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Table Of Contents

Release Notes for
Broadband Access Center 3.0

Contents

Introduction

System Components

System Requirements

Licensing Requirements

New Features

CWMP Technology Support

Configuration Management

Firmware Management

Massive Scalability

Standards-based Security

Extensive Server Management

Device Diagnostics and Status Monitoring

Easy Integration with Back-end Systems

Caveats

Known Software Problems

Related Documentation

Obtaining Documentation

Cisco.com

Product Documentation DVD

Ordering Documentation

Documentation Feedback

Cisco Product Security Overview

Reporting Security Problems in Cisco Products

Product Alerts and Field Notices

Obtaining Technical Assistance

Cisco Technical Support & Documentation Website

Submitting a Service Request

Definitions of Service Request Severity

Obtaining Additional Publications and Information


Release Notes for
Broadband Access Center 3.0

These release notes describe new software features, bug fixes, and documentation for Broadband Access Center 3.0.

Contents

• Introduction

• New Features

• Caveats

• Related Documentation

• Obtaining Documentation

• Cisco Product Security Overview

• Product Alerts and Field Notices

• Obtaining Technical Assistance

• Obtaining Additional Publications and Information

Introduction

Cisco Broadband Access Center (BAC) automates the tasks of provisioning and managing customer premises equipment (CPE) in a broadband service provider network. The product provides a simple and easy way to deploy high-speed data, voice technology, and home networking devices.

BAC can be scaled to suit networks of virtually any size, even those deploying millions of devices. It also offers high availability, made possible by its distributed architecture with centralized management.

This release supports device provisioning by using the DSL Forum's CPE WAN Management Protocol (CWMP), as defined in the TR-069 specification, a standard for remote management of CPE. Additionally, BAC supports virtually any data models based on TR-069, TR-098, TR-104, and TR-106 extensions.

System Components

BAC comprises:

•A Regional Distribution Unit (RDU), which is software that you install on your server. The RDU is the primary server in a BAC deployment. Through its extensible architecture, the RDU supports the addition of new technologies and services.

•The Device Provisioning Engine (DPE), which is software that you install on your server. The DPE server handles all device interactions with the RDU.

•An administrator user interface through which you can monitor and manage BAC.

•A Java provisioning application programming interface (API), which you use to integrate BAC into an existing operations support-system environment. You can use the provisioning API to register devices in BAC, assign device configuration policies, execute CWMP operations on the device, and configure the entire BAC provisioning system.

System Requirements

You must have the Solaris 9 operating system installed on your system to use
the BAC software.

Licensing Requirements

You require a valid license key to successfully provision devices that use BAC. These licenses are specific to the:

•CWMP technology

•DPE component

Note If you have not yet received your licenses, contact your Cisco representative.

New Features

The major feature of this release is BAC support for the CWMP technology.

This section briefly describes new or modified features found in the BAC 3.0 release:

CWMP Technology Support

This BAC release supports the CWMP technology, as defined in the TR-069 specification. CWMP details a mechanism that increases operator efficiency and reduces network-management problems through its capabilities, which include:

•Autoconfiguration

•Firmware management

•Status and performance monitoring

•Device diagnostics and troubleshooting

BAC supports devices based on the TR-069, TR-098, TR-104, and TR-106 standards. These devices include Ethernet and ADSL gateway devices, wireless gateways, VoIP ATAs, and other devices that are compliant with CWMP.

This release also provides for runtime-extensible data models to support any upcoming data-model standards or any vendor-specific data models.

Configuration Management

BAC vastly simplifies configuration management by including extensible templates for device configuration. BAC templates are XML documents that you can create in an easily readable format, and edit quickly and simply. The templates also provide flexibility of configuration options via a template-processing mechanism. You can use this mechanism to customize configurations for millions of devices from few templates.

Firmware Management

Firmware management in this release maintains and distributes sets of firmware image files to corresponding devices through the BAC system. An XML-based firmware rules template associates the firmware image files to groups of devices. BAC uses the rules in the associated firmware rules template to evaluate the firmware that is downloaded to the device.

Massive Scalability

BAC enhances scalability by partitioning CPE into provisioning groups; each provisioning group is responsible for only a subset of the CPE. A provisioning group is designed to be a logical (typically geographic) grouping of servers, usually consisting of one or more DPEs. A single provisioning group can handle the provisioning needs of up to 500,000 devices. As the number of devices grows past 500,000, you can add more provisioning groups to the deployment in BAC.

Standards-based Security

The CWMP security model provides basic security to accommodate less robust CPE implementations while allowing greater security for those that can support more advanced security mechanisms.

BAC provides device authentication based on:

•Shared secrets with the DPE by using Basic and Digest authentication.

•Device certificates. The two types of device certificates are:

–Generic—Certificate common to all CPE or a large subset of CPE.

–Unique—Certificate specific to a device.

BAC also provides a unique option of performing device-certificate authentication at a hardware load balancer and SSL accelerator, such as Cisco 11500 Content Services Switch.

Note BAC supports secure device provisioning by using SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0.

Extensive Server Management

BAC provides extensive server-performance statistics, thereby enhancing capabilities for monitoring and troubleshooting. You can manage essential details such as server state, license information, communication between servers, and server-specific statistics by using the BAC SNMP agent or the various log files.

Device Diagnostics and Status Monitoring

This release provides device troubleshooting and diagnostics features that you use to focus on a single device and collect diagnostics information for further analysis.

By using this feature, you can query devices for any data, including:

•Configuration

•Live statistics

•Fault indications

•Log file

•Diagnostics results

BAC provides the following features to aid in troubleshooting devices:

•Device history—Provides a detailed history of significant events that occur in a device-provisioning lifecycle.

•Device faults—Detects devices with recurring faults, which can cause bottlenecks and affect network performance.

•Device troubleshooting—Provides detailed records of device interactions with BAC servers for a set of devices that are designated for such troubleshooting.

•Performance monitoring—Provides detailed performance statistics that are related to system performance across major components. It also provides an analysis of the statistical data to aid troubleshooting.

•Direct device operations—Executes operations such as IP Ping and Get Live Data on the device for more insight.

Easy Integration with Back-end Systems

This release provides easy integration with back-end system via BAC mechanisms, such as:

•The Java API, which you can use to perform all provisioning and management operations.

•The publishing extensions, which you can use to write RDU data into another database.

•The data export tool, with which you can write device information from the BAC system to a file.

•The SNMP agent, which simplifies integration for monitoring BAC.

•The DPE command line interface, which simplifies local configuration when you use it to copy and paste commands.

Caveats

For information on the complete list of BAC bugs, see the BAC30_BugList.html file in the docs/ subdirectory of the BAC CD-ROM or electronic distribution.

Table 1 describes significant software issues that are known to exist in this release of BAC.

Note To obtain more information about known problems, access the Cisco Software Bug Toolkit at http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/Support/Bugtool/home.pl. (You will be prompted to log into Cisco.com.)

Known Software Problems

Table 1 identifies known bugs in this BAC release, with possible workarounds.

Table 1 Known Software Problems 

Number
Description
Resolution

CSCef90805

You cannot delete a property by using the change property API call, and then add it back in the same call.

Delete and then add the property by using separate API calls.

CSCsd20619

You cannot view templates in which complex conditionals are defined by using the administrator user interface.

Currently, there is no workaround or resolution for this issue.

CSCsd23070

When you run the uninstaller, the uninstallation program removes the soft links under the BPR_HOME directory, and the files and folders to which the soft link points.

Note BPR_HOME is the root installation directory, the one in which you install the BAC component or components; the default directory is /opt/CSCObac.

Currently, there is no workaround or resolution for this issue.

CSCsd86907

While working on large datasets, for example, exercising GetParameterAttributes and GetParameterValues RPCs, Linksys devices return a Resource Exceeded exception.

Use the GetParamsTool tool.

CSCsd99926

The installation program does not verify if the TCP port that you entered is in use.

For the RDU, select a TCP port that is not in use.

CSCse00218

An RDU uninstallation corrupts the file system, returning unreferenced directories and an incorrect link count.

Run the fsck -y command.

CSCse01325

When multiple users are logged into the RDU and an attribute is changed for a specific device, the Device History Details page on the administrator user interface does not display the ID of the user who triggers the event. Instead, the triggered event(s) is associated with the user who last logged into the RDU.

Currently, there is no workaround or resolution for this issue.

CSCse28759

A search for devices by using the administrator user interface, under the Devices > Manage Devices page, does not display more than 1,000 devices, even if more than 1,000 devices were added to the database.

Currently, there is no workaround or resolution for this issue.

CSCse59084

Operation performed on the device at the RDU (triggered from the API or from the DPE) fails, returning an ArrayIndexOutOfBounds Exception. This condition occurs when you reduce the maximum number of history records for a device, and if records for the device already exceed the new maximum.

Restore the maximum number of history records stored per device to the default value of 40.

Note If the condition occurs only for a few devices, delete the device records and add them again.

CSCse88754

When you enable troubleshooting on a device, the following error message appears:

Maximum number of devices in troubleshooting mode exceeded.

Configure the maximum number of devices in troubleshooting mode to be greater by at least one than the actual number of devices in this mode. To set this number, choose Configuration > Defaults > Configure Defaults > System Defaults on the administrator user interface.

CSCsf12062

When you set the Connection Request Method to Disabled via the Configuration > Defaults > CWMP Defaults page on the administrator user interface, the connection request service does not disable connection requests for existing CWMP devices.

Delete and add the CWMP device again. Doing so clears the URL of the discovered connection request and disables future connection requests.

CSCsf18216

Changing the Connection Request Method from Use FQDN to Use IP, via the Configuration > Defaults > CWMP Defaults page on the administrator user interface, does not cause existing CWMP devices to use IP-based connection requests.

Regenerate configurations for the existing CWMP devices. Choose Devices > Manage Devices on the administrator user interface and click the Regenerate button.


Related Documentation

For information about installing, configuring, and maintaining BAC, refer to:

•Installation Guide for Cisco Broadband Access Center, Release 3.0

•Cisco Broadband Access Center DPE CLI Reference, Release 3.0

•Cisco Broadband Access Center Administrator's Guide, Release 3.0

•TR-069 - CPE WAN Management Protocol Technical Report, which is available on the DSL Forum home page.

Obtaining Documentation

Cisco documentation and additional literature are available on Cisco.com. This section explains the product documentation resources that Cisco offers.

Cisco.com

You can access the most current Cisco documentation at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/techsupport

You can access the Cisco website at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com

You can access international Cisco websites at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/public/countries_languages.shtml

Product Documentation DVD

The Product Documentation DVD is a library of technical product documentation on a portable medium. The DVD enables you to access installation, configuration, and command guides for Cisco hardware and software products. With the DVD, you have access to the HTML documentation and some of the PDF files found on the Cisco website at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/home/home.htm

The Product Documentation DVD is created monthly and is released in the middle of the month. DVDs are available singly or by subscription. Registered Cisco.com users can order a Product Documentation DVD (product number DOC-DOCDVD= or DOC-DOCDVD=SUB) from Cisco Marketplace at the Product Documentation Store at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/go/marketplace/docstore

Ordering Documentation

You must be a registered Cisco.com user to access Cisco Marketplace. Registered users may order Cisco documentation at the Product Documentation Store at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/go/marketplace/docstore

If you do not have a user ID or password, you can register at this URL:

http://tools.cisco.com/RPF/register/register.do

Documentation Feedback

You can provide feedback about Cisco technical documentation on the Cisco Technical Support & Documentation site area by entering your comments in the feedback form available in every online document.

Cisco Product Security Overview

Cisco provides a free online Security Vulnerability Policy portal at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/
products_security_vulnerability_policy.html

From this site, you will find information about how to do the following:

•Report security vulnerabilities in Cisco products

•Obtain assistance with security incidents that involve Cisco products

•Register to receive security information from Cisco

A current list of security advisories, security notices, and security responses for Cisco products is available at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/go/psirt

To see security advisories, security notices, and security responses as they are updated in real time, you can subscribe to the Product Security Incident Response Team Really Simple Syndication (PSIRT RSS) feed. Information about how to subscribe to the PSIRT RSS feed is found at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/products_psirt_rss_feed.html

Reporting Security Problems in Cisco Products

Cisco is committed to delivering secure products. We test our products internally before we release them, and we strive to correct all vulnerabilities quickly. If you think that you have identified a vulnerability in a Cisco product, contact PSIRT:

•For emergencies only —  security-alert@cisco.com

An emergency is either a condition in which a system is under active attack or a condition for which a severe and urgent security vulnerability should be reported. All other conditions are considered nonemergencies.

•For nonemergencies —  psirt@cisco.com

In an emergency, you can also reach PSIRT by telephone:

•1 877 228-7302

•1 408 525-6532

Tip We encourage you to use Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) or a compatible product (for example, GnuPG) to encrypt any sensitive information that you send to Cisco. PSIRT can work with information that has been encrypted with PGP versions 2.x through 9.x.

Never use a revoked encryption key or an expired encryption key. The correct public key to use in your correspondence with PSIRT is the one linked in the Contact Summary section of the Security Vulnerability Policy page at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/
products_security_vulnerability_policy.html

The link on this page has the current PGP key ID in use.

If you do not have or use PGP, contact PSIRT to find other means of encrypting the data before sending any sensitive material.

Product Alerts and Field Notices

Modifications to or updates about Cisco products are announced in Cisco Product Alerts and Cisco Field Notices. You can receive Cisco Product Alerts and Cisco Field Notices by using the Product Alert Tool on Cisco.com. This tool enables you to create a profile and choose those products for which you want to receive information.

To access the Product Alert Tool, you must be a registered Cisco.com user. (To register as a Cisco.com user, go to this URL: http://tools.cisco.com/RPF/register/register.do) Registered users can access the tool at this URL: http://tools.cisco.com/Support/PAT/do/ViewMyProfiles.do?local=en

Obtaining Technical Assistance

Cisco Technical Support provides 24-hour-a-day award-winning technical assistance. The Cisco Technical Support & Documentation website on Cisco.com features extensive online support resources. In addition, if you have a valid Cisco service contract, Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) engineers provide telephone support. If you do not have a valid Cisco service contract, contact your reseller.

Cisco Technical Support & Documentation Website

The Cisco Technical Support & Documentation website provides online documents and tools for troubleshooting and resolving technical issues with Cisco products and technologies. The website is available 24 hours a day at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/techsupport

Access to all tools on the Cisco Technical Support & Documentation website requires a Cisco.com user ID and password. If you have a valid service contract but do not have a user ID or password, you can register at this URL:

http://tools.cisco.com/RPF/register/register.do

Note Use the Cisco Product Identification Tool to locate your product serial number before submitting a request for service online or by phone. You can access this tool from the Cisco Technical Support & Documentation website by clicking the Tools & Resources link, clicking the All Tools (A-Z) tab, and then choosing Cisco Product Identification Tool from the alphabetical list. This tool offers three search options: by product ID or model name; by tree view; or, for certain products, by copying and pasting show command output. Search results show an illustration of your product with the serial number label location highlighted. Locate the serial number label on your product and record the information before placing a service call.

Tip Displaying and Searching on Cisco.com

If you suspect that the browser is not refreshing a web page, force the browser to update the web page by holding down the Ctrl key while pressing F5.

To find technical information, narrow your search to look in technical documentation, not the entire Cisco.com website. On the Cisco.com home page, click the Advanced Search link under the Search box and then click the Technical Support & Documentation.radio button.

To provide feedback about the Cisco.com website or a particular technical document, click Contacts & Feedback at the top of any Cisco.com web page.

Submitting a Service Request

Using the online TAC Service Request Tool is the fastest way to open S3 and S4 service requests. (S3 and S4 service requests are those in which your network is minimally impaired or for which you require product information.) After you describe your situation, the TAC Service Request Tool provides recommended solutions. If your issue is not resolved using the recommended resources, your service request is assigned to a Cisco engineer. The TAC Service Request Tool is located at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/techsupport/servicerequest

For S1 or S2 service requests, or if you do not have Internet access, contact the Cisco TAC by telephone. (S1 or S2 service requests are those in which your production network is down or severely degraded.) Cisco engineers are assigned immediately to S1 and S2 service requests to help keep your business operations running smoothly.

To open a service request by telephone, use one of the following numbers:

Asia-Pacific: +61 2 8446 7411
Australia: 1 800 805 227
EMEA: +32 2 704 55 55
USA: 1 800 553 2447

For a complete list of Cisco TAC contacts, go to this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/techsupport/contacts

Definitions of Service Request Severity

To ensure that all service requests are reported in a standard format, Cisco has established severity definitions.

Severity 1 (S1)—An existing network is "down" or there is a critical impact to your business operations. You and Cisco will commit all necessary resources around the clock to resolve the situation.

Severity 2 (S2)—Operation of an existing network is severely degraded, or significant aspects of your business operations are negatively affected by inadequate performance of Cisco products. You and Cisco will commit full-time resources during normal business hours to resolve the situation.

Severity 3 (S3)—Operational performance of the network is impaired while most business operations remain functional. You and Cisco will commit resources during normal business hours to restore service to satisfactory levels.

Severity 4 (S4)—You require information or assistance with Cisco product capabilities, installation, or configuration. There is little or no effect on your business operations.

Obtaining Additional Publications and Information

Information about Cisco products, technologies, and network solutions is available from various online and printed sources.

•The Cisco Product Quick Reference Guide is a handy, compact reference tool that includes brief product overviews, key features, sample part numbers, and abbreviated technical specifications for many Cisco products that are sold through channel partners. It is updated twice a year and includes the latest Cisco channel product offerings. To order and find out more about the Cisco Product Quick Reference Guide, go to this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/go/guide

•Cisco Marketplace provides a variety of Cisco books, reference guides, documentation, and logo merchandise. Visit Cisco Marketplace, the company store, at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/go/marketplace/

•Cisco Press publishes a wide range of general networking, training, and certification titles. Both new and experienced users will benefit from these publications. For current Cisco Press titles and other information, go to Cisco Press at this URL:

http://www.ciscopress.com

•Packet magazine is the magazine for Cisco networking professionals. Each quarter, Packet delivers coverage of the latest industry trends, technology breakthroughs, and Cisco products and solutions, as well as network deployment and troubleshooting tips, configuration examples, customer case studies, certification and training information, and links to scores of in-depth online resources. You can subscribe to Packet magazine at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/packet

•Internet Protocol Journal is a quarterly journal published by Cisco Systems for engineering professionals involved in designing, developing, and operating public and private internets and intranets. You can access the Internet Protocol Journal at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/ipj

•Networking products offered by Cisco Systems, as well as customer support services, can be obtained at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/index.html

•Networking Professionals Connection is an interactive website where networking professionals share questions, suggestions, and information about networking products and technologies with Cisco experts and other networking professionals. Join a discussion at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/discuss/networking

•"What's New in Cisco Documentation" is an online publication that provides information about the latest documentation releases for Cisco products. Updated monthly, this online publication is organized by product category to direct you quickly to the documentation for your products. You can view the latest release of "What's New in Cisco Documentation" at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/abtunicd/136957.htm

•World-class networking training is available from Cisco. You can view current offerings at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/learning/index.html

Any Internet Protocol (IP) addresses used in this document are not intended to be actual addresses. Any examples, command display output, and figures included in the document are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any use of actual IP addresses in illustrative content is unintentional and coincidental.

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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