PhD Work: Signaling Issues in IMS

PhD Student: Sougata Pal

Phd Advisors: Dr. Anna Sfairopoulou
Dr. Miquel Oliver
Dr. Johan Zuidweg

Contents

Some Prior Words:

IMS, OpenIMSCore , IMS Bench SIPp

Work Done Till Now :

OpenIMSCore live and functional.
Test Bed being made with 2 nodes with OpenIMSCore and
IMS Bench SIPp running on individual nodes.

Test Bed Setup

Formulated Changes inside IMS Core- Issues to Discuss

Questions

Some prior words..

Nothing is absolute,with the debatable exceptions of this

statement and death... By John Ralston Saul(Canadian
Author)
Post 2000, the one of the most critically analyzed and
upgraded network architecture IMS, yet with an uncertain
future.

3GPP Rel 10 already has arrived , work going on Rel 11

Various kinds of new services being offered based on IMS

Still yet to deployed on massive scale.

What is IMS ?

OpenIMSCore.. Some words

Open Source Implementation of IMS Call Session

Control Functions (CSCF's) and light weight Home
Subscriber Server(HSS).
FOKUS product, perhaps the only open test bed to
start work on IMS.
CSCF's (P/I/S) all based upon Sip Express
Router(SER)

HSS based upon MySQL

FOKUS has also one Traffic Generator-SIPNuKe

Graphical Presentation of
OpenIMSCore..

OpenIMSCore set-up details..

Users Jelena and Trang.. ;) (Enough of Bob and Alice)

Each user has it's own private and public identity

Trang IMPI- Trang@open-ims.sougata

IMPU- sip:Trang@open-ims.sougata

SIP Ports: 4060(P),5060(I),6060(S)

DIAMETER Ports: 3868(HSS),3869(I),3870(S)

Separate DNS working for this tests

./pcscf.sh,./icscf.sh,./scscf.sh,./startup.sh running the 4

elements P/I/S-CSCF , HSS

IMS Bench SIPp

Performance Testing and Benchmark specification tool-set

according to IMS/NGN Performance Benchmark Specification
ETSI TS 186 008
Open Source Implementation just like OpenIMSCore with
continuous development.
IMS Bench SIPp based on the already established Traffic
Generator SIPp.
Presently supports only 5 scenarios: Reg,Re-Reg,DeReg,Successful Call, Successful Messaging.
Though still not fully compliant with real life situation yet it
gives an idea of how can an IMS Core perform in various
different situations.

Test Bed set-up..

OpenIMSCore running at my Desktop(10.80.4.244), which

is also the System Under Test (SUT)
IMS Bench SIPp running on another node (10.80.4.245).
IMS Bench SIPp comprises of Manager, one or more load
generators(TS1,TS2), one or more system monitoring
agents for CPU.

All are logically present in this second Desktop node.

TS1 and TS2 generating 50,000 users traffic each.

HSS database being updated with 1,00,000 users.

Initial Work with OpenIMSCore

Initial work started with our 2 users Jelena and Trang.

Getting them properly registered and making both way calls
between them.
Wire-shark traces will show to what extent signaling is being
exchanged between the various Proxy servers and the
HSS.
This huge number of signaling messages are just between
2 users..
Just imagine the same picture with 1,00,000 users..:((

Registration in IMS
I-CSCF sends a Diameter User Authentication
Request (UAR) to the Home Subscriber
Server (HSS) which authorizes the user and responds
with a Diameter User Authentication Answer (UAA)

UE

P-CSCF
1. Register

User Equipment (UE) sends

SIP REGISTER request
to Proxy-Call Session
Control Function (P-CSCF)

10. 401 Unauthorized

11. Register
UE responds with the answer
to the challenge question in a
new SIP REGISTER request

20. 200 OK

I-CSCF
2. Register
P-CSCF forwards the
SIP REGISTER request to
the Interrogating-Call Session
Control Function (I-CSCF)

9. 401 Unauthorized

3. Diameter UAR
4. Diameter UAA
5. Register

I-CSCF forwards the SIP

REGISTER request to the Serving-C
Session Control Function (S-CSC

6. Diameter MAR
7. Diameter MAA
8. 401 Unauthorized

12. Register

13. Diameter UAR

14. Diameter UAA
S-CSCF creates a SIP
401 Unauthorized response 15. Register
with challenge question that
UE must answer

19. 200 OK

S-CSCF

HSS

S-CSCF sends a Diameter Multimedia Authen

Request (MAR) message to the HSS for down
user authentication data and the HSS respon
a Diameter Multimedia Authentication Answe

16. Diameter SAR

17. Diameter SAA
18. 200 OK

If authentication is successful, the S-CSCF sends

a Diameter Server Assignment Request (SAR)
and the HSS responds with a
Diameter Server Assignment Answer (SAA)

S-CSCF sends a 200 OK

message to inform the UE
of successful registration

IMS Registration..Continues
UE

P-CSCF

I-CSCF

HSS

S-CSCF

21. Subscribe
22. 200 OK

UE sends a reg event

SUBSCRIBE request to the P-CSCF
which proxies it to the S-CSCF

23. Notify
24. 200 OK

25. Subscribe
S-CSCF sends a 200 OK after
accepting the reg event subscription

26. Subscribe

S-CSCF sends a NOTIFY

request containing registration
information in XML format

27. 200 OK

28. 200 OK

29. Notify
30. Notify
UE finishes subscription to the reg event
state by sending a 200 OK message

31. 200 OK
32. 200 OK

Our Proposed Thought..

Our proposed idea is to completely reduce 1 important

element in the core IMS part and try to reduce signaling load
which is getting generated to some extent.
Rather than deleting signaling interface , why not try to
reduce the number of exchanged signaling messages?
Amongst all the elements present in IMS Core, I-CSCF is the
least important in comparison to the others.
Mandatory for all the signaling messages to pass through
P/S-CSCF but not for I-CSCF
I-CSCF is just working as a gatekeeper for entering in the
home domain

Idea Continues..

Include a cache memory at P-CSCF

Completely remove I-CSCF, keeping just the P/S-CSCF

P-CSCF queries the DNS to get the location of S-CSCF

When the first registration gets challenged, P-CSCF directly

send the new registration message to the S-CSCF/HSS
Cache memory gets updated after a specific period of time
Session Border Controller already existing as a gatekeeper
while signaling messages pass through from one domain to
another

A Complete Call flow in IMS

Calling Party Home Network

UE-1
1.

P-CSCF

SIP INVITE
SIP 100 TRYING

2.

3.

Called Party Home Network

S-CSCF

DNS

HSS

I-CSCF

DNS Query: (URI)

DNS Response: I-CSCF

for CALLED (IP Addr)
SIP INVITE

Cx Location Query
(Get CALLED IP)

SIP 200 OK
(PRACK)
SIP 180 Ringing
36

SIP 200 OK (INVITE)

54

61

19

35

53

SIP 200 OK (INVITE)

55

SIP 183 Session Progress

20

28

SIP 180 Ringing

38

46
52

SIP 200 OK (INVITE)

56

SIP ACK

SIP 200 OK
(PRACK)

27
33

SIP 180
Ringing

22

32

39 SIP PRACK
SIP 200 OK
(PRACK)

45
51

SIP 200 OK
(INVITE)

57

SIP ACK

SIP 180 Ringing

40

SIP 200 OK
(PRACK)

44
50

SIP 200 OK (INVITE)

58

SIP ACK

23

31

SIP 180 Ringing

41

49

30

42

48
SIP 20 0 OK (INVI TE)
59

SIP ACK

24

SIP PRACK
SIP 20 0 OK
(PRAC K)

43

12

SIP PRACK
SIP 20 0 OK
(PRAC K)

25

SIP PRACK

SIP INVITE
SIP 183 Session
Progress

13

SIP PRACK
SIP 200 OK
(PRACK)

26

11

SIP INVITE
SIP 183
Session
Progress

14

21 SIP PRACK

SIP PRACK
SIP 200 OK (PRACK)

10

SIP INVITE
SIP 183
Session
Progress

15

SIP PRACK
SIP 200 OK (PRACK)

34

SIP PRACK
SIP 200 OK
(PRACK)

47

SIP ACK
60

SIP ACK

BEARER
62

SIP BYE
SIP 200 OK (BYE)

SIP 18 0 Rin ging

37

16

SIP PRACK
SIP 200 OK
(PRACK)

29

SIP PRACK
SIP 200 OK
(PRACK)

SIP 1 83
Sess ion
Prog ress

17

SIP PRACK

UE-2

Cx Location
Response: S-CSCF
(CALLED IP)
9

18

P-CSCF

SIP INVITE
Evaluate Filter Critera

SIP 183 Session

Progress

S-CSCF

72

63

SIP BYE

SIP 200 OK (BYE)

Figure A: SIP UE to SIP UE

71

64

SIP BYE
SIP 200 OK (BYE)

70

65

SIP BYE

SIP 200 OK
(BYE)

69

66

SIP BYE

SIP 200 OK (BYE)

68

SIP BY E

SIP 200 OK (BYE)

67

Future Work

Bit more tests with IMS Bench SIPp traffic generator to find
the signaling load analysis.
We need to prepare some advanced test beds where we
can simulate an entire new IMS Core architecture
Collaborations with other research groups in this field will be
extremely helpful.
NGN Lab at Slovak Institute of Tech ,TNO Netherlands ,
Orange Labs etc..

Conclusion

Thank You!!! Hope have not made too

much boring ....
QUESTIONS??
sougata.pal@upf.edu