Diameter service creation investigation and HSS evaluation

Abstract: With a prospect of creating a new generation of cellular networks using IP based communication, service providers, operators and developers have created the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). Which with a more open architecture than older cellular networks will make it more like the internet in terms of service creation. This thesis creates an example service that uses subscriber data in the Home Subscriber Server (HSS) to deliver a service to the network’s users. The service is created to extend the functionality of the IMS test environment at Attentec AB to assist them in their efforts of learning and experimenting with the IMS core network. In this thesis the FoHSS used in the test environment is evaluated in order to measure its performance. This thesis gives examples of the implementation overhead of creating services in the IMS network and shows some of the functionality that is available to IMS services compared to service creation on the internet. Load tests of the FoHSS are made and shows that it uses polling to maintain subscription updates and that it has a negative impact on performance under heavy load. This thesis suggests that it is good for IMS test environments but not commercial use.