CAP

Deepak D

Slide 1

Growth within the communications industry has lead to the development of new platform for providing space for additional services

This platform is called Intelligent Network (IN) and using this platform, new additional services can be added without any additional cost of developing software (or) hardware for the existing network elements. IN is a technique to make digital telecommunication networks more effective using some principles by taking control over CS calls to higher-layer control platform.

Principle behind IN is to take control over call by intercepting the established call at a designated node in the network. Switching Control Point is the control platform IN Protocol will enable the operator to take control over the call and execute the IN service logic in the control platform
Slide 2

 IN

services are additional services which add to network value, but are not provided by switching networks. Different IN standards have defined IN protocols. Popular IN protocols are :

INAP (Intelligent Network Application Protocol) CAMEL (Customized Applications in Mobile Networks Enhanced Logic)

First

service added using IN platform freephone (or) shared-cost numbers.

Charging other party instead of calling party

was

Commonly

used IN service in mobile network is Prepaid Service.

Slide 3

Intelligent Network Application Protocol (INAP)

Popular in 1990s and was dominant IN protocol Mainly used in the fixed network environment Had lot of issues due to clarity in specification

Deployments were vendor and operator specific : Vendor has to specify encoding of parameters (mostly octet strings) Mobility management was not supported

Customized Application for Mobile networks Enhanced Logic (CAMEL)

This protocol is introduced to resolve the mobility management issue. CAMEL is a child of INAP with ability to provide IN services for wireless networks also

Slide 4

FIXED NETWORK

SCP (SCF)
I N IN PROTOCOL A P

Execute IN Service

CALLING PARTY

CALLED PARTY

SIGNALING

SIGNALING

SSP (SSF) HLR

(SCF)
C A P

MOBILE NETWORK

Execute IN Service

CAMEL IN PROTOCOL

SIGNALING

SIGNALING

EXTERNAL NETWORK

Slide 5

Service Switching Function (SSF)

This functionality resides in SSP Handles IN Protocol to pass call control to SCP and expects acknowledgment back. When a call is established, if IN service is required, SSF shall copy the signal information and then exchanges with SCP to take necessary action

Eg: In GSM network, each MSC can be equipped with an SSF (or) only designated MSCs may be equipped with an SSF and it will run CAMEL IN protocol to exchanges message with SCP

Service Control Function (SCF)

This functionality resides in SCP Facilitates execution of IN services with the help of IN protocol & SSP IN service logic implemented on SCP is operator-specific

Slide 6

Required for triggering IN service Dialogue between SSF & SCF should exists for any IN service to get executed Dialogue between SSF & SCF will be governed by a process Dialogue between SSF & SCF is called IN Dialogue IN Dialogue facilitates the exchange of instructions & notifications between SSF & SCF Instructions (or) notifications exchanged between SSF & SCF through IN dialogue is packed with in transaction capability messages (TCAP)

Slide 7

It is developed as a standard for mobile intelligence across different vendor equipment for mobile networks.

End user should be able to roam between different networks (may be in different countries) and be reachable at the same number and should receive only one bill from the original service provider (Home Operator)

For operators, CAMEL has become prime method for putting the intelligence into any networks especially mobile networks such as GSM, GPRS, UMTS. Main principle behind CAMEL is to act as a IN prototype using which many services can be enabled in wired/wireless networks. CAMEL interacts mainly with Network Switching Subsystem (Core Network MSC, HLR) of mobile networks.

NOTE : CAMEL is not a service but it is a feature to create services.

Slide 8

Natural evolution of the IN standards : ITU-T & ETSI Need for CAMEL grew during the development of GSM N/W Std. During the deployment of GSM in early 1990s, IN was used only for fixed networks such as PSTN & ISDN Development of CAMEL standard started in 1996 to meet the demand of advanced IN services Development happened in 4 phases from PHASE 1 to PHASE 4 CAMEL entities [GSM & GPRS network]

gsmSCF: GSM Service Control Function gsmSSF: GSM Service Switching Function gsmSRF: GSM Specialized Resource Function gprsSSF: GPRS Service Switching Function

Slide 9

 Two

types of CAMEL IN services

Basic CAMEL IN Services

Subscribers do not have to have a subscription Universal Access Numbers Premium Rate Calls Freephone Numbers Voting Services (or) Competitions Services that are assigned to a subscriber. Virtual Private Network Prepaid Subscribers Family & Friends Mobile Access Hunting
Slide 10

Subscribed CAMEL IN Services

CAP is

CAMEL Application Protocol Protocol used to implement CAMEL functions in the GSM system Signaling protocol used in the Intelligent Network (IN) Layered on top of the TCAP (Transaction Capability Application Part) of the SS7 protocol suite and is CAMEL counterpart of INAP protocol ROSE (Remote Operations Service Element) user protocol Means of adding intelligent applications to mobile networks Based on a subset of ETSI Core and allows for the implementation of carrier-grade, VAS (Value Added Services) such as :

Messaging Prepaid Fraud Control Freephone in both GSM & GPRS networks.
Slide 11

CAP is the CAMEL protocol mainly used between gsmSSF and gsmSCF
gsmSSF will be resided in MSC in a GSM network and gsmSCF In GPRS network, CAP operations are performed between gprsSSF(SGSN) and gsmSCF using Ge interface

Capability of CAP is defined by operations

An operation is mechanism for one entity to start a procedure in the peer entity E.g.: gsmSSF in a MSC will invoke a CAMEL service on SCP by sending IDP Initial DP operation

Transfer of CAP operations between gsmSSF (MSC) and gsmSCF (HLR, VLR) is done through Signaling System (SS7) Subsystem Number (SSN) for CAP is 146 and the entity is MSC

Slide 12

I S U P

I N A P

M A P

C A P

TCAP SCCP
MTP - 3

MTP - 2
MTP - 1

Slide 13

HLR gsmSCF
HPLMN VPLMN
VMSC (gsmSSF) GMSC (gsmSSF)

IPLMN

ENTITY
HPLMN VPLMN IPLMN VMSC

DESCRIPTION
GSM network that a GSM user is a subscriber of. GSM network where a subscriber is currently registered. It is a PLMN containing GMSC that handles Mobile Terminating (MT) calls. Visiting MSC

GMSC
HLR

Gateway MSC Entity controlling MT calls

Database containing subscription record for each subscriber of the network

Slide 14

HLR

gsmSCF
HPLMN VPLMN
SGSN (gsmSSF)

IPLMN

ENTITY SGSN GGSN Serving GPRS Support Node

DESCRIPTION

Gateway GPRS Support Node

Slide 15

gsmSCF

gsmSCF

CAP
GSM DIALOGUE HANDLER

CAP
GPRS DIALOGUE HANDLER

CAP
gsmSSF

CAP
gprsSSF

VMSC GSM NETWORK GPRS NETWORK

SGSN

Slide 16

Slide 17

Slide 18

MSC (SSF)

SCP (SCF)
Charging the calling party after analyzing information

PSTN

Incoming Call

IDP ACH CUE

IAM

ACM ANC Release Call REL RLC

ACR RC

Slide 19

 Specification

3GPP Specification 23.078 (Release 11) - CS 3GPP Specification 29.078 (Release 11) - IMS

Books

CAMEL : Intelligent Networks for the GSM, GPRS & UMTS Network Rogier Noldus

Slide 20