Diameter Routing Agent Session Cleanup

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Solution Overview

Problem

In Diameter networks, stale or inactive sessions can lead to wasted resources and performance degradation as nodes like PCRFs continue to maintain session information without being aware of session termination, necessitating an efficient method to clear such sessions.

Innovation Solution

A Diameter routing agent (DRA) identifies inactive sessions and generates trigger messages to delete corresponding session information at other nodes, reducing the need for extensive audit procedures and minimizing resource usage.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If a PCRF maintains session information for all established sessions, then session management completeness is improved, but resource consumption increases due to stale sessions

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesession management completenessVSAvoidresource consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The DRA proactively identifies inactive sessions and sends trigger messages to PCRFs before they become problematic, enabling preventive cleanup of stale session information. This preliminary action prevents resource waste while maintaining session management integrity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The DRA acts as an intermediary between PCEFs and PCRFs, monitoring session activity and coordinating the cleanup process. It sends trigger messages to PCRFs to delete stale session information, resolving the contradiction between maintaining complete session management and reducing resource consumption.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Measurement precision

If extensive audit procedures are performed to identify and clear stale sessions, then session information accuracy is improved, but message overhead increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesession information accuracyVSAvoidmessage overhead

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

Instead of performing extensive audits on all sessions, the DRA implements a lightweight monitoring mechanism that tracks session activity and selectively triggers cleanup only for inactive sessions. This partial action approach maintains accuracy while minimizing message overhead.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Solution Approach 2:

The system uses passive monitoring of session activity where the DRA observes session states and automatically initiates cleanup procedures when inactivity is detected. This self-service mechanism eliminates the need for active audit procedures, reducing message overhead while maintaining session information accuracy.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Data Source

PatentUS10277637B2Methods, systems, and computer readable media for clearing diameter session information

Publication Date: 2019.04.30 ORACLE INT CORP

AI summary

The subject matter described herein includes methods, systems, and computer readable media for clearing Diameter session information. According to one method, the method occurs at a Diameter routing agent (DRA) node. The method includes identifying an inactive Diameter session associated with a Diameter node. The method also includes generating a trigger message for triggering the Diameter node to delete session information associated with the inactive Diameter session. The method further includes sending the trigger message to the Diameter node.