MPE devices establish connections with data sources to retrieve information about subscribers from a database. An MPE device queries a data source using a key attribute that uniquely identifies a subscriber and stores the results in its cache. A data source uses this key attribute (for example, the phone or account number of a subscriber) to index the information contained in the database.
The
CMP system supports the following data sources:
- LDAP data source (such as, an external subscriber database)
- Sh data source (such as, the Oracle Communications Subscriber Database Management (SDM), the Oracle Communications User Data Repository (UDR), or Home Subscriber Server (HSS))
- Sy data source (such as, an online charging system (OCS))
You can use a single data source (that is, a redundant database) that holds all subscriber information or you can have the subscriber data distributed across multiple data sources. When using a single data source, you configure the server connection and the query format.
The following scenarios require flexible and efficient management of multiple data sources:
- Server scalability limitations require multiple servers to contain subscriber information.
- One server stores quota information while another server stores subscriber information.
- Information received from the initial subscriber query triggers a lookup for quota information from another repository.
- A network event triggers retrieval of quota information.
To support multiple data sources, the
CMP system defines the following data source roles:
- Primary
- When the MPE device receives a subscriber query, it connects to a primary data source to retrieve information about the subscriber using key information included in the request (for example, MSISDN or IMSI). The MPE device can query primary data sources in a specified order or it can query all primary data sources and merge the results.
- Secondary
- The MPE device uses the information received from the primary data source as a key attribute to retrieve additional information from a secondary data source. After results are retrieved from the primary data source, the secondary search runs. For each primary data source, you can configure the order in which secondary data sources are queried. The secondary searches do not wait for the results from other primary sources before initiating their search.
- On-demand
- The MPE device uses policies to retrieve information on demand from data sources.
Table 1 details the available roles supported by each type of data source. You can create multiple data source definitions to allow access to a server in multiple ways (for example, as both a secondary and an on-demand data source).
Data Source Roles| Type of Data Source |
Supported Data Source Roles |
|---|
| Primary |
Secondary |
On-Demand |
|---|
| LDAP databases |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Sh interface (to SDM, UDR, or HSS) |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Sy interface (to OCS) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
An
MPE device initiates a data lookup to a data source in either of the following scenarios:
- A lookup to a primary data source occurs when the MPE device receives a CCR-I (Credit-Control-Request-Initiate) message from the PGW (PDN Gateway). Additionally, a lookup occurs when the MPE device receives a CCR-U (Credit-Control-Request-Update) message and there is no subscriber information in its cache.
- A lookup to a secondary data source occurs when the MPE device receives information from an associated primary data source. This occurs in response to a message sent by the MPE device to a primary data source or when the MPE device receives an unsolicited update from the primary data source.