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Application Assurance – HTTP In Browser Notification
In This Chapter
This section provides information about Application Assurance HTTP in browser notification.
Topics in this section include:
•
Applicability
•
Summary
•
Configuration
•
Conclusion
Applicability
This section is applicable to all 7750, 7450 and 7750-SRc chassis supporting Application Assurance and was tested on SR OS release 12.0.R1.
There are no specific prerequisites for this example.
 
Summary
Using the Alcatel-Lucent 7x50s and Application Assurance, subscribers connected to an operator network can be sent fully customizable on-screen notification messages displayed in a non-disruptive and cost-effective manner through their web browser.
This example describes the different options for the operator to customize the notification messages returned to the subscriber using either different HTTP-Notification policies or using the flexible HTTP-URL-PARAM VSA mechanism.
Configuration
The setup comprises of the following elements, see Figure 186:
•
7750 SR + ISA-AA.
•
Apache Web Server (delivering notification Javascript and content).
•
Subscriber (Desktop/Tablet/Smartphone).
•
Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) for subscriber authentication and Policy Modification.
•
Internet Access.
Figure 186: HTTP Notification –Setup
This example describes how to configure HTTP notification to display different notification messages. It demonstrates a simple example in the context of a residential deployment where a message is displayed when the subscriber reaches 80% or 100% of their maximum allowed volume (usage cap).
 
Figure 187: Notification Message Example – Quota 80%
In this context the operator has two options:
•
Use a dedicated http-notification policy per message type.
•
Use a common http-notification policy for any message type together with the newly introduced Http-Url-Param RADIUS VSA.
This example provides configuration examples for both options.
 
HTTP Notification Policy per Message Type
In this option a dedicated http-notification policy for each notification message is required.
 
HTTP Notification Policy
Two dedicated HTTP notification policies are used to return a different message to the subscribers when reaching 80% and 100% of their usage cap, the interval in between notifications is set to 15 minutes.
configure
    application-assurance group 1 
        http-notification "notification-quota-100" create
           description "100% Usage Cap Notification"
           script-url "http://192.168.150.251/In-Browser-Notification/script/quota-100.js"
           template 1
           interval 15
           no shutdown
        exit
 
configure
    application-assurance group 1 
        http-notification "notification-quota-80" create
            description "80% Usage Cap Notification"
            script-url "http://192.168.150.251/In-Browser-Notification/script/quota-80.js"
            template 1
            interval 15
            no shutdown
        exit
 
 
App-Profiles and App-Service-Options
Event based HTTP notifications is enabled by a policy modification triggered via RADIUS or Gx by modifying the subscriber app-profile or using the Application Service Option (ASO) override.
In this implementation of the HTTP notification policy per message type, the following ASO configuration is used: 
configure
    application-assurance group 1:1 policy 
        app-service-option
            characteristic "quota-message-notification" create
                value "100"
                value "80"
                value "disabled"
                default-value "disabled"
            exit
        exit
        app-profile "1-1/Default" create
            divert
        exit
 
The ASO characteristic quota-message values of 100 and 80 enable the App-Qos-Policy (AQP) notification-quota-100 and notification-quota-80 as defined below:
configure
    application-assurance group 1:1 policy app-qos-policy
        entry 1000 create
            match
                characteristic "quota-message-notification" eq "100"
            exit
            action
                http-notification "notification-quota-100"
            exit
            no shutdown
        exit
        entry 1100 create
            match
                characteristic "quota-message-notification" eq "80"
            exit
            action
                http-notification "notification-quota-80"
            exit
            no shutdown
        exit
 
RADIUS Policy
The following RADIUS CoA message is used to override the ASO characteristic of a residential subscriber so that a notification message can be returned to the subscriber when they reach 80% of their usage cap:
	NAS-Port-Id = "1/1/5:4088"
	Framed-IP-Address = 192.168.211.30
	Alc-AA-App-Service-Options = "quota-message-notification=80"
	Alc-App-Prof-Str = "1-1/Default"
 
 
Show Commands
Before the subscriber usage cap limit is reached, and before the RADIUS CoA message is received, the subscriber ASO parameter flag quota-message-notification is set to its default value disabled and therefore no App QoS Policy is triggered.
A:PE# show application-assurance group 1:1 aa-sub esm "sub1" summary 
===============================================================================
Application-Assurance Subscriber Summary (realtime)
===============================================================================
AA-Subscriber           : sub1 (esm)
ISA assigned            : 1/2
App-Profile             : 1-1/Default
App-Profile divert      : Yes
Capacity cost           : 1
Aarp Instance Id        : N/A
HTTP URL Parameters     : (Not Specified)
Last HTTP Notified Time : N/A
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Traffic                        Octets              Packets                Flows
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
... ...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Application Service Options (ASO)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Characteristic                   Value                            Derived from
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
quota-message-notification       disabled                         default
===============================================================================
 
After the RADIUS CoA message is sent, the subscriber ASO characteristic quota-message-notification value is set to 80, the subscriber-related App QoS Policy entry 1100 now matches for this subscriber:
A:PE# show application-assurance group 1:1 aa-sub esm "sub1" summary 
===============================================================================
Application-Assurance Subscriber Summary (realtime)
===============================================================================
AA-Subscriber           : sub1 (esm)
ISA assigned            : 1/2
App-Profile             : 1-1/Default
App-Profile divert      : Yes
Capacity cost           : 1
Aarp Instance Id        : N/A
HTTP URL Parameters     : (Not Specified)
Last HTTP Notified Time : N/A
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Traffic                        Octets              Packets                Flows
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
... ...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Application Service Options (ASO)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Characteristic                   Value                            Derived from
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
quota-message-notification       80                               dyn-override
===============================================================================
 
The same command can be used to identify when the last successful subscriber notification occurred, see the Last HTTP Notified Time field:
A:PE# show application-assurance group 1:1 aa-sub esm "sub1" summary 
===============================================================================
Application-Assurance Subscriber Summary (realtime)
===============================================================================
AA-Subscriber           : sub1 (esm)
ISA assigned            : 1/2
App-Profile             : 1-1/Default
App-Profile divert      : Yes
Capacity cost           : 1
Aarp Instance Id        : N/A
HTTP URL Parameters     : (Not Specified)
Last HTTP Notified Time : 2014/06/24 15:35:49
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The operator can also identify how many notifications have been sent per http-notification policy per partition:
A:PE# show application-assurance group 1 http-notification "notification-quota-80" 
===============================================================================
Application Assurance Group 1 HTTP Notification "notification-quota-80"
===============================================================================
Description  : 80% Usage Cap Notification
Template     : 1 - Javascript-url with subId and optional Http-Url-Param
Script URL   : http://192.168.150.251/In-Browser-Notification/script/quota-80.
               js
Admin Status : Up
AQP Ref      : Yes
Interval     : 15 minutes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Group                             Notified        Notification Selection
                                                    Criteria Not Matched
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1:1                                      1                            10
1:2                                      0                             0
1:3                                      0                             0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                    1                            10
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
 
The counter Notification Selection Criteria Not Matched is the number of HTTP flows which did not meet the AA ISA flow selection criteria for In Browser Notification. HTTP flow selection is constrained so that only HTTP web pages flows originating from a web browser are targeted, HTTP requests for content such as video or images are not candidate for notification.
 
HTTP Notification Customization using RADIUS VSA
Instead of using a dedicated HTTP notification policy for every single message type, the operator can return a RADIUS Http-Url-Param VSA at subscriber creation time or via CoA to customize the notification URL using a single policy. This VSA string is automatically appended to the end of the HTTP notification script-url by the 7x50 which can then be used by the web server to decide which notification message to return to the subscriber.
SR OS release 12.0.R1 supports 1 active HTTP Notification policy per subscriber, 8 different HTTP notification policies per AA ISA group and 1500 different values for the Http-Url-Param VSA. Therefore, using the Http-Url-Param VSA for the customization of the notification is the recommended model to scale the number of notification messages.
For example:
•
RADIUS VSA (Alc-AA-Sub-Http-Url-Param): &message=quota80"
•
7750 HTTP Notification configured script-url: http://1.1.1.1/notification.js
•
Subscriber HTTP request to the messaging server:
 
		http://1.1.1.1/notification.js?SubId=sub1&var=&message=quota80
 
HTTP Notification Policy
A single HTTP notification policy is used to return different notification messages, the interval between notifications is set to 15 minutes. 
configure
    application-assurance group 1
        http-notification "in-browser-notification" create
            description "Default HTTP Notification Policy"
            script-url "http://192.168.150.251/In-Browser-Notification/script/
                                                         notification-select.php"
            template 1
            interval 15
            no shutdown
        exit
 
Note: This example does not describe the content of the notification-select.php file used to parse the URL parameters.
 
App-Profile and App-Service-Options
Similar to the previous example, HTTP notifications are enabled per subscriber using RADIUS or Gx by modifying the subscriber app-profile or using ASO override.
The following ASO configuration is used: 
configure
    application-assurance group 1:1 policy 
        app-service-option
            characteristic "in-browser-notification"
                value "enabled"
                value "disabled"
                default-value "disabled"
        exit
 
The ASO characteristic in-browser-notification value enabled is used to enable the app-qos-policy matching the http-notification policy in-browser-notification as shown below:
configure
    application-assurance group 1:1 policy app-qos-policy
        entry 1300 create
            match
                characteristic "in-browser-notification" eq "enabled"
            exit
            action
                http-notification "in-browser-notification"
            exit
            no shutdown
 
RADIUS Policy
The following RADIUS CoA message is used to modify the ASO characteristic of a residential subscriber and assign a specific Http-Url-Param VSA. The in-browser-notification ASO characteristic with value enabled is dynamically assigned to the subscriber along with the Http-Url-Param &message=quota80:
	NAS-Port-Id = "1/1/5:4088"
	Framed-IP-Address = 192.168.211.30
	Alc-AA-App-Service-Options = "in-browser-notification=enabled"
	Alc-AA-Sub-Http-Url-Param = "&message=quota80"
	Alc-App-Prof-Str = "1-1/Default"
 
The subscriber HTTP request to the messaging server has the following format and includes the Http-Url-Param value as an argument of the URL:
http://192.168.150.251/In-Browser-Notification/script/notification-select.php?SubId=sub1&var=&message=quota80
The web server can now use the parameter value to make a decision to return a suitable notification message related to the subscriber usage cap.
 
Show Commands
Both the in-browser-notification ASO characteristic with value enabled and the HTTP-Url-Param VSA can be shown as follows:
A:PE# show application-assurance group 1:1 aa-sub esm "sub1" summary                   
===============================================================================
Application-Assurance Subscriber Summary (realtime)
===============================================================================
AA-Subscriber           : sub1 (esm)
ISA assigned            : 1/2
App-Profile             : 1-1/Default
App-Profile divert      : Yes
Capacity cost           : 1
Aarp Instance Id        : N/A
HTTP URL Parameters     : &message=quota80
Last HTTP Notified Time : N/A
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Traffic                        Octets              Packets                Flows
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
... ...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Application Service Options (ASO)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Characteristic                   Value                            Derived from
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
in-browser-notification          enabled                          dyn-override
quota-message-notification       disabled                         default
===============================================================================
The operator can also display the HTTP URL parameters VSA currently in use, per AA ISA group:
A:PE## tools dump application-assurance group 1 http-url-param-list
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Application-Assurance Subscriber HTTP URL parameters for Group 1:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
==============================================
Http Url Parameter                  Sub Usage
----------------------------------------------
"&message=quota80"                  1
==============================================
Total entries displayed 1
 
Conclusion
This example, intended for Application Assurance (AA) network architects and engineers, provides two implementation options for configuring and deploying HTTP In Browser Notification. It also explains how to take advantage of the Http-Url-Param RADIUS VSA to flexibly define various messaging campaigns using a common AA notification policy.