Subject: RE: [AAA-WG]: Issue: DCC typing issues

From: "Harri Hakala (TU/LMF)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2004 14:54:25 +0100

Hi Pasi,

We realized that we haven't answered all your comments, it
seems that there are still two of them left.

> - 4.1: RFC3588 says that unrecognized AVPs with 'M' bit cause 
>   DIAMETER_AVP_UNSUPPORTED error, not DIAMETER_RATING_FAILED.
>   If the intent is to override RFC3588, please say so explicitly.
The intention of this fault code is to indicate that there is rating
specific problem in the CC server side (rating function), for instance
some misconfiguration in rating tree, requested service is not supported,
or some input is incorrect to rating, etc. We thought that it would 
be good to have own FC for this purpose. It is not only specific for
'M' bit even though one gets that impression from the draft-02.

I propose following changes to the section 4.1:
CHANGE FROM:
   In case a rating input required for the rating process is missing from 
   the Credit control request, or the credit control server does not 
   support the requested service (i.e. does not support one or more 
   Mandatory rating AVPs included in the request command), the Credit 
   control answer MUST contain error code DIAMETER_RATING_FAILED. A CCR 
   message with this error MUST contain one or more Failed-AVP AVPs 
   containing the missing and/or unsupported AVPs that caused the 
   failure. A Diameter credit control client receiving error code 
   DIAMETER_RATING_FAILED in answer to a request MUST NOT send such 
   similar requests in the future. 

TO:
   In case a rating input required for the rating process is incorrect in 
   the Credit control request, or the credit control server does not 
   support the requested service, the Credit control answer MUST contain 
   error code DIAMETER_RATING_FAILED. A CCR message with this error MUST 
   contain one or more Failed-AVP AVPs containing the missing and/or 
   unsupported AVPs that caused the failure. A Diameter credit control client
   receiving error code DIAMETER_RATING_FAILED in answer to a request MUST
   NOT send such similar requests in the future. 

> - 8.8: Cost-Unit is specified as UTF8String without any guidance
>   to its contents. Will this lead to interoperability (or other) 
>   problems if e.g. one implementation uses "kilobyte" and 
>   another "kB"? (hmm, is this 1000 or 1024 bytes... :-)
The Cost-information is intended to provide cost estimation of the
requested service to the end user, i.e. it is transparent information
for CC clients. The Cost-Unit AVP contains human readable string to display
the cost per unit to the end user. 
But it seems that this information is missing from the draft-02, i.e. the 
current descriptions under the sections 8.7 Cost-Information AVP and 8.8 
Cost-Unit AVP are incomplete and needs updates.

I propose following changes to sections 8.7 and 8.8.

Section 8.7 Cost-information AVP 
CHANGES FROM:
   The Cost-Information AVP (AVP Code 423) is of type Grouped and is used 
   to return the cost information of a service in the Credit-Control-
   Answer command. The included Unit-Value AVP contains the cost estimate 
   (always type of money) of the service in case of price enquiry or the 
   accumulated cost estimation in the case of credit- control session.   

TO:
   The Cost-Information AVP (AVP Code 423) is of type Grouped and is used 
   to return the cost information of the service, which the credit control
   client can transfer transparently to the end user.  The included Unit-Value
   AVP contains the cost estimate (always type of money) of the service in 
   case of price enquiry or the accumulated cost estimation in the case of
   credit- control session.   

Section 8.8 Cost-Unit AVP
CHANGES FROM:
   The Cost-Unit AVP (AVP Code 424) is of type UTF8String and specifies 
   the applicable unit to the Cost-Information when the service cost is a 
   cost per unit (e.g. cost of the service is $1 pe rminute). The Cost-
   Unit can be for instance minute, hour, day, kilobytes, megabytes etc. 

TO:
   The Cost-Unit AVP (AVP Code 424) is of type UTF8String and it is used
   to display human readable string to the end user. It specifies the 
   applicable unit to the Cost-Information when the service cost is a cost
   per unit (e.g. cost of the service is $1 per minute).  The Cost-Unit can
    be for instance minute, hour, day, kilobytes, megabytes etc. 

Regards.........Harri

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