Table E-1 Glossary of Terms
Access Control List (ACL)
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Permits or denies incoming connections on any of the management interfaces. It is an ordered list of entries, each consisting of an IP address and an optional wildcard "mask" defining an IP address range, and a permit/deny field.
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Active Subscriber
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An online subscriber who is actually generating IP traffic.
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Anonymous subscriber ID
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The SCE device assigns each unknown subscriber IP address with a temporary subscriber ID until it receives the real Subscriber ID from the Policy Server. This occurs in a Pull Model integration in the Subscriber Manager.
For more information on the Pull Model integration, see the Cisco SCMS SCE Subscriber API Programmer Guide.
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Anonymous subscriber mode
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A mode of the Service Control solution in which the system monitors traffic and automatically assigns a Service Configuration based on to the individual's IP address used on its subscriber-side. This mode can be used to control a subscriber's traffic anonymously, without integrating the system with an OSS system. In this mode, the subscribers defined in the system are anonymous and are distinguished only by their IP address or VLAN ID.
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Automatic integration
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Subscribers are introduced into the SM automatically upon login, by the LEG.
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Blocking API
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In a Blocking API, which is the common type, every method returns after its operation has been performed.
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Cable/Satellite modem
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A data modem that provides Internet access over cable and satellite networks. The modem usually corresponds to a single subscriber of the Internet Service Provider (ISP).
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CLI
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One of the management interfaces to the SCE platform. It is accessed through a Telnet session or directly via the console port on the front panel of the SCE platform.
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Cluster Topology
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The SM is implemented based on the Veritas Cluster Server (VCS) technology. The cluster includes two machines, each of them running SM TimesTen and Veritas software. The Veritas Cluster Server software consolidates the two SM machines and exposes a single entity by providing a single virtual IP address for the entire cluster.
The added functionality when operating in a cluster topology provides powerful new features such as fail-over and high availability.
The cluster software distinguishes an active and a standby machine. The active machine `owns' the virtual IP address and all network connections, while the standby machine is passive until a fail-over occurs. At fail-over, the IP address is passed from the failing server to the backup server, which becomes activated and re-establishes all network connections.
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Command-Line Interface
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See CLI.
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CPE
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Any type of equipment that an end-user can connect to the network through a modem. The end-user can connect multiple CPE devices to the Internet through a single modem.
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Customer premise equipment
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See CPE.
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DHCP Forwarder
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An application that acts as a bridge between the DHCP Lease Query LEG and the DHCP servers. The request sent from the LEG is received by the forwarder and is forwarded to the appropriate DHCP server. The replies from the DHCP servers are forwarded to the LEG. The LEG signals the forwarder which server should receive each request.
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DHCP Lease Query Transaction
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The DHCP Lease Query transaction is a DHCP transaction with special message types that enable, among other things, clients to query DHCP servers regarding the owner and the lease-expiration-time of an IP address.
The DHCP Lease-Query transaction is defined in an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard. For more information, see the IETF website.
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DHCP Sniffer
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The software logic inside the SCE device that analyzes DHCP traffic and sends the information to the SCE-Sniffer DHCP LEG using the RDR protocol.
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Domains
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A group of SCE platforms that share a group of subscribers. The subscriber traffic can pass through any SCE platform in the domain.
A subscriber and an SCE can belong to only one domain.
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Fail-over
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In a fail-over solution, the two Subscriber Manager platforms exchange keep alive messages via the cascade ports. This keep alive mechanism enables fast detection of failures between the Subscriber Manager platforms and fast fail-over to the standby SM platform when required.
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High Availability
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In a high availability topology, the Subscriber Manager software runs on two machines, designated as the active machine and the standby machine. Subscriber data is continuously replicated from the active to the standby machine, ensuring there is minimal data loss in case of active SM failure. When the active machine fails, the standby machine discovers the failure and becomes active.
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LEG
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Software components that use the Subscriber Manager API to generate subscriber-record update messages such as login/logout, and send the messages to the SM.
LEGs are usually installed on AAA/OSS platforms, and serve as translators from events generated by the customer system to Cisco subscriber update events.
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Login Event Generator
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See LEG.
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Manual integration
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Subscribers are introduced into the SM by importing them in the form of a csv file, or by using the appropriate SM CLU.
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NAS
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A network device that serves as an access point for a remote user. It initiates RADIUS transactions to the RADIUS server to authenticate a remote user.
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Network Access System (NAS)
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See NAS.
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Network ID Mappings
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A network identifier that the SCE device can relate to a specific subscriber record. A typical example of a network ID mapping (or simply mapping) is an IP address. Currently, the Cisco Service Control solution supports IP address, IP range, and VLAN mappings.
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Non-blocking API
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Non-blocking methods return immediately, even before their operation has been completed. The operation results are either returned to an Observer object (Listener) or not returned at all.
The non-blocking method is advantageous when the operation is lengthy and involves I/O. Performing the operation in a separate thread allows the caller to continue doing other tasks and improves overall system performance.
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Pull mode
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Subscriber information is not distributed automatically. Only when an SCE platform cannot associate the IP traffic with a subscriber, will it request (pull) information from the SM.
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Pull-request
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A message sent from an SCE device to the SM/LEG when it identifies a use of a new subscriber IP address in the network. The SM uses the IP address provided in this message to query the database to retrieve the subscriber data of the subscriber associated with this address and to send its data to the SCE.
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Push mode
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The SM automatically distributes (pushes) subscriber information to the relevant SCE platform immediately after the record is added or changed. Therefore, when the subscriber starts producing traffic through the SCE platform, it is ready with the required subscriber information.
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Quota
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A (subscriber's) limit for a specific metric, such as bandwidth or volume.
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SCE Platform
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The Service Control purpose-built hardware service component. This hardware device is capable of performing smart analysis of the packets at wire speed. It monitors the traffic on the line, producing raw data to be provided to the loaded application, which processes the data for functions such as reporting, policy management, subscription management, and implementation of tiered service subscriber aware traffic policies.
The SCE platform comes in the following models: SCE 1000 2xGBE, SCE 2000 4xGBE, and SCE 2000 4/8xFE. There may be one or more SCE platforms on the provider network.
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Service Control Engine platform
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See SCE platform.
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Service Control Management Suite Subscriber Manager
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See SM.
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SM
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A middleware software component used in cases where dynamic binding of subscriber information and service configurations is required. The SM manages subscriber information and provisions it in real time to multiple SCE platforms. It can store subscriber service configurations information internally, and act as a state-full bridge between the AAA system (for example, RADIUS and DHCP) and the SCE platforms.
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Subscriber
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The generic term used to refer to the managed entity for which a Service Configuration is enforced, and usage is monitored, by a Service Control solution. A subscriber can be defined as an individual IP address, or ranges of IP addresses or VLANs. The system supports different modes of operations including: subscriber-less mode (all control is performed globally), anonymous subscriber mode, and dynamic and static subscriber-aware modes.
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Subscriber domain
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The Subscriber Manager (SM) provides the option of partitioning SCE platforms and subscribers into subscriber domains. A subscriber domain is a group of SCE platforms that share a group of subscribers. Subscriber domains can be configured using the SM configuration file and can be viewed using the SM Command-Line Utility (CLU).
It is also possible to configure domain aliases. A domain alias is a synonym for the actual domain name in the SM. Domain aliases are configured in the SM configuration file.
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Subscriber mappings
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The SCE platform requires mappings between the network IDs (IP addresses) of the flows it encounters and the subscriber IDs. The SM database contains the network IDs that map to the subscriber IDs. The SCE network-ID-to-subscriber mappings are constantly updated from the SM database.
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Subscriber package
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A policy enforced by Cisco SCMS solutions on each subscriber, which is usually defined by a policy package ID. The various Subscriber Manager Login Event Generator (LEG) component software can handle the package ID in any of the following ways:
Sets the package ID according to configurable options of the DHCP initial logon or lease extension transactions
Sets the package ID using a constant default value
Leave the package ID unset
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