GL Communications Inc. has announced it has enhanced its MAPS Diameter protocol emulator to support Gy and Ro Interfaces.
Jagdish Vadalia, a senior manager of product development at the company said, “Within LTE-IMS network, MAPS Diameter can now simulate S6a, S6d, Cx/Dx, Gx, and Rx interfaces to test LTE-IMS network elements such as the MME (Mobility Management Entity), HSS (Home Subscriber Server), CSCF (Call Session Control Function), SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node), PDN GW (Packet Data Network Gateway), AF (Application Function) , PCRF (Policy and Charging Rules Function), CTF (Charging trigger Function), and OCS (Online Charging System). Recently MAPS Diameter has been enhanced to support simulation of Gy and Ro interfaces in addition to existing interfaces. The simulation of other interfaces (Rf, Dh, Gq, Zh, Zn, Wa, Wd, Wx, Wm, Wg, Pr) and elements will also be supported in near future.”
He added, “The MAPS Diameter gives the users the unlimited ability to edit signaling messages to support various procedures. It supports both SCTP (Stream Control Transmission) and TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) transport protocol layers for PSTN signaling messages over IP networks. MAPS Diameter also supports an End-to-End 4G LTE Communications Network Lab with all components to simulate both E-UTRAN and EPC (Evolved Packet Core), allowing complete testing of the LTE-IMS network.”
Vadaila further explained, “Both Gy and Ro interfaces define procedures for online charging in IMS and LTE networks. Ro interface is between IMS entity (CSCF) and Online Charging System (OCS), and Gy interface is between the PCEF (for example, PDN GW) and the OCS.
The PCEF node in LTE network and the CSCF node in IMS network perform the role of a CTF entity issuing charging events to an OCS. The charging events can be immediate (IEC), event-based (ECUR), or session-based (SCUR). An OCS, is a functional architecture that provides support for all three levels (service level, subsystem level, and bearer level) of online charging.
