SRC Server Components

The SRC server components are:

Service Activation Engine

The Service Activation Engine (SAE) is the core manager of an SRC network. It interacts with other systems, such as Juniper Networks routers, CMTS devices, directories, Web application servers, and RADIUS servers to retrieve and disseminate data in the SRC environment. The SAE authorizes, activates and deactivates, and tracks sessions during which a subscriber is logged in to the network and during which a service is active. The SAE can track more than one service session for a subscriber at a time.

Policy and Service Management

The SAE makes decisions about the deployment of policies on routers running JunosE or Junos OS. When a subscriber’s IP interface comes up on the router, the SAE determines whether it manages the interface. If the interface is managed—or controlled by—the SAE, the SAE sends the subscriber’s default policy configuration to the router. These default policies define the subscriber’s initial network access. When the subscriber activates an SAE service (a service that supplements a subscriber's standard services), the SAE translates the service into lists of policies and sends them to the router. This process lets subscribers manage their own subscriptions, typically through a Web page.

Accounting Support

The SAE also collects usage information about subscribers and services and passes the information to the appropriate rating and billing system. The SRC software allows a variety of accounting deployments, and provides a standard deployment that incorporates a RADIUS server. You can also create deployments that do not require a RADIUS server.

SAE Extensions

The SAE provides plug-ins and APIs that extend the capabilities of the SRC software. Plug-ins are software programs that augment existing programs and make them more flexible. SRC plug-ins provide authentication, authorization, and tracking capabilities. The SAE APIs let you create customized programs to integrate with the SAE.

Subscriber Information Collector

The subscriber information collector (SIC) is used in conjunction with the MX Series Ethernet Services Router running the packet-triggered subscribers and policy control (PTSP) solution. The SIC listens for RADIUS accounting events from IP edge devices (accounting clients), and filters undesired events based on attachment session attributes, providing the SRC software with increased subscriber awareness.

The major components of the SIC are:

Accounting listeners, which are configured with port numbers and parameters controlling receipt of UDP packets.
A collection of RADIUS dictionaries.
A collection of network access server (NAS) clients.
A collection of RADIUS accounting targets.
A collection of routing rules.
A collection of RADIUS network elements. A RADIUS network element contains an ordered list of RADIUS accounting clients, targets or both, along with a failover policy for targets.
A collection of accounting methods including storing accounting events in the session state registrar (SSR) database or forwarding them to a downstream AAA server (network element).
Components supporting SNMP, statistics, and event logging.

Volume Tracking Application

The SRC Volume Tracking Application (SRC VTA) allows service providers to track and control the network usage of subscribers and services. You can control volume and time usage on a per-subscriber or per-service basis. This level of control means that service providers can offer tiered services that use volume as a metric, while also controlling abusive subscribers and applications.

When a subscriber or service exceeds bandwidth limits (or quotas), the SRC VTA can take actions including imposing rate limits on traffic, sending an e-mail notification, or charging extra for additional bandwidth consumed.

3GPP Gateway

The SRC Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) gateway is a Diameter-based component in the SRC software, which provides integration with 3GPP Policy and Charging Control environments, to provide fixed-mobile convergence (FMC). The SRC 3GPP gateway provides Gx-based integration with the Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF). The SRC 3GPP gateway uses the Gx interface to mediate between the PCRF and Juniper Networks routers like the E Series Broadband Services routers and MX Series routers. The Gx interface on the SRC 3GPP gateway communicates with the PCRF using the Diameter protocol.

Web Application Server

The SRC software on a C Series Controller includes a Web application server that hosts the Dynamic Service Activator and the Volume Tracking Application (SRC VTA). In production environments, this application server is designed to host only these applications. However, you can load your own applications into this server for testing or demonstration purposes. You can control access to applications deployed in the Web application server by configuring virtual hosts. A virtual host contains aliases and lists of the clients that are allowed to access the virtual host.

Web Services Gateway

The Web Services Gateway allows a gateway client—an application that is not part of the SRC network—to interact with SRC components through a SOAP interface. This feature is useful for business-to-business situations, such as a wholesaler-retailer environment. Typically, the wholesaler owns and administers the SRC components, and the retailer maintains a database of subscribers. Retailers purchase services from one or more wholesalers and sell the services to their subscribers. Using information provided by the wholesaler, the retailer creates a gateway client to communicate with the components in the SRC software.

The Web Services Gateway provides the Dynamic Service Activator, which allows a gateway client to dynamically activate and deactivate SRC services for subscribers and to run scripts that manage the SAE.

Juniper Policy Server

The Juniper policy Server (JPS) is a PCMM-compliant policy server. In a PCMM environment, the policy server acts as a policy decision point (PDP) and policy enforcement point (PEP) that manages the relationships between application managers and cable management termination system (CMTS) devices.

Network Information Collector

The Network Information Collector (NIC) is the component that locates which SAE manages a subscriber or an interface. The NIC uses information that identifies the subscriber or the interface to identify the managing SAE. The NIC collects information about the state of the network and can provide mappings from a given type of network data, known as a key, to another type of network data, known as a value.

For services to be activated for a subscriber session, applications such as the SRC VTA, Dynamic Service Activator, Enterprise Manager Portal, or a residential portal need to locate the SAE that manages the subscriber. An application such as the SRC TMP needs to locate the SAE that manages interfaces through which traffic destined for a specified IP address enters the network. The NIC component includes a Web administration application to monitor and inspect the state of NIC servers. Other SRC components such as an enterprise service portal and the sample residential portal use NIC.

Table 5 shows the NIC resolutions that the standard SRC software can perform. For customized NIC implementations that provide other resolutions, contact Juniper Networks Professional Services.

Table 5: Available NIC Resolutions

Key	Value
Accounting ID of a subscriber	SAE reference
Enterprise’s distinguished name (DN)	SAE reference
Subscriber’s IP address	Subscriber’s login name
Subscriber’s IP address	Accounting ID
Subscriber’s IP address for situations in which the SAE manages the subscriber	SAE reference
Subscriber’s IP address for situations in which the SAE manages the interface that the subscriber uses, but not the subscriber	SAE reference
Subscriber’s login name	SAE reference
Subscriber’s primary username	SAE reference

The NIC comprises a set of software components that work together to collect, process, and provide data.

Redirect Server

The redirect server redirects filtered HTTP requests to a captive portal page. The redirect server examines requested paths and detects proxy HTTP requests. If the requested URL is served by the captive portal server, the redirect server opens a TCP connection to the captive portal and directs traffic to the captive portal rather than to the requested URL.