3-Tier Diameter Routing Agent Architecture for High Traffic Capacity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current Diameter Routing Agent (DRA) platforms face challenges in handling high traffic capacity in large-scale deployments due to limitations in existing load balancers, which fail to ensure successful Capability-Exchange-Request (CER)/Capabilities-Exchange-Answer (CEA) procedures and cannot handle the aggregated traffic from numerous peers, necessitating a more efficient routing solution.
Innovation Solution
A 3-tier architecture comprising a Diameter Connection Router (DCR), multiple Diameter Load Balancers (DLBs), and multiple DRA instances, where DCR acts as a frontend interfacing with external peers, routing connections to DLBs, and DLBs establish connections with DRAs, enabling one-to-many connections and handling thousands of transactions per second.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a single DRA instance is used, then device complexity is reduced, but traffic capacity and productivity deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The DRA platform is segmented into multiple DRA instances, each handling a subset of Diameter peers. This segmentation allows the system to distribute traffic across multiple instances, thereby increasing overall traffic capacity while maintaining manageable complexity through modular architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
A Load Balancer is introduced as an intermediary component that sits between external Diameter peers and multiple DRA instances. The Load Balancer receives incoming Diameter requests, performs CER/CEA procedures, and distributes traffic to appropriate DRA instances, enabling the system to handle high traffic volumes without increasing individual DRA complexity.
2Productivity
If multiple load balancers are deployed, then traffic capacity is improved, but device complexity and loss of information worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The Load Balancer combines multiple functions into a single component: it performs traditional load balancing, executes CER/CEA procedures, manages session state, and handles routing decisions. This consolidation achieves high traffic capacity without the complexity of multiple distributed load balancers, as all these functions are integrated into one unified system.
3Ease of operation
If TCP/SCTP load balancer is used, then ease of operation is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to failed CER/CEA procedures
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the operational parameters of the load balancing component by implementing CER/CEA procedure support and session state management within the Load Balancer. This parameter change enables the Load Balancer to reliably establish Diameter sessions with peers while maintaining ease of operation through automated session management and failover capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
This invention is a system and method for a high-performance Diameter Routing Agent (DRA) platform with a three-tier architecture. The DRA platform consists of a Diameter Connection Router (DCR), a Diameter Load Balancer (DLB), and multiple DRA Instances. DCR is a front-end to all external Peers and distributes Diameter connections to a DLB. DLB is a Diameter transaction load balancer and distributes individual Diameter transaction to a DRA. DRA is a Diameter Routing Agent to implement business logic to determine routing of an incoming request to a destination peer as well as message mediation. A public Internet Protocol (IP) address of the DCR is exposed to the external peers as a single point of contact between the peers and the computer network, wherein an internal topology of the computer network remains hidden from the peers.