Updated Date: 07/07/2026
Overview: Diameter
The message routing framework (MRF) Diameter solution for the BIG-IP system provides high scalability, availability, and reliability to Diameter proxies. The BIG-IP local traffic manager (LTM) can distribute and balance Diameter traffic among multiple Diameter devices to help maintain availability under high message volumes. Additionally, the Diameter solution can perform advanced health checks on the Diameter devices, routing Diameter clients away from unstable or unreliable devices and provide increased reliability to existing networks.
A typical Diameter message routing configuration.
| Configuration object | Description |
|---|---|
| Virtual server | Configures which IP address and port the BIG-IP system will listen on. Objects linked by using a virtual server object: protocol, Session profile, and Router profile. |
| Session profile | Configures various Diameter options. By linking a session profile to a virtual server, it configures the virtual server to handle Diameter messages. |
| Static profile | Links a Diameter application ID with an origin realm with a destination realm. |
| Router profile | Links a static route to a virtual server. |
Diameter supports the following protocols in the BIG-IP system.
- TCP. You can enable TLS.
- SCTP. You can enable multi-homing.
Diameter supports the following features in the BIG-IP system.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Load Balancing (LB) | Support distributing load across multiple Diameter servers across multiple realms. It can also route based on any AVP value. |
| High Availability (HA) | Configure in high availability mode where a failure of one chassis will cause the backup chassis to take over. |
| Persistence | Remembers which Diameter peers are part of a session. Subsequent messages using the same session ID (persistence key) are routed to the alternate peer. |
| Transformation | Supports modification of Diameter messages (AVP values). |
| Topology hiding | Support rewriting the Origin Host, Origin Real, Destination Host, Destination Realm. |
| In-band monitors | Support out-of-band and in-band Diameter monitors. |
| Connection auto initialization | Configure to connect to a Diameter server before receiving a client connection. |
| IPv6 support | Full support for IPv6. |