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What is the difference between Hop by Hop id and end to end id in Diameter Header?

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What is the difference between Hop by Hop id and end to end id in Diameter Header?
posted Apr 18, 2015 by Gnanendra Reddy

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Diameter protocol messages have two naming conventions Request/Answer, for example: Capability Exchange Request (CER) and Capability Exchange Answer (CEA). A diameter message may travel through many intermediate nodes to reach final destination. I would like to explain use of hop-by-hop Id and end-to-end Id through an example. Assume Node 'A 'wants to send a diameter message request 'M' to Node 'C' and there is no direct connection between Nodes A and C. There is an agent node 'B' between A and C.

A<-----------------> B<-------------------> C

Each diameter message has a header i.e. known as diameter header. Diameter header has hop-by-hop Id and end-to-end Id information elements. Hop-by-Hop Id is an unsigned 32 bit number and unique across direct connection between A and B and B and C. I meant to say that hop-by-hop Id gets changed between A and B and B and C but end to end Id doesn't change between A and C. None of the intermediate node alter end to end Id in received diameter header.

answer Apr 18, 2015 by Harshita
Well explained HArshita !
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+2 votes

The DRA is between e.g. MME and HSS or SGSN and HSS and maybe between HSS and IMS S-CSCF/I-CSCF. In the IETF Spec RFC3588 you can read the following: IETF - RFC3588

The Hop-by-Hop Identifier is an unsigned 32-bit integer field (in network byte order) and aids in matching requests and replies. The sender MUST ensure that the Hop-by-Hop identifier in a request is unique on a given connection at any given time, and MAY attempt to ensure that the number is unique across reboots. The sender of an Answer message MUST ensure that the Hop-by-Hop Identifier field contains the same value that was found in the corresponding request. The Hop-by-Hop identifier is normally a monotonically increasing number, whose start value was randomly generated. An answer message that is received with an unknown Hop-by-Hop Identifier MUST be discarded.

--> for me it sounds like that the HbHid must not jump in numbers but rather increase step by step sequential – is that also your experience?

Issue: I wonder if that Hop-by-Hop Identifier really increases the number sequentially as it seems to be a similar Parameter like the Local Reference in SS7 (DLR, SLR). I do not recall that in SS7 the Source/Destination Local Reference Numbers have to be increased sequentially.
If the Hop-by-Hop ID jumps too much, the other side may not be able to follow and Signalling errors occur? Have you seen problems on HSS or MME when that Hop-by-Hop Identifier increases in big steps rather than sequential?

0 votes

What is the use of keeping the same information in two places like Application-Id in the Diameter header and Application-Id as AVP ?

+3 votes

I saw Capabilities-Exchange-Request and Capabilities-Exchange-Answer messages. In CER message there are two places where Vendor-Id AVP is present, one as an independent AVP and the other one as part of Vendor-Specific-Application-Id AVP. If both of them are present in request message then both will be having same value or can hold different values.

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