External Actions

Prior to having their initial Diameter request constructed, calls may require external actions to occur in order to enrich the data available for or otherwise modify the processing that will occur.

External processing rules can therefore be defined that allow other N2SVCD applications and features to be called as part of the pre-session handling. Rules are applied in the order listed and any match made is processed accordingly before proceeding with the remainder of the rule checking (if applicable). All external action rules will be checked for each session, regardless of any matches made.

If a rule does not specify any matching criteria, it will always match. Depending on the action called, this may impact performance of the system.

External processing rules are defined in the EXTERNAL_ACTIONS LogicApp service global variable. Each of these rules must also refer to an external action type, defined in the EXTERNAL_ACTION_TYPES LogicApp service global variable.

An example external processing configuration might be:

<global name="EXTERNAL_ACTIONS" type="array">
    <rule var="vlr" value="" external="ati_msisdn" mandatory="1"/>
    <rule normalised_calling_party_prefix="642" external="cug"/>
</global>

<global name="EXTERNAL_ACTION_TYPES" type="array">
    <external name="cug" action="n2cug_lookup">
        <user_number from_var="logical"/>
        <match_number type="array">
            <rule originating="1" source="normalised_called_party"/>
            <rule source="normalised_calling_party"/>
        </match_number>
        <allow_match_sc type="array">
            <rule originating="1" literal="1"/>
            <rule literal="0"/>
        </allow_match_sc>
        <allow_sc_user type="array">
            <rule originating="1" literal="0"/>
            <rule literal="1"/>
        </allow_sc_user>
        <terminating type="array">
            <rule originating="1" literal="0"/>
            <rule literal="1"/>
        </terminating>
        <suppress_edr literal="0"/>
    </external>
    <external name="ati_msisdn" action="map_ati">
        <hlr_gsm_scf_digits literal="6412345"/>
        <hlr_gt_digits literal="642000001"/>
        <hlr_ssn literal="6"/>
        <hlr_timer_secs literal="1"/>
        <msisdn_source from_var="logical"/>
        <store_vlr literal="vlr"/>
    </external>
</global>

External Actions

In addition to both the standard rules engine and N2IWF selector rule extensions, each rule in the EXTERNAL ACTIONS global variable supports the following attributes:

External action rules do not have any default rules. If no rules apply, no external actions will occur.

External Action Types

The available external action types that can be applied by external action rules are defined in the EXTERNAL_ACTION_TYPES global variable.

Each external action type must specify the following parameters:

MAP ATI

Specifying the external action type map_ati causes a MAP Any Time Interrogation message to be sent to the network. Such a message will return the subscriber’s current location details.

Using this external action requires N2SVCD MAP integration.

The following parameters are available when sending an ATI:

Note that each parameter is an N2SVCD rule engine ruleset and that the N2IWF selector rule extensions apply.

If a successful response is received, the subscriber’s VLR, MCC, and MNC will be populated into the specified variable(s).

N2CUG Lookup

Specifying the external processing action n2cug_lookup causes a lookup to be done using the N-Squared Closer User Groups library framework.

Using this external action requires N2SVCD N2CUG integration.

The following parameters are available when specifying an N2CUG lookup:

Note that each parameter is an N2SVCD rule engine ruleset and that the N2IWF selector rule extensions apply.

If a successful response is received, the lookup details will be populated into the field service.cug as per a normal N2CUG lookup.

Refer to the N2CUG lookup function documentation for further details.