Smart Policy Control and Charging in Converging IP Networks
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The reasons for network operators to deploy a smart policy control and charging solution in their network are as manifold as the operators are different in their strategy, market position and size. It ranges from the up-and-coming mobile network operator that wants to set itself apart from the well-established competition with progressive and creative charging models and value-added services to the global player that wants to monetize OTT traffic and use network capacity as efficiently as possible to deliver the best quality of experience to their customers. In parallel, the underlying IP networks are changing at an incredible pace with more and more operators finally rolling out IPv6 to their customers.
Surprisingly, a flexible and scalable policy enforcement component within the PCC solution can enable this variety of scenarios with a set of key network functions that is comparably small but powerful.
This webinar brought to you by telecoms.com in association with ipoque will introduce you to the secrets of policy enforcement that are shaping the future of the Internet including:
- How to handle the individualized needs of different operators
- Flexibility and scalability as the main drivers for policy control and charging solutions
- How to balance the costs with an experience that measurably benefits both operator and subscriber
Thank you for all your questions. This Q&A is now closed. You can email Daniel your questions direct at daniel.breest@ipoque.com.
?As I understand on the north bound the policy Enforcement element is tightly coupled with the B/OSS systems and OCS. a) what is the need for this tight coupling? b) Can the implementation be cloud based or how is it deployed
The tight coupling as i mentioned in the presention was related to the need to speak a “common language” or in other words to use standardized interfaces here.
Where services around business support, online and offline charging are located, in the cloud or not, has minor priority as long as the control network can handle the signaling traffic.
Considering P2P traffic is going lower each day due either new apps or legal enforcement and DDL almost dissapeared, which are the new drivers to keep policy enforcement on fixed networks?
HTTP or more specifically application traffic over HTTP is for sure the biggest challenge in todays networks, both fixed and mobile, given that in some networks HTTP-based traffic accounts for 50% or more of the traffic volume.
The challenge here is not only to clearly classify the different “web applications” that use HTTP as transport but also take the different content types into account.
In addition to that there are strong trends towards encrypting HTTP – HTTPS encryption is now standard for Google+ for example – and a DPI-driven policy enforcement solution must be able to classify HTTPS traffic based on information available with the SSL/TLS certificate for example.
Do u have support for QoS subscriber based?. I mean for the same subscriber at the same tile differ speed to VOIP and you tube ?
Yes, within our policy enforcement framework we do support hierarchical bandwidth shaping and bandwidth allocation down to specific subscriber IP address and DPI application
Do you support provisioning of dynamic policies from PCRF to PCEF over Gx?
The provisioning of dynamic policies is supported and policies can be created, modified or deleted very fine-grained down to a specific subscriber IP address and DPI application.
In our latest software release dynmic policy provisioning is provided via a RADIUS-based interface. Support for Gx and other 3GPP interfaces is on our roadmap and availability will be announced officially soon.
Can your single PCEF support traffic from different radio access types with single subscriber base?
Assuming that we are deployed upstream of the both fixed and mobile gateways we do support traffic of different access networks within a single subscriber base.
Do you support policy definition and enforcement for “usage limit for Youtube for a subscriber is 1 GB and P2P traffic is 500 MB”
Yes, this use case is supported and can be enforced accordingly. It requires the interoperability with a policy controller and charging system of course that keeps track of the traffic usage and decides when to limit or cut off the subscriber once he consumed the 1GB of streaming quota for examp.e
what protocols are used between your PCEF and the PCRF and are they standardized?
The protocols that are used for realtime and subscriber-level policy management and traffic usage reporting/charging are RADIUS-based at the moment.
Support for DIAMETER-based 3GPP interfaces such as Gx is on our roadmap and availability will of announced soon.
Has it started yet?
Please try the non streaming version: http://webinars.telecoms.com/webinar/nostream/
Whats the main driver for deploying a DPI-based solution in an operator network? Is it subscriber and application visibility, traffic management, policy control and charging or something else? Whats the most important among those in your opinion?
The main driver to deploy a DPI-based solution in a network is to gain visibility on a per subscriber and (DPI) application level, since this is the key to unlock the other aspects such subscriber- and application-aware traffic management, policy control and charging.