Manual Chapter :
Configuring Tiered Services with Bandwidth Control
Applies To:
Show VersionsBIG-IP LTM
- 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0
BIG-IP PEM
- 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0
Configuring Tiered Services with Bandwidth Control
Overview: Configuring tiered services with bandwidth control
You can set up Policy Enforcement Manager to enforce different levels of bandwidth control on subscribers, providing more bandwidth to subscribers with higher tier subscriptions. Bandwidth control in this case is per subscriber and per application.
This implementation provides three tiers of service: gold (the highest level), silver (the next highest), and bronze (the lowest level). You create three dynamic bandwidth controllers, one for each tier to provide different bandwidth limits for subscribers with different plans. Each tier includes bandwidth control limits for three types of application traffic (P2P, audio-video, and web). You also create three enforcement policies, one for each tier. In the enforcement policies, rules applies bandwidth control to the different types of traffic.
Finally, subscribers are provisioned dynamically through a policy charging and rules function (PCRF) over a Gx interface. On the PCRF, you need to have associated subscribers with one of the subscriber tiers called gold, silver, and bronze.
Task Summary
Creating dynamic bandwidth control policies for tiered services
You can create dynamic bandwidth controllers for tiered services so that PEM can
enforce different rates of bandwidth control for subscribers having different policy
levels. Use this procedure and the values specified to create three bandwidth
controllers, one for each tier of service.
- On the Main tab, click.
- ClickCreate.
- In theNamefield, type the name of the bandwidth controller. In this example, name the three bandwidth controllers as follows:
- Typegold-bwcfor the premium subscription level.
- Typesilver-bwcfor the medium subscription level.
- Typebronze-bwcfor the lowest subscription level.
There is no requirement to use these names, but it is convenient to use a similar name for the bandwidth controller and the enforcement policy that you will attach it to. Later in this example, you will attach the gold-bwc bandwidth controller to the gold enforcement policy. - In theMaximum Ratefield, type a number and select the unit of measure to indicate the total throughput allowed for all the subscribers using each bandwidth controller. For this example, specify10 Mbpsfor all three bandwidth controllersIf you want to use different values, the number must be in the range from 1Mbps to 320Gbps.
- From theDynamiclist, selectEnabled.The screen displays additional settings.
- In theMaximum Rate Per Userfield, type a number and select the unit of measure relative to the tier of service. For example, use the following values:
- For gold-bwc, specify8 Mbps.
- For silver-bwc, specify4 Mbps.
- For bronze-bwc, specify2 Mbps.
- Leave theIP Type of ServiceandLink Quality of Servicevalues set toPass Through, the default value.
- In theCategoriesfield for each bandwidth controller, add three categories of traffic:P2P,Web, andAudio-video.
- For gold-bwc, setP2Pto 20%, setWebto 70%, and setAudio-videoto 40%.
- For silver-bwc, setP2Pto 20%, setWebto 60%, and setAudio-videoto 30%.
- For bronze-bwc, setP2Pto 20%, setWebto 50%, and setAudio-videoto 20%.
In the rule for the policy, different types of traffic, P2P, web, or audio-video traffic is limited to a smaller percentage of the total bandwidth for all subscribers who use that policy. - ClickFinished.
If this is the first bandwidth control policy created on a BIG-IP device, the system also creates a default static bandwidth control
policy named
default-bwc-policy
in the Common partition to handle
any traffic that is not included in the policy you created. If you delete all bandwidth
controllers, this policy is also deleted.For PEM to enforce bandwidth control, you need to create enforcement policies with
rules that refer to the bandwidth controller.
Creating enforcement policies for three tiers
To impose bandwidth control on multiple subscriber tiers, you need to create an
enforcement policy for each tier. Use these steps and the values specified to create
three enforcement policies.
- On the Main tab, click.The Policies screen opens.
- ClickCreate.The New Policy screen opens.
- In theNamefield, type a name for the policy.
- Typegoldfor the premium subscription level.
- Typesilverfor the medium subscription level.
- Typebronzefor the lowest subscription level.
- ClickFinished.The new enforcement policy is added to the policy list.
You have three enforcement policies that represent the three tiers of subscriber
traffic that you are creating.
After creating the enforcement policies, you add rules that specify how to treat
the subscriber traffic in each tier. In the implementation being developed, subscribers
in the different tiers will get different maximum amounts of bandwidth. Further limits
will be placed on specific types of traffic (P2P, audio-video, and web).
Creating the rules for tiered bandwidth control
You next add rules to each of the enforcement policies you created (gold, silver, and bronze). The rules limit the amount of bandwidth that P2P, web, and audio-video traffic can use. Create three rules for each enforcement policy.
- On the Main tab, click.The Policies screen opens.
- Click the name of the enforcement policy you want to add rules to.The properties screen for the policy opens.
- In the Policy Rules area, clickAdd.The New Rule screen opens.
- In theNamefield, type a name for the rule. For the first rule, use the nameP2P.
- In thePrecedencefield, type an integer that indicates the precedence, 1 being the highest.In this case, you can use any value, for example, 10, as the precedence for all the rules in all the policies because there is no conflict between the rules you are creating. Each rule applies to a different type of traffic: web, audio-video, and P2P.
- In theClassificationsetting, specify the type of traffic.
- For the first rule, from theCategorylist, selectP2P. Use the default values forMatch Criteria(Match) andApplication(Any).
- ClickAdd.
- In theRate Controlsetting, forBandwidth Controller, select the name of the bandwidth controller and category. Choose
- ForBandwidth Controller, select the name that matches the policy you are working on. For example, if editing the gold policy, selectgold-bwc.
- ForCategory, select the category that matches the type of traffic specified by the name of the rule. For example, selectP2P.
- ClickFinished.
- Repeat steps 3-8 to create a second rule for audio-video traffic with these settings.OptionValuesNameAudio-videoPrecedence10Classification CategoryAudio_videoRate Control-Bandwidth ControllerSame as the name of the policy you are adding the rule to (gold-bwc, silver-bwc, or bronze-bwc)Bandwidth Controller-CategoryAudio-video
- Repeat steps 3-8 to create a third rule for web traffic with these settings.OptionValuesNameWebPrecedence10Classification CategoryWebRate Control-Bandwidth ControllerSame as the name of the policy you are adding the rule to (gold-bwc, silver-bwc, or bronze-bwc)Bandwidth Controller-CategoryWeb
The gold, silver, and bronze enforcement policies each have three rules called P2P,
Web, and Audio-video. Each of the rules in the gold policy connects to the gold-bwc
bandwidth controller; rules in the silver policy connect to the silver-bwc bandwidth
controller and; rules in the bronze policy connect to the bronze-bwc policy.
Creating a listener for subscriber discovery with RADIUS and policy provisioning with
PCRF
You create a listener to specify how to handle traffic for policy enforcement.
Creating a listener does preliminary setup tasks on the BIG-IP
system for application visibility, intelligent steering, bandwidth management, and
reporting. You can also connect with a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) over a
Gx interface.
- On the Main tab, click.The Control Plane Listeners page opens.
- In the Policy Provisioning and Online Charging Virtuals area, clickAdd.The New Configure Diameter Endpoint Provisioning and Online Charging screen opens.
- In theNamefield, type a unique name for the listener.
- In theDestination Addressfield, type the IP address of the virtual server. For example,10.0.0.1or10.0.0.0/24.When you use an IPv4 address without specifying a prefix, the BIG-IP system automatically uses a/32prefix.You can use a catch-all virtual server (0.0.0.0) to specify all traffic that is delivered to the BIG-IP system. Configure the source and destination setting, during forwarding mode only. In the relay mode, the client does not have an IP address and the DHCP provides the client with an IP address.The system will create a virtual server using the address or network you specify.
- For theService Portsetting, type or select the service port for the virtual server.
- From theProtocollist, select the protocol of the traffic for which to deploy enforcement policies (TCP,UDP, orTCP and UDP).The system will create a virtual server for each protocol specified.
- To use network address translation, from theSource Address Translationlist, selectAuto Map.The system treats all of the self IP addresses as translation addresses.
- For theVLANs and Tunnelssetting, move the VLANs and tunnels that you want to monitor from theAvailablelist to theSelectedlist.
- For subscriber provisioning using RADIUS, ensure thatSubscriber Identity Collectionis set toRADIUS.
- For theVLANs and Tunnelssetting, move the VLANs and tunnels that you want to monitor for RADIUS traffic from theAvailablelist to theSelectedlist.
- For the tiered services example, do not assign global policies.
- To connect to a PCRF, from theDiameter Endpointlist, selectEnabledand selectGxorSdfrom theSupported Appsoptions.
- In theOrigin Hostfield, type the fully qualified domain name of the PCRF or external policy server, for example,ocs.xnet.com.
- In theOrigin Realmfield, type the realm name or network in which the PCRF resides, for example,xnet.com.
- In theDestination Hostfield, type the destination host name of the PCRF or external policy server, for example,pcrfdest.net.com.
- In theDestination Realmfield, type the realm name or network of the PCRF, for example,net.com.
- For thePool Member Configurationsetting, add the PCRF servers that are to be members of the Gx endpoint pool. Type theMember IP AddressandPortnumber, then clickAdd.
- In theMessage Retransmit Delayfield, type the number of milliseconds to wait before retransmitting unanswered messages in case of failure from the BIG-IP system to the PCRF over the Gx interface. The default value is1500.
- In theMessage Max Retransmitfield, type the maximum number of times that messages can be retransmitted from the BIG-IP system to the PCRF. The default value is2.
- In theFatal Grace Timefield, type the time period in seconds that a diameter connection can remain disconnected before the system terminates all sessions associated with that diameter endpoint. The default value is500.
- ClickFinished.The Policy Enforcement Manager creates a listener.
When you create a listener, the Policy Enforcement Manager also
creates virtual servers for each type of traffic (TCP, UDP, or both), and a virtual
server for HTTP traffic. The system sets up classification and assigns the appropriate
policy enforcement profile to the virtual servers. The system also creates a virtual
server for the Gx interface with a diameter endpoint profile. If you are connecting to a
RADIUS authentication server, a virtual server for RADIUS is also added.
Now you can send traffic through the network. As network traffic moves through the
BIG-IP system, the system handles policy enforcement.
Implementation result
When traffic flows through a BIG-IP system, the system limits the
aggregated bandwidth for all subscribers having a gold, silver, or bronze policy. Subscribers with a gold policy can use more of the total bandwidth than silver or bronze subscribers. Further, subscriber traffic in any of the tiers that is classified as audio-video, web, or P2P is limited to a percentage of the total bandwidth allowed for that tier.
For example, if a subscriber has a silver subscription level and PEM classifies their traffic as Web, the traffic is limited to 60% of the
Maximum Rate
specified in the
silver-bwc
bandwidth controller (4 Mbps). This leaves 2.4 Mbps as the maximum bandwidth for all web traffic of silver tier subscribers.