Megaco woes with ServiceChangeReason = ReasonToken EQUAL VALUE

Micael Karlberg micael.karlberg@REDACTED
Thu Feb 6 09:29:02 CET 2003


Hi Peter,

Yes you are correct. But as we state in the doc:

    "This version of the stack is compliant with 
     Megaco/H.248 version 1 (RFC3015) updated to 
     Implementors Guide version 6 (IGv6)."

The comment you refer to was introduced in later
versions of the standard...

There was a discussion on this subject during the 
last interop. I don't remember the verdict.

We could of course _allways_ send the service change 
reason as a quoted string but before I make any 
changes, I will check with our (paying) costumers, 
so this don't effect them.

Regards,
	/BMK

Peter-Henry Mander writes:
 > Hi Micael,
 > 
 > Yes, this is what I expect too. Allow me to elaborate. Below is the function I
 > use to issue the service change, with a small modification to match the Reason
 > field in your example:
 > 
 > service_change(ConnHandle, Method, Reason) ->
 >     megaco:call(
 >        ConnHandle,
 >        [#'ActionRequest'{
 >           contextId = ?megaco_null_context_id,
 >           commandRequests = [
 >              #'CommandRequest'{
 >                 command = {
 >                    serviceChangeReq,
 >                    #'ServiceChangeRequest'{
 >                       terminationID = [?megaco_root_termination_id],
 >                       serviceChangeParms = #'ServiceChangeParm'{
 >                          serviceChangeMethod = Method,
 >                          serviceChangeReason = ["901 mg cold boot"], %%% mod here
 >                          serviceChangeVersion = 2
 >                       }}}}]}],
 >        []
 >     ).
 > 
 > This produces the following message. The serviceChangeReason field format has
 > quotes, similar to your example:
 > 
 > MEGACO/1 [10.1.0.200]:2944
 > Transaction = 1 {
 > 	Context = - {
 > 		ServiceChange = root {
 > 			Services {
 > 				Method = Restart,
 > 				Version = 2,
 > 				Reason = "901 mg cold boot"
 > 			}
 > 		}
 > 	}
 > }
 > 
 > But if I modify the serviceChangeReason to be a safeChar string, containing
 > digits only, thus:
 > 
 > service_change(ConnHandle, Method, Reason) ->
 >     megaco:call(
 >        ConnHandle,
 >        [#'ActionRequest'{
 >           contextId = ?megaco_null_context_id,
 >           commandRequests = [
 >              #'CommandRequest'{
 >                 command = {
 >                    serviceChangeReq,
 >                    #'ServiceChangeRequest'{
 >                       terminationID = [?megaco_root_termination_id],
 >                       serviceChangeParms = #'ServiceChangeParm'{
 >                          serviceChangeMethod = Method,
 >                          serviceChangeReason = ["901"], %% using safeChar
 >                          serviceChangeVersion = 2
 >                       }}}}]}],
 >        []
 >     ).
 > 
 > I get the following result where 901 appears without quotes:
 > 
 > MEGACO/1 [10.1.0.200]:2944
 > Transaction = 1 {
 > 	Context = - {
 > 		ServiceChange = root {
 > 			Services {
 > 				Method = Restart,
 > 				Version = 2,
 > 				Reason = 901
 > 			}
 > 		}
 > 	}
 > }
 > 
 > So I conjecture that if you change line 32 from ["901 mg col boot"] to ["901"]
 > you too will have a similar result. I think that the comment in the ABNF
 > suggests that even a safeChar string should be formatted with quotes.
 > 
 > <rant importance=low>
 > I humbly believe that the comment about serviceChangeReason should have been 
 > rewritten as a rule in the IETF's ABNF file to avoid ambiguity, and that Note 1 
 > in Annex B.2 has allowed the IETF to be less than rigourous with their own ABNF 
 > code.
 > </rant>
 > 
 > Pete.
 > 
 > P.s. I modified line 9 in your listing 'cos Mozilla didn't like copying the
 > binary string in ip4Address.
 > 
 > Micael Karlberg wrote:
 >     1 Hi,
 >     2
 >     3 I would like to see your erlang message, because when I try,
 >     4 it works just fine. Here's an example:
 >     5
 >     6 Erlang megaco (service change) message
 >     7 {'MegacoMessage',asn1_NOVALUE,
 >     8      {'Message',1,
 >     9           {ip4Address,{'IP4Address',"********",asn1_NOVALUE}},
 >    10           {transactions,
 >    11               [{transactionRequest,
 >    12                    {'TransactionRequest',
 >    13                        9998,
 >    14                        [{'ActionRequest',
 >    15                             0,
 >    16                             asn1_NOVALUE,
 >    17                             asn1_NOVALUE,
 >    18                             [{'CommandRequest',
 >    19                                  {serviceChangeReq,
 >    20                                      {'ServiceChangeRequest',
 >    21                                          [{megaco_term_id,
 >    22                                               false,
 >    23                                               ["root"]}],
 >    24                                          {'ServiceChangeParm',
 >    25                                              restart,
 >    26                                              {portNumber,
 >    27                                                  55555},
 >    28                                              asn1_NOVALUE,
 >    29                                              {'ServiceChangeProfile',
 >    30                                                  "resgw",
 >    31                                                  1},
 >    32                                              ["901 mg col boot"],
 >    33                                              asn1_NOVALUE,
 >    34                                              asn1_NOVALUE,
 >    35                                              asn1_NOVALUE,
 >    36                                              asn1_NOVALUE}}},
 >    37                                  asn1_NOVALUE,
 >    38                                  asn1_NOVALUE}]}]}}]}}}
 >    39
 >    40 And this is what it looks like pretty-encoded:
 >    41
 >    42 MEGACO/1 [124.124.124.222]
 >    43 Transaction = 9998 {
 >    44 	Context = - {
 >    45 		ServiceChange = root {
 >    46 			Services {
 >    47 				Method = Restart,
 >    48 				ServiceChangeAddress = 55555,
 >    49 				Profile = resgw/1,
 >    50 				Reason = "901 mg col boot"
 >    51 			}
 >    52 		}
 >    53 	}
 >    54 }
 >    55
 >    56 And this is what it looks like compact-encoded:
 >    57
 >    58 !/1 [124.124.124.222]
 >    59 T=9998{C=-{SC=root{SV{MT=RS,AD=55555,PF=resgw/1,RE="901 mg col boot"}}}}
 >    60
 >    61
 >    62 Regards,
 >    63 	/BMK
 >    64
 >    65 Peter-Henry Mander writes:
 >    66 > Good evening Erlang Megaco gurus,
 >    67 >
 >    68 > I have a question concerning the interpretation of the
 >    69 > serviceChangeReason ABNF description (versions one and two *), which
 >    70 > quotes (**):
 >    71 >
 >    72 >    ; A serviceChangeReason consists of a numeric reason code
 >    73 >    ; and an optional text description.
 >    74 >    ; A serviceChangeReason MUST be encoded using the quotedString
 >    75 >    ; form of VALUE.
 >    76 >    ; The quotedString SHALL contain a decimal reason code,
 >    77 >    ; optionally followed by a single space character and a
 >    78 >    ; textual description string.
 >    79 >
 >    80 >    serviceChangeReason  = ReasonToken  EQUAL VALUE
 >    81 >
 >    82 > ... and a little further down we have (***):
 >    83 >
 >    84 >    VALUE                = quotedString / 1*(SafeChar)
 >    85 >
 >    86 > The Erlang Megaco implementation follows the VALUE spec, not the
 >    87 > quotedString requirement as described in the comment. i.e.
 >    88 >
 >    89 > MEGACO/1 [10.1.0.200]:2944
 >    90 > Transaction = 1 {
 >    91 >     Context = - {
 >    92 >         ServiceChange = root {
 >    93 >             Services {
 >    94 >                 Method = Restart,
 >    95 >                 Version = 2,
 >    96 >                 Reason = 901   <-------  1*(SafeChar)
 >    97 >             }
 >    98 >         }
 >    99 >     }
 > 100 > }
 > 101 >
 > 102 > -OR-
 > 103 >
 > 104 > MEGACO/1 [10.1.0.200]:2944
 > 105 > Transaction = 1 {
 > 106 >     Context = - {
 > 107 >         ServiceChange = root {
 > 108 >             Services {
 > 109 >                 Method = Restart,
 > 110 >                 Version = 2,
 > 111 >                 Reason = "901 Cold Boot"  <------- quotedString
 > 112 >             }
 > 113 >         }
 > 114 >     }
 > 115 > }
 > 116 >
 > 117 > But if the comments are followed to the letter (and I understood
 > 118 > correctly) the Reason should be quoted every time, thus:
 > 119 >
 > 120 > MEGACO/1 [10.1.0.200]:2944
 > 121 > Transaction = 1 {
 > 122 >     Context = - {
 > 123 >         ServiceChange = root {
 > 124 >             Services {
 > 125 >                 Method = Restart,
 > 126 >                 Version = 2,
 > 127 >                 Reason = "901"  <------- quotedString even when
 > 128 > 1*(SafeChar) matches.
 > 129 >             }
 > 130 >         }
 > 131 >     }
 > 132 > }
 > 133 >
 > 134 > Erlang Megaco is technically correct if the ABNF is stripped of comments
 > 135 > (which is what happens when building the Erlang Megaco stack from the
 > 136 > spec, the ABNF/ASN.1 compiler won't read comments, or am I
 > 137 > underestimating Erlang? :-). It looks as if those knowledgable fellows
 > 138 > of the IETF should have specified:
 > 139 >
 > 140 > serviceChangeReason = ReasonToken  EQUAL quotedString (instead of VALUE)
 > 141 >
 > 142 > Am I correct? How do I force Erlang Megaco to _always_ send
 > 143 > quotedString, not just when there are unSafeChars in the string? Is it
 > 144 > strictly necessary to enforce quotedString?
 > 145 >
 > 146 > Help!
 > 147 >
 > 148 > Pete.
 > 149 >
 > 150 > * Versions 1.03 as in draft-ietf-megaco-3015corr-03.txt and 2.03 as in
 > 151 > draft-ietf-megaco-h248v2-03.txt
 > 152 >
 > 153 > ** line 6557 in v1.03 and line 7275 in v2.03
 > 154 >
 > 155 > *** line 6623 in v1.03 and 7531in v2.03
 > 156 >
 > 
 > 

-- 
Micael Karlberg          Ericsson AB, Älvsjö Sweden
Tel:  +46 8 727 5668     EAB/UHK/KD - OTP Product Development
ECN:  851 5668           Mail: micael.karlberg@REDACTED
Fax:  +46 8 727 5775    



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