CAMEL APPLICATION PROTOCOL

Growth within the communications industry has lead to the development of new platform for providing space for additional services

This platform is called Intelligent Network (IN) and using this platform, new additional services can be added without any additional cost of developing software (or) hardware for the existing network elements. IN is a technique to make digital telecommunication networks more effective using some principles by taking control over CS calls to higher-layer control platform.
Principle behind IN is to take control over call by intercepting the established call at a designated node in the network. Switching Control Point is the control platform IN Protocol will enable the operator to take control over the call and execute the IN service logic in the control platform

IN services are additional services which add to network value, but are not provided by switching networks. Different IN standards have defined IN protocols. Popular IN protocols are : First service added using IN platform freephone (or) shared-cost numbers.
Charging other party instead of calling party

INAP (Intelligent Network Application Protocol) CAMEL (Customized Applications in Mobile Networks Enhanced Logic)

was

Commonly used IN service in mobile network is Prepaid Service.

Intelligent Network Application Protocol (INAP)

Popular in 1990s and was dominant IN protocol Mainly used in the fixed network environment Had lot of issues due to clarity in specification

Customized Application for Mobile networks Enhanced Logic (CAMEL)

This protocol is introduced to resolve the mobility management issue. CAMEL is a child of INAP with ability to provide IN services for wireless networks also

Deployments were vendor and operator specific : Vendor has to specify encoding of parameters (mostly octet strings) Mobility management was not supported

FIXED NETWORK
CALLING PARTY

SCP (SCF)
I N IN PROTOCOL A P

Execute IN Service

CALLED PARTY

SIGNALING

SIGNALING

SSP (SSF) MOBILE NETWORK

Execute IN Service

(SCF)
C A P

HLR

CAMEL IN PROTOCOL

SIGNALING

SIGNALING

EXTERNAL NETWORK

Service Switching Function (SSF)

This functionality resides in SSP Handles IN Protocol to pass call control to SCP and expects acknowledgment back. When a call is established, if IN service is required, SSF shall copy the signal information and then exchanges with SCP to take necessary action
Eg: In GSM network, each MSC can be equipped with an SSF (or) only designated MSCs may be equipped with an SSF and it will run CAMEL IN protocol to exchanges message with SCP

Service Control Function (SCF)

This functionality resides in SCP Facilitates execution of IN services with the help of IN protocol & SSP IN service logic implemented on SCP is operator-specific

Required for triggering IN service Dialogue between SSF & SCF should exists for any IN service to get executed Dialogue between SSF & SCF will be governed by a process Dialogue between SSF & SCF is called IN Dialogue IN Dialogue facilitates the exchange of instructions & notifications between SSF & SCF Instructions (or) notifications exchanged between SSF & SCF through IN dialogue is packed with in transaction capability messages (TCAP)

It is developed as a standard for mobile intelligence across different vendor equipment for mobile networks.

For operators, CAMEL has become prime method for putting the intelligence into any networks especially mobile networks such as GSM, GPRS, UMTS. Main principle behind CAMEL is to act as a IN prototype using which many services can be enabled in wired/wireless networks. CAMEL interacts mainly with Network Switching Subsystem (Core Network MSC, HLR) of mobile networks.

End user should be able to roam between different networks (may be in different countries) and be reachable at the same number and should receive only one bill from the original service provider (Home Operator)

NOTE : CAMEL is not a service but it is a feature to create services.

Natural evolution of the IN standards : ITU-T & ETSI Need for CAMEL grew during the development of GSM N/W Std. During the deployment of GSM in early 1990s, IN was used only for fixed networks such as PSTN & ISDN Development of CAMEL standard started in 1996 to meet the demand of advanced IN services Development happened in 4 phases from PHASE 1 to PHASE 4 CAMEL entities [GSM & GPRS network]
gsmSCF: GSM Service Control Function gsmSSF: GSM Service Switching Function gsmSRF: GSM Specialized Resource Function gprsSSF: GPRS Service Switching Function

Two types of CAMEL IN services

Basic CAMEL IN Services

Subscribers do not have to have a subscription

Universal Access Numbers Premium Rate Calls Freephone Numbers Voting Services (or) Competitions

Subscribed CAMEL IN Services

Virtual Private Network Prepaid Subscribers Family & Friends Mobile Access Hunting

Services that are assigned to a subscriber.

CAP is

CAMEL Application Protocol Protocol used to implement CAMEL functions in the GSM system Signaling protocol used in the Intelligent Network (IN) Layered on top of the TCAP (Transaction Capability Application Part) of the SS7 protocol suite and is CAMEL counterpart of INAP protocol ROSE (Remote Operations Service Element) user protocol Means of adding intelligent applications to mobile networks Based on a subset of ETSI Core and allows for the implementation of carrier-grade, VAS (Value Added Services) such as :
Messaging Prepaid Fraud Control Freephone in both GSM & GPRS networks.

CAP is the CAMEL protocol mainly used between gsmSSF and gsmSCF
gsmSSF will be resided in MSC in a GSM network and gsmSCF In GPRS network, CAP operations are performed between gprsSSF(SGSN) and gsmSCF using Ge interface

Capability of CAP is defined by operations

Transfer of CAP operations between gsmSSF (MSC) and gsmSCF (HLR, VLR) is done through Signaling System (SS7) Subsystem Number (SSN) for CAP is 146 and the entity is MSC

An operation is mechanism for one entity to start a procedure in the peer entity E.g.: gsmSSF in a MSC will invoke a CAMEL service on SCP by sending IDP Initial DP operation

I S U P

I N A P

M A P
TCAP SCCP MTP - 3 MTP - 2 MTP - 1

C A P

HLR
HPLMN VPLMN
VMSC (gsmSSF)

gsmSCF
IPLMN
GMSC (gsmSSF)

ENTITY HPLMN VPLMN IPLMN VMSC GMSC HLR

DESCRIPTION GSM network that a GSM user is a subscriber of. GSM network where a subscriber is currently registered. It is a PLMN containing GMSC that handles Mobile Terminating (MT) calls. Visiting MSC Gateway MSC Entity controlling MT calls Database containing subscription record for each subscriber of the network

HLR
HPLMN VPLMN
SGSN (gsmSSF)

gsmSCF
IPLMN

ENTITY SGSN GGSN

DESCRIPTION Serving GPRS Support Node Gateway GPRS Support Node

gsmSC F

gsmSC F

CAP
GSM DIALOGUE HANDLER

CAP
GPRS DIALOGUE HANDLER

CAP
gsmSSF

CAP
gprsSSF

VMS C

SGSN
GSM NETWORK GPRS NETWORK

MSC (SSF)

SCP (SCF)
Charging the calling party after analyzing information

PSTN

Incoming Call

IDP ACH CUE

IAM

ACM ANC Release Call REL RLC

ACR RC

Specification
3GPP Specification 23.078 (Release 11) - CS 3GPP Specification 29.078 (Release 11) - IMS

Books
CAMEL : Intelligent Networks for the GSM, GPRS & UMTS Network Rogier Noldus