1. Call Traffic Monitoring Guide
  2. Oracle Communications Operations Monitor Deployments

2 Oracle Communications Operations Monitor Deployments

The Oracle® Communications Operations Monitor (OCOM) Mediation Engine is a platform that collects SIP, DIAMETER, DNS and ENUM protocol message traffic received from OCOM Probes. You can configure the Oracle® Enterprise Session Border Controller to run an onboard Probe. Probes can also run on COTS hardware collecting packets, for example, from span/monitor ports on Ethernet switches. A Probe takes the protocol packets, prepends a receive timestamp and other information, encapsulates the packets, and passes them to the OCOM mediation engine via a secure connection. After receiving protocol traffic from a Probe, mediation engine stores the traffic in an internal database, and analyzes aggregated data to provide comprehensive multi-level monitoring, troubleshooting, and interoperability information. This traffic can be both IPv4 and IPv6.

In contrast to the Packet-Trace feature, message logging is performed by software, which sends a copy of sent/received messages over UDP, or by saving such messages in a local file. The copy includes a timestamp, port/vlan information, and IP:port information, but all in ASCII format. Message Logging is performed after all decryption, meaning that SIP/TLS traffic cam be monitored. Because remote message logging sends the protocol messages over UDP, there is no guarantee or confirmation of delivery.

The Oracle® Enterprise Session Border Controller provides support for a user-configurable capability that enables the system to function as an OCOM Probe. Acting as a Probe, or as an exporter, the Oracle® Enterprise Session Border Controller can:

  1. Establish an authenticated, persistent, reliable TCP connection between itself and one or more OCOM Mediation Engines.
  2. Optionally ensure message privacy by encrypting the TCP connection using TLS.
  3. Use the TCP connection to send a UTC-timestamped, unencrypted copy of a protocol message to the OCOM Mediation Engine(s).
  4. Accompany the copied message with related data to include: the port/vlan on which the message was sent/received, local and remote IP:port information, and the transport layer protocol.