This document provides a high-level account of WebLogic Network Gatekeeper, its structure and capabilities, consisting of:
an overview of how it works and what benefits it provides
an explanation of the interfaces it offers third-party application developers, including a description of the tools it furnishes for development and testing
a summary view of its internals, including:
service capabilities
OAM mechanisms
policy enforcement
security
billing capabilities
integration with PRM/CRMs and OSS tools
product extensibility
a description of supported hardware architecture and components
a description of software architecture
The document will be of use to third-party application developers who wish to integrate telephony-based functionality into their products and operator-based system developers who wish to extend the functionality of the WebLogic Network Gatekeeper or to integrate it with PRM and/or OSS tools. It will also be of use to system administrators charged with installing and maintaining WebLogic Network Gatekeeper. Managers, support engineers, and sales and marketing people will also find information of value here.
Managing Network Gatekeeper: OAM.The Network Gatekeeper’s application management tool and the main Operation, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) tasks. Integrating with OSS
Charging and Billing Integration. Supported charging types. Integrating WebLogic Network Gatekeeper’s internal charging mechanism with external billing and settlement systems
Service Extensibility. Extending WebLogic Network Gatekeeper by creating modules to support additional application service providers and/or network connectivity interfaces
Standards and Specifications. Detailed description of the standards and specifications supported by Network Gatekeeper’s application-facing interfaces, network facing protocols, and security mechanisms
Terminology
The following terms and acronyms are used in this document:
Account—A registered application or service provider. An account belongs to an account group, which is tied to a common SLA
Account group—Multiple registered service providers or services which share a common SLA
Administrative User—Someone who has privileges on the Network Gatekeeper management tool. This person has an administrative user name and password
Alarm—The result of an unexpected event in the system, often requiring corrective action
API—Application Programming Interface
Application—A TCP/IP based, telecom-enabled program accessed from either a telephony terminal or a computer
Application Service Provider—An organization offering application services to end users through a telephony network
AS—Application Server
Application Instance—An Application Service Provider from the perspective of internal Network Gatekeeper administration. An Application Instance has a user name and password
CBC—Content Based Charging
End User—The ultimate consumer of the services that an application provides. An end user can be the same as the network subscriber, as in the case of a prepaid service or they can be a non-subscriber, as in the case of an automated mail-ordering application where the subscriber is the mail-order company and the end user is a customer to this company
Enterprise Operator —See Service Provider
Event—A traceable, expected occurrence in the system, of interest to the operator
HA —High Availability
HTML—Hypertext Markup Language
IP—Internet Protocol
JDBC—Java Database Connectivity, the Java API for database access
Location Uncertainty Shape—A geometric shape surrounding a base point specified in terms of latitude and longitude. It is used in terminal location
MAP—Mobile Application Part
Mated Pair—Two physically distributed installations of WebLogic Network Gatekeeper nodes sharing a subset of data allowing for high availability between the nodes
MM7—A multimedia messaging protocol specified by 3GPP
Network Plug-in—The WebLogic Network Gatekeeper module that implements the interface to a network node or OSA/Parlay SCS through a specific protocol
NS—Network Simulator
OAM —Operation, Administration, and Maintenance
Operator—The party that manages the Network Gatekeeper. Usually the network operator
OSA—Open Service Access
PAP—Push Access Protocol
Plug-in—See Network Plug-in
Plug-in Manager—The Network Gatekeeper module charged with routing an application-initiated request to the appropriate network plug-in
Presence Information—A status indicator that conveys the accessibility and the willingness of a potential communication partner.
Presentity—A supplier of presence information.
Quotas—Access rule based on an aggregated number of invocations. See also Rates
Rates—Access rule based on allowable invocations per time period. See also Quotas
SCF—Service Capability Function or Service Control Function, in the OSA/Parlay sense.
SCS—Service Capability Server, in the OSA/Parlay sense. WebLogic Network Gatekeeper can interact with these on its network-facing interface
Service Capability—Support for a specific kind of traffic within WebLogic Network Gatekeeper. Defined in terms of communication services
Service Provider—See Application Service Provider
SIP—Session Initiation Protocol
SLA—Service Level Agreement
SMPP—Short Message Peer-to-Peer Protocol
SMS—Short Message Service
SMSC—Short Message Service Centre
SNMP—Simple Network Management Protocol
SOAP—Simple Object Access Protocol
SS7—Signalling System 7
Subscriber—A person or organization that signs up for access to an application. The subscriber is charged for the application service usage. See End User
SQL—Structured Query Language
TCP—Transmission Control Protocol
Communication Service—The data flow of a particular request through WebLogic Network Gatekeeper. Different Service Capabilities use different communication services
USSD—Unstructured Supplementary Service Data
VAS—Value Added Service
VLAN—Virtual Local Area Network
VPN—Virtual Private Network
Watcher—A consumer of presence information
WSDL —Web Services Definition Language
XML—Extended Markup Language
Related Documentation
This architectural overview is a part of the WebLogic Network Gatekeeper documentation set. The other documents include:
