A secure way of sharing network services and resources is through the implementation of protocols. Diameter protocol is an application suite widely used in network solutions involving Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA). It was ideally designed after the RADIUS with improve features that were known to be limitations of the older version. The protocol was designed by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for purposes of secure remote network and IP mobility.
Diameter protocol offers backwards compatibility with RADIUS for easy migration of applications created to work with the older protocol. The development of diameter protocol was made due to the increasing demand for network computing that old AAA protocols such as TACACS and RADIUS are longer applicable for use; complex implementations such as requirements for DSL, Mobile IP, wireless connections, and other known forms of network access connections.
Diameter protocol is currently used by 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as a new protocol to handle AAA related functions and with IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) management. The advantages of using this protocol include error notification which is not offered by RADIUS and the addition of commands and attribute value pairs (AVP’s) for encapsulating diameter information.
Several companies are offering their products to developers for integration with their applications. This includes the OpenBloX and OpenBloX J2EE which are pioneered by Traffix Systems and was made as benchmarks by other companies developing similar applications. OpenBloX is an open source package available in pure C++ and Java in conformity with standards set by 3GPP and 3GPP2. Because of its effectiveness in supporting IMS diameter interfaces such as Ro, Rf, Cx, CC, and Gx, at present there are 65 vendors using the package with their NGN and IMS application development.
The addition of their OpenBloX J2EE made Traffix Solutions even more popular in the Diameter solutions industry. The new OpenBloX J2EE offers support for application servers running J2EE. The product was made possible after the company partnered with IBM to develop diameter solutions to support IBM’s Websphere application and several other applications running J2EE.
OpenBloX J2EE is capable of running under systems supporting J2EE and SOA. Another application server supported by OpenBloX J2EE is the GlassFish that was developed by Sun Micro Systems. This product allows developers to design and create more robust application such as payment and billing systems that can run under J2EE application servers.
