New Features

Welcome to Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper™ 4.1. As the leading Telecom Service Access Gateway, Gatekeeper integrates telecom network technologies with SOAP Web Services, RESTful Web Services and SOA to provide a reliable framework for developing and deploying highly available, scalable, and secure telecommunications applications and features. Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper's seamless integration of disparate, heterogeneous platforms and applications enables your network to leverage existing software investments and share the carrier-class services and data that are crucial to building next-generation telecommunication applications.

This chapter describes at a high level what new features in Gatekeeper have been created to support the ongoing evolution of the platform.

Evolving the Platform

Versions 3.0 and 4.0 marked a substantial change to the basic architecture of Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper. Version 4.1 builds on that change, preparing the way for future developments.

Built on WebLogic Server 10.3

In version 4.1, Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper has been moved to Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3. This has multiple benefits for the Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper platform, including:

Improved scalability and performance
An improved Administration Console with a new look and feel, on-demand deployment capability, performance enhancements, improved accessibility, and improved browser support
Support for HTTP Publish-Subscribe Server
Support for Sun JDK 1.6

Tight Integration with Oracle Communications Converged Application Server for SIP Connectivity

Oracle Communications Converged Application Server (previously WebLogic SIP Server) is now co-located with Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper. This offers several benefits:

Performance: For Service Enablers using the SIP protocol, co-location provides significant performance enhancements.
Simplified configuration: Because the Converged Application Server is pre-integrated and co-located with Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper’s Network Tier servers, there is no longer a need for a multi-domain setup and the configuration of integration software. The Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper’s installer automatically installs the software and the Configuration Wizard handles the domain setup and deployment.
Single console: A single Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper Administration Console can be used to control and configure both Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper and the Converged Application Server.
Integrated servlet: Tight integration means that the SIP servlet is now encapsulated in the communication service plug-in.

Note:

All out-of-the-box Service Enablers that provide SIP connectivity have been updated to use the new deployment model.

For more information on the Converged Application Server in the context of Oracle Communications Converged Application Server, see the System Administrator’s Guide, another document in this set.

Pre-integrated with Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management

Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper integrates with Oracle Communication Billing and Revenue Management (OCBRM) for billing. Using DIAMETER, Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper integrates with the billing platform using a set of three integration points.

The Parlay X 2.1 Payment/DIAMETER communication service allows applications to reserve funds from subscriber accounts and charge them directly on-line using the DIAMETER Ro interface. Pre-integration with Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management is provided, although any billing system that supports DIAMETER Ro can be used.
Any request flowing through Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper can be subject to credit control checks. Using criteria based both on the request data and other configurable data, these interceptors pass requests to the billing server using the DIAMETER Ro interface. The billing server verifies that the subscriber or application has enough credit to allow the request. Credit control checks can be performed both for application-initiated and network-triggered requests. All, or a configurable subset of the requests, can be subject to these credit control checks. Pre-integration with Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management is provided, although any billing system that supports DIAMETER Ro can be used.
Offline billing is supported using the CDR to Diameter Service. Charging Data Records (CDRs) generated by Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper are passed on to the billing server using the DIAMETER Rf interface. Pre-integration with Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management is provided, although any billing system that supports DIAMETER Rf can be used.

For more information on Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management, see the E-Delivery site: http://edelivery.oracle.com/. A password is required.

Enhanced SLA Structure and Enforcement

Significant changes have been made to increase the flexibility and utility of SLA definition, enforcement, and provisioning.

Service Types

A new enforcement category, Service Type, has been introduced. In previous versions, request rates and quotas could be defined and enforced only on the method level, which offered great flexibility, but sometimes made SLA structures unnecessarily complex. Using service types, the service contract can be defined at a less granular level, when that is appropriate for the use case. A service type groups a set of Service Enablers based on functionality. For example, the Service Enablers for both Parlay X 2.1 and 3.0 Third Party Call are grouped into the service type ThirdPartyCall.

SLA Types

SLAs are now divided into two large groups: system SLAs and custom SLAs. System SLAs are those that cover commonly found aspects of Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper contractual relationships. Custom SLAs are used to add enforcement mechanisms not covered by the system SLA types.

Custom SLAs can be created to cover a variety of operator use cases. Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper provides the infrastructure to define, enforce and provision custom SLAs while the XSD and enforcement of the SLA are controlled by the operator. The enforcement logic has access to the data in the request being enforced, the data in the SLA, and other related data about the request, such as the application ID and service provider ID. Once the enforcement logic is deployed and the XSD for the custom SLA is loaded, an SLA type for the SLA is defined and these SLAs can be provisioned just like system SLAs.

SLAs for Geo-Redundancy

With version 4.1, Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper allows geo-redundant site pairs to share a broad range of configuration data between sites as well as the budget information supported in version 4.0. Previously an element in the SLA, <enforceAcrossSites>, indicated that included information was to be synchronized across sites. Now separate SLA types exist to separate data that should be geo-synchronized from data that needs to be local to a particular site.

Provisioning

SLA provisioning has been simplified with new management methods. Instead of having individual methods for the management of each SLA type, the type is simply passed in as a parameter. Also new interfaces supporting this change have been added to the operator interface offered by the Partner Relationship Management module, allowing PRM to make changes that can be propagated throughout the domain, or, in the case of a geo-redundancy, across site pairs.

New Service Facades for Exposure

Version 4.0 of Services Gatekeeper provided service providers and applications access using standards-based SOAP Web Services. Version 4.1 adds additional modes of access, and introduces the concept of Service Facades. A Service Facade defines the type of access that an application uses to interact with Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper. These facades include:

Traditional SOAP-based Web Services. Version 4.1 supports all of the interfaces offered in 4.0 and adds a Parlay X 3.0 Payment interface, a Parlay X 2. 1 Presence Supplier interface, and a mobile-originated Binary SMS Extended Web Services functionality.
RESTful Web Services. Applications can now access the capabilities of communication services through RESTful APIs. These APIs can be used to smoothly integrate telecommunication features into Web 2.0 Rich Internet Application environments.
Native protocols. Many carriers already have an ecosystem of existing applications that use traditional network protocols. For these operators Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper offers MM7 and SMPP Native interfaces. Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper, acting as a server, exposes these native interfaces to applications, and then, acting as an application, passes the requests on to the network element. This model allows these applications to continue to exist unchanged while allowing the operator to leverage the system-level features offered by Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper, including the generation of CDRs, EDRs, and alarms, the enforcement of SLAs and so forth.
SOA. From the point of view of the application, the SOA facade exposes the same interfaces as the SOAP based Web Service facade. But these interfaces are exposed using the Oracle Service Bus, allowing the operator to access the additional functionality of SOA. Operators can, among other things, use OSB to define routing logic and parameter substitution, smoothly integrating Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper into the operator’s SOA environment. The SOA service facades are deployed in Oracle Service Bus (OSB) itself, which replaces the Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper Access Tier. for more information on Oracle Service Bus, see http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E13159_01/osb/docs10gr3/index.html

Any combination of Service Facades may be deployed in a standard Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper deployment.

For more information on service facades, see “Developing Applications” in Concepts and Architectural Overview, a separate document in this set.

Enhanced Plug-in Routing

Earlier versions of Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper made routing decisions based exclusively on the destination address. This version allows routing decisions to be made on multiple characteristics including:

The Service Provider ID and the Application ID
The method being invoked
Any parameter, or combination of parameters, in the request
Tunneled parameters

The data is filtered by routing logic, using combinations of logical AND, OR, and NOT operations. The routing logic is expressed in XML, and is specified per plug-in instance.

Robust Tier Routing

The Tier Routing Manager operates on network-triggered requests and routes these request to the appropriate service facade type. For more information on the Tier Routing Manager, see “Managing and Configuring the Tier Routing Manager” in System Adminstrator’s Guide, a separate document in this set.

PRM

PRM has been updated to use the new SLA provisioning methods. For more information, see “Operator Service” in Integration Guidelines For Partner Relationship Management, a separate document in this set.

New Domain Templates

New and Updated Communication Services

Parlay X 3.0 Payment/DIAMETER

A Parlay X 3.0 Payment communication service that connects to DIAMETER has been added to support online charging.

Parlay X 2.1 Presence/SIP

The Parlay X 2.1 Presence/SIP communication service has added Presence Supplier functionality as well as the Presence Consumer functionality of version 4.0

Native SMPP

To support existing SMPP-based applications in the operator’s eco-system, a native SMPP communication service has been added. Towards the application it acts as a server and towards the network it acts as an application.

Native MM7

To support existing MM7-based applications in the operator’s ecosystem, a native MM7 communication service has been added. Towards the application it acts as a server and towards the network it acts as an application.

Extended Web Services Binary SMS

Extended Web Services Binary SMS/SMPP has been enhanced with support for network-triggered, mobile originated, SMS.

RESTful Interfaces

Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper’s communication services can now be accessed using RESTful APIs.

Platform Development Studio

SOAP-to-SOAP communication services can be generated through the Administration Console
General communication service development has been streamlined and enhanced
The Platform Test Environment now has a budget monitor, which is capable of graphing real-time budget usage
Templates for the automatic generation of skeletons and stubs for SIP-type communication services have been added
RESTful Web Services facades can be generated in addition to SOAP Web Services facades

Supported Interfaces

Gatekeeper 4.1 has support for a number of application-facing interfaces. The following communication services (application-facing interfaces with related network plugins) are included in this release, including three call control services built on the Parlay X 3.0 standards, which allow multiple functionalities to interact within the same call session. They include:

Parlay X 3.0 Audio Call connecting to Parlay 3.3
Parlay X 3.0 Third Party Call connecting to Parlay 3.3
Parlay X 3.0 Call Notification connecting to Parlay 3.3
Parlay X 2.1 Third Party Call connecting to INAP and SIP
Parlay X 2.1 Call Notification connecting to SIP
Parlay X 2.1 SMS connecting to SMPP 3.4
Extended Web Services Binary SMS connecting to SMPP 3.4
Parlay X 2.1 MMS connecting to MM7 v 5.5.0
Parlay X 3.0 Payment connecting to DIAMETER
Parlay X 2.1 Terminal Location connecting to MLP3.0/3.2
Parlay X 2.1 Presence connecting to SIP
Extended Web Services WAP Push connecting to PAP 2.0
Extended Web Services Subscriber Profile connecting to LDAPv3
SMPP 3.4 connecting to SMPP 3.4
MM7 v 5.3.0 connecting to MM7 v 5.3.0
RESTful Third Party Call connecting to SIP
RESTful Call Notification connecting to SIP
RESTful SMS connecting to SMPP 3.4
RESTful MMS connecting to MM7 v 5.5.0
RESTful Payment connecting to DIAMETER
RESTful Terminal Location connecting to MLP3.0/3.2
RESTful Presence connecting to SIP
RESTful WAP Push connecting to PAP 2.0
RESTful Subscriber Profile connecting to LDAPv3

Supported Configurations

The supported configurations have not changed since Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper 4.0. For a complete listing, see the Technical Specifications chapter in the Installation Guide.

Release Notes