemon process is listening to port 10000 then if heart beat daemon process is killed then log daemon process used to start listening to port 10000.

New Behavior: As heart beat daemon process spawns other processes, the port associated with the heart beat daemon process used to be taken over by its child processes when heart beat process is in-active. This issue is re solved by modifying SSC framework code.

Number of Characters Allowed For MSISDIN and IMSI Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In previous versions, while provisioning the subscriber profile using SSC Administration Console, the console used to reject the entry when value of Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number (MSISDN) is less than fifteen characters in length.

New Behavior: Appropriate changes have been implemented. Now While provisioning the subscriber profile using SSC Administration Console, acceptable range for MSISDN is 7 to 16 digits and acceptable range for IMSI is 12 to 16 digits.

IMDB grid failure for SSC High Availability (HA) Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In previous versions for SSC- HA deployment, IMDB grid used to detach when a slave node is rebooted.

New Behavior: The IMDB application has been updated to address this issue in a normal shut-down scenario.

IMDB Errors During Longevity Test. Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In the previous version IMDB errors used to occur due to memory issue.

New Behavior: IMDB related code is updated to resolve this issue. This issue was occurring because of low memory assigned to IMDB parameters Premsize and Tempsize.

IMDB longevity calls and Hear Beat Daemon Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In previous version, the Hbd sometimes used to crash during overnight IMDB calls.

New Behavior: This issue used to occur in the cluster set-up when the SSC application used to crash on multiple blades. This issue has been resolved in the latest release.

Plan Retrieval Using Subscriber top-up SOAP Interface Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In the previous version, a blank Push Notification Request (PNR) used to be sent when top-up is attempted using the SOAP interface during an active subscriber call. Subscriber plans used to be retrieved only when the sub-opt-out field is enabled in SOAP interface.

New Behavior: Appropriate schema changes were implemented for plan bundle and usage information. Now Plan retrieval during the top-up using SOAP interface is not dependent on the status of sub-opt out flag.

Roaming Determination Reporting Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In the previous versions, there was no facility to enable or disable the roaming determination feature. The location change of subscriber used to be recorded and reported as and when it happened.

New Behavior: Now the roaming determination feature can be enabled or disabled using System menu option of SSC Administration console. SSC does not send the proximity status of the subscriber to IPCF when this feature is disabled.

Roaming Determination Support Provisioning APIs Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In previous version, the APIs that were used to add area to region or add region to the region list, used to provision id of the region or list that is being added to SSC database.

New Behavior: In the current version, APIs that are used to add area to region or add region to region list, provision name of the region or the region list that is being added to SSC database.

shmgr.xml Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In the previous version, this XML was used to exchange data between IPCF and SSC. Data sent from SSC to IPCF was not able to support tag attributes and hierarchal comparison of SPR attributes. Neither was it able to provide information about the data type.

New Behavior: Structure of data and service plan information that is being sent from SSC to IPCF has been changed, now this data supports hierarchical comparison of SPR attribute, provides information about data type and supports tag attributes. The subscription block of the XML now sends information regarding hierarchy of data and service plans. The usage block sends flat structure of data and service plan usage. XML contains the data type and value attribute for all the leaf tags.

SNA Message Configuration in Cluster Deployment Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In previous versions, during sessions involving SSC database on SAN disks and basic PCRF and GGSN instances on Cisco chassis. The Subscriber Notification Answer (SNA) that is being sent by SSC, in some deployments, used to contain only the profile data. It was not able to send the data plan as well as usage data for the IMSI for which the data is being requested in the session.

New Behavior: This issue used to occur for the subscriber profiles that have been provisioned using the bulk load script. Subscription type used to remain un-assigned. Appropriate modules have been updated to resolve this issue. Now SSC sends correctly configured SNA.

SPR API Log Entries in sn_SSC.log File

Previous Behavior: In previous version, in some deployments, the log entries related to bulk SPR API events used to overwrite other important entries in this file.

New Behavior: These log entries used to be generated when an API is used to create the subscriber profile. This API was used to check the existence of the profile, if the subscriber is not present then the API used to insert the profile in SPR otherwise it used to return that message that subscriber is already present. In the current version severity of this message has been changed from error to info, because this is information only. This helps controlling the size of sn_SSC.log file.

SSC Installer Initiating the SSC Application After Installation or Upgrade Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In previous version for most deployments, SSC installer used to initiate or start the SSC application, after installation or upgrade procedure is performed on the system.

New Behavior: After performing the installation or upgrade procedure for the given deployment, SSC installer now keeps the SSC application in maintenance mode. Administrator needs to execute the scripts to start the application.

SSC Installer SAN based Primary Data Base HA Node Un-installation Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In the previous versions, while un-installing SSC from SAN based primary data base HA node. The SSC installer used to remove SSC application, but Oracle control files and other related .dbf files used to remain on the SAN ASM disk groups. It was necessary to perform a separate SAN ASM un-installation process to remove these Oracle control and other related .dbf files from SAN ASM disk groups.

New Behavior: By adding new scripts to the SSC installer, the un-installation behavior of SSC installer has been changed. Now during SSC un-installation process, the SSC installer removes only the SSC data base related files from the SAN ASM disk groups.

SSC Installer High Availability (HA) Real Access Cluster (RAC) Installation Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In previous version, for some deployments, database Real Access Cluster (RAC) installation with High Availability (HA) feature used to fail.

New Behavior: This issue can be resolved by ensuring during SSC cluster installation that cluster SCAN name and ip address are set and resolved through DNS. During SSC cluster installation, the person performing installation needs to ensure that cluster node IPs, VIP and SCAN IP are resolvable thru DNS server using nslookup command.

SSC Message Performance in a GGSN-IPCF-SCC Sessions Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In the previous versions about 14 % of messages that are being sent to SSC during session involving GGSN, IPCF and SSC instances used to time out resulting un call failures.

New Behavior: This issue has been resolved by implementing appropriate schema changes to mitigate the timeout reasons.

Sending Notification to IPCF While Associating a Plan With Active Session Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: When subscriber tries to activate plan using portal, during an active session. SSC was not able to send the notification to IPCF.

New Behavior: Database and IMDB modifications have been included to resolve this issue.

Startup Log File Size Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In the previous version, specifically in a cluster deployment, the size of start-up log file used to reach multiple Gbs, due to increased number of error log entries. This used to adversity affect the functioning of the SSC deployment.
New Behavior: Current version mitigates this situation by providing a facility to create a cron job using:

- purge.sh script which rotates the start-up log file when the file size exceeds 1 Gb.
- An additional parameter MaxSscStartupLogFileCount in the system.cfg file. This parameter controls the number of SSC start-up log files that can be maintained for a given deployment.

Following is the location of scripts to create and remove a cron job:

- create cron job – scripts/LogFilesPurgeCron/createCronJobForPurgingLogFiles.sh
- remove cron job - scripts/LogFilesPurgeCron/removeCronJobForPurgingLogFiles.sh

Viewing Process Level Statistics Behavior Change

Previous Behavior: In the previous version, SSC Administration Console used to stop working when wrong instance Id is entered while viewing process level statistics.

New Behavior: SSC Administration Console displays appropriate error message, when wrong instance id is entered while viewing the process level statistics.

SSC Configuration Management Changes as of July 31, 2012

This section provides information on SSC configuration command changes in release 14.0

None for this release.

SSC Performance Management Changes as of July 31, 2012

This section provides information on SSC performance management changes in release 14.0

None for this release.

SSC Security Management Changes as of July 31, 2012

This section provides information on SSC security management changes in release 14.0

None for this release.