Product Description
This section
provides an overview and describes the building blocks for the PCC
solution.
The PCC solution comprises
of Intelligent Policy Control Function (IPCF), which comprises of
extended intelligent PCRF capabilities for policy control function
and Subscriber Service Controller (SSC) having centralized PCRF
function and Subscriber Profile Repository (SPR) functionality.
It also includes a Web-based GUI tool, Policy Provisioning Tool (PPT)
to implement and control the policy based subscriber access in the
existing wireless network as well as service flow based charging
implementation.
The figure given below
describes a high level view of UTRAN/E-UTRAN/cdma2000-1x/HRPD
network with IPCF and other components in a deployment scenario.
Figure 1. PCC Elements in UTRAN/E-UTRAN/cdma2000-1x/HRPD Networks
The IPCF is built around
an intelligent rule configuration and execution system. The IPCF’s policy
rules engine is capable of acting on conditions such as the subscriber,
the session state or network condition or even time and day, to
decide upon the corresponding treatment to be given to the subscriber.
All information and rules fetched by querying IPCF’s subscription
plan are stored in the SSC over Sp interface.
Cisco PCC solution is
well compliant to 3GPP standard in operator’s core network.
Services available through Cisco PCC can be grouped in following
categories:
Cisco PCC solution
empowers operator to deploy a 3GPP Standards based solution ensuring maximum
flexibility and derive and authorize the QoS information for the
service data flow for session as well as bearer usage.
IMPORTANT:
Some
of the features may not be available in this release. Kindly contact
your local Cisco representative for more information on supported
features.
PCC Solution Elements
This section
provides the brief description and functionality of various network
elements involved in the UTRAN/E-UTRAN/cdma2000-1x/HRPD
network. The Policy and Charging Control includes the following
functional entities:
Intelligent Policy Control Function (IPCF)
Intelligent Policy
Control Function (IPCF) provides policy control and charging rule
functions in a core network.
Apart from standard
capabilities, Cisco IPCF provides a unique possibility to deploy
key functions in an integrated fashion collocated with the Policy
and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) on a network function;
i.e. GGSN, PDSN, P-GW. Such an integrated PCRF/PCEF capability
allows for a further flattened and cost optimized network solution,
leveraging Cisco ASR 5x00 platform performance and versatility.
IPCF along with SSC
provide complete control of the policy and usage management for subscribers'
data usage for any network. With SSC managing subscriber as well
as policy related data, the IPCF performs the rules analysis and
drives policy actions into the network. In case of PCEF-co-location
model this basically translates to extending PCEF capabilities to
support dynamic policy and charging functions with reduced latency
in Gx/Gxa/Rx interface transactions.
IPCF acts as a PCRF
functions supplemented with usage monitoring capability that enables policies
around data consumption. IPCF interfaces with the PCEF over standard Gx/Gxa/Rx interface for
policy management and optionally Volume Reporting over standard Gx (VRoGx) interface
for getting the usage of IP Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN)
sessions.
Cisco IPCF is compliant
in accordance with 3GPP standard in operator’s core network. Some
of the key functions of IPCF are to:
- Derive and authorize the QoS information for the service data flow for session as well as bearer usage
- Select the appropriate charging criteria and mechanism apt for the data usage
- Provides network control regarding the service data flow detection and gating
- Ensure the PCEF user plane traffic treatment is in accordance with the user's subscription profile
- Correlate service and charging information across PCEF and AF
PCC Rule and Charging Rule Report Handling
IPCF handles operation
of PCC Rule and activate/deactivate/install/modify/remove
the PCC rules at PCEF. PCC rule operation may fail on PCEF due to
various reasons. In such failure cases PCEF sends back a Charging
Rule Report containing PCC rules failed and corresponding failure
cause.
The IPCF handles these
charging rule reports and take appropriate actions based on configuration.
Charging Rule Report
comes through CCA or RAA messages in a call flow used for handling
the charging-rule-report.
IPCF supports following
charging rule failure codes in report:
- Out-of-credit
- Reallocation-of-credit
- Unknown Rule Name
- Invalid Rating Group
- Invalid Service Identifier
- GW/PCEF Malfunction
- Limited Resources
- Max No. of Bearers Reached
- Unknown Bearer Id
- Missing Bearer Id
- Missing Flow Description
- Resource Allocation Failure
- QoS Validation Failure
Charging rule status
can be any one of the following in this scenario:
- Active
- Inactive
- Temporarily Inactive
A charging rule report
can occur in CCR message multiple times and maximum of 16 charging
rule reports per CCR message is supported by IPCF.
Subscriber Service Controller (SSC)
SSC is the enhanced
subscriber profile repository in Cisco PCC solution.
Based on standard platforms
SSC provides following major functions:
- Subscriber profile storage
- Subscriber usage counters management
- Centralized network policy control
- Supports event manager module
SSC provides a number
of additional PCC functions in the solution, including:
- an intelligent database function for the policy services (SPR), acting either as a standalone SPR or as a high-transaction SPR front-end for dynamic policy tracking
- a centralized Policy software application engine complementing the IPCF for advanced converged and correlated session handling where required
- an event notification module enabling user interaction via SMS and e-mail, and a policy events and statistics manager, which is key for operational monitoring and analysis of the end-user service usage.
The centralised policy
handling capability set of the SSC is designed to enable session correlation
not just across IPCFs, where needed, but also across network domains
through coordinated interaction with other network domain policy
nodes.
The SSC interacts with
IPCF over Sp (a
standard Sh protocol
based) interface for given functionality. SSC also supports a proprietary EN interface, which is
based on XML-RPC protocol, to receive event notification data from
IPCF.
For more information
on SSC function and supported interfaces, refer Subscriber Service
Controller Installation and Administration Guide.
Policy Provisioning Tool (PPT)
Cisco Policy
Provisioning Tool (PPT) is a Web-based client-server GUI application
in PCC solution that helps the operator for subscriber policy provisioning
and management.
It provides the user
(network operator) a comprehensive use-case design experience. It
enables the network operator to design a service plan and subscriber
profile data modeling at a time with the help of use case design
and configuration.
For more information
on PPT function and supported interfaces, refer Policy Provisioning
Tool Installation and Administration Guide.
Licenses
The IPCF is a licensed
Cisco product. Separate session and feature licenses may be required.
Contact your Cisco account representative for detailed information
on specific licensing requirements. For information on installing
and verifying licenses, refer to the Managing License Keys section
of the Software Management
Operations chapter in the System
Administration Guide.
Platform Requirements
The IPCF service runs
on a Cisco® ASR 5x00 chassis running StarOS Rel. 10 or
later. The chassis can be configured with a variety of components
to meet specific network deployment requirements. For additional
information, refer to the Installation
Guide for the chassis and/or contact your Cisco account representative.
