ETSI TR 102 805-2 V1.1.1 (2009-11)

User Group; End-to-end QoS management at the Network Interfaces; Part 2: Control and management planes solution - QoS continuity

DTR/USER-00029-2

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 19-Nov-2009
• Technical Committee: USER - User Group
• Current Stage: 12 - Completion
• Due Date: 19-Nov-2009
• Completion Date: 20-Nov-2009

Standards Content (Sample)

ETSI TR 102 805-2 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
Technical Report


User Group;
End-to-end QoS management at the Network Interfaces;
Part 2: Control and management planes solution -
QoS continuity

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2 ETSI TR 102 805-2 V1.1.1 (2009-11)



Reference
DTR/USER-00029-2
Keywords
control, interface, management, QoS, signalling
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3 ETSI TR 102 805-2 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 4
Foreword . 4
1 Scope . 5
2 References . 5
2.1 Normative references . 5
2.2 Informative references . 5
3 Definitions and abbreviations . 5
3.1 Definitions . 5
3.2 Abbreviations . 6
4 User interaction: existing limitation and user oriented dynamic management . 7
4.1 Information and subscription . 7
4.2 Information and signalling . 7
4.3 Information and management . 8
4.4 User centric approach: dynamic management (convergence of control and management planes). 8
5 User-centric oriented QoS signalling . 9
5.1 E2E QoS support: VPSN . 9
5.2 E2E QoS Provisioning . 10
5.3 Dynamic QoS signalling during exploitation . 12
6 User-centric oriented QoS management . 14
6.1 E2E session binding . 14
6.2 Diameter-based interface . 17
6.3 AVPs . 18
6.3.1 Multi-service-credit-control AVP . 19
6.3.2 Policy-Rule-Definition AVP . 19
6.3.3 Media-Component-Description AVP . 20
6.3.4 Binding information AVP . 20
7 User-centric oriented QoS continuity . 21
8 User E2E QoS Measurement . 22
Annex A: IPTV . 24
Annex B: Bibliography . 26
History . 27

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4 ETSI TR 102 805-2 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
Intellectual Property Rights
IPRs essential or potentially essential to the present document may have been declared to ETSI. The information
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, is publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be found
in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to ETSI in
respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the ETSI Web
server (http://webapp.etsi.org/IPR/home.asp).
Pursuant to the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation, including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee
can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web
server) which are, or may be, or may become, essential to the present document.
Foreword
This Technical Report (TR) has been produced by ETSI User Group (USER).
The present document is part 2 of a multi-part deliverable. Full details of the entire series can be found in part 1 [i.1].
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5 ETSI TR 102 805-2 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
1 Scope
The present document provides a study of exchange feasibility of the user-related QoS information aiming at E2E QoS
continuity.
2 References
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific.
• For a specific reference, subsequent revisions do not apply.
• Non-specific reference may be made only to a complete document or a part thereof and only in the following
cases:
- if it is accepted that it will be possible to use all future changes of the referenced document for the
purposes of the referring document;
- for informative references.
Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found at
http://docbox.etsi.org/Reference.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
2.1 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of the present document. For dated
references, only the edition cited applies. For non-specific references, the latest edition of the referenced document
(including any amendments) applies.
Not applicable.
2.2 Informative references
The following referenced documents are not essential to the use of the present document but they assist the user with
regard to a particular subject area. For non-specific references, the latest version of the referenced document (including
any amendments) applies.
[i.1] ETSI TR 102 805-1 (V1.1.1): "User Group; End-to-end QoS management at the Network
Interfaces; Part 1: User's E2E QoS - Analysis of the NGN interfaces (user case)".
[i.2] IETF RFC 3588: "Diameter Base Protocol".
3 Definitions and abbreviations
3.1 Definitions
For the purposes of the present document, the following terms and definitions apply:
AmbientGrid: information inference (AmbientGrid) based on the profiles' matching, to structure with grid covering the
needed user centric environment
capable QoS: level of QoS that the provider is able to provide
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6 ETSI TR 102 805-2 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
demanded QoS: assertion of the quality level requested by the user
desirable QoS: level of QoS required by user for his service
infosphere: decisional knowledge base managing, in real time, all the personalization and ambient environment
information.
offered QoS: assertion of QoS level that the provider proposes to provide
perceived QoS: level of quality experienced by the user
provided QoS: level of quality that the provider has agreed to make available to the user
session mobility: ability to keep the continuity of a service regardless the mobility of the terminal, of the access
network, of the core network or of any service components as well as the Service Provider
user-centric session: period of communication between one user and another or other users or servers characterized by
a starting time and a termination time, including setting up the relation of the user equipment, access network, core
network and services
user mobility: ability for a subscriber to move to different physical locations and be able to use one or more devices
connected to one or more access networks to gain access to their services without interruption
userware: innovative user centric middleware (userware) enhancing the seamless feasibility along with the location and
activity, personalization and user's ambient contexts
3.2 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
3GPP The 3rd Generation Partnership Project
AF Application Function
AS Application Server
AVP Attribute-Value-Pairs
A-RACF Access Resource and Admission Control Function
BGS Border Gateway Services
CCR Credit-Control Request
CPU Central Processing Unit
DIAMETER AAA protocol
NOTE: See RFC 3588 [i.2].
DIFFSERV Differentiated services (IETF)
E2E End-to-End
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute
GPRS General Package Radio Service
HSS Home Subscriber Server
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force
IMS IP based Multimedia Subsystem
INTSERV Integrated Services (IETF)
IP-CAN IP Connectivity Access Network
IPTV Internet Protocol TeleVision
MBB Make Before Break
MCF Media Control Function
MDF Media Delivery Function
NA(P)T Network Address (and Port) Translation
NA(P)T-PT Network Address Translation - Protocol Translation
NGN Next Generation Network
NSIS Next Steps In Signalling
NSLP NSIS Signalling Layer Protocols
PAN Personal area network
P-CSCF Proxy CSCF
PCRF Policy and Charging Rules Function
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7 ETSI TR 102 805-2 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
PDP Packet Data Protocol
QoS Quality of Service
QSPEC QoS Specification
RACF Resource and Admission Control Function
RACS Resource and Admission Control Subsystem
RCEF Resource Control Enforcement Function
S-CSCF Server - Call Session Control Function
SDF Service Discovery Function
SDF Service Data Flow
SDP Session Description Protocol
SIP Session Initiation Protocol
SLA Service Level Agreement
SPDF Service Policy Decision Function
SSF Service Selection Function
UE User Equipment
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems
UPSF User Profile Server Function
VPSN Virtual Personal Service Network
VSC Virtual Service Community
4 User interaction: existing limitation and user oriented
dynamic management
Nowadays, end users desire to access their services, without interruptions and in a continuous way. Moreover, it has to
be taken into account dynamic adaptation of services and management of user-centric session according to user
preferences and different types of mobility. In this clause, an analysis is carried out on insufficiencies of existing works
that are mainly of informational order. In fact, a complete information is needed at the moment of subscription
(clause 4.1). The signalling would be more efficient if it has the dynamic information (clause 4.2). And the management
would be more flexible if the information IS coherent between the cross layers (clause 4.3). Finally, a user-centric
oriented dynamic management (clause 4.4) is defined.
4.1 Information and subscription
User Profile Server Function (UPSF) defined in ETSI and HSS defined in 3GPP store subscribed user's profile
information related to one or more service control subsystems and applications. But they do not contain complete
profile information such as connectivity subscriptions and PAN (Personal area network) information. In order to offer
services adapted to user preferences, the pertinent resource information and user's preference information are needed
with the visibility of terminal device, network and service to choose the adequate component (terminal, network,
service) to use in a user-centric session. Through interaction with such user system, the pertinent user's data can be
reached and maintained.
4.2 Information and signalling
The QoS NSLP proposed by NSIS work group in IETF provides flexibility on patterns of signalling messages that are
exchanged. Various QoS models can be used in the network, but these do not affect the specification of the QoS NSLP
protocol. The QSPEC carries a collection of objects that can describe QoS specifications in a number of different ways,
namely QoS Desired, QoS Available, QoS Reserved and Minimum QoS. A generic template contains object formats for
the QoS description, which is designed to ensure interoperability when using the basic set of objects. NSIS has been
focused on developing a protocol to manipulate QoS states of network resource along the data path in the network.
Nevertheless their work on QoS description does not cover service layer with which user interacts more directly.
To circulate QoS information in a session, SIP has been designed in conformance with the Internet model in the control
plane. As far as QoS is concerned, SIP uses SDP to describe the media in the session and negotiate QoS requested.
Moreover, SIP can filter information according to the User Profile to implement application servers before
establishment of a session. However, is it able to describe the behaviour of service component and communicate the
QoS state information between the components in order to re-provisioning services during an active session in a
mobility environment according to the user's preferences.
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8 ETSI TR 102 805-2 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
A dynamic management of resource information and user's preference information is needed to adapt component
(terminal, network, service) during a user-centric session.
For the service continuity in an E2E session, the signalling should support broadening personalisation coverage with
QoS through composition of service in service levels.
4.3 Information and management
In the management plane, protocol Diameter is used to carry the information of authorization, policy control and
charging etc. The QoS related information can also be mapped to Diameter AVP.
Indeed, if the user wants always to have the dynamic selection of connection and accessibility by any of its identifiers,
to have the most appropriate service components in the session with different terminals and different bearers according
to different of SLAs, a mechanism is needed to ensure a coherent management of the user information including user's
preference between each level (cross-layer). This mechanism could collaborate with E2E signalling.
4.4 User centric approach: dynamic management (convergence
of control and management planes)
Generally, the lifecycle of QoS management consists of QoS conception, resource provisioning before the service
delivery, transfer of the service data, and management. QoS conception consists of analysis of the system's QoS need
and QoS context in order to make available the QoS-related structured information with its access interface. QoS
provisioning performed before service delivery covers QoS negotiation which is responsible for issuing an agreement
between the components to support the QoS involved in the service, admission control which is used to compare the
required resource for the component with the available resource in the system, and resource reservation which arranges
for the allocation of resources in response to the user requirements and the agreed QoS levels. When provisioning is
achieved, management related functions begin with service delivery in a static way. They analyse the tracked QoS
achieved actually and compare it to the initial requirements or agreements.
QoS management aims at satisfying user QoS expectation on the basis of a set of functions. Thus it is important to
determine at what time should QoS management be considered and what actions to be performed in the different stages
of the service lifetime. To allow user-centric oriented service to be carried out properly, QoS and user's expectation has
to be considered for each component not only before but also during the service delivery. That includes the E2E QoS
instrumentation in the service design phase and the E2E QoS management in the service operational phase.
Furthermore, the management information should be taken into account in the process of re-negotiation.
To achieve the E2E QoS, the provisioning (control plane) and management (management plane) are integrated into the
process of transfer the service data (User plane), as shown in Figure 1. During the real-time provisioning, the
information management is taken into account during the phase of transfer. This is called dynamic management. Once
the service is initiated and during its lifetime, dynamic QoS management is performed in order to ensure that the agreed
levels of QoS will be maintained. When QoS degradation is signalled and there is no mean to adjust local resource, a
re-negotiation process may be initiated. Dynamic QoS management should be done at every network interface (Home
network, Access network, Core network and Service network). Meanwhile, in the phase conception, the instrumentation
will be done on all the actors in the session chain, which are user's device, access network, core network, and service
components.
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9 ETSI TR 102 805-2 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
Dynamic Management
Conception
Provisioning Transfer Management
E2E QoS
Instrumentation Monitoring
Lifecycle of QoS management

Figure 1: Dynamic management
Different solutions could be considered to achieve the E2E QoS dynamic management: a signalling based solution
(such as SIP/SDP, NSIS/QSPEC) or a management based solution (such as DIAMETER or Policy Control) can be
considered, but for a dynamic management as shown in the Figure 1, the convergence of these two solutions should be
studied.
5 User-centric oriented QoS signalling
In order to fulfil the needs of QoS E2E negotiation in the user-centric session, a more flexible signalling in higher level
to support delivery and negotiation of QoS and user's information between the service components for subscribers
across any mobile or fixed network with any user's equipments is appreciated. Based on the VPSN architecture and a
dynamic management concept, a "dynamic E2E QoS signalling" in the service level is described which covers the end-
to-end session in order to achieve the provisioning for the services demanded and to conform to the SLA. This E2E QoS
signalling is able to circulate the description of media as well as the capacity of service component. Moreover, it sends
the monitoring QoS state (In/out contract) in the signalling control message during the phase of exploitation. In this
clause, firstly the E2E QoS support (VPSN) is presented (clause 5.1), then the E2E QoS provisioning is detailed (clause
5.2). Finally the dynamic QoS signalling during the exploitation with state chart is analyzed (clause 5.3).
5.1 E2E QoS support: VPSN
An E2E user centric session is built by four levels of elements (terminal, access network, core network and service). In
the service layer, the service component conception is applied, even the user's terminal running the applet can be
considered as a kind of service component in the chain. These service components compose a Virtual Private Service
Network (VPSN) to provide a personalized global service. This network is virtual because of the nature of the
applicative resources and service components that are sharable as well as the provided abstraction feature. This network
is private because it is the logic of linking the service components for the service requested by a particular customer
having specific QoS needs. The aim of the VPSN is to satisfy the end-to-end contracted QoS. It means that, the VPSN
nodes as well as the VPSN links should be aware of the QoS that they have to provide (local contracts) and the QoS that
is currently being provided (current behaviour).
Meantime, the service components which have equivalent function and equivalent QoS compose the virtual
communities of services (VSC). The VSC aims to dynamically fulfil QoS commitments by providing an alternative
service component to replace the failed component when any QoS change occurs within the VPSN.
From the user's view, service can be accessed, changed and released directly by the end user; all the elements in
access/core and service network should be transparent to the end user. The service network should involve all the
visibilities of sub-network nodes under its coverage. As a result of such integration of service network and transport
network, as the Figure 2 shows, when the service component changes to adapt to the user's demand or the mobility, the
sub-networks can establish a corresponding path for this logic link between the service components. Therefore, QoS
signalling applied in service layer with the users can be considered as E2E QoS provisioning. The services
personalization depends on the user nomadic information like user localisation or the request moment in the QoS
signalling.
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10 ETSI TR 102 805-2 V1.1.1 (2009-11)

Figure 2: End-to-end QoS
5.2 E2E QoS Provisioning
In each node of VPSN/VSC, is a QoS agent which stores a contracted QoS according to the SLA. The model of
expression was refined to distinguish the different values in different views as the Figure 3 shows.

Figure 3: Model of expression for QoS
The Capable QoS is the level of QoS that the provider is able to provide. The Desirable QoS is the level of QoS
required by user for his service. The Offered QoS is an assertion of QoS level that the provider proposes to provide. The
Demanded QoS is an assertion of the quality level requested by the user. The Provided QoS is the level of quality that
the provider has agreed to make available to the user. The Perceived QoS is the level of quality experienced by the user.
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11 ETSI TR 102 805-2 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
The QoS (demanded or offered) is expressed in four levels of visibility according to the four criteria: delay, fidelity,
availability and capacity. These criteria can be applied to any QoS classification (Diffserv, Intserv, etc) and can be also
easily measurable according to specific parameters. During the service's deployment and provisioning, these four
criteria are declined into three categories: conception values, current values and thresholds values.
The conception value is decided at the phase of service conception and capacity planning. It introduces the maximum
possibilities of the node's treatments and the link's interactions.
The current QoS is calculated during provisioning and exploitation to reflect the service's behaviour in real time.
The minimum threshold value and maximum threshold value define the range on which the node normally operates.
These values are alert thresholds to control the service execution and to announce the problems when the current value
exceeds the alerting values.
These values are taken into account during the QoS provisioning. Thus, the service components have the knowledge of
the contract to fulfil and the image of its current performance. During the QoS provisioning, if the desired QoS value is
below the current value, the service component is activated. On the contrary, if the desired QoS value is more above the
current value, the service component will not be activated.
Further, the QoS description of each service component extended into three levels. They are service node QoS, network
QoS and equipment QoS, as Figure 4 shows. The service node QoS contains the characteristic of service functions. The
network QoS collects the routing table which records the QoS of all the possible paths in the transport layer. If two
service's nodes are connected, the real-time QoS condition is calculated and updated in the table. The equipment QoS
represents the QoS vision of machine, ex. CPU and memory. A QoS model applicable to these three actors (equipment,
network and service node) will enable the aggregation of the End-to-End QoS.

Figure 4: QoS description of service component
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12 ETSI TR 102 805-2 V1.1.1 (2009-11)
5.3 Dynamic QoS signalling during exploitation
The QoS signalling will extend to the process of service delivery, not only before the service delivery. The demanded
QoS and Offered QoS (current value) in the node are compared and filtered by the contracted QoS (threshold range
values) to get the node's state (In contract/out contract). These states could be transferred in the process of negotiation
signalling as to maintain the QoS always conform with the contract dynamically. Since the service management is
dynamic, it implies the possibility of corrective actions to various problems during the exploitation of the service. New
service components could be added, meanwhile the activated service components could be replaced by the others. In a
session opened, when QoS state in one node declines (i.e. the current values exceed the threshold values), firstly the
virtual service community (VSC) to which this service component belongs performs a self-management to find another
service component with the equivalent QoS to replace. If not, the QoS signalling could interact with user system in the
database and re-provisioning the QoS in the virtual personal service network (VPSN) in order to find another link with a
QoS compliant to the user's preference. Meanwhile, the sub-network establishes the QoS path simultaneously.
In the user-centric end-to-end QoS signalling, each node could have four states:
IN CONTRACT means the QoS condition is in the scope of contract signed by the user and operator (Current value is
in the range of threshold values).
OUT CONTRACT, as the same suggests, means the QoS condition is out of scope of contract signed by the user and
operator (current values exceed the range of threshold values). After receiving the first "OUT contract" in the message,
the node arms the timer (Timer 1) for waiting the VSC treatment. The state is changed to QoS ADAPTATION.
QoS ADAPTATION is the process of adaptation the contracted QoS. Du
...