The Cisco Broadband Access Center software for Broadband Aggregation supports the mass-market deployment of broadband services by providing a provisioning system to replace labor-intensive and error-prone manual processes. The Broadband Access Center (BAC) software is designed for wholesale network access providers and retail network service providers. It enables wholesale providers to capitalize on and grow their broadband networks. It enables retail providers to provision and maintain their subscribers and network devices.
The distributed architecture of BAC ensures its scalability and performance. BAC supports solutions that bring Internet voice and data services to multiple-dwelling unit residences and businesses in small office complexes. It scales to support the carrier-class requirements of broadband aggregation, where millions of subscribers have contracted for many types of network services.
Table 1-1 Introduction to Broadband Access Center Topics
Table 1-1 lists the topic discussed in this chapter:
Broadband Access Center Features
BAC enables you to:
Easily provision devices, resources, services, and subscribers. BAC provides a Web-based user interface (Web UI) that hides the complexity you would experience at the command line of a network console. Selections you make in the user interface are downloaded to devices as Cisco IOS commands, becoming part of the running configuration of a device.
Customize its data-driven Cisco IOS configuration templates to provide branded services to your subscribers.
Create administrative networks to provide logical groupings of network devices and resources.
Manage network resources, such as dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) and authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) servers.
Develop application programming interface (API) calls to the BAC software to integrate with your operations support system (OSS).
Integrate with external servers and applications, including:
Cisco CNS Network Registrar
Cisco CNS Access Registrar
Cisco CNS Configuration Engine
Cisco CNS Notification Engine
Create administrative users with varying levels of permission.
Manage network events and faults.
Implement BAC in small to very large scale deployments. The distributed nature of the software supports its deployment in a variety of environments and with a variety of services and technologies. Choices you make when you install the software determine the services and technologies that you make available to subscribers.
Broadband Access Center Role in Broadband Aggregation
BAC provides device provisioning and subscriber service management. BAC supports the provisioning of the following aggregation devices:
Cisco 10000 series routers
Cisco 7200 and 7400 series routers
Multiple service packages are available using protocols that are widely implemented. The supported protocols are the point-to-point-protocol-over-X (PPPoX) and routed bridged encapsulation (RBE). Through its Web-based user interface (Web UI), BAC provides service provider and subscriber management, network resource and inventory management, and network access for administrators and operators.
With BAC, you can:
Partition network views so that each service provider can view only the resources, devices, and subscribers on its own network.
Identify the remote dial-in user service (RADIUS) servers that provide authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) services for your aggregation routers and subscribers.
Provision broadband aggregators with the following service features:
Basic
RADIUS
RADIUS Group
IP Pool
DHCP
Virtual Template
PVC Range (in PPP over Ethernet over ATM networks)
Single PVC (in PPP over Ethernet over ATM networks)
Provision subscribers within a range of permanent virtual connections (PVCs), or provision a subscriber to use a single PVC, in PPP over ATM and PPP over Ethernet over ATM networks.
Provision subscribers within a range of virtual local area networks (VLANs), or provision a subscriber within a single VLAN.
Identify Cisco CNS Notification Engine servers as network resources for fault management.
Support L2TP transport of point-to-point protocol (PPP) sessions from a Layer 2 access concentrator (LAC) to a Layer 2 network server (LNS).
Use network address translation (NAT) to translate a user's private IP address to a public IP address (except with Cisco 10000 routers).
Enable the automatic discovery of network cards, ports, and interfaces on a device.
Perform subscriber impact analysis when network events occur.
Customize templates and profiles.
Broadband Access Center Architecture
The architecture of the BAC is a client/server model. Figure 1-1 illustrates the architecture and components of the software.
Figure 1-1 BAC Architecture and Components
BAC Application
You run the BAC application through an Internet Explorer 6.0, or greater, browser. Using the Web UI, you can:
Create, modify, and delete service provider accounts
Create, modify, and delete system administrators and network operators with varying levels of permission
Add and manage network services
Create and manage administrative networks
Add and manage network devices
Provision devices and subscribers
BAC Server Software
The BAC server is central to BAC operations. The server works with both the client and the BAC database to enable provisioning and other functions (see Figure 1-1). The server and client communicate through the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). The server queries the BAC database to obtain data for the client.
The server consists of the components listed and defined in Table 1-2:
Table 1-2 BAC Server Components
Component
Definition
Inventory Manager
Enables you to create administrative networks and manage network devices and resources.
Note Administrative networks partition network views so
that one service provider cannot access information
about another service provider's network.
For broadband aggregation, network inventory represents aggregating routers; cards, ports, and interfaces on aggregating routers; RADIUS servers; and subscribers. In non-broadband aggregation networks (VoIP over Ethernet, for example) network inventory represents CPE devices.
Service Provisioning Manager
Enables you to create and manage service profiles, provisioning profiles, and task profiles. A service profile describes the service offered to a customer; a provisioning profile defines the technical implementation of the service profile; a task profile defines the sequence of operations required to fulfill a customer's request for services.
The Service Provisioning Manager component also provides the following:
The capability to provision multiple service packages.
Access to the API for OSS integration
Rollback when an error occurs
Resource Manager
Allocates and reserves network resources. Used primarily in non-broadband aggregation networks (VoIP over Ethernet, for example) environments, the Resource Manager component also interacts with CNS Network Registrar to provide the following:
IP address allocation and de-allocation
IP address reservations
DNS updates mapping IP addresses to fully qualified domain names (FQDNs)
Subscriber Access Manager
Configures network resources, such as RADIUS servers, with subscriber profiles.
IP Solutions Center (ISC) Template Manager
Enables you to create, modify, and delete configuration templates and to generate configuration files.
Configuration Delivery Manager
Sends the configuration for downloading onto the device using the Telnet gateway specified in the /opt/CSCObac/cdm/cdm.properties file. If you choose to download files using the Telnet gateway, you must also define terminal server attributes and connectivity attributes.
Authentication Server
Authenticates system administrators, technical operators, and so forth. BAC uses the the Cisco Security Policy Engine (SPE) for authentication.
Server Manager
Monitors the health of network servers and restarts a server if it fails.
Log Viewer
Provides an audit trail of all requests for network service and enables viewing this information according to criteria that you specify.
Behavior Manager
Provides back-end server logic for the BAC software.
Relational Managed Object Repository (RMOR)
Provides a managed object repository and the interface between the BAC Behavior Manager component and the underlying relational database.
Broadband Access Center Database
BAC uses Oracle as its underlying relational database. It provides persistent storage of data about administrative networks, devices, network resources, and subscribers. The data includes information about the various objects that have been created, provisioned, and updated. In addition, the BAC database provides resource allocation and de-allocation for devices.
Note The Oracle database is not bundled with BAC. You must purchase and install the Oracle database
separately.
Integration with External Servers and Applications
BAC integrates with the servers and applications listed and defined in Table 1-3.
.
Table 1-3 External Servers and Applications With Which BAC Integrates
Server/Application
Definition
Cisco CNS Network Registrar
Use Network Registrar in Voice over IP environments to provide carrier-class DHCP and DNS protocol servers. In these environments, BAC uses Network Registrar to allocate IP addresses and map IP addresses to FQDNs.
Cisco CNS Access Registrar
Use Access Registrar in most broadband aggregation environments to provide the AAA capabilities of a RADIUS server.
Note BAC also supports the use of the Interlink Merit RADIUS server.
Cisco CNS Configuration Engine
Use Configuration Engine to store and deliver configuration files to Cisco IOS devices. You can choose to download configuration files using HTTP or Telnet/console.
Cisco CNS Notification Engine
Use Notification Engine to provide carrier-class fault management capabilities, including subscriber-level impact analysis.
