Release Notes for StarOS™ Software Version, Release 2025.04.gh0

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StarOS™ Software, Release 2025.04.gh0. 3

New software features. 4

Changes in behavior 5

Resolved issues. 6

Open issues. 8

Known issues. 8

Compatibility. 10

Supported software packages. 10

Related resources. 13

Legal information. 14


 

StarOS™ Software, Release 2025.04.gh0

This Release Notes identifies changes and issues that are related to the Legacy Gateway software release.

The key highlights of this release include:

●     Additional KPI Counters in ePDG:Introduction of new and enhanced KPI counters for improved operational analytics and troubleshooting.

●     Configure increased Pilot packet server limits: Network operators can nowconfigure maximum number of 8 pilot packet servers.

●     IPv6 address pool utilization visibility: Administrators can now view used and free IPv6 address pool values through Show CLI commands.

●     MME Validation on Supermicro Servers with CNDP: MME functionality tested and validated for deployment on Supermicro servers.

●     Increased Access Control List (ACL) Capacity on ASR5500: Maximum rules per ACL increased from 128 to 256.

●     Monitor subscriber enhancement for Non-VPP PGW-service: This feature enables comprehensive tracing and capture of subscriber control and user plane traffic on non-VPP PGW-Service nodes, generating detailed PCAP files for analysis.

●     MME Emergency Profile selection based on IMSI range and service PLMN ID: MME supports handling network outages by enabling inter-operator roaming for emergency calls.

 

Qualified products and platforms

Table 1.             Products and platforms qualified in this release

Component

Qualified?

Products

CUPS

No

MME

Yes

ePDG

Yes

P-GW

Yes

SAEGW

Yes

SGSN

Yes

Platforms

ASR 5500

No

VPC-DI

Yes

VPC-SI

Yes

Release lifecycle milestones

The following table provides EoL milestones for Cisco StarOS software:

Table 2.             EoL milestone information for StarOS™ Software, Release 2025.04.gh0

Milestone

Date

First Customer Ship (FCS)

31-Oct-2025

End of Life (EoL)

31-Oct-2025

End of Software Maintenance (EoSM)

01-May-2027

End of Vulnerability and Security Support (EoVSS)

01-May-2027

Last Date of Support (LDoS)

30-Apr-2028

 

New software features

This section provides a brief description of the new software features introduced in this release.

Table 3.             New software features for StarOS™ Software, Release 2025.04.gh0

Product impact

Feature

Description

Software reliability

Additional Bulkstat variables for ePDG KPI monitoring

This release introduces new and enhanced KPI counters in ePDG for improved operational troubleshooting.

Key features include:

●  New bulkstat counters for Delete/Modify Bearer Response failure reasons,
●  New bulkstat variables for counting number of idle sessions, with the idle duration configurable via CLI
●  Extended Diameter Authentication KPI counters with detailed Error codes.

The feature supports 4G/5G segregation based on either N1 mode capability of UE or the type of GW (PGW or PGW-C+SMF) the session is latched.

Software reliability

View IPv6 Pool values with Address Hold Timer disabled

This feature allows network administrators to view the used and free IPv6 address pool values using show CLI commands, even when the Address Hold Timer (AHT) is disabled for those pools.

Software reliability

MME Validation of Super Micro Server

MME has been tested and validated for deployment on Supermicro servers, with CNDP serving as the underlying platform.

Software reliability

ACL limit extension from 128 to 256

Increases the maximum number of rules per Access Control List (ACL) from 128 to 256, supporting up to 2048 ACLs per context on ASR5500 platforms.

Upgrade

Monitor subscriber enhancement for Non-VPP PGW-Service

This feature enables comprehensive tracing and capture of subscriber control and user plane traffic on non-VPP PGW-Service nodes, generating detailed PCAP files for analysis. It extends the Monitor Subscriber functionality by introducing a new CLI option to activate this capability. The system monitors multiple subscribers, capturing traffic and creating separate PCAP files with configurable naming conventions and storage locations, enhancing troubleshooting.

CLI modified:

monitor-subscriber-poll-timeout poll_timer_val_milliseconds

monitor-subscriber-file-name {none | imsi | username | call_id}

Ease of use

MME Emergency Profile Selection based on IMSI Range and Service PLMN ID

This feature enhances MME capabilities to handle network outages by enabling inter-operator roaming for emergency calls. You can now configure LTE Emergency Profiles based on specific IMSI ranges and service PLMN IDs, ensuring communication services during disasters. It allows only authenticated emergency calls while rejecting other attach requests. This is achieved by associating LTE Emergency Profiles with operator policies, selected via IMSI and PLMN ID.

Commands introduced:

●  enable-imsi-based-lte-emergency-profile (under mme-service)
●  associate lte-emergency-profile (under operator-policy name <policy name> )

Commands updated:

●  attach restrict access-type eps [allow-emergency-auth ] [ emm-cause-code <code>] (under call-control profile )
●  show operator-policy full name
●  show operator-policy full all
●  show mme-service all

Hardware reliability

Configuring Pilot packet server limits

This feature allows you to configure maximum number of 8 pilot packet servers. Gateways can now send pilot packets to up to 8 IPv4 destination servers.

Note: You cannot configure IPv6 address as pilot packet servers.

 

Changes in behavior

This section provides a brief description of the behavior changes introduced in this release.

Table 4.             Behavior changes for StarOS™ Software, Release 2025.04.gh0

Description

Behavior changes

Consistent SGW Downlink FAR Buffering in CSFB Suspend/Resume

[CSCwq94647]

Previous behavior: In the Circuit-Switched Fallback (CSFB) scenario, when a Radio Access Bearer (RAB) Release Request was received along with suspend and resume notifications, the system did not set the SGW downlink Forwarding Action Rule (FAR) to BUFFER due to a specific check.

When only suspend and resume notifications were received (without the RAB Release Request), the SGW downlink FAR was moved to BUFFER, resulting in buffering of downlink data.

 New behavior: The check preventing the FAR action from moving to BUFFER when the RAB Release Request is present has been removed.

This change ensures that the SGW consistently moves the downlink FAR to BUFFER during both scenarios—whether the RAB Release Request is received or not—providing uniform buffering behavior.

 Customer Impact: Customers will experience consistent buffering of downlink data during CSFB suspend and resume procedures regardless of the presence of a RAB Release Request.

 This leads to improved handling of downlink data buffering, avoiding discrepancies and potential data loss or forwarding inconsistencies during CSFB suspend and resume operations.

Improved Collision Handling for Bearer Requests

[CSCwq79531]

Previous Behavior: When a Pure S/Collapsed call was in progress and the system received an Update Bearer Request while the user equipment (UE) was transitioning from Idle to Active, and the SGW was already processing a Modify Bearer Request for the same transition, the Update Bearer Request was rejected with a "No Resource Available" message.

New behavior: Now, if an Update Bearer Request arrives while the SGW is already processing a Modify Bearer Request for the same transition (Idle to Active), the SGW will silently drop the Update Bearer Request. The PGW will automatically retry, and the request will be processed successfully.

Customer Impact: With this change, Update Bearer Requests in these scenarios are now retried and processed.

Allow N26 traffic over the S10 interface

[CSCwr18465]

Previous behavior: Interworking procedures that use the N26 interface enable the exchange of Mobility Management (MM) and Session Management (SM) states between the source and target network. The default eGTP service is supported on the N26 interface. However, N26 traffic is not allowed over the S10 interface in MME.

New behavior: To allow N26 traffic over the S10 interface, enable the combine-n26-s10-interface command in the MME service configuration mode.

Command changes:

configure

   context context_name

       mme-service service_name

          [ no ] combine-n26-s10-interface     

        exit     

combine-n26-s10-interface: This option lets N26 traffic over the S10 interface. If S10/S3-S11 Interface Separation is not enabled, N26 and S10 use the default EGTP-C instance or service. If S10/S3-S11 Interface Separation is enabled, N26 uses a separate EGTP-C instance or service linked to S10. S10 uses its own EGTP-C instance or service.

no: The no option disables N26 traffic over the S10 interface.

Emergency Session Timer Handling Change

[CSCwr06145]

Previous behavior:

For emergency sessions with MS network feature support enabled, if the T3412_extended timer was configured to either zero or a non-zero value in mme-service, the system considered the T3412_extended timer as the mobile reachability timer when moving to idle mode.

New behavior:

For emergency sessions with MS network feature support enabled, if the T3412_extended timer is configured to 0 in mme-service, the system now considers the standard T3412 timer as the mobile reachability timer when moving to idle mode, instead of the T3412_extended timer.

Resolved issues

This table lists the resolved issues in this specific software release.

Note: This software release may contain bug fixes first introduced in other releases. To see additional information, click the bug ID to access the Cisco Bug Search Tool. To search for a documented Cisco product issue, type in the browser: <bug number> site:cisco.com.

Table 5.        Resolved issues for StarOS™ Software, Release 2025.04.gh0

 Bug ID

Description

Product Found

CSCwq36099

ePDG VPC-SI : dhmgr mem warn

epdg

CSCwq66279

sessmgr reload in egtpc_get_pdn_rcvry_info() with rtt enabled

epdg

CSCwr06145

Emergency Call Incorrect Implicit Detach

mme

CSCwn59725

MME Collision Handling between E-RAB Release Indication and E-RAB Modification Indication

mme

CSCwr08706

MME is sending Forward Relocation Response with incorrect local IPv6 address

mme

CSCwr06035

sessmgr failure in Function: mme_emm_registered_idle_handle_im_exit_trigger()

mme

CSCwr34679

UE detaches after 60 secs post MME handover to other MME

mme

CSCwr18465

N26/S10 interface separation - allow N26 traffic over S10 interface

mme

CSCwq12952

During X2 handover MME modifies NR UE Security Capabilities received in Path Switch Request prior returning it to eNB

mme

CSCwq68664

Sessmgr restarts after SGW relocation with dedicated Bearers Deletion for MB Response delay with "context not found" scenarios.

pdn-gw

CSCwq50254

Fatal Signal 11: failures observed due to sessmgr_dhcpv6app_api_release_address

pdn-gw

CSCwq55405

Updates to a Group of Ruledefs triggers an mtree data structure rebuild, the configuration under the GOR retains old hash causing packet mismatches

pdn-gw

CSCwq83591

sessmgr crash when using certain RG acsmgr_dcca_get_cca_n_premptive_request_rating_groups()

pdn-gw

CSCwq97734

Add support for generating the pcap file from the hexdump for a monsub session of a PGW service

pdn-gw

CSCwq22148

Legacy-GW ATT: ASR5500 chassis hwctrl process shows warn state in show task resources

pdn-gw

CSCwq81740

PGW sending wrong ipv6 address format in IpAddress for starSRPIPAddress OID

pdn-gw

CSCwq56968

Discrepancy observed while modification of 'cdr transfer-mode push' CLI

pdn-gw

CSCwq00151

Sessmgr restarts after enabling VoLTE for specific inroamer IMSIs ranges

pdn-gw

CSCwq36837

Sessmgr task restart at function sessmgr_get_ipv6_end_user_address()

pdn-gw

CSCwq60067

'disable rapid-commit-dhcpv6' command causing SRP Peer Checksum failure error during the image upgrade in Legacy

pdn-gw

CSCwr18037

SGW calls are not getting created due to sessmgr assertion

pdn-gw

CSCwq90028

NPU flow usage for L2TP increased on ICSR standby

pdn-gw

CSCwp60108

session manager crash with an unknown signature time encoding data at smgr_gr_encode_uplane_call_info_uchckpt_cmd

sae-gw

CSCwq56385

Assertion failure at midplane/libsn_midplane.c in SPGW

sae-gw

CSCwq58463

Legacy-GW: Standby Sessmgr process restarts at while upgrading from 21.28.mh25 to 21.28.mh28

sae-gw

CSCwr57827

sessmgr reload at Function: is_dhcp_server_down()

staros

CSCwq77638

Legacy-GW: kernel panic with sessmgr checkpointing issue observed in osp16 and osp17 setup

staros

CSCwo01479

Unplanned SF migration caused diamproxy instance # out of range

staros

Open issues

This table lists the open issues in this specific software release.

Note: This software release may contain open bugs first identified in other releases. To see additional information, click the bug ID to access the Cisco Bug Search Tool. To search for a documented Cisco product issue, type in the browser: <bug number> site:cisco.com.

Table 6.        Open issues for StarOS™ Software, Release 2025.04.gh0

Bug ID

Description

Product Found

CSCwr32050

Emergency call-garbage value seen in bulkstat and show mme-ser statistics lte-emergency-profile profile-name lte1

mme

CSCwr83413

Unexpected DeleteSessionRequest after UEContextReleaseRequest

mme

CSCwr60848

CUTO Ctrl and VPP library version is not displaying

sae-gw

Known issues

This section describes the known issue that may occur during the upgrade of the StarOS image.

Install and Upgrade Notes

This Release Note does not contain general installation and upgrade instructions. Refer to the existing installation documentation for specific installation and upgrade considerations.

When upgrading the StarOS image from a previous version to the latest version, issues may arise if there is a problem with the Cisco SSH/SSL upgrade. To avoid such issues, ensure that the boot file for Service Function (SF) cards is properly synchronized.

To synchronize the boot file for all the Service Function (SF) VPC-DI non-management cards, use the following CLI command:

[local] host_name# system synchronize boot

This ensures that the changes in boot file are identically maintained across the SF cards.

Note: Execute the system synchronize boot command before reloading for version upgrade from any version earlier than 21.28.mh14 to version 21.28.mh14 or versions higher than 21.28.mh14.

Upgrade the confd version

This section explains upgrading third-party software. Upgrade the confd software to ensure system compatibility and performance.

Note: During July 2025.03.0 release, confd is upgraded to 8.1.16.2 version.

Prerequisites

●     Ensureyouhaveappropriatepermissionstoperformthisupgrade.

●     Backupallnecessarydataandconfigurationstoavoidpermanentlossduringfiledeletion.

     Perform these steps to upgrade the confd version on the system.

1.     Enter the debug shell using debug shell command.

2.     Navigate to the confd directory.

3.     Run the command: cd /mnt/hd-raid/meta/confd/ to access the directory.

4.     Remove existing files with the command; rm -rf *

All files and subdirectories are deleted, preparing the system for a fresh installation. To preserve data across the Method of Procedure, users with ConfD configured must contact their Cisco representative.

Method of Procedure (MOP): Upgrade/Downgrade Between Non-Hermes and Hermes Builds

CSCwr80301: HD-RAID Not Ready During Upgrade from Non-Hermes to Hermes

Issue: When upgrading from a non-Hermes (202x.0x.gx) to a Hermes (202x.0x.ghx) build on both Virtualized Packet Core—Distributed Instance (VPC-DI) and Virtualized Packet Core—Single Instance (VPC-SI) platforms, the HD-RAID may not come up as expected.

Workaround: To avoid this hd-raid failure, follow the steps below during the upgrade and downgrade (for example, from 2025.03.g0 to 2025.04.gh0):

1.     Pre-requisite: Back up all files stored in /hd-raid before upgrading from the .mx to .mhx build.

     Note: All data in /hd-raid will be lost during recovery.

2.     Before the upgrade: On the .mx build, run the hd raid clear command.

3.     Reboot and upgrade: Reboot the node to upgrade to the .mhx build.

4.     Perform the CF card migration in case of VPC-DI or Reload the chassis on VPC-SI. Wait for the HD-RAID to recover.

Note: It is recommended to use this Method of Procedure (MOP) for both upgrading and downgrading between Hermes and Non-Hermes StarOS builds.

Compatibility

This section provides compatibility information about the StarOS package version, and the hardware and software requirements for the Legacy Gateway software release.

Compatible StarOS package version

Table 7.             Release package version information

StarOS packages

Version

Build number

StarOS package

2025.04.gh0

21.28.mh31.99203

Compatible software and hardware components

This table lists only the verified basic software and hardware versions. For more information on the verified software versions for the products qualified in this release contact the Cisco account representative.  

Table 8.             Compatibility software and hardware information, Release 2025.04.gh0

Product

Version

ADC P2P Plugin

2.74.gh0.2727

ESC

6.0.0.54

CVIM

5.0.4

Host OS

Ubuntu 22.04 / RHEL 8.4

RedHat OpenStack

RHOSP 16.2

E810C NIC Version

Driver version: ice 1.12.6

Firmware: 4.20 0x80018f67 0.387.18

CIMC

4.0 (4)

NED Package

ncs-6.1.11.2-nso-mob-fp-3.5.2

-ad74d4f-2024-10-18T1052/ncs-6.1.11.2

-nso-mob-fp-3.5.2-ad74d4f-2024-10- 18T1052.tar.gz

NSO

nso-mob-fp-3.5.2

Supported software packages

This section provides information about the release packages associated with StarOS Classic Gateway, software.

Table 9.             Software packages for Release 2025.04.gh0

Software package

Description

NSO

nso-mob-fp-3.5.2-2025.04.gh0.zip

Contains the signed NSO software image, the signature file, a verification script, the x509 certificate, and a README file containing information on how to use the script to validate the certificate.

VPC companion package

 

companion-vpc-2025.04.gh0.zip

Contains numerous files pertaining to this version of the VPC including SNMP MIBs, RADIUS dictionaries, ORBEM clients. These files pertain to both VPC-DI and VPC-SI, and for trusted and non-trusted build variants.

VPC-DI

qvpc-di-2025.04.gh0.bin.zip

Contains the VPC-DI binary software image that is used to replace a previously deployed image on the flash disk in existing installations.

qvpc-di_T-2025.04.gh0.bin.zip

Contains the trusted VPC-DI binary software image that is used to replace a previously deployed image on the flash disk in existing installations.

qvpc-di-2025.04.gh0.iso.zip

Contains the VPC-DI ISO used for new deployments; a new virtual machine is manually created and configured to boot from a CD image.

qvpc-di_T-2025.04.gh0.iso.zip

Contains the trusted VPC-DI ISO used for new deployments, a new virtual machine is manually created and configured to boot from a CD image.

qvpc-di-template-vmware-2025.04.gh0.zip

Contains the VPC-DI binary software image that is used to on-board the software directly into VMware.

qvpc-di-template-vmware_T-2025.04.gh0.zip

Contains the trusted VPC-DI binary software image that is used to on- board the software directly into VMware.

qvpc-di-template-libvirt-kvm-2025.04.gh0.zip

Contains the same VPC-DI ISO identified above and additional installation files for using it on KVM.

qvpc-di-template-libvirt-kvm_T-2025.04.gh0.zip

Contains the same trusted VPC-DI ISO identified above and additional installation files for using it on KVM.

qvpc-di-2025.04.gh0.qcow2.zip

Contains the VPC-DI binary software image in a format that can be loaded directly with KVM using an XML definition file, or with OpenStack.

VPC-SI

intelligent_onboarding-2025.02.gh2.zip

Contains the VPC-SI onboarding signature package that is used to replace a previously deployed image on the flash disk in existing installations.

qvpc-si-2025.04.gh0.bin.zip

Contains the VPC-SI binary software image that is used to replace a previously deployed image on the flash disk in existing installations.

qvpc-si-2025.04.gh0.iso.zip

Contains the VPC-SI ISO used for new deployment. A new virtual machine is manually created and configured to boot from a CD image.

qvpc-si-template-vmware-2025.04.gh0.zip

Contains the VPC-SI binary software image that is used to on-board the software directly into VMware.

qvpc-si-template-libvirt-kvm-2025.04.gh0.zip

Contains the same VPC-SI ISO identified above and additional installation files for using it on KVM.

qvpc-si-2025.04.gh0.qcow2.zip

Contains the VPC-SI binary software image in a format that can be loaded directly with KVM using an XML definition file, or with OpenStack.

StarOS product version numbering system

The output of the show version command displays detailed information about the version of StarOS currently running on the ASR 5500 or Cisco Virtualized Packet Core platform.

Starting 2024.01.0 release (January 2024), Cisco is transitioning to a new release versioning scheme. The release version is based on the current year and product. Refer to the figure for more details.

Note:       During the transition phase, some file names will reflect the new versioning whereas others will refer to the 21.28.x- based naming convention. With the next release, StarOS-related packages will be completely migrated to the new versioning scheme.

Figure 1.           Version numbering for FCS, emergency, and maintenance releases

 

P495#yIS1

Note:      For any clarification, contact your Cisco account representative.

Software integrity verification

To verify the integrity of the software image you have from Cisco, you can validate the SHA512 checksum information against the checksum identified by Cisco for the software. Image checksum information is available through Cisco.com Software Download details. Click Linux and then choose the Software Image Release Version.

To find the checksum, hover the mouse pointer over the software image you have downloaded. At the bottom you find the SHA512 checksum, if you do not see the whole checksum, you can expand it by pressing the "..." at the end.

To validate the information, calculate a SHA512 checksum using the information in the table and verify that it matches the one provided on the software download page. To calculate a SHA512 checksum on your local desktop see the table.

Table 10.          Checksum calculations per operating system

Operating system

SHA512 checksum calculation command examples

Microsoft Windows

Open a command line window and type the following command:

> certutil.exe -hashfile <filename>.<extension> SHA512

Apple MAC

Open a terminal window and type the following command:

$ shasum -a 512 filename.extension

Linux

Open a terminal window and type the following command:

$ sha512sum filename.extension

OR

$ shasum -a 512 filename.extension

Note:       filename is the name of the file. extension is the file extension (for example, .zip or .tgz).

If the SHA512 checksum matches, you can be sure that no one has tampered with the software image or the image has not been corrupted during download.

If the SHA512 checksum does not match, we advise you to not attempt upgrading any systems with the corrupted software image. Download the software again and verify the SHA512 checksum again. If there is a constant mismatch, please open a case with the Cisco Technical Assistance Center.

Certificate validation

In 2024.01 and later releases, software images for StarOS, VPC-DI, and VPC-SI, and the companion software packages for StarOS and VPC are signed via x509 certificates. USP ISO images are signed with a GPG key. For more information and instructions on how to validate the certificates, refer to the README file available with the respective software packages.

Related resources

This table provides key resources and links to the support information and essential documentation for StarOS products.

Table 11.          Related resources and additional information

Resource

Link

Cisco ASR 5500 documentation

StarOS documentation

Cisco Ultra Packet Core documentation

CUPS documentation

Service request and additional information

Cisco Support

Legal information

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R)

Any Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and phone numbers used in this document are not intended to be actual addresses and phone numbers. Any examples, command display output, network topology diagrams, and other figures included in the document are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any use of actual IP addresses or phone numbers in illustrative content is unintentional and coincidental.

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