osmo-ggsn(8)

NAME
osmo-ggsn - Gateway GPRS Support Node.

SYNOPSIS
osmo-ggsn --help

osmo-ggsn --version

osmo-ggsn [ --help ] [ --daemonize ] [ --config-file file ] [ --version ]

DESCRIPTION
osmo-ggsn is part of the OsmoGGSN project, and implements a Gateway GPRS Support Node. It is used by mobile operators as the interface between the Internet and the rest of the mobile network infrastructure.

The GPRS functionality and protocols has been standardised by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). According to the 3GPP specifications a GGSN has two interfaces: The Gn/Gp interface and the Gi interface.

The Gn/Gp interface can be seen as the downlink interface of the GGSN. It is used for communicating with the Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) which again interfaces to the radio access network. The Gn/Gp interface uses the GPRS tunneling protocol (GTP). User data packets (typically IP packets) are tunneled over GTP, which again uses UDP over IP.

The other interface can be thought of as the uplink interface, and interfaces the GGSN to an external data network. Gi is most often an interface to the Internet. osmo-ggsn uses the TUN/TAP driver for the Gi interface. A tun network interface is established when the osmo-ggsn is started.

osmo-ggsn will accept incoming connections from mobile stations through the radio access network and the SGSN. When a connection request is received the ggsn will allocate a dynamic IP address for the mobile station, and allow the mobile station to access the Gi interface. Connections are terminated by either the mobile station or the SGSN. Runtime errors are reported using the Osmocom logging framework.

Typically osmo-ggsn will be deployed with two Ethernet interfaces. One for the Gn/Gp interface, and one for the Gi interface. Policy routing and firewall rules should be used in order to separate Gi traffic from Gn/Gp traffic.

OPTIONS

--help
    Print help and exit.

--version
    Print version and exit.

--daemonize
    Run in background as a daemon (default = off)

--config-file file
    Read configuration file (default = ./openggsn.cfg)

FILES
./osmo-ggsn.cfg
    The configuration file for osmo-ggsn.
/var/run/osmo-ggsn.pid
    Process ID file.
/var/lib/osmo-ggsn
    Directory holding nonvolatile data.

BUGS
Report all bugs to the OsmoGGSN bug tracking list at https://osmocom.org/projects/openggsn

osmo-ggsn has very limited management support. Currently both SNMP as well as billing mechanisms are missing.

SEE ALSO
sgsnemu(8)

NOTES

Besides the long options documented in this man page osmo-ggsn also accepts a number of short options with the same functionality. Use osmo-ggsn --help for a full list of all the available options.

The TUN/TAP driver is required for proper operation of osmo-ggsn. For linux kernels later than 2.4.7 the TUN/TAP driver is included in the kernel, but typically needs to be loaded manually with modprobe tun. For automatic loading the line alias char-major-10-200 tun can be added to /etc/modules.conf. For other platforms see http://vtun.sourceforge.net/tun/ for information on how to install and configure the tun driver.

osmo-ggsn uses the GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) as specified by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). 3GPP protocols specifications can be found at http://www.3gpp.org

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2002, 2003 by Mondru AB. Copyright (C) 2017 Harald Welte

The contents of this file may be used under the terms of the GNU General Public License Version 2, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice is included in all copies or substantial portions of the software.

AUTHORS
Jens Jakobsen <jj@openggsn.org> Harald Welte <laforge@gnumonks.org>