2 New Features

The S-Cz10.1.0 release of the Oracle Communications Session Border Controller (SBC) software supports new features introduced in the initial release and patches.

New Features in S-Cz10.1.0

The initial S-Cz10.1.0 release of the Oracle Communications Session Border Controller (SBC) software supports the following new features.

Certificate Automation

You can enable the SBC to perform key X.509 certificate related tasks automatically, including certificate renewals. These functions, based on the Certificate Management Protocol (CMP) defined within RFC 4210 and RFC 4211, make the SBC a CMP client, which interacts with a CMP server managed by a Certificate Authority (CA).

This feature requires the Certificate Management Protocol (CMP) entitlement.

See the Certificate Automation topic in the Security chapter of the Configuration Guide for more information.

Hiding Session Updates

You can configure the SBC to simplify call flows by hiding session updates that do not impact the ongoing call flow. Instead of sharing renegotiations with the opposite leg, the SBC responds locally with 200 OK for reINVITE and UPDATE renegotiations. This also ensures that SDP versions and sequence numbers (CSeq) are handled properly.

You configure this on the hsu-policy configuration element on the session-router, then apply hsu-policy to an interface, realm, or session agent.

See the Hiding Session Updates topic in the SIP Signaling Services chapter of the Configuration Guide for more information.

Continuing Calls in Failed REFER Call Transfers when Advanced Media Termination Clients send Music on Hold

In scenarios where Advanced Media Termination clients (such as Microsoft Teams) sending music on hold when referring calls, you can now configure whether the SBC ends the original call automatically when the REFER transfer fails, or lets it continue.

See the Continuing Calls in Failed REFER Call Transfers topic in the SIP Signaling Services chapter of the Configuration Guide for more information.

Custom Diameter ACR AVPs for SIP

When using diameter accounting, you can populate reserved ACR AVPs for SIP calls with SIP headers by using header manipulation rules (HMR). Previously, you could only use HMR with VSAs in RADIUS accounting.

See the Custom Diameter ACR AVPs for SIP topic in the Diameter Accounting chapter of the Accounting Guide for more information.

STIR/SHAKEN Client Updates

The STIR/SHAKEN client has been enhanced as follows:
  • In ATIS deployments, you can configure a list of scenarios for which to bypass STI-AS requests and, optionally, configure a static token to use for bypassed requests.
  • You can reject calls based on the verstat and reasonCode in the STI-VS server response for 200 OK responses in 3GPP deployments. This builds on the existing call rejection functionality.
  • You can configure the following for the STI server heartbeat mechanism:
    • You can now configure the SBC start performing heartbeat checks as soon as the STI server is configured.
    • The heartbeat check can include a dummy identity header.
    • The SBC can verify if the response to the heartbeat check contains valid JSON and specific reason codes before adding the server to the rotation.
  • You can see new statistics for calls that did not trigger STI-AS/VS requests, calls that did but received no response, and calls that bypasses STI-AS/VS.
  • You can monitor CPU usage for the curld process by using the show processes command.

See the STIR/SHAKEN Client chapter of the Configuration Guide for more information about these enhancements.

SAN/CN Validation for TLS SIP Calls

You can now configure the SBC to validate the Subject Alternative Name (SAN) and Common Name (CN) from an incoming TLS certificate against a session agent during the TLS handshake, before SIP data is exchanged, in compliance with RFC 5922, sections 7.3 and 7.4.

See the SAN/CN Validation topic in the Security chapter of the Configuration Guide for more information.

Diameter Manipulation Rule Enhancements

You can now use diameter manipulation rules to copy AVPs at different levels and within different grouped AVPs. Previously, you could only act on AVPs at the same level within the same grouped AVP.

See the Manipulating Grouped AVPs topic in the External Policy Servers chapter of the Configuration Guide for more information.

New Number-Portability-Routing-Information AVP

A new AVP, Number-Portability-Routing-Information (2024), has been introduced. This AVP contains the routing number (rn) received from a mobile number portability (MNP) request and is grouped in the IMS-Information group AVP.

See the Including Number Portability Routing Information in ACRs and CDRs topic in the Diameter Accounting chapter of the Accounting Guide.

CDR Updates for Modem Tone Detection

When modem tone detection is configured and modem tones are detected on a call, the CDR now logs the name, family, and direction of modem tones detected on the call.

See the Accounting for Modem Tone Detection topic in the Transcoding chapter of the Configuration Guide and Accounting Guide for more information.

Real Time Configuration Support for SIPREC

You no longer need to reboot the SBC to apply SIPREC configurations on the session-recording-server configuration element. This helps prevent service disruption when enabling SIPREC on active networks. It is also helpful in HA environments, where you previously had to reboot both standby and active node to apply the configuration.

See the Configuring SIPREC topic in the Selective Call Recording SIPREC chapter of the Call Monitoring Guide for more information about configuring SIPREC.

New Commands for vSBC, vSLB, and PNF Included in show support-info

The show support-info command now includes additional commands to support virtual SBCs, virtual Subscriber-Aware Load Balancers, and PNF platforms.

See the System Support Information for Troubleshooting topic in the Fault Management chapter of the Maintenance and Troubleshooting Guide for a list of all commands included in show support-info.

New Argument for backup-config

You can now use the all argument with the backup-config command to include files for LRT, media playback, fraud protection, SBC Processing Language, and Peak license data (in addition to all other backed up files).

The documentation has also been updated to include the saved argument, and to specify which arguments the standard and non-standard options apply to.

See the backup-config topic in the ACLI Reference Guide for information about the specific directories included in the backup with this new argument.

TLS for Syslog

You can now encrypt syslog messages with TLS as they flow across your network. In syslog-servers configuration element, set the transport-protocol attribute to TLS and set the tls-profile attribute to the name of the TLS profile you want to use.

System Resource Monitoring Enhancements

You can now use the Resource Monitoring feature to monitor utilization for additional resources:
  • Platform-level CPU usage and core memory utilization
  • Application-level CPU usage (for SIPD, MBCD, ATCPD)
  • Application-level file descriptor (FD) usage
  • PAC buffer usage

New statistics, alarms, and MIBs have been added to support these new resources.

See the System Resource Monitoring topic in the System Configuration chapter of the Configuration Guide and the Resource Monitor MIBs section of the Enterprise SNMP GET Requests chapter of the MIB Guide for more information.

New Features in S-Cz10.1.0p1

The S-Cz10.1.0p1 release of the Oracle Communications Session Border Controller (SBC) software supports the following new features.

Generating CDRs when Next Hop for an Egress Realm is a SAG

You can now configure the SBC to check the accounting status of egress realms when the next-hop is a session agent group (SAG) or an LRT that includes only SAGs, ensuring that CDRs are generated when accounting is enabled for the egress realm.

You enable this by adding the force-realm-accounting and generate-cdr-for-sag options.

This change applies to accounting egress-realm resolution only and does not alter routing behavior.

See the Per Realm Accounting Control topic in the Diameter Accounting chapter of Accounting Guide for information.

Session Router on Acme Packet 6400 Platform

You can now deploy Session Router on the Acme Packet 6400 platform.

Note:

Make sure your software image is S-Cz10.1.0p1 or later.

See the Acme Packet 6400 Appendix in the Platform Preparation and Installation Guide for information about deploying on this platform. Also see the Acme Packet 6400 Installation Guide for detailed physical installation information about this hardware platform.

Modem Tone Detection Enhancements

The modem tone detection feature has been enhanced as follows:
  • Support has been added for hairpin calls. Related changes to the default configuration and flow include:
    • The default ptime that the SBC sends in the reINVITE has changed from 10 to 20. This is the ptime expected from both sides for all modem calls.
    • The SBC now adds a=X-SBC-VBD to the mline of the outgoing reINVITE to establish the modem tone session for all modem calls.
  • When the SBC receives a reINVITE or UPDATE when modem tones have already been detected, it no longer rejects it with a 488 response. Now:
    • If the SBC is waiting on a response to a reINVITE to initiate a modem tone session, it responds with 491 Request Pending.
    • If the SBC is not waiting on a response, it passes the reINVITE or UPDATE on transparently.

The Modem Tone Detection topic in the Transcoding chapter of the SBC Configuration Guide has been updated with this information, and new example call flows have been added.

Support for Microsoft Azure Standard_F32s_v2

You can now use the Azure Standard_F32s_v2 instance size for the SBC. This lets you maintain the same performance and capacity as the Standard_F16s_v2 shape while taking advantage of an increased number of vNICs (from 4 to 8) and vCPUs (from 16 to 32).

New Features in S-Cz10.1.0p2

The S-Cz10.1.0p2 release of the Oracle Communications Session Border Controller (SBC) software supports the following new features.

Fax Tone Detection Timer

When configuring your system for fax tone detection, you can now set a tone detection timer in the tone-detection-timeout parameter on the codec-policy. If the system detects fax tones on an audio call before the timer elapses, it can switch to a fax call. Fax tones that arrive after the timer has elapsed are ignored and can no longer trigger Fax negotiation; SIP-signaled T.38 negotiation remains supported.

Because most fax tones occur within the first few minutes of a call, setting a timer allows you to release DSP resources that are no longer needed and avoid disrupting established audio calls with late-coming fax tones or false transitions.

Note:

This parameter applies to fax detection only, not voiceband data (VBD) modem tone detection.

For more information, see FAX Detection in the SBC Configuration Guide.

Support for Session Router on Oracle Communications Server E6-2L

With release S-Cz10.1.0p2, you can deploy Session Router in both session stateful and transaction stateful mode on the Oracle Communications Server E6-2L platform. Oracle recommends using a single CPU for better performance.

Note:

For Oracle Communications Server E6-2L, the Mellanox NIC is only supported for HA/wancom1 and wancom2. It is not supported for media/datapath ports. Use the Intel NIC for media ports.

See SBC Platform Preparation and Installation Guide for information about setting up the platform and installing Session Router on it.

Maintaining Transcoded Media After HA Switchover

In HA deployments, the SBC now uses different SSRC values on the active and standby system for the same transcoded session. This supports endpoints that reject transcoded media if the RTP timestamp or sequence number jumps after switching over to the standby system. Now, after switchover, the endpoint detects the SSRC change, and treats the transcoded media as a new media stream rather than rejecting it.

Note:

The hide-egress-media-update configuration parameter must be disabled to support this.

See the RTP Timestamp Synchronization topic in the High Availability Nodes chapter of SBC Configuration Guide for more information.

Support for HeaderNAT SPL Available on Session Router

The Support for SBC Behind NAT SPL plug-in is now available on both session stateful and transaction stateful Session Router.

The plugin functionality on Session Router is restricted to SIP signaling normalization and topology hiding. It does not add media processing or guarantee media reachability for endpoints behind NAT, and applies IP mapping only to the header, not the SDP body.

You configure the plug-in on Session Router the same way as previously for the SBC, by defining the existing HeaderNatPrivateSipIfIp and HeaderNatPublicSipIfIp options in the spl-options configuration parameters on the sip-interface. These options map the private SIP interface IP to the corresponding public NAT IP used by the HeaderNAT SPL.

See the SBC Deployment Behind a NAT Device topic in the SBC Processing Language (SPL) chapter of SBC Configuration Guide for more information about this plug-in.

Network Announcements using Local Media Playback for 4xx/5xx/6xx Responses

You can now configure the SBC to play network announcements toward the caller using local media files and transcoding resources when the callee responds to the initial INVITE with a 4xx/5xx/6xx error. You map SIP response codes and Q.850 cause codes to playback files, and enable the playback on realms and interfaces.

See the Local Media Playback chapter in SBC Configuration Guide for more information.

New Built-in Variables for HMR

You can now use the following new built-in variables in header manipulation rules (HMR):
  • $SBC_VERSION: The current software version of the SBC.
  • $SBC_PLATFORM: The platform version of the SBC.
  • $SA_HOSTNAME: The hostname of the session agent (SA) associated with the current leg of the call. For an inbound HMR, this is the SA from which the message was received. For an outbound HMR, this is the SA to which the message is being sent.

These let you use version information in SIP headers without having to manually update the values each time you upgrade your system.

See the HMR Components and Configuration Examples topics the in the SBC Header Manipulation Rules Guide for information and an example of using these variables.

Removal of Public Key Authentication for HDR Push Receivers

The use of public key authentication for HDR push receivers, previously introduced in S-Cz10.1p1, has been removed. You can only use password authentication for HDR push receivers.

Corresponding documentation has also been removed from this document, the HDR Guide, ACLI Reference Guide, and Known Issues and Caveats.