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The Diameter Sip Application : General 

The Diameter SIP application can be used in a SIP environment where
   an interface to a AAA infrastructure is required to authenticate and
   authorize the usage of SIP resources.  This application provides
   support for SIP User Agents and proxies that implement and use HTTP
   Digest authentication [RFC2617], which is the authentication
   mechanism mandated by SIP [RFC3261].  The application is extensible
   and, if need arises, it can be extended to provide support for other
   authentication mechanisms or extensions to HTTP Digest authentication
   when they occur.

Open Diameter Software Architecture

 

              This document describes the software architecture used by Open Diameter for implementing the diameter base protocol library. It is designed to be modular, thread safe and scalable.
 

Introduction to Diameter

                The Diameter protocol was derived from the RADIUS protocol with a lot of improvements in different aspects, and is generally believed to be the next generation Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) protocol. The Diameter protocol was widely used in the IMS architecture for IMS entities to exchange AAA-related information. Because the IMS system might be the next big thing in the telecom industry, we believe a clear understanding of the Diameter protocol is necessary for understanding the essence of the IMS architecture. This article offers an overview of Diameter and how it works. For developers interested in how AAA in IMS works, or who want to implement Diameter applications, this article is a good starting page.

With the emergence of new technologies and applications such as wireless networks and mobile IPs, the requirements for authentication and authorization have greatly increased, and access control mechanisms are more complex than ever. The existing RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service) protocol can be insufficient to cope with these new requirements; what's needed is a new protocol that is capable of fulfilling new access control features while keeping the flexibility for further extension. This is where the Diameter protocol comes into play.

Please note that this article provides an overview of Diameter and does not cover all the protocol details. If you want to go further and implement the Diameter base protocol, refer to RFC3588 in Resources for more details. So, because this article mainly addresses the base protocol, Diameter will refer to the Diameter Base Protocol.

Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) protocols such as TACACS [TACACS] and RADIUS [RADIUS] were initially deployed to provide dial-up PPP [PPP] and terminal server access. Over time, with the growth of the Internet and the introduction of new access technologies, including wireless, DSL, Mobile IP and Ethernet, routers and network access servers (NAS) have increased in complexity and density, putting new demands on AAA protocols.

Diameter Base Platform

Key Benefits

• Lower barrier of entry into Diameter based solutions markets

• Create IMS-compliant network elements

• Reduce development costs and time to market

• Gain performance advantage by licensing proven implementation

• Allow application developers to focus on application logic instead of network protocols and traffic management