Ggsn Load Balancing - Cisco 7604 Configuration Manual

GTP Inspection

GGSN Load Balancing

GGSN load balancing (GSN pooling) allows any GSN the belongs to a GSN pool to respond to an SGSN
request to achieve load balancing on the GGSN. To enable support for GNS pooling, use the permit
response command.
If the security appliance performs GTP inspection, by default the security appliance drops GTP
responses from GSNs that were not specified in the GTP request. This situation occurs when you use
load balancing among a pool of GSNs to provide efficiency and scalability of GPRS.
You can enable support for GSN pooling by using the permit response command. This command
configures the security appliance to allow responses from any of a designated set of GSNs, regardless of
the GSN to which a GTP request was sent. You identify the pool of load-balancing GSNs as a network
object. Likewise, you identify the SGSN as a network object. If the GSN responding belongs to the same
object group as the GSN that the GTP request was sent to, and if the SGSN is in an object group that the
responding GSN is permitted to send a GTP response to, the security appliance permits the response.
To create an object to represent the pool of load-balancing GSNs, perform the following steps:
Step 1 Define a new network object group representing the pool of load-balancing GSNs. To do so, use the
object-group command.
hostname(config)# object-group network GSN-pool-name
hostname(config)#
where GSN-pool-name is the object group name for GGSNs.
Specify the load-balancing GSNs using the network-object command. You can configure one
Step 2
network-object command per GSN using the host keyword. You can also specify a network containing
GSNs that perform load balancing.
hostname(config)# network-object host IP-address
hostname(config)#
where IP-address is the IP address of the host.
Create an object to represent the SGSN that the load-balancing GSNs are permitted to respond to. To do
Step 3
so, use the object-group command.
a.
b.
Allow GTP responses, from any GSN in the network object representing the GSN pool, to the network
Step 4
object representing the SGSN. To do so, use the gtp-map and permit responses commands.
hostname(config)# gtp-map map_name
hostname(config-gtp-map)# permit response to-object-group SGSN-name from-object-group
GSN-pool-name
Catalyst 6500 Series Switch and Cisco 7600 Series Router Firewall Services Module Configuration Guide using ASDM
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Define an SGSN network object group that sends GTP requests to the GSN pool. To do so, use the
object-group command.
hostname(config)# object-group network SGSN-name
hostname(config)#
where SGSN-name is the SGSN network object group name.
Identify the SGSN. To do so, use the network-object command:
hostname(config)# network-object host IP-address
hostname(config)#
where IP-address is the SGSN.
Chapter 22 Applying Application Layer Protocol Inspection
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