Internet DRAFT - draft-brockners-diameter-nat-control

draft-brockners-diameter-nat-control



Diameter Maintenance and Extensions                        F. Brockners 
Internet Draft                                                 V. Singh         
                                                            S. Bhandari 
                                                          Cisco Systems 
Intended status: Standards Track                          March 3, 2009 
Expires: September 3, 2009 
                                    
 
                                      
                     Diameter NAT Control Application 
                draft-brockners-diameter-nat-control-00.txt 


Status of this Memo 

   This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the 
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.   

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that 
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on August 29, 2009. 

Copyright Notice 

   Copyright (c) 2009 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the 
   document authors.  All rights reserved. 

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal 
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   publication of this document (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info). 
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights 
   and restrictions with respect to this document. 


 
 
 
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   This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the 
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. 

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that 
   other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
   Drafts. 

Abstract 

   This document describes the framework, messages, and procedures for 
   the Diameter NAT Control Application (DNCA), allowing for per-
   endpoint control of large scale NAT devices, which are put in place 
   to cope with IPv4-address space completion.  The Diameter NAT Control 
   Application allows external devices to configure and manage a Large 
   Scale NAT (LSN) device - expanding the existing Diameter-based AAA 
   and policy control capabilities with a NAT control component. These 
   external devices can be network elements in the data plane such as a 
   Network Access Server (NAS), or can be more centralized control plane 
   devices such as AAA-servers. DNCA establishes a context to commonly 
   identify and manage endpoints on a gateway or server, and a large 
   scale NAT device. This includes, for example, the control of the 
   total number of NAT-bindings allowed or the allocation of a specific 
   NAT-binding for a particular endpoint. In addition, it allows large 
   scale NAT devices to provide information relevant to accounting 
   purposes. 

Table of Contents 

      Copyright Notice...............................................1 
      Abstract.......................................................2 
   1. Introduction...................................................5 
   2. Terminology....................................................6 
   3. Deployment framework and DNCA capabilities.....................6 
      3.1. Diameter NAT Control Application capabilities.............6 
      3.2. LSN Control Deployment Framework..........................8 
         3.2.1. LSN Deployment Scenario..............................8 
         3.2.2. Diameter NAT Control Application overview............9 
         3.2.3. Deployment scenarios for the Diameter NAT Control 
         Application................................................10 
   4. Diameter NAT Control Application Session Establishment and 
   Management.......................................................12 
      4.1. Parties involved.........................................12 
      4.2. Session Establishment....................................13 
      4.3. Session Re-Authorization.................................16 
      4.4. Session and Binding Query................................18 
      4.5. Session Termination......................................20 
 
 
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      4.6. DNCA Manager/Agent failures..............................21 
   5. Use of the DIAMETER base protocol.............................22 
      5.1. Securing DIAMETER messages...............................22 
      5.2. Accounting functionality.................................22 
      5.3. Use of sessions..........................................22 
      5.4. Routing considerations...................................23 
      5.5. Advertising Application support..........................23 
   6. Diameter NAT Control Application Commands.....................23 
      6.1. NAT-Control Request (NCR) Command........................23 
      6.2. NAT-Control Answer (NCA) Command.........................25 
   7. Diameter NAT Control Application AVPs.........................26 
      7.1. Reused Base Protocol AVPs................................26 
      7.2. Experimental-Result-Code AVP values......................26 
         7.2.1. Success.............................................27 
         7.2.2. Transient failures..................................27 
         7.2.3. Permanent failures..................................27 
      7.3. Reused NASREQ Diameter application AVPs..................28 
      7.4. Reused from RFC 4675.....................................29 
      7.5. Reused from Diameter QoS Application [I-D.ietf-dime-qos-
      attributes]...................................................29 
      7.6. Reused from ETSI ES 283 034, e4 Diameter application.....30 
      7.7. Diameter NAT Control Application Defined AVPs............31 
         7.7.1. NC-Request-Type AVP.................................31 
         7.7.2. NAT-Control-Install AVP.............................32 
         7.7.3. NAT-Control-Remove AVP..............................33 
         7.7.4. NAT-Control-Definition AVP..........................33 
         7.7.5. NAT-Internal-Address AVP............................33 
         7.7.6. NAT-External-Address AVP............................33 
         7.7.7. Max-NAT-Bindings....................................34 
         7.7.8. NAT-Control-Binding-Rule............................34 
         7.7.9. Duplicate-Session-Id AVP............................34 
   8. Accounting Commands...........................................34 
      8.1. NAT Control Accounting Messages..........................35 
      8.2. NAT Control Accounting AVPs..............................35 
         8.2.1. NAT-Control-Record..................................35 
         8.2.2. NAT-Control-Binding-Status..........................35 
         8.2.3. Current-NAT-Bindings................................36 
   9. AVP Occurrence Table..........................................36 
      9.1. DNCA AVP Table for NAT control initial & update requests 37 
      9.2. DNCA AVP Table for Session Query request.................37 
      9.3. DNCA AVP Table for NAT Control Terminate requests........37 
      9.4. DNCA AVP Table for accounting message....................38 
   10. IANA Considerations..........................................38 
      10.1. Command Codes...........................................38 
      10.2. AVP Codes...............................................39 
      10.3. Application IDs.........................................39 
   11. Security Considerations......................................39 
 
 
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   12. References...................................................40 
      12.1. Normative References....................................40 
      12.2. Informative References..................................40 
   13. Author's Addresses...........................................41 
    










































 
 
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1. Introduction 

   With the foreseeable depletion of available IPv4 addresses from the 
   IANA pool, service providers are starting to consider network designs 
   which no longer assign unique global IPv4 addresses to their 
   subscribers. One of the approaches considered, is the deployment of a 
   provider-operated large scale NAT device between the end-users and 
   the Internet. Nishitani et al. [I-D.nishitani-cgn] call this NAT 
   device a ''Large Scale NAT (LSN)''. 

   LSNs will be inserted into the existing subscriber access and 
   aggregation networks which typically provide for per-endpoint service 
   management and control as well as per-endpoint accounting. Per-
   endpoint rules include those which relate to service offerings of the 
   SP (e.g. access bandwidth, time or volume based access restrictions) 
   as well as rules which follow legal regulations of the ''National 
   Regulation Authorities (NRA)''. The introduction of a LSN impacts the 
   per-endpoint service offerings as well as the regulatory requirements 
   and gives rise to new control requirements within the service 
   provider network: Service providers need to manage the behavior of 
   the LSN on a per-endpoint basis.  

   The per-endpoint management capabilities of a LSN comprise, for 
   example the control of the number of NAT-address-port pairs (often 
   called ''NAT-bindings'' or simply ''bindings'') allocated to a single 
   endpoint. Given that global IPv4 address-port pairs are becoming a 
   scarce resource, several service providers intend to restrict the 
   number of NAT-bindings on a per endpoint basis and thus increase 
   address utilization efficiency. The number of bindings an endpoint 
   can consume becomes another parameter within a tiered-service 
   offering. In addition, the service provider might offer static 
   bindings to endpoints or pre-allocate external IP-address/port-ranges 
   to certain endpoints. One of the NRA requirements is that a service 
   provider needs to provide the identity of a user (which e.g. 
   translates to the public IP address and ports leveraged by the user 
   at a given point in time) upon request.  

   Dynamic per-endpoint management at the LSN requires an associated 
   interface that has to be tightly integrated with the existing per-
   endpoint authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) 
   environment of the service provider.  

   This document describes the framework, messages and procedures for 
   the Diameter carrier-grade NAT Control Application (DNCA).  The DNCA 
   interacts with the LSN to coordinate per-endpoint configuration and 
   management of subscriber traffic traversing the LSN. Use of a 

 
 
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   Diameter application allows for simple integration into the existing 
   AAA environment of a service provider. 

2. Terminology 

   Conventions used in this document 

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this 
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119]. 

   Abbreviations are used in this document: 

   AAA: Authentication, Authorization, Accounting 

   DNCA: Diameter NAT Control Application 

   LSN: Large Scale NAT device 

   NAT: Network Address Translation 

   NAS: Network Access Server 

   NAT-Binding or Binding: Association of two IP-address/port pairs 
   (with one IP-address typically being private and the other one 
   public) to facilitate NAT 

   NRA: National Regulatory Authority 

3. Deployment framework and DNCA capabilities 

3.1. Diameter NAT Control Application capabilities 

   The Diameter NAT control application offers the following 
   capabilities: 

   1  Limit the number of NAT-bindings per endpoint: 
      Define/restrict the maximum number of NAT-bindings on a per-
      endpoint basis. This enables service providers to offer 
      differentiated services based on the number of bindings and hence 
      optimize the consumption of IP-address/port-ranges.   






 
 
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   2  Request the allocation of specific NAT-bindings: Under normal 
      operation the LSN would allocate NAT-bindings based on rules and 
      algorithms local to the LSN. Fixed or pre-defined bindings would 
      be the exception rather than the rule but are essential for 
      certain deployment scenarios. Requests for NAT-binding allocation 
      could happen either at or after initial session establishment. Two 
      cases could be distinguished: 

       o Request the allocation of a pre-defined NAT-binding. Both the 
          internal as well as the external IP-address/port pair are 
          specified within the request. Some deployment cases, such as 
          access to a web-server within a user's home network with IP-
          address and port, benefit from statically configured 
          bindings.  

       o Request the allocation of an external IP-address for a given 
          internal IP-address and report the allocated external IP-
          address back to the requestor. In some deployment scenarios, 
          the application requires immediate knowledge of the allocated 
          binding for a given internal IP-address but does not control 
          the allocation of the external IP-address (e.g. SIP-proxy 
          server deployments). 

   3  Define the external address-pool(s) to be used for allocating an 
      external IP-address. External address-pools can either be pre-
      defined on the LSN, or specified within a request. If pre-defined 
      address-pools are used, a request would just include a reference 
      (e.g. name) to an already defined address pool on LSN. Otherwise, 
      the request will contain a description of the IP-address pool(s) 
      to be used (e.g. list of IP-subnets). 

   4  Accounting/Reporting: Report established bindings for a particular 
      user. Apart from statistical and charging purposes, binding 
      reporting is also required for legal reasons. Most National 
      Regulatory Authorities (NRA) require that service providers 
      provide the identity of a user upon request. The service provider 
      needs to be able to correlate a tuple (public IP-address, port, 
      time) to a particular user or endpoint.  

   5  Flexible Information Query: Report details and statistics of 
      bindings for a single endpoint or a set of endpoints through an 
      external interface which integrates with the overall per-endpoint 
      management suite. Hence this information query capability of the 
      DNCA potentially complements alternative information query 
      mechanisms such as SNMP-based mechanisms.  
 
 
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   6  Global Endpoint ID: The global endpoint ID will allow for common 
      identification of an endpoint on a LSN as well as other endpoint- 
      or subscriber-aware devices such as a Network Access Server (NAS) 
      or an AAA system. Endpoints are identified through a single or a 
      set of classifiers such as IP address, VLAN identifier, or 
      interface identifier which uniquely identify the traffic 
      associated with a particular global endpoint.  

3.2. LSN Control Deployment Framework 

   3.2.1. LSN Deployment Scenario 

   Figure 1 shows a typical network deployment for internet access. A 
   user's IPv4-host gains access to the internet though a Network Access 
   Server (NAS) which facilitates the authentication of the endpoint and 
   configures the user's connection according to the authorization and 
   configuration data received from the AAA-server upon successful 
   authentication. Public IPv4 addresses are used throughout the 
   network. 

                                +---------+ 
                                |         | 
                                |   AAA   | 
                                |         | 
                                +---------+ 
                                     | 
                                     | 
                                     | 
                                     | 
           +---------+          +---------+             +----------+   
           |  IPv4   |          |         |             |  IPv4    | 
           |  Host   |----------|   NAS   |-------------| Internet | 
           |         |          |         |             |          | 
           +---------+          +---------+             +----------+ 
           
           <-------------------- Public IPv4 ----------------------> 
                                      

         Figure 1: Typical network deployment for internet access 

   Figure 2 depicts the deployment scenario when a service provider 
   introduces a LSN to increase the efficiency of the global IPv4 
   address pool utilization. The objective is to provide the customer 
   with connectivity to the public IPv4 Internet. The LSN performs 

 
 
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   network address translation between private IPv4 addresses and public 
   IPv4 addresses. If the LSN would be put in place without any endpoint 
   awareness, the service offerings of the service provider would be 
   hampered. Provisioning static NAT-bindings for particular endpoints, 
   using different public IP-address pools for different set of 
   endpoints (e.g. residential or business customers), as well as 
   reporting on the allocated bindings on a per-endpoint basis would be 
   burdensome for a service provider if the LSN would not be aware of 
   endpoints and allow for per-endpoint control and management which 
   easily integrates with the already existing per-endpoint management 
   infrastructure of the service provider. 

                  +---------+ 
                  |         | 
                  |   AAA   | 
                  |         | 
                  +---------+ 
                       | 
                       | 
                       | 
                       | 
    +--------+    +---------+    +---------+    +----------+ 
    |  IPv4  |    |         |    |         |    |  IPv4    | 
    |  Host  |----|   NAS   |----|   LSN   |----| Internet | 
    |        |    |         |    |         |    |          | 
    +--------+    +---------+    +---------+    +----------+ 
 
    <-------- Private IPv4 -----------><------- Public IPv4 -----> 
    

               Figure 2: Access network deployment with LSN 

    

   3.2.2. Diameter NAT Control Application overview 

   The Diameter NAT Control Application runs between a Diameter NAT 
   Control Application Agent on the LSN and the Diameter NAT Control 
   Application Manager. DNCA allows for per-endpoint control and 
   management of a LSN. Being based on Diameter, DNCA integrates well 
   with the suite of Diameter applications deployed for per-endpoint 
   authentication, authorization, accounting, and policy control in 
   service provider networks. 


 
 
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   DNCA offers request and answer commands to control the allowed number 
   of NAT-bindings per endpoint, to request the allocation of specific 
   bindings for an endpoint, to define the address pool to be used for 
   an endpoint, to provide per endpoint reporting on the allocated NAT-
   bindings, as well as to provide for unique identification of an 
   endpoint on both LSN, AAA-server and NAS, thus simplifying the 
   correlation of accounting data streams.  

   DNCA allows for controlling the behavior of a LSN on a per-endpoint 
   basis during initial session establishment as well as at later stages 
   by providing an update procedure for already established sessions. 
   Using DNCA, per-endpoint NAT-binding information can be retrieved 
   either using accounting mechanisms or through an explicit session 
   query to the LSN. 

   3.2.3. Deployment scenarios for the Diameter NAT Control Application 

   Deployment dependent, the role of the Diameter NAT Control Manager 
   can be fulfilled by either the NAS or by an external server such as 
   an AAA-server. The two deployment scenarios are outlined in Figure 3 
   (''integrated deployment'') and Figure 4 (''autonomous deployment'').  

   Within the figures (M) denotes the network element which takes on the 
   DNCA manager role. Similarly, (A) identifies the network element 
   which performs the DNCA agent role. 

   The integrated deployment approach hides the existence of the LSN 
   from external servers such as the AAA-server as much as possible. It 
   is suited for environments where minimal changes to the existing AAA 
   deployment are desired.  The NAS, taking the role of the DNCA 
   manager, is in charge of initiating and managing the session to the 
   LSN, exchanging LSN specific configuration information as well as 
   handling reporting and accounting information. The NAS receives 
   reporting and accounting information from LSN. This way the NAS can 
   provide for a single accounting record for the user -                                                            - offloading 
   external accounting systems from correlating accounting information 
   received from multiple sources. 

   An example network attachment for an integrated LSN deployment could 
   be described as follows: An endpoint connects to the network, with 
   the NAS being the point of attachment. After successful 
   authentication, NAS receives endpoint related authorization data from 
   the AAA-server. A portion of the authorization data applies to per-
   endpoint configuration on the NAS itself, another portion describes 
   authorization and configuration information for NAT control aimed at 
   the LSN. NAS will initiate a DNCA session to the LSN and send the 
   relevant authorization and configuration information for the 
 
 
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   particular endpoint to the LSN. This could comprise e.g. NAT-bindings 
   which have to be pre-established for the endpoint, or management 
   related configuration, such as the maximum number of NAT-bindings 
   allowed for the endpoint or accounting requirements. The LSN will 
   send its per-endpoint accounting information to the NAS which 
   aggregates the accounting information received form the LSN with its 
   local accounting information for the endpoint into a single 
   accounting stream towards the AAA-server. 

    

                  +---------+ 
                  |         | 
                  |   AAA   | 
                  |         | 
                  +---------+ 
                       | 
                       | 
                       | 
    +--------+    +---------+    +---------+    +----------+ 
    |  IPv4  |    |   (M)   |    |   (A)   |    |  IPv4    | 
    |  Host  |----|   NAS   |----|   LSN   |----| Internet | 
    |        |    |         |    |         |    |          | 
    +--------+    +---------+    +---------+    +----------+ 
 
    <-------- Private IPv4 -----------><------- Public IPv4 -----> 
 
          Figure 3: LSN Control deployment: Integrated deployment 

   The autonomous deployment approach decouples user management on NAS 
   and LSN. The AAA system performing the role of the DNCA manager 
   manages the connection to the LSN, controls the per-endpoint 
   configuration, and also receives accounting and reporting information 
   from LSN. Different from the integrated deployment scenario, the 
   autonomous deployment scenario does not ''hide'' the existence of the 
   LSN from the AAA infrastructure. Here two accounting streams are 
   received by the AAA-server for one particular endpoint -                                                               - one from the 
   NAS, and one from the LSN. 

    

    

    

 
 
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                  +---------+ 
                  |   (M)   | 
                  |   AAA   | 
                  |         | 
                  +---------+ 
                       | 
                       | 
                       | 
    +--------+    +---------+    +---------+    +----------+ 
    |  IPv4  |    |         |    |   (A)   |    |  IPv4    | 
    |  Host  |----|   NAS   |----|   LSN   |----| Internet | 
    |        |    |         |    |         |    |          | 
    +--------+    +---------+    +---------+    +----------+ 
 
    <-------- Private IPv4 -----------><------- Public IPv4 -----> 
    

          Figure 4: LSN Control deployment: Autonomous deployment 

4. Diameter NAT Control Application Session Establishment and Management 

   Note that this section forward references some of the commands and 
   AVPs defined for the DNCA. Please refer to sections 6. and 7. for 
   details. 

4.1. Parties involved  

   Authorization and control models supported by this application 
   include the following parties: 

   o  Diameter NAT Control Application (DNCA) agent: The DNCA agent is 
      part of the Large scale NAT (LSN) device 
   o  Diameter NAT Control Application (DNCA) manager 



 
 
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   The current version of the draft assumes that the NAT control 
   requesting entity is always the DNCA manager. Sessions will always be 
   initiated, updated, or terminated by the DNCA manager. This mode of 
   operation is sometimes also referred to as ''push mode''. Session 
   initiation by the DNCA agent (sometimes referred to as ''pull mode'') 
   will be covered in a future version of this draft. 
 
4.2. Session Establishment 

   The DNCA manager establishes a session to the DNCA agent to control 
   the behavior of the NAT device. During session establishment, the 
   DNCA manager will pass along configuration information to the DNCA 
   agent. Session configuration information could for example comprise 
   the maximum number of bindings allowed for the endpoint associated 
   with this session, a set of pre-defined NAT-bindings to be 
   established for this endpoint, or a description of the address pool, 
   external addresses should be allocated from. 

   The DNCA manager initiates the Diameter NAT Control session to the 
   DNCA agent. The DNCA manager generates a NAT-Control Request (NCR) 
   message to the DNCA agent with NC-Request-Type AVP set to 
   INITIAL_REQUEST. On receipt of the NCR the DNCA agent will setup a 
   new session for the endpoint associated with the endpoint 
   classifier(s) contained in the NCR. The DNCA agent notifies the DNCA 
   manager about successful session setup using a NAT-Control Answer 
   (NCA) message with Result-Code set to DIAMETER_SUCCESS. Figure 5 
   shows the protocol interaction between the DNCA manager and the DNCA 
   agent. 

   The initial NAT-Control-Request can contain configuration information 
   for the session which specifies the behavior of the LSN for the 
   session. Configuration information which can be included comprises: 

   o  A list of NAT-bindings which should be pre-allocated for the 
      session (e.g. in case a subscriber requires a fixed external IP-
      address/port pair for one of his applications). 

   o  The maximum number of NAT bindings allowed for an endpoint. 

   o  A description of the external address pool(s) to be used for the 
      session.  





 
 
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   o  A reference to a predefined binding rule on DNCA agent that will 
      be applied to the session. Such a predefined binding rule on DNCA 
      agent may contain, for example, the name of the IP-address pool 
      that external IP-addresses should be allocated from, maximum 
      number of bindings permitted for the endpoint etc.  

   In certain cases, the DNCA agent may not be able to perform the tasks 
   requested within the NCR. These include the following: 

   o  If a DNCA agent receives a NCR from a DNCA manager with NC-
      Request-Type AVP set to INITIAL_REQUEST that identifies an already 
      existing session (i.e. DNCA manager and endpoint identifier match 
      an already existing session), the DNCA agent will return NCA with 
      Experimental-Result-Code set to Session-Exists, and provides 
      Session-Id of the existing session in Duplicate-Session-Id AVP.   

   o  If a DNCA agent receives an NCR from a DNCA manager with NC-
      Request-Type AVP set to INITIAL_REQUEST that matches more than one 
      of the already existing sessions (i.e. DNCA manager and endpoint 
      identifier match already existing sessions), the DNCA agent will 
      return a NCA with Experimental-Result-Code set to Insufficient-
      Classifiers. In case a DNCA manager receives a NCA that reports 
      Insufficient-Classifiers, it may choose to retry establishing a 
      new session using additional/more specific classifiers.  

   o  If the NCR contains a binding rule not defined on the LSN, the 
      DNCA agent will return a NCA with Experimental-Result-Code AVP set 
      to UNKNOWN_BINDING_RULE. 

   o  In case the DNCA agent is unable to establish all of the bindings 
      requested in the NCR, it will return a NCA with Experimental-
      Result-Code set to BINDING_FAILURE. The DNCA agent (i.e. LSN) 
      treats a NCR as an atomic operation; hence none of the requested 
      bindings will be established by LSN.  Either all requested actions 
      within a NCR are completed successfully, or the entire request 
      fails. 

   o  If DNCA agent does not have sufficient resources to process a 
      request, it will return NCA with Experimental-Result-Code set to 
      RESOURCE_FAILURE. 

   o  In case Max-NAT-Binding and Nat-Control-Definition are included in 
      the NCR along with a reference to a binding rule (i.e. a 
      predefined template on LSN) and the values in Max-NAT-Binding and 
      NAT-Control-Definition contradict those specified in the pre-
      defined binding rule, Max-NAT-Binding and NAT-Control-Definition 
      override the values specified in the binding rule. 
 
 
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            DNCA Manager                             DNCA Agent 
               |                                           | 
               |                                           | 
               |                                           | 
            Trigger                                        | 
               |                                           | 
               |                   NCR                     | 
               |------------------------------------------>| 
               | (INITIAL_REQUEST, endpoint classifier,    | 
               |     session id, NAT control config data)  | 
               |                                           | 
               |                                           | 
               |                                  Create session state 
               |                                           | 
               |                                           | 
               |                     NCA                   | 
               |<------------------------------------------| 
               |                 (result code)             | 
               |                                           | 
               |                                           | 
                                     
   Figure 5: Initial NAT Control request and session establishment 














 
 
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4.3. Session Re-Authorization 

   Session re-authorization is performed if the DNCA manager desires to 
   change the behavior of the LSN for an existing session. Re-
   authorization could be used, for example, to change the number of 
   allowed bindings for a particular session, or establish or remove a 
   pre-defined binding. 

   The DNCA manager generates a NAT-Control Request (NCR) message to the 
   DNCA agent with NC-Request-Type AVP set to UPDATE_REQUEST upon 
   receiving a trigger signal. In case the session is updated 
   successfully, the DNCA agent notifies the DNCA manager about 
   successful session update using a NAT-Control Answer (NCA) message 
   with Result-Code set to DIAMETER_SUCCESS. Figure 6 shows the protocol 
   interaction between the DNCA manager and the DNCA agent. 

   In certain cases, the DNCA agent may not be able to perform the tasks 
   requested within the NCR. These include the following: 

   o  If DNCA agent receives a NCR update/query request for non-existent 
      session it will set error code in answer, to 
      DIAMETER_UNKNOWN_SESSION_ID. 

   o  If the NCR contains a binding rule not defined on the LSN, the 
      DNCA agent will return a NCA with Experimental-Result-Code AVP set 
      to UNKNOWN_BINDING_RULE.  

   o  If the DNCA agent cannot establish the requested binding because 
      the maximum number of allowed bindings has been reached for the 
      Endpoint Classifier, it will return NCA with Experimental-Result-
      Code AVP set to MAXIMUM_BINDINGS_REACHED_FOR_ENDPOINT. 

   o  In case the DNCA agent cannot establish some or all of the 
      bindings requested in a NCR, but has not yet reached the maximum 
      number of allowed bindings for the subscriber, it will return a 
      NCA with Experimental-Result-Code set to BINDING_FAILURE. The DNCA 
      agent (i.e. LSN) treats a NCR as an atomic operation; hence none 
      of the requested bindings will be established by LSN.  Either all 
      requested actions within a NCR are completed successfully, or the 
      entire request fails. 

   o  If DNCA agent does not have sufficient resources to process a 
      request, it will return a NCA with Experimental-Result-Code set to 
      RESOURCE_FAILURE. 



 
 
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   o  If a NCR redefines the maximum number of NAT bindings allowed for 
      the endpoint, the new value will override any previously defined 
      limit on NAT-bindings. It depends on the implementation of the LSN 
      how LSN would cope with a case where the new value is lower than 
      the actual number of allocated bindings. Typically the LSN would 
      refrain from enforcing the new limit immediately (i.e. actively 
      remove bindings) but rather disallow the establishment of new 
      bindings until the current number of bindings is lower than the 
      newly established maximum number of allowed bindings. 

   o  If a NCR specifies a new binding rule, predefined on the DNCA 
      agent, the binding rule will override any previously defined rules 
      for the session.  

   o  In case Max-NAT-Binding and Nat-Control-Definition are included in 
      the NCR along with a reference to a binding rule (i.e. a 
      predefined template on LSN) and the values in Max-NAT-Binding and 
      Nat-Control-Definition contradict those specified in the pre-
      defined binding rule, Max-NAT-Binding and NAT-Control-Definition 
      override the values specified in the binding rule. 

            DNCA Manager                             DNCA Agent 
               |                                           | 
               |                                           | 
               |                                           | 
        Change of session                                  | 
           attributes                                      | 
               |                                           | 
               |                   NCR                     | 
               |------------------------------------------>| 
               |       (UPDATE_REQUEST session id,         | 
               |         NAT control config data)          | 
               |                                           | 
               |                                           | 
               |                                  Update session state 
               |                                           | 
               |                                           | 
               |                     NCA                   | 
               |<------------------------------------------| 
               |                 (result code)             | 
               |                                           | 
               |                                           | 
            Figure 6: NAT Control request for session update 

 
 
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4.4. Session and Binding Query 

   Session query can be used by the DNCA manager to either retrieve 
   information on the current bindings for a particular session at the 
   LSN or discover the session identifier for a particular external IP-
   address/port pair. 

   The DNCA manager initiates a session query by sending a NAT-Control 
   Request (NCR) message to the DNCA agent with NC-Request-Type AVP set 
   to QUERY_REQUEST. Figure 7 shows the protocol interaction between the 
   DNCA manager and the DNCA agent. 

   Two types of query requests exist: 

       o  Request a list of currently allocated NAT-bindings for a 
          particular session:  
          The DNCA agent will, on receipt of the NCR, lookup the session 
          information for the session id contained in the NCR, and will 
          report all currently active NAT-bindings for the session using 
          a NAT-Control Answer (NCA) message with Result-Code set to 
          DIAMETER_SUCCESS. In this case the NCR MUST NOT contain a NAT-
          Control-Definition AVP. Each NAT-Binding will be reported in a 
          NAT-Control-Definition AVP.  In case the session id is unknown 
          to the DNCA agent a DIAMETER_UNKNOWN_SESSION_ID error is 
          returned. 

       o  Retrieve session ids and internal IP-address/port pairs for 
          one or multiple external IP-address/port pairs: 
          If the DNCA manager wishes to retrieve the session id(s) for 
          one or multiple external IP-address/port pairs, it MUST 
          include the external IP-address/port pair(s) as part of the 
          NAT-Control-Definition AVP of the NCR. The session id used 
          within the NCR is not meaningful for this type of a query. The 
          DNCA agent will report the NAT-bindings and associated session 
          ids corresponding to the external IP-address/port pairs in a 
          NAT-Control Answer (NCA) message with Result-Code set to 
          DIAMETER_SUCCESS and the same session id as the one used in 
          the NCR. In case an external IP-address/port pair has no 
          associated existing NAT-binding, the NAT-Control-Definition 
          AVP contained in the reply just contains the NAT-External-
          Address AVP.  

    

    


 
 
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            DNCA Manager                             DNCA Agent 
               |                                           | 
               |                                           | 
               |                                           | 
     DNCA Session Established                              | 
               |                                           | 
               |                   NCR                     | 
               |------------------------------------------>| 
               |              (QUERY_REQUEST)              | 
               |                                           | 
               |                                           | 
               |                                           | 
               |                          Look up corresponding session        
               |                            and associated NAT Bindings 
               |                                           | 
               |                     NCA                   | 
               |<------------------------------------------| 
               |                 (result code)             | 
               |                                           | 
               |                                           | 
                                     
                          Figure 7: Session Query 

 




















 
 
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4.5. Session Termination 

   The DNCA manager generates a NAT-Control Request (NCR) message to the 
   DNCA agent with NC-Request-Type AVP set to TERMINATE REQUEST upon 
   receiving a trigger signal. The DNCA agent sends accounting stop 
   record reporting all the bindings and notifies the DNCA manager about 
   successful session termination using a NAT-Control Answer (NCA) 
   message with Result-Code set to DIAMETER_SUCCESS. Figure 8 shows the 
   protocol interaction between the DNCA manager and the DNCA agent. 

   If a DNCA agent receives a NCR from a DNCA manager with NC-Request-
   Type AVP set to Terminate REQUEST and fails to find a matching 
   session, the DNCA agent returns DIAMETER_UNKNOWN_SESSION_ID error. 

 
            DNCA Manager                             DNCA Agent 
               |                                            | 
               |                                            | 
            Trigger                                         | 
               |                                            | 
               |                   NCR                      | 
               |------------------------------------------->| 
               |       (TERMINATE_REQUEST, session id)      | 
               |                                            | 
               |                                            | 
               |                                  Remove NAT bindings 
               |                                       of session 
               |                                            | 
               |                                            | 
               |           Send accounting stop             | 
               |<-------------------------------------------| 
               |           for all session bindings         | 
               |                                            | 
               |                                  Terminate Session / 
               |                                 Remove session state 
               |                                            | 
               |                                            | 
               |                                            | 
               |                     NCA                    | 
               |<-------------------------------------------| 
               |                 (result code)              | 
               |                                            | 
                Figure 8: Terminate NAT Control session 
 
 
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4.6. DNCA Manager/Agent failures 

   Disclaimer: This version of the draft does not cover details in case 
   DNCA manager and DNCA agent go out of sync, which could happen for 
   example due to DNCA manager or DNCA agent restart, (temporary) loss 
   of network connectivity etc. Future versions of this draft will cover 
   failure cases and corresponding behavior of DNCA manager and DNCA 
   agent in detail. 

   Example failure cases include the following:  

       o  The DNCA manager loses session state (e.g. due to a restart). 
          In this case,  

            -  the DNCA agent may receive a NCR with NC-Request-Type 
               AVP set to INITIAL_REQUEST that matches an existing 
               session of DNCA agent. The DNCA agent will return an 
               error that contains Duplicate-Session-Id AVP to report 
               Session-Id of existing session. The DNCA manager may 
               then send an explicit TERMINATE_REQUEST for the older 
               session that was lost. 

            -  the DNCA manager may receive accounting records for a 
               session that does not exist. The DNCA manager will send 
               an accounting answer with error-code set to 
               DIAMETER_UNKNOWN_SESSION_ID. On receipt of which the 
               DNCA agent clears the session and removes the associated 
               session state. 

       o  The DNCA agent loses session state. In such a case, the DNCA 
          agent could receive a NCR with NC-Request-Type AVP set to 
          UPDATE_REQUEST for a non-existent session. The DNCA agent will 
          return NCA with error code set to DIAMETER_UNKNOWN_SESSION_ID. 
          State recovery procedures of the DNCA agent will be covered in 
          a future version of this document. 

       o  The DNCA manager is unreachable (as e.g. detected by Diameter 
          watchdog) or down and accounting requests from the DNCA agent 
          fail to get a response. The current version of the draft does 
          not specify procedures for DNCA agent session state clean up 
          or recovery. The mechanism to ensure that a DNCA manager no 
          longer has associated state for a session being cleared at the 
          DNCA agent is beyond the scope of this document. 
 
 
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       o  The DNCA agent is unreachable or down and NCR requests fail to 
          get a response. Handling of this case depends on the actual 
          service offering of the service provider. The service provider 
          could, for example, choose to terminate the access session to 
          the endpoint. 

5. Use of the DIAMETER base protocol 

   The DIAMETER Base Protocol defined by [RFC3588] shall apply, with the 
   clarifications listed in the present specification. 

5.1. Securing DIAMETER messages  

   For secure transport of DIAMETER messages, IPSec may be used.  

   The DNCA agent may verify the identity of the DNCA Manager during the 
   Capabilities Exchange Request procedure.  

   The DNCA agent may verify if the DNCA Manager that issues a NCR 
   command is allowed to do so, based on: 

   o  The Identity of the DNCA Manager  
   o  The Type of NCR Command 
   o  The content of the NCR Command 
   o  Any combination of the above  

5.2. Accounting functionality 

   Accounting functionality (Accounting Session State Machine, related 
   command codes and AVPs) is defined in section 8 below. 

5.3. Use of sessions 

   Each DNCA session MUST have a globally unique Session-Id as defined 
   in [RFC3588], which MUST NOT be changed during the lifetime of a DNCA 
   session. The Diameter Session-Id serves as the global endpoint 
   identifier (see also capabilities section 3.1. The DNCA agent and 
   DNCA manager maintain state associated with the Session-Id. This 
   globally unique Session-Id is used for updating, accounting for and 
   terminating the session. DNCA session MUST NOT have more than one 
   outstanding request at any given instant. 




 
 
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   The DNCA agent sends an Abort-Session-Request as defined in [RFC3588] 
   if it is unable to maintain sessions due to resource limitation.   

5.4. Routing considerations 

   It is assumed that the DNCA manager knows the address/name of the 
   DNCA agent for a given endpoint. Both the Destination-Realm and 
   Destination-Host AVPs are present in the Request from the DNCA 
   manager to the DNCA agent.  

5.5. Advertising Application support 

   Diameter applications conforming to this specification MUST advertise 
   support by including the value of TBD in: 

   - Auth-Application-Id and Acct-Application-Id of Capabilities-
   Exchange-Request (CER) 

   - Auth-Application-Id of NC-request (NCR), NC-Answer (NCA), Abort-
   Session-Request(ASR), Abort-Session-Answer (AAA) messages 

   - Acct-Application-Id in Accounting-Request (ACR) and Accounting-
   Answer (AAA) messages.  

6. Diameter NAT Control Application Commands 

   The following commands are used to establish, maintain and clear LSN 
   bindings.  

6.1. NAT-Control Request (NCR) Command 

   The NAT-Control Request (NCR) command, indicated by the command field 
   set to TBD and the "R" bit set in the Command Flags field, is sent 
   from the DNCA manager to the DNCA agent in order to install NAT 
   bindings.  

    

    

    

    

    

    
 
 
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   Message Format: 

   < NC-Request > ::= < Diameter Header: TBD, REQ, PXY> 

                    < Session-Id > 
                    { Auth-Application-Id } 
                    { Origin-Host } 
                    { Origin-Realm } 
                    { Destination-Realm } 
                    { Destination-Host } 
                    { NC-Request-Type }  
                    [ Origin-State-Id ] 
                    [ Auth-Session-State ]  
                  * [ NAT-Control-Remove ] 
                  * [ NAT-Control-Install ] 
                    [ User-Name ] 
                    [ Logical-Access-Id ]  
                    [ Physical-Access-ID ] 
                    [ Framed-IP-Address ] 
                    [ Framed-Interface-Id ] 
                    [ EGRESS-VLANID] 
                    [ NAS-Port-ID] 
                    [ Address-Realm ]    
                    [ Called-Station-ID ] 
                  * [ Proxy-Info ] 
                  * [ Route-Record ] 
                  * [ AVP ] 

















 
 
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6.2. NAT-Control Answer (NCA) Command 

   The NAT-Control-Answer (NCA) command, indicated by the Command-Code 
   field set to TBD and the "R" bit cleared in the Command Flags field, 
   is sent by the DNCA agent in response to NAT-Control-Request 
   command.  
    
   Message Format: 
   <NC-Answer> ::= < Diameter Header: TBD, PXY > 
                   < Session-Id > 
                   { Origin-Host } 
                   { Origin-Realm } 
                   { NC-Request-Type }  
                   [ Result-Code ] 
                 * [ NAT-Control-Definition ] 
                   [ Current-NAT-Bindings   ] 
                   [ Experimental-Result ] 
                   [ Origin-State-Id ] 
                   [ Error-Message ] 
                   [ Error-Reporting-Host ]  
                 * [ Failed-AVP ] 
                 * [ Proxy-Info ] 
                   [ Duplicate-Session-ID ] 
                 * [ AVP ] 
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    





 
 
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7. Diameter NAT Control Application AVPs 

7.1. Reused Base Protocol AVPs 

   AVPs reused from Diameter Base Protocol [RFC3588] are listed below. 

                                                   +-------------------+ 
                                                   |  AVP Flag rules   | 
   +-----------------------------------------------|-----+---+---------+ 
   |                           AVP                 |     |   |   May   | 
   | Attribute Name            Code     Data Type  |MUST |MAY| encrypt | 
   +-----------------------------------------------+-----+---+---------+ 
   |Acct-Interim-Interval      85       Unsigned32 | M   | P |    Y    | 
   |Auth-Application-Id        258      Unsigned32 | M   | P |    N    | 
   |Auth-Session-State         277      Enumerated | M   | P |    N    | 
   |Destination-Host           293      DiamIdent  | M   | P |    N    | 
   |Destination-Realm          283      DiamIdent  | M   | P |    N    | 
   |Error-Message              281      UTF8String | M   | P |    N    | 
   |Error-Reporting-Host       294      DiamIdent  | M   | P |    N    | 
   |Experimental-Result        297      Grouped    | M   | P |    N    | 
   |Experimental-Result-Code   298      Unsigned32 | M   | P |    N    | 
   |Failed-AVP                 279      Grouped    | M   | P |    N    | 
   |Origin-Host                264      DiamIdent  | M   | P |    N    | 
   |Origin-Realm               296      DiamIdent  | M   | P |    N    | 
   |Origin-State-Id            278      Unsigned32 | M   | P |    N    | 
   |Proxy-Info                 284      Grouped    | M   | P |    N    | 
   |Result-Code                268      Unsigned32 | M   | P |    N    | 
   |Route-Record               282      DiamIdent  | M   |   |    N    | 
   |Session-Id                 263      UTF8String | M   | P |    Y    | 
   |User-Name                  1        UTF8String | M   | P |    Y    | 
   +-----------------------------------------------+-----+---+---------+ 
   |M - Mandatory bit. An AVP with "M" bit set and its value MUST be   | 
   |    supported and recognized by a Diameter entity in order the     | 
   |    message, which carries this AVP, to be accepted.               | 
   |P - Indicates the need for encryption for end-to-end security.     | 
   +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ 

         Table 1: DIAMETER AVPs used from Diameter base [RFC3588] 

   The Auth-Application-Id AVP (AVP Code 258) is assigned by IANA to 
   Diameter applications.  The value of the Auth-Application-Id for the 
   Diameter NAT Control Application is TBD. 

7.2. Experimental-Result-Code AVP values 

   This section defines new Experimental-Result-Code values that shall 
   be supported by all DIAMETER implementations that conform to the 
 
 
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   present document. When one of the Experimental Result Code defined in 
   the present section is included in a response, it shall be inside an 
   Experimental-Result AVP and the Result-Code AVP shall be absent. 

          7.2.1. Success 

   Experimental Result Codes that fall within the success category are 
   used to inform a peer that a request has been successfully completed. 

   No new Result Code has been defined within this category. 

          7.2.2. Transient failures 

   Experimental Result Codes that fall within the transient failures 
   category are those used to inform a peer that the request could not 
   be satisfied at the time that it was received. The request may be 
   able to be satisfied in the future. 

   This document defines the following new values of the Experimental-
   Result-Code AVP: 

     RESOURCE_FAILURE (TBD) 

         The DNCA agent indicates that the binding could not be 
         installed or a new session could not be created due to resource 
         shortage. 

          7.2.3. Permanent failures 

   Experimental Result Codes that fall within the Permanent Failures 
   category are used to inform the peer that the request failed, and 
   should not be attempted again. 

   This document defines the following new values of the Experimental-
   Result-Code AVP: 

      UNKNOWN_BINDING_RULE_NAME (TBD)  

          The DNCA agent indicates that the specified NAT-Binding-Rule 
          AVP is unknown. 

      BINDING_FAILURE (TBD) 

         The DNCA indicates that the requested binding(s) could not be 
         installed. 

      MAXIMUM_BINDINGS_REACHED_FOR_ENDPOINT (TBD) 
 
 
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         The DNCA agent denies the request because the maximum number of 
         allowed bindings has been reached for the specified Endpoint 
         Classifier. 

      SESSION_EXISTS (TBD) 

        The DNCA agent denies request to initialize a new session, if    
        it already has a DNCA session that uses the same set of 
        classifiers as indicated by DNCA manager in the new session 
        init request. 

      INSUFFICIENT_CLASSIFIERS (TBD) 

        The DNCA agent defines request to initialize a new session, if 
        the classifiers in the request match more than one of the 
        existing sessions on DNCA agent. 

7.3. Reused NASREQ Diameter application AVPs 

                                          +---------------------+ 
                                          |    AVP Flag rules   | 
   +------------------+------+------------|----+-----+----+-----|----+ 
   |                  | AVP  |            |    |     |SHLD| MUST|    | 
   | Attribute Name   | Code |  Value Type|MUST| MAY | NOT|  NOT|Encr| 
   |------------------|------|------------|----+-----+----+-----|----| 
   | NAS-Port         |   5  | Unsigned32 | M  |  P  |    |  V  | Y  |   
   | NAS-Port-Id      |  87  | UTF8String | M  |  P  |    |  V  | Y  | 
   | Called-Station-Id|  30  | UTF8String | M  |  P  |    |  V  | Y  | 
   | Calling-Station- |  31  | UTF8String | M  |  P  |    |  V  | Y  | 
   |   Id             |      |            |    |     |    |     |    | 
   | Framed-IP-Address|   8  | OctetString| M  |  P  |    |  V  | Y  | 
   | Framed-Interface-|  96  | Unsigned64 | M  |  P  |    |  V  | Y  | 
   |   ID             |      |            |    |     |    |     |    |    
   +------------------+------+------------|----+-----+----+-----|----+ 

             Table 2: Reused NASREQ Diameter application AVPs 

    

    

    

    



 
 
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7.4. Reused from RFC 4675  

                                          +---------------------+ 
                                          |    AVP Flag rules   | 
   +------------------+------+------------|----+-----+----+-----|----+ 
   |                  | AVP  |            |    |     |SHLD| MUST|    | 
   | Attribute Name   | Code |  Value Type|MUST| MAY | NOT|  NOT|Encr| 
   |------------------|------|------------|----+-----+----+-----|----| 
   | Egress-VLANID    |  56  | OctetString| M  |  P  |    |  V  | Y  | 
   +------------------+------+------------|----+-----+----+-----|----+ 

7.5. Reused from Diameter QoS Application [I-D.ietf-dime-qos-attributes]   

                                                   +-------------------+ 
                                                   |  AVP Flag rules   | 
   +-----------------------------------------------|-----+---+---------+ 
   |                           AVP                 |     |   |   May   | 
   | Attribute Name            Code     Data Type  |MUST |MAY| encrypt | 
   +-----------------------------------------------+-----+---+---------+ 
   |Port                       TBD     Integer32   |  M  | P |    Y    
   |IP-Address-Mask            TBD     Grouped     |  M  | P |    Y    | 
   +-----------------------------------------------+-----+---+---------+ 
   |M - Mandatory bit. An AVP with "M" bit set and its value MUST be   | 
   |    supported and recognized by a Diameter entity in order the     | 
   |    message, which carries this AVP, to be accepted.               | 
   |P - Indicates the need for encryption for end-to-end security.     | 
   |V - Indicates whether the optional Vendor-ID field is present      | 
   |    in the AVP header. Vendor-Id header of all AVPs in             | 
   |    this table will be set to ETSI (13019)                         | 
   +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ 

                      Table 3: Reused QoS-attributes 

    

    

    

    

    

    

 

 
 
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7.6. Reused from ETSI ES 283 034, e4 Diameter application 

                                                   +-------------------+ 
                                                   |  AVP Flag rules   | 
   +-----------------------------------------------|-----+---+---------+ 
   |                           AVP                 |     |   |   May   | 
   | Attribute Name            Code     Data Type  |MUST |MAY| encrypt | 
   +-----------------------------------------------+-----+---+---------+ 
   |Address-Realm              301     OctetString | M,V |   |    Y    | 
   |Logical-Access-Id          302     OctetString |   V | M |    Y    | 
   |Physical-Access-ID         313     UTF8String  |   V | M |    Y    | 
   +-----------------------------------------------+-----+---+---------+ 
   |M - Mandatory bit. An AVP with "M" bit set and its value MUST be   | 
   |    supported and recognized by a Diameter entity in order the     | 
   |    message, which carries this AVP, to be accepted.               | 
   |P - Indicates the need for encryption for end-to-end security.     | 
   |V - Indicates whether the optional Vendor-ID field is present      | 
   |    in the AVP header. Vendor-Id header of all AVPs in             | 
   |    this table will be set to ETSI (13019)                         | 
   +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ 

             Table 4: Reused AVPs from Diameter e4 application 

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    



 
 
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7.7. Diameter NAT Control Application Defined AVPs 

   The following table describes the new Diameter AVPs used in the 
   present document, their AVP Code values, types, possible flag values 
   and whether the AVP may or not be encrypted.  

                                                   +-------------------+ 
                                                   |  AVP Flag rules   | 
   +-----------------------------------------------|-----+---+---------+ 
   |                       AVP  Section            |     |   |   May   | 
   | Attribute Name        Code Defined Data Type  |MUST |MAY| encrypt | 
   +-----------------------------------------------+-----+---+---------+ 
   |NC-Request-Type        TBD  7.7.1   Enumerated | M   | P |    Y    | 
   |NAT-Control-Install    TBD  7.7.2   Grouped    | M   | P |    Y    | 
   |NAT-Control-Remove     TBD  7.7.3   Grouped    | M   | P |    Y    | 
   |NAT-Control-Definition TBD  7.7.4   Grouped    | M   | P |    Y    | 
   |NAT-Internal-Address   TBD  7.7.5   Grouped    | M   | P |    Y    | 
   |NAT-External-Address   TBD  7.7.6   Grouped    | M   | P |    Y    | 
   |Max-NAT-Bindings       TBD  7.7.7   Unsigned32 | M   | P |    Y    | 
   |NAT-Control-           TBD  7.7.8   OctetString| M   | P |    Y    | 
   | Binding-Rule                                  |     |   |         |  
   |Duplicate-             TBD  7.7.9   UTF8String | M   | P |    Y    | 
   | Session-ID                                    |     |   |         | 
   |NAT-Control-Record     TBD  8.2.1   Grouped    | M   | P |    Y    | 
   |NAT-Control-           TBD  8.2.2   Enumerated | M   | P |    Y    | 
   | Binding-Status                                |     |   |         |  
   |Current-NAT-Bindings   TBD  8.2.3   Unsigned32 | M   | P |    Y    | 
   +-----------------------------------------------+-----+---+---------+ 
   |M - Mandatory bit. An AVP with "M" bit set and its value MUST be   | 
   |    supported and recognized by a Diameter entity in order the     | 
   |    message, which carries this AVP, to be accepted.               | 
   |P - Indicates the need for encryption for end-to-end security.     | 
   |V - Vendor specific bit that indicates whether the optional        |  
   |    Vendor-ID field is present in the AVP header                   | 
   +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ 

                        Table 5: New Diameter AVPs 

   7.7.1. NC-Request-Type AVP 

   The NC-Request-Type AVP (AVP Code TBD) is of type Enumerated and 
   contains the reason for sending the NAT-Control-Request command. It 
   shall be present in all NAT-Control-Request messages.  

   The following values are defined: 

 
 
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         INITIAL_REQUEST (1) 

             An Initial Request is used to install binding at the DNCA 
             agent on a successful access session setup. 

         UPDATE_REQUEST (2) 

             An Update Request is used to update bindings previously 
             installed on a given access session, to add new binding on 
             a given access session, or to remove one or several 
             binding(s) activated on a given access session. 

         TERMINATION_REQUEST (3) 

             Termination Request is used to deactivate and remove all 
             bindings previously activated on a given access session. 

         QUERY_REQUEST (4) 

             Query Request is used to query the DNCA agent about the 
             currently installed bindings for an endpoint classifier. 

   7.7.2. NAT-Control-Install AVP 

   The NAT-Control AVP (AVP code TBD) is of type Grouped, and it is 
   used to activate or install NAT bindings. It also contains Max-NAT-
   Bindings that defines maximum number of NAT bindings to be allowed 
   for a subscriber and NAT-Control-Binding-Rule that references 
   predefined policy template on DNCA agent that may contain static 
   bindings, maximum number of bindings to be allowed, address pool 
   from which external binding address should be allocated. 

      

      

     AVP Format: 

     NAT-Control-Install ::= < AVP Header: TBD > 
                           * [ NAT-Control-Definition ]  
                             [ NAT-Control-Binding-Rule ] 
                             [ Max-NAT-Bindings] 
                           * [ AVP ] 

      

      
 
 
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   7.7.3. NAT-Control-Remove AVP 

     The NAT-Control-Remove AVP (AVP code TBD) is of type Grouped, and 
     it is used to deactivate or remove NAT bindings. 

     AVP Format: 

     NAT-Control-Remove ::= < AVP Header: TBD > 
                          * [ NAT-Control-Definition ] 
                            [ NAT-Control-Binding-Rule ] 
                          * [ AVP ]   

   7.7.4. NAT-Control-Definition AVP 

     The NAT-Control-Definition AVP (AVP code TBD) is of type Grouped, 
     and it describes a binding. 

     The NAT-Control-Definition AVP uniquely identifies the binding 
     between the DNCA agent and the DNCA manager.  

     If both the NAT-Internal-Address and NAT-External-Address AVP(s) 
     are supplied, it is a pre-defined binding. 

     AVP Format: 

     NAT-Control-Definition ::= < AVP Header: TBD > 
                              { NAT-Internal-Address } 
                              [ NAT-External-Address ] 
                              [ Session-Id ] 
                            * [ AVP ] 

   7.7.5. NAT-Internal-Address AVP 

     The NAT-Internal-Address AVP (AVP code TBD) is of type Grouped, and 
     it describes the internal IP address and port for a binding. 

     AVP Format: 

     NAT-Internal-Address ::= < AVP Header: TBD > 
                            [ Framed-IP-Address ] 
                              [ Port] 
                            [ AVP ] 

   7.7.6. NAT-External-Address AVP 

     The NAT-External-Address AVP (AVP code TBD) is of type Grouped, and 
     it describes the external IP address and port for a binding. IP-
 
 
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     Address-Mask AVP can only be specified when Framed-IP-Address AVP 
     is present. 

     AVP Format: 

     NAT-External-Address ::= < AVP Header: TBD > 
                            [ Framed-IP-Address ] 
                            [ IP-Address-Mask ]  
                            [ Port ] 
                            [ AVP ] 

   7.7.7. Max-NAT-Bindings 

     The Max-NAT-Bindings AVP (AVP code TBD) is of type Unsigned32, and 
     it indicates the maximum number of NAT bindings allowed. 

   7.7.8. NAT-Control-Binding-Rule 

     The NAT-Control-Binding-Rule AVP (AVP code TBD) is of type is of 
     type OctetString, and it defines a name for a policy template that 
     will be predefined at LSN. Details on the contents and structure of 
     the template as well as how it would be configured are outside the 
     scope of this document. The policy to which this AVP refers to may 
     contain NAT Bindings, address pool for external address allocation 
     of NAT binding, maximum allowed NAT bindings etc.  

   7.7.9. Duplicate-Session-Id AVP 

   The Duplicate-Session-Id AVP (AVP Code TBD) is of is of type 
   UTF8String. It is used to report error and contains the Session-Id of 
   an existing session. 

8. Accounting Commands 

   The Diameter NAT Control Application reuses session based accounting 
   as defined in Diameter Base Protocol [RFC3588] to report the bindings 
   used per endpoint.  This reporting is achieved by sending Diameter 
   Accounting Requests (ACR) [Start, Interim and Stop] from the DNCA 
   agent to DNCA manager.  

   The DNCA agent sends an ACR Start on receiving an NCR with NC-
   Request-Type AVP set to INITIAL_REQUEST received for a session, or on 
   creation of the first binding for a session requested in an earlier 
   NCR. The DNCA may send ACR Interim updates, if required, either due 
   to a change in bindings resulting from an NCR with NC-Request-Type 
   AVP set to UPDATE_REQUEST, or periodically as specified in Acct-
   Interim-Interval by DNCA Manager or when it creates/tears down 
 
 
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   bindings. An ACR Stop is sent by the DNCA agent on receiving an NCR 
   with NC-Request-Type AVP set to TERMINATION_REQUEST. 

   The function of correlating the multiple bindings used by an endpoint 
   at any given time is relegated to the post processor. 

   DNCA agent may trigger an interim accounting record when maximum 
   number of bindings, if received in NCR, is reached. 

8.1. NAT Control Accounting Messages 

   The ACR and ACA messages are reused as defined in Diameter Base 
   Protocol [RFC3588] for exchanging endpoint NAT binding details 
   between the DNCA agent and the CDF. ACR will contain one or more 
   optional NAT-Control-Record AVP to report the bindings. The DNCA 
   agent indicates the number of the currently allocated NAT bindings to 
   the DNCA manager using the Current-NAT-Bindings AVP. This number 
   needs to match the number of bindings identified as active within the 
   NAT-Control-Record AVP.  

8.2. NAT Control Accounting AVPs 

   In addition to AVPs for ACR specified in [RFC3588], the DNCA agent 
   must add the NAT-Control-Record AVP. 

   8.2.1. NAT-Control-Record 

     The NAT-Control-Record AVP (AVP code TBD) is of type Grouped, and 
     it describes a binding and its status. Event-Timestamp indicates 
     the time at which binding was created if NAT-Control-Binding-Status 
     is set to Created, or time at which the binding was removed if NAT-
     Control-Binding-Status is set to removed.  If the NAT-Control-
     Binding-Status is active Event-Timestamp need not be present, if 
     present it indicates that binding is active at the mentioned time. 

     NAT-Control-Record ::= < AVP Header: TBD > 
                            { NAT-Control-Definition } 
                            { NAT-Control-Binding-Status }  
                            [ Event-Timestamp ]             

   8.2.2. NAT-Control-Binding-Status 

   The NAT-Control-Binding-Status AVP (AVP code TBD) is of type 
   enumerated and it describes whether the binding being reported was 
   created or removed or simply indicates that it is active. 

   The following values are defined: 
 
 
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         Created (1) 

             Indicates that NAT binding is created. 

         Active (2) 

             Indicates that NAT binding is active. 

         Removed (3) 

             Indicates that the NAT binding was removed.  

   8.2.3. Current-NAT-Bindings 

     The Current-NAT-Bindings AVP (AVP code TBD) is of type Unsigned32, 
     and it indicates number of NAT bindings active on LSN. 

9. AVP Occurrence Table 

   The following sections presents the AVPs defined in this document and 
   specifies in which Diameter messages they MAY be present. Note that 
   AVPs that can only be present within a Grouped AVP are not   
   represented in this table. 

   The table uses the following symbols: 

         0     The AVP MUST NOT be present in the message. 

         0+    Zero or more instances of the AVP MAY be present in the  
               message. 

         0-1   Zero or one instance of the AVP MAY be present in the  
               message. It is considered an error if there is more than  
               one instance of the AVP. 

         1     One instance of the AVP MUST be present in the message. 

         1+    At least one instance of the AVP MUST be present in the  
               message. 








 
 
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      9.1. DNCA AVP Table for NAT control initial and update requests 

   Following table presents which NAT control application specific AVPs 
   are to be present in NCR/NCA with NC-Request-Type set to 
   INITIAL_REQUEST or UPDATE_REQUEST 

 
                                       +-------------------+ 
                                       |  Command Code     |            
   +-----------------------------------+-------------------+            
   | Attribute Name                        NCR    NCA      |           
   +-------------------------------------------------------+                 
   |NC-Request-Type                         1      1       | 
   |NAT-Control-Install                     0-1    0       |         
   |NAT-Control-Remove                      0-1    0       |         
   |NAT-Control-Definition                  0      0       |                     
   |NAT-Control-Record                      0      0       |                     
   |Current-NAT-Bindings                    0      0       |                     
   |Duplicate-Session-Id                    0      0-1     |                     
   +-------------------------------------------------------+ 

      9.2. DNCA AVP Table for Session Query request 

    Following table presents which NAT control application specific AVPs 
   are to be present in NCR/NCA with NC-Request-Type set to 
   QUERY_REQUEST 

 
                                       +-------------------+ 
                                       |  Command Code     |            
   +-----------------------------------+-------------------+            
   | Attribute Name                        NCR    NCA      |           
   +-------------------------------------------------------+                 
   |NC-Request-Type                         1      1       | 
   |NAT-Control-Install                     0      0       |         
   |NAT-Control-Remove                      0      0       |         
   |NAT-Control-Definition                  0      0+      |                     
   |NAT-Control-Record                      0      0       |                     
   |Current-NAT-Bindings                    0      1       |                     
   |Duplicate-Session-Id                    0      0       |                     
   +-------------------------------------------------------+ 

      9.3. DNCA AVP Table for NAT Control Terminate requests 

   Following table presents which NAT control application specific AVPs 
   are to be present in NCR/NCA with NC-Request-Type set to 
   TERMINATION_REQUEST 
 
 
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                                       +-------------------+ 
                                       |  Command Code     |            
   +-----------------------------------+-------------------+            
   | Attribute Name                        NCR    NCA      |           
   +-------------------------------------------------------+                 
   |NC-Request-Type                         1      1       | 
   |NAT-Control-Install                     0      0       |         
   |NAT-Control-Remove                      0      0       |         
   |NAT-Control-Definition                  0      0       |                     
   |NAT-Control-Record                      0      0       |                     
   |Current-NAT-Bindings                    0      0       |                     
   |Duplicate-Session-Id                    0      0       |                     
   +-------------------------------------------------------+ 

      9.4. DNCA AVP Table for accounting message 

   Following table presents which NAT control application specific AVPs 
   May or May Not be present in ACR/ACA messages. 

 
                                       +-------------------+ 
                                       |  Command Code     |            
   +-----------------------------------+-------------------+            
   | Attribute Name                        ACR    ACA      |           
   +-------------------------------------------------------+                 
   |NC-Request-Type                         0      0       | 
   |NAT-Control-Install                     0      0       |         
   |NAT-Control-Remove                      0      0       |         
   |NAT-Control-Definition                  0      0       |                     
   |NAT-Control-Record                      0+     0       |                     
   |Current-NAT-Bindings                    1      0       |                     
   |Duplicate-Session-Id                    0      0       |                     
   +-------------------------------------------------------+ 

10. IANA Considerations 

   This section contains the namespaces that have either been created in 
   this specification or had their values assigned to existing 
   namespaces managed by IANA. 

10.1. Command Codes 

   IANA is requested to allocate command code values for the following. 

    

 
 
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   Registry: 
   Code Value       Name                          Reference 
   ----------------------------------------------------------- 
   to be assigned   NAT-Control-Request (NCR)     Section 6.1 
   to be assigned   NAT-Control-Answer  (NCA)     Section 6.2 

10.2. AVP Codes 

   IANA is requested to allocate AVP codes for the following AVPs that 
   are defined in this document. 

   Code Value       Name                          Reference 
   ----------------------------------------------------------- 
   TBD              NC-Request-Type               7.7.1 
   TBD              NAT-Control-Install           7.7.2 
   TBD              NAT-Control-Remove            7.7.3 
   TBD              NAT-Control-Definition        7.7.4 
   TBD              NAT-Internal-Address          7.7.5 
   TBD              NAT-External-Address          7.7.6 
   TBD              Max-NAT-Bindings              7.7.7 
   TBD              NAT-Control-Binding-Rule      7.7.8 
   TBD              Duplicate-Session-Id          7.7.9                         
   TBD              NAT-Control-Record            8.2.1 
   TBD              NAT-Control-Binding-Status    8.2.2 
   TBD              Current-NAT-Bindings          8.2.3 

10.3. Application IDs 

   IANA is requested to allocate the following application ID using the 
   next value from the 7-16777215 range. 

   Registry: 
   ID values       Name                             Reference 
   ----------------------------------------------------------- 
   to be assigned  Diameter NAT Control Application Section 4 

11. Security Considerations 

   Similar to what the Diameter QoS application (see [I-D.sun-dqa]) does 
   for authorization of QoS reservations, this document describes 
   procedures for authorizing network address translation related 
   attributes and parameters by an entity which is non-local to the 
   device performing network address translation. The security 
   considerations for the Diameter QoS application (see [I-D.sun-dqa], 
   section 11) apply in a similar way to the DNCA. Securing the 
   information exchange between the authorizing entity (the DNCA 
   manager) as well as the NAT device requires bilateral authentication 
 
 
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   of the involved parties, authorization of the involved parties to 
   perform the required procedures and functions, as well as procedures 
   to ensure integrity and confidentiality of the information exchange. 
   DNCA makes use of the capabilities offered by Diameter as well as the 
   underlying transport protocols to deliver on these requirements (see 
   section 5.1. ). 

   It is assumed that the DNCA agent and DNCA manager are in the same 
   domain and have a mutual trust set up. Authorization between the DNCA 
   agent and DNCA manager is beyond the scope of this document. 

    

12. References 

12.1. Normative References 

   [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate 
             Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 

   [RFC3588] Calhoun, P., Loughney, J., Guttman, E., Zorn, G., and J. 
             Arkko, "Diameter Base Protocol", RFC 3588, September 2003. 

   [I-D.ietf-dime-qos-attributes] J. Korhonen, et al. ''Quality of 
             Service Attributes for Diameter'', draft-ietf-dime-qos-
             attributes-11.txt (work in progress), February 2009 

   [ETSI ES 283 034] Telecommunications and Internet Converged Services 
             and Protocols for Advanced Networks (TISPAN),Network 
             Attachment Sub-System (NASS),e4 interface based on the 
             Diameter protocol. 

12.2. Informative References 

   [RFC4005] Calhoun, P., Zorn, G., Spence, D., and D. Mitton, "Diameter 
             Network Access Server Application", RFC 4005, August 2005. 

   [I-D.nishitani-cgn] Nishitani, T. and S. Miyakawa, "Common Functions 
             of Large Scale NAT (LSN) ", draft-nishitani-cgn-01 (work in 
             progress), November 2008. 

   [I-D.sun-dqa] Sun, D., McCann P., Tschofenig, H., Tsou, T., Doria, 
             A., Zorn, G., ''Diameter Quality of Service Application'', 
             draft-ietf-dime-diameter-qos-07 (work in progress), 
             December 2008. 


 
 
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   [3GPP32299] 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical 
             Specification Group Service and System Aspects; 
             Telecommunication management; Charging management; 
             ''Diameter charging applications'', 3GPP TS 32.299 Version 
             6.3.0. 

   [RFC4675] Congdon, P., Sanchez, M., Aboba, B. ''RADIUS Attributes for 
             Virtual LAN and Priority Support'', September 2006 

    

13. Author's Addresses 

   Frank Brockners 
   Cisco Systems, Inc. 
   Hansaallee 249 
   40549 Duesseldorf  
   Germany  
   Email: fbrockne@cisco.com 
    
   Vaneeta Singh 
   Cisco Systems, Inc. 
   Cessna Business Park, 
   Sarjapura Marathalli Outer Ring Road  
   Bangalore, KARNATAKA 560 087  
   India 
   Email: vansingh@cisco.com 
    
   Shwetha Bhandari 
   Cisco Systems, Inc. 
   Cessna Business Park, 
   Sarjapura Marathalli Outer Ring Road  
   Bangalore, KARNATAKA 560 087  
   India 
   Email: shwethab@cisco.com 
    
 

    

  






 
 
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