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This chapter describes various terms and concepts that are used when working with the Cisco SCA BB Service Configuration API.
One of the fundamental entities in the Cisco Service Control solution is a service configuration. A Service Configuration is a collection of configuration parameters. These parameters together determine how the Cisco SCA, which runs on the Cisco SCE platform, performs classification, accounting and reporting, and control of network traffic.
By editing a service configuration and applying it to the SCE platform, you can change the way traffic is classified and enforce different policies.
For more information about service configurations and traffic processing, see the Cisco Service Control Application for Broadband User Guide .
Usually, editing and managing service configurations is done manually in the Cisco SCA BB Console. Cisco SCA BB is a GUI tool that lets you edit every aspect of the configuration and apply changes to the SCE platform.
The Service Configuration API enables external applications to change the policy that SCE platform enforces, by programmatically editing service configurations and applying these configurations to SCE platforms.
The Service Configuration API has two parts, each dealing with a different type of task:
This section contains these topics:
The Service Configuration Management API can be used to perform the following tasks:
Those parts of service configurations that can be imported to and exported from CSV files are described in the “Using the Service Configuration Editor” chapter of Cisco Service Control Application for Broadband User Guide . The CSV formats are described in the “CSV File Formats” chapter of Cisco Service Control Application for Broadband Reference Guide .
The main classes of the Service Configuration Management API are:
The Service Configuration Editing API can be used to perform the following tasks:
NoteProvisioning policy to subscribers cannot be performed by using this API. Use the Subscriber APIs described in the SM API programmer guides. SeeCisco SCMS SM Java API Programmer Guide or the Cisco SCMS SM C/C++ API Programmer Guide.
NoteMonitoring counters cannot be performed by using this API. You can monitor counters via SNMP to the SCE platform or via SQL to the Cisco Service Control Management Suite Collection Manager database. For details on monitoring via SNMP, see the “SCA BB Proprietary MIB Reference” chapter ofCisco Service Control Application for Broadband Reference Guide. For details on monitoring via SQL, see the Cisco Service Control Management Suite Collection Manager User Guide.
The Service Configuration editing API data types for:
An explanation of the objects (service configuration entities) that make up a service configuration is beyond the scope of this document. See the “Traffic Processing Overview” chapter of Cisco Service Control Application for Broadband User Guide .
Use the SCA BB Console, which uses Service Configuration Editing API, to get familiar with these configuration objects and to understand the capabilities of the API.
A typical workflow for an application that uses the Service Configuration API is:
1. The application retrieves a service configuration from the SCE platform.
2. The application modifies the service configuration.
For example, the application may import zone settings from a CSV file. A zone is a list of network-side IP addresses that serve as a classification criterion. After a zone is defined in the service configuration, you can create a rule to control all network traffic going to that zone.
For code example, see the “Updating Zones Automatically” section.
3. The application applies the modified service configuration to the SCE platform so that classification and enforcement can take place according to the updated configuration.
For code example, see the “Applying a Service Configuration” section.
Another common workflow uses a set of predefined service configurations created manually in the SCA BB Console. In this workflow, the application uses the API to apply each service configuration to the SCE platform, either as response to some external trigger or at specified times.