About traffic types, network interfaces and traffic schemes

A traffic type is a particular classification of network traffic. It may include more than one protocol, but generally all traffic of a particular traffic type serves exactly one purpose, such as Diameter signaling or VM management.

A network interface is a virtual NIC (vNIC) on the VM. These are mapped to physical NICs on the host, normally one vNIC to one physical NIC, but sometimes many vNICs to one physical NIC.

A traffic scheme is an assignment of each of the traffic types that a VM uses to one of the VM’s network interfaces. For example:

  • First interface: Management

  • Second interface: Cluster

  • Third interface: Diameter signaling and Internal signaling

  • Fourth interface: SS7 signaling

Applicable traffic types

The following table lists the traffic types present on RVT VMs.

Traffic type Name in SDF Description Examples of use Node types

Management

 
management

Used by Administrators for managing the node.

  • SSH in to the node using this interface

  • Log in to REM using this interface

  • REM uses this interface to monitor Rhino

TSN, ShCM, MAG, MMT GSM, and SMO

Cluster

 
cluster

Used by Rhino and the OCSS7 SGC for inter-node communication.

  • Session Replication

  • Node repair/recovery

MAG, MMT GSM, and SMO

Access

 
access

Allows UEs to access the MAG node from the public internet.

  • BSF

  • NAF filter

MAG

Diameter signaling

 
diameter

Used for Diameter traffic to the HSS or CDF.

  • Subscriber data requests to the HSS

  • Charging messages to the CDF

ShCM, MAG, MMT GSM, and SMO

SIP signaling

 
sip

Used for SIP traffic.

  • Incoming calls to the TAS

  • Forwarding of SMS messages to the PS network

MMT GSM and SMO

SS7 signaling

 
ss7

Used for SS7 (TCAP over M3UA) traffic from the OCSS7 SGC to an SS7 Signaling Gateway.

  • Traffic to and from the HLR

  • Forwarding of SMS messages to the CS network

SMO

Internal signaling

 
internal

Used for signaling traffic between a site’s Rhino VoLTE TAS nodes.

  • Cassandra (CQL) traffic to CDS

  • HTTP traffic to and from ShCM

TSN, ShCM, MAG, MMT GSM, and SMO

Diameter Multihoming

 
diameter_multihoming

This is an optional interface used for Diameter-over-SCTP multihoming. You only need to specify the configuration for this interface if you plan to use Diameter-over-SCTP multihoming.

  • Multihomed Diameter connections to the HSS

  • Multihomed Diameter connections to the CDF

ShCM, MAG, MMT GSM, and SMO

SS7 Multihoming

 
ss7_multihoming

This is an optional interface used for SS7 (M3UA/SCTP) multihoming. You only need to specify the configuration for this interface if you plan to use SS7 multihoming.

  • Multihomed SS7 (M3UA) connections

SMO
Note

No cluster traffic type is required for ShCM. Each ShCM node operates independently and is automatically configured to have cluster traffic routed over a local loopback address.
Note

On MMT and SMO nodes, the Diameter traffic type is required if Diameter charging is in use, but can be omitted if Diameter charging is not in use.

Defining a traffic scheme

Traffic schemes are defined in the SDF. Specifically, within the vnfcs section of the SDF there is a VNFC entry for each node type, and each VNFC has a networks section. Within each network interface defined in the networks section of the VNFC, there is a list named traffic_types, where you list the traffic type(s) (use the Name in SDF from the table above) that are assigned to that network interface.

Note

Traffic type names use lowercase letters and underscores only.

Specify traffic types as a YAML list, not a comma-separated list. For example:

traffic_types:
  - diameter
  - sip
  - internal

When defining the traffic scheme in the SDF, for each node type (VNFC), be sure to include only the relevant traffic types for that VNFC. If an interface in your chosen traffic scheme has no traffic types applicable to a particular VNFC, then do not specify the corresponding network in that VNFC.

The following table lists the permitted traffic schemes for the VMs.

Traffic scheme description First interface Second interface Third interface Fourth interface Fifth interface Sixth interface Seventh interface

All signaling together

 
management
 
cluster
 
access
 
diameter
sip
ss7
internal
 










SS7 signaling separated


management


cluster


access


diameter
sip
internal


ss7










SS7 and Diameter signaling separated


management


cluster


access


sip
internal


diameter


ss7








Internal signaling separated


management


cluster


access


diameter
sip
ss7


internal










SIP signaling separated


management


cluster


access


diameter
ss7
internal


sip










All signaling separated


management


cluster


access


diameter


sip


ss7


internal













Important





    

  • 

    Choose a single traffic scheme for the entire deployment.
All VMs in a deployment must use the same traffic scheme
(apart from differences caused by particular traffic types only being present on some VM types).
    

    • 

  • 

    The various IP addresses for the network interfaces must each be on a separate subnet.
In addition, each cluster of VMs must share a subnet for each applicable traffic type
(e.g. all management addresses for the VMs must be on the same subnet).
    

    

    The recommended configuration is to use one subnet per network interface.
If your deployment has multiple sites, use one subnet per network interface per site.
    

    

    • 

  • 

    It is not possible to add or remove traffic types, or change the traffic scheme,
once the VM has been created.
To do so requires the VM to be destroyed and recreated.
    

    • 


















SCTP multihoming






SCTP multihoming is currently supported for Diameter connections
to/from Rhino’s Diameter Resource Adaptor, and M3UA connections to/from the OCSS7 SGC, only.
Use of multihoming is optional, but recommended
(provided both your network and the SCTP peers can support it).






To enable SCTP multihoming on a group of VMs,
include the traffic types diameter_multihoming (for Diameter) and/or ss7_multihoming (for SS7)
in the VNFC definition for those VMs in your SDF.
SCTP connections will then be set up with an additional redundant path,
such that if the primary path experiences a connection failure or interruption, traffic will
continue to flow via the secondary path.






Note that for Diameter, be sure to also set the protocol-transport value to sctp
in the appropriate places in the YAML configuration files
to make Diameter traffic use SCTP rather than TCP.






The diameter_multihoming traffic type can only be specified
when the VNFC also includes the diameter traffic type.
Likewise, the ss7_multihoming traffic type can only be specified
when the VNFC also includes the ss7 traffic type.






Multihoming traffic schemes




The multihoming traffic types diameter_multihoming and ss7_multihoming
can augment any traffic scheme from the table above.
The multihoming traffic types must be assigned to a separate interface to any other traffic type.






Where a VM uses both Diameter and SS7 multihoming,
we recommend that you put the two multihoming traffic types on separate interfaces,
though the two multihoming types can also be placed on the same interface if desired (for back-compatibility reasons).






As with the standard network interfaces,
you must configure any multihoming network interface(s)
on a different subnet(s) to any other network interface.










Warning





Due to a product limitation, for multihoming to function correctly
the device at the far end of the connection must also be configured to use multihoming
and provide exactly two endpoints.
















                        

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