09 FNG31 Charging in Flexi NG

Charging in Flexi NG
1 Flexi NG Charging ©2013 Nokia Solutions and Networks. All rights reserved.
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Module contents
• Flexi NG charging overview

• Offline charging
• Configuring offline charging in Flexi NG
• Online charging overview

Module objectives
At the end of this module the participant can:

• Describe the functionality of Flexi NG offline and online charging options
• Configure offline charging functionality
• Explain the concept of Charging Data Records (CDRs)
• Configure charging profiles
• Define tariff profiles
• Setup charging gateway connections
• Describe online charging functionality
• Describe the roaming awareness feature

Flexi NG charging overview

Policy and charging control interfaces
SGSN RNC AAA PCRF
Policy and
GTP-C
UDP
GTP-U GTP-U
UDP
Radius
UDP
DIAMETER
TCP SCTP
Charging Rule
IP IP IP IP
Functions
S4/Gn/Gp S12 Gi/SGi Gx/Gxc

GTP-C GTP-U
PMIP
S-GW UDP
S5
P-PW IP
GTP-C
UDP
Packet Data
MME IP
S11 Gi/SGi IP Networks
GTP-U
UDP
S1-U
eNodeB
IP
Online Offline
ChargingX1_1 Gy Gz Bp Charging
O&M
X2, X3
LIP DIAMETER GTP’ FTP SNMP,
TELNET, SSH,
TCP TCP SCTP UDP TCP
FTP and SFTP.
IP IP IP IP
LIG OCS CG CG NMS


Charging in Flexi NG

Offline charging

Offline charging with Flexi NG
• Charging data is collected for every active bearer, and based on this
data Flexi NG generates charging data records (CDRs) at configurable
intervals
– For example, when a volume or time threshold is reached
• The generated CDRs are either sent to CGF (Gz interface) or stored in
CDR files on the CLA hard disks and retrieved over Bp interface
• The sequence numbering of files is unique, because each service node
has its own node ID
• In service awareness configuration, CDRs can be generated for each
service (rating group)

Offline charging usage reporting
• Flexi NG is targeted to support the following charging models:

– Post-paid users with time and/or volume usage charging
– Flat rate with/without volume usage limit, time usage limit, bandwidth limitation
• Support for multiple charging profiles for different end user groups
• Different CDR type generated according to the network element deployment mode
– High Capacity GGSN: eG-CDR
– Packet Data Network Gateway (PDN-GW): PGW-CDR
– Serving Gateway (S-GW): SGW-CDR

Flexi NG as GGSN: PGW-CDR
• PGW-CDRs are created

• Reporting volume and/or time
– Flow based charging with service awareness supported
• ASN.1/BER (Abstract Syntax Notation One / Basic Encoding Rules)

Flexi NG as PDN-GW: PGW-CDR
• PGW-CDRs are created, based on 3GPP Release 10

– Flow based charging with service awareness supported
• PGW-CDRs are used for both EPS bearers and PDP contexts in 3GPP
Release10

Flexi NG as S-GW: S-CDR
• SGW-CDRs are created, based on 3GPP Release 10


Bp interface for CDR transfer
• Recovery Group /CdrCollector running on CLA receives metering information from the
session_ctrl processes on AS nodes
– session_ctrl fetches user plane metering data from gwup process
• The CDRs are written to CDR files, which are stored on Flexi NG hard disk in the
/var/cdr_storage directory
• The CDR files are retrieved by billing mediation through the Bp interface
• The retrieving entity retrieves and deletes the CDR files from Flexi NG
• The transfer protocols supported by Flexi NG on Bp interface are:
– File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and
– Secure FTP (sFTP)
• The file size limit for Flexi NG CDR files is 20 MB
• 30 GB (mirrored) storage reserved for CDRs

Gz interface (GTP’)
• Recovery group /GtpPrime implements the Gz (Ga) interface on the AS nodes

– gtp_prime process interacts with session_ctrl process to collect the metering data from user plane (gwup)
• GTP’ protocol is used to
– transfer CDRs to a Charging Gateway Function (CGF) over Gz interface
– ensure safe transmission of CDRs, thus preventing loss or duplication of charging information
• GTP’ version 2 supported (3GPP 32.295)
• An external Gz interface needs to be configured in Flexi NG
• Up to 64 external CGFs can be integrated
• When Gz hard disk backup is enabled, in case of connectivity failure to CGFs
– Flexi NG sends the CDRs to the CDR buffer
– CDR buffer can store CDRs up to 150 MB per active SB node,
– When the CDRs buffer is full , the new CDRs stored on CLA hard disks
– The stored CDRs can be retrieved to the billing system over Bp

MME/SGSN change in CDR
• An MME/SGSN change take place when the tracking or routing area is changed
• MME/SGSN changes are recorded in the CDRs. There is a limit to the number of times the MME/SGSN
can change for a PDP context, before a CDR is generated
• When an MME/SGSN change takes place, a container in a CDR is filled for the PDP context/EPC
session and the container closes because of the MME/SGSN change
• When the maximum number of MME/SGSN changes are reached, the generated CDR is also closed
because of the MME/SGSN change
• The SGSN change is only recorded if the change is in the SGSN’s GTP-C (control plane)
SGSN GTP-C GTP-U

UDP S4/Gn/Gp
IP
GTP-C HD
MME UDP
IP
S11

Furnish charging information for offline charging
• Flexi NG accepts the PS-Furnish-Charging-Information AVP within the Service-Information

AVP.
• To enable the furnish charging information functionality for offline charging:
1. Offline charging must be enabled.
2. The furnish charging information functionality must be enabled.
3. The CDR format must be version NG2.1 or higher
• Cannot disable on the fly (Need to shutdown or restart the blade to disable it)
• Enabling the FCI functionality allocates up to 530 MB of memory per node for its use (3000
FCI entries)
• When the memory limit is reached, it will trigger the alarm:
– 71520 APPROACHING RESOURCE LIMIT
– 71521 RESOURCE LIMIT REACHED

Added for FCI --
The PS-Furnish-Charging-Information AVP (AVP code 865) is of type Grouped. Its purpose is to
add online charging session specific information, received via the Ro reference point, onto the
Rf reference point in order to facilitate its inclusion in CDRs. This information element may be
received in a CCA message via the Ro reference point. In situations where online and offline
charging are active in parallel, the information element is transparently copied into an ACR to
be sent on the Rf reference point.
It has the following ABNF grammar:
PS-Furnish-Charging-Information :: = < AVP Header: 865>
{ 3GPP-Charging-Id }
{ PS-Free-Format-Data }
[ PS-Append-Free-Format-Data ]

Configuring furnish charging information handling
• In order to activate the FCI feature, also the following conditions must be met:
– parameter offline-charging-functionality feature must be set to enabled.
set ng feature offline-charging-functionality enable
– parameter cdr-format must be set to cdr-format-4
set ng charging general cdr-format cdr-format-4
• Configure furnish charging information handling with the following command.
set ng charging general furnish-charging-information <furnish-
charginginformation>
Example:
set ng charging general furnish-charging-information enabled

Configuring offline charging

Configuring the Gz interface 1/2
• You need to configure an external interface for the CDR transfer over Gz
• There is a pre-defined interface type Gz (node-Gz-interface)
• You need to create and associate an interface group to the node Gz interface
– Note that the IP addresses of the node Gz interface group should not be same as the IP
addresses of a load balancing Gn interface group or a load balancing S11 interface group
• First, there must be physical or loopback addresses configured for the Gz
interface on the AS nodes
– VRFs and VLANs can also be configured for Gz interfaces
• You also need to create the interface group for Gz, e.g.
add ng interface interface-group gz-iface type ipv4 vrf default

Configuring the Gz interface 2/2
• You then need to add the Gz interfaces Gz configured for different nodes into that group. For
example, on AMPP1 blade on slot 7:
set ng interface interface-group gz-iface node AS7-0 address
10.31.140.2
set ng interface interface-group gz-iface node AS7-1 address
10.31.140.3
• Next, you need to link the node Gz interface to the created interface group
– This links the interface group name to the predefined interface type (node-gz in this case)
set ng interface general gz gz-iface
• Note that before configuring the interface you need to disable the NG functionality, if already
enabled
set ng general ng-functionality disable
• To view the Gz interface group settings
show ng interface general gz

Routing in Gz network
• Finally, you need to take care of the correct routing configuration in the Gz
network
– Static routes to CGFs
– OSPF for dynamic routing

Configuring Bp interface
• If you want to store the CDRs on CLA hard disk and retrieve them with FTP,
an external Bp interface must be created
• You need to configure the IP addressing for the Bp interfaces (on CLA nodes)
• To configure an external IP address for the Bp interface, simply set the correct
IP address
set ng interface general bp 10.31.140.81

General offline charging functionality
• The general off-line charging configuration defines the following properties:

– whether off-line charging functionality is enabled or disabled (default: disabled)
– charging node ID
– CDR file type (uncompressed or compressed; default: file (uncompressed))
– maximum number of CDRs in a file (default: 50 000)
– CDR file size (in kilobytes; default: 10 000)
– CDR file lifetime (in seconds; default: 600)
• Command examples:
– To enable Flexi NG off-line charging functionality, enter the following command:
set ng feature offline-charging-functionality enable
– To view the off-line charging functionality configuration:
show ng feature offline-charging-functionality

Setting the charging node ID
• Command examples:
– To set the charging node string identifier to NGnode1, enter the following command
set ng charging general node-id-prefix NGnode1
– To view the charging node ID configuration:

show ng charging general node-id-prefix

CDR collector compression settings
• Modifying the configuration file

cdr_collector.conf
– CONF_CDR_FILE_COMPRESSION ON CDR
Compression
– If the compression configuration is changed, the CDR Function File: cdr_collector.conf
file under process is closed with closure reason 5
• Setting the CDR file type
– To set the CDR file type to compressed, enter the
following command cdr_collector
set ng charging cdr-file general cdr-
file-type compressed-file HD
– To view the CDR file type: Gz Bp

show ng charging cdr-file general cdr-
file-type GTP’ FTP
UDP TCP
IP IP
CG CG

CDR file closure conditions
• The generated CDRs are stored to CDR files that are saved on Flexi NG hard
disk. The following configurable conditions are used to close the files:
• File size limit in kilobytes
• File lifetime in seconds
• Maximum number of CDRs in a file

Setting the CDR file closure conditions - Examples
• To set the maximum lifetime of a CDR file to 300 seconds:

set ng charging cdr-file general cdr-file-lifetime 300
• To set the maximum size of a CDR file to 15 000 kilobytes:
set ng charging cdr-file general cdr-file-size 15000
• To set the maximum number of CDRs in a CDR file to 60.000:
set ng charging cdr-file general cdr-max-number-per-file 60000
• For example, to view the configured maximum size of a CDR file with the following command:
show ng charging cdr-file general cdr-file-size

Record Sequence Numbers (RSN)
• RSN is an eG-CDR field with 3GPP Rel 7 (for High Capacity GGSN)
• RSN is used to arrange that intermediate CDR records are generated in Flexi NG for a PDP
context
• RSN is:
– initialized to ‘1’ for the first CDR of a PDP context
– increased by one in every following CDR for that PDP context

Charging profiles
• The charging profiles define the charging settings linked to the session profiles
• Charging profiles are taken into use only if they are referenced by an active session profile
• In the session profile the standard charging characteristics values are set to point to the
configures charging profiles
• The analysis of the charchar index value in the incoming GTP message is determining the
selection of the locally configured charging profile
Charging
Charging Charging profiles for
profiles for profiles for postpaid with
prepaid postpaid CC
MME
Gi/SGi Packet
PacketData
Data
LTE APNS1
→ S11
Session Profile Networks
Networks
eNodeB

Configuring the charging profiles
• For example, to create a charging profile for postpaid subscribers

add ng charging charging-profile postpaid cdr-intermediate-interval 0 cdr-
min-data-threshold 0 cdr-data-threshold 1000 enable-cdr-generation enable
enable-ocs disable
• To link the charging profile to a session profile
set ng session-profile ggsnprofile charcharindex 4 charging-profile-name
postpaid
• To modify a charging profile on the fly, you must first deactivate the session profile reference
to the charging profile to close the bearers that are using the charging profile
• NOTE: Charging profile for the subscriber can also be selected by a RADIUS server
– Referred by the Nokia-Session-Charging-Type attribute in the Access-Accept message
– The charging profile indicated by RADIUS will override the local configuration
– Specific mapping between Nokia-Session-Charging-Type attributes and the standard charcharindex values is
needed

Time and volume thresholds for CDR generation
• Different time and volume limits can be configured to trigger the generation of new CDRs
• Time limit (cdr-intermediate-interval)
– Defines a time interval for CDR generation
– NOTE: Reaching the time limit does not trigger CDR generation if cdr-min-data-threshold has
not been reached
• Data threshold for time-based generation (cdr-min-data-threshold)
– The minimum data threshold prevents the generation of time-based CDRs if cdr-min-data-
threshold has not been reached
– NOTE: Configuring cdr-min-data-threshold to be higher than the volume limit (cdr-data-
threshold) can lead to time-based CDRs not being generated.
• Volume limit (cdr-data-threshold)
– Triggers volume-based CDR once the combined volume of uplink and downlink packets reaches the
threshold
– The reported volume customarily exceeds the configured volume limit due to packet size variation

Adding a new charging profile - Example
• To add a new charging profile

– named chargingprofile1
– that uses an intermediate CDR time interval of 5 minutes,
– a minimum data threshold of 1 kbyte,
– a data volume threshold of 1000 kbytes,
– has CDR generation enabled
– and references a tariff profile named tariffprofile1, enter the following command:
add ng charging charging-profile chargingprofile1 cdr-intermediate-
interval 5 cdr-min-data-threshold 1 cdr-data-threshold 1000 enable-cdr-
generation enable tariff-profile-name tariffprofile1

Modifying a charging profile - Example
• To modify an existing charging profile

– named chargingprofile1
– to use an intermediate CDR time interval of 2 minutes,
– time-based CDR triggering threshold of 10 kbytes,
– data volume threshold of 1000 kbytes,
– and to disable CDR generation
– and reference a tariff profile named tariffprofile2, enter the following command:
set ng charging charging-profile chargingprofile1 cdr-intermediate-
interval 2 cdr-min-data-threshold 10 cdr-data-threshold 1000 enable-cdr-
generation disable tariff-profile-name tariffprofile2

Configuring default charging profile
• The default charging profile is used for the session profile in case e.g.
charging characteristics values are unknown
– Note: There can be only one default charging profile at a time
• Before you start

– When adding a default charging profile, you can only reference an existing charging profile
name
– Before configuring the default charging profile, make sure the charging profile is configured
and available
• Command example:
– To set the charging profile chargingprofile1 as the default charging profile, enter the
following command:
set ng session-profile profile1 (...) default-charging-profile
chargingprofile1

Configuring tariff profiles
• Tariff profiles are used to define the time when the intermediate CDRs are created for
ongoing sessions.
– Tariff profiles define the tariff settings used in charging Tariffprofile1:
profiles. Create intermediate CDR at 6am
→ Charging profile changes
– A tariff profile is taken into use only when referenced
by an active charging profile.
• To add a new tariff profile named tariffprofile1 that triggers the intermediate CDR
generation on each day from Monday to Friday at 6.00 a.m., enter the following command:
add ng charging tariff-profile tariffprofile1 day mon-fri hour 6 min 00
• View the configuration of all existing tariff profiles with the following command:
show ng charging tariff-profile

Configuring Charging Gateways
• More than one Charging Gateway (up to 64) may be used for
receiving CDRs from Flexi NG
• Flexi NG supports
– To add,
– modify, and
– delete a charging gateway
And to:
– define CDR delivery mode and
– alarm threshold for CDR queue Gz Gz Bp
GTP’ GTP’
FTP FTP
UDP UDP
TCP TCP
IP IP IP
CG1
CG CG
CG2 CM

Adding Charging Gateways
• To add a new charging gateway charginggateway1 with

– charging gateway name cg1
– that uses an IP address 1.2.3.4
– and the priority of 1,
– acknowledgement wait time interval of 2 seconds,
– a transmission window size as 10,
– with retransmission count 4
– and administrative state disable, enter the following command:
add ng charging charging-gateway charginggateway1 cg-name cg1 ip-address 1.2.3.4
priority 1 ack-wait-time 2 transmission-window-size 10 retransmission-count 4
administrative-state disable
• To view the values of parameter set of the charging gateway charginggateway1, enter the
following command
show ng charging charging-gateway charginggateway1

Modifying the CDR delivery mode
• You may modify the mode in which the CDRs is delivered.

• The mode is cdr-file for the Bp interface and gtp-prime for the Gz interface.
• The default value is cdr-file
• To modify the CDR delivery mode as
cdr-file, enter the following command:
FTP set ng charging general cdr-
GTP
Process Server delivery-mode cdr-file
Process HD
• To view the CDR delivery mode, enter the

following command:
Gz Bp
show ng charging general cdr-
Or pull CDRs delivery-mode
Push CDRs GTP’ FTP
using GTP’ UDP TCP using FTP /

IP IP sFTP
gtp-prime
CG CG cdr-file

Modifying alarm threshold for CDR queue
• You may modify an alarm threshold for raising the CDR QUEUES RUNNING OUT alarm
– Value range is from 20% to 90%. The default value is 75.
• To modify the alarm threshold for CDR queue to 80, enter the following command:
set ng charging gtp-prime general queue-alarm-threshold 80
• To view the alarm threshold for CDR files, enter the following command:
show ng charging gtp-prime general queue-alarm-threshold

CDR transfer to Billing Mediation
FTP Username and • CDR files are retrieved from Flexi NG to billing
Password needed mediation through the Bp interface
to retrieve data • The retrieving entity retrieves and deletes the CDR
files from Flexi NG
FTP Server
Process
• The transfer methods supported by Flexi NG are
HD File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and secure FTP (sFTP)
• The CDR file size limit is 20 MB
Gz Bp
GTP’ FTP
UDP TCP
IP IP
CG CG

Configuring FTP user accounts for CDR transfer
• User accounts can be created to transfer the CDR files

– Using an ftp account, the CDR files are transferred from the location, where they were stored and
are removed from the disk after the transfer
– The FTP transfer takes place in a pull mode, with the remote FTP client in the billing system fetching
the CDR files from Flexi NG FTP server
– The charging functionality should be disabled before you add, delete or modify the user account
– To create a user account called user1, enter the following command:
/opt/nokiasiemens/SS_ngCLI/bin/ftpuseradd user1 password1

Checking the offline charging configuration
The following show commands are available:

• Viewing all or specific off-line charging configuration values *)
show ng charging general [offline-charging-functionality] [node-id-prefix] [cdrfile-type] [cdr-max-number-per-file] [cdr-file-size] [cdr-
file-lifetime]
• View the CDR profile
show ng charging cdr-profile [cdrprofile]
• View charging profiles
show ng charging [charging-profile]
• View tariff profiles
show ng charging tariff-profile
• View charging gateways
show ng charging charging-gateway [charginggateway]

S-GW charging configuration

S-GW charging profiles
• In the current release, Flexi NG provides partial support for the S-GW
charging functionality
• When Flexi NG is used as an S-GW, SGW-CDR generation needs to be
enabled, and the time and volume thresholds need to be set

Configuring SGW-CDR generation
• To enable or disable SGW-CDR generation

set ng charging general sgw-cdr-generation enable
• To set the intermediate time-based SGW-CDR generation interval
set ng charging general sgw-cdr-intermediate-interval
• To set the SGW-CDR generation data volume threshold
set ng charging general sgw-cdr-intermediate-interval

Online charging

Online Charging with Flexi NG
• A flexible and future proof solution for on-line PCRF

DIAMETER
credit control based on 3GPP and IETF TCP SCTP
standards IP
• Usage of DCCA - Diameter Credit Control Gx/Gxc
Application
• Support for Gy interface
• Dynamic redirection of a subscriber to the
Advice of Charge (AoC) HD
Gy Gz Bp
DIAMETER GTP’ FTP
TCP SCTP UDP TCP
IP IP IP
OCS CG CG

On-line charging with Flexi NG
DCCA* based on-line usage reporting and control on Gy-interface
• Possibility to on-line monitor and control bearer usage and service usage
• volume
• time
Benefits
• and services (service awareness)
of
Flexi NG • Support for on-line prepaid charging model
on-line • Support for on-line usage reporting through Diameter which could allow to
charging: implement, for example, bill shock prevention and/or and bearer usage
services even for post-paid charging users
• Solution based on public standards and on the long experience gained
through earlier gateway solutions
* DCCA - Diameter Credit Control Application

Charging terms
On-line/off-line? Prepaid/postpaid?
Term Remark
Offline charging A charging process where charging information does not affect the
service rendered in real-time.
Online charging A charging process where charging information can affect the
service rendered in real-time and therefore directly interacts with
the session/service control. Calls may be interrupted.
Postpaid billing Billing arrangement between customer and operator/service

provider where the customer periodically receives a bill for service
usage in the past period
Prepaid billing Billing arrangement between customer and operator/service

provider where the customer deposits an amount of money in
advance, which is subsequently used to pay for service usage

Start of online charging with Flexi NG and OCS (DCCA)
4.
4. Verify
Verify
account
account OCS
information
information
3.
3. Start
Start an
an 5.
5. Acknowledge
Acknowledge
online
online
charging
charging
session
session
AP W eb
2.
2. Determine
Determine the
the
1.
1. Create
Create PDP
PDP charging
charging type
type
context
context /EPC session
/EPC session
request
request

Acquiring quota
4.
4. Determine
Determine service
service
quotas
quotas based on
based on the
the
rate
rate plan
plan that
that should
should
be 5.
5. Return
Return information
information
be applied
applied to
to this
this OCS
subscriber
subscriber on
on subscriber’s quota
subscriber’s quota
for
for the
the charging
charging class
class
3.
3. Usage
Usage CC
CC 1:
1: 100
100 kB
kB
limit
limit for
for the
the 60 s
60 s
charging
charging class
class 22 events
events
(=rating
(=rating group)
group) linked
linked with
with the
the flow
flow
spec
spec
6.
6. Record
Record the
the
service
service quota
quota
AP for CC
for CC 11
W eb
1.
1. Access
Access aa
content
content 2.
2. Perform
Perform traffic
traffic
service
service analysis
analysis

Metering traffic
OCS
3.
3. Report
Report
usage
usage and
and
request
request CC
CC 1:
1: 40
40 kB
kB
new
new quota
quota 11 events
events
AP W eb
1.
1. Use
Use the
the 2.
2. Meter
Meter
content
content service
service usage
usage
service
service

Session-based charging model
Session
Session
ends
ends
Session
Session Quota
Quota Quota
Quota Quota
Quota Quota
Quota No
No
starts
starts given
given given
given given
given given
given credit
credit
Quota
Quota Report
Report Report
Report Report
Report Report
Report
request
request and
and quota
quota and
and quota
quota and
and quota
quota and
and quota
quota
request
request request
request request
request request
request

DCCA interface
• Flexi NG supports the Diameter Credit Control Application (DCCA)

protocol for online charging
– Developed by the IETF, usage specification for mobile environment by 3GPP
• The DCCA based charging server is called OCS by 3GPP
– Online Charging System (e.g., NSN charge@once)
• OCS handles all prepaid and credit-controlled postpaid subscribers
• Flexi NG supports the session-based charging model
• Backwards compatibility to legacy DCCA interface supported

Roaming awareness and bill-shock prevention

Roaming awareness feature
• Differentiation of the subscribers based on their roaming status

– Currently only for GGSN deployment
• Allows to implement Bill-shock Prevention (BSP) according to legislative
requirements
– Online credit control with credit limits imposed on roaming users
– Operators may have different methods to implement the BSP
• Flexi NG can take actions based on local configuration
– Select the charging profile for roaming user
– Allow or block bearer based on roaming status
– Collect statistics

Roaming status
• In the current release, roaming awareness and BSP are supported in the
GGSN mode.
• Roaming awareness allows Flexi NG to determine the PLMN IDs of GGSN,
SGSN, and IMSI
• The roaming status of a subscriber can be
• Home
• Visitor
• Roaming

Determining the roaming status
• Flexi NG performs PLMN analysis of the PLMN IDs and determines the
PLMN profiles
• Based on the PLMN profile, the PLMN indicator is determined.
• The roaming status of the subscriber is determined by comparing the PLMN
indicators of IMSI and SGSN using the following conditions:
• The roaming status of the subscriber is Home when the PLMN indicators of both IMSI and
SGSN are Home
• The roaming status of the subscriber is Visitor when the PLMN indicator of IMSI is Visitor
or the PLMN profile of IMSI is unknown
• The roaming status of the subscriber is Roaming when the PLMN indicators of IMSI is
home + the PLMN indicators of SGSN is Visitor respectively or the PLMN profile of
SGSN is unknown.

Selecting the charging profile
• In the current release the charging profile can only be selected during PDP Context Creation
• If roaming awareness is disabled, the charging profile is selected according to the charging
characteristics parameters in the session profiles
• If roaming awareness is enabled the charging profile is selected according to the table on the
next slide
• Note that if a charging profile has been selected by a RADIUS server, it overrides any local
configuration

Charging profile selection criteria
Subscriber’s roaming status Selected charging profile

The charging profile defined with the roaming-
Roaming charging-profile-name parameter in session
profile
The charging profile defined with the visiting-
Visited charging-profile-name parameter in session
profile
•If charging characteristics is not defined: the charging

profile defined with the default-charging-
Home profile-name parameter in session profile.
•If the default charging profile is not defined, charging
for the session is disabled (free session).

Roaming awareness attributes sent
• Roaming status can be reflected to external network elements

Information Attribute in eG- Attribute in
Attribute in Gy Attribute in Gx
element CDR RADIUS
PCRF (always
3GPP-GGSN-MCC- 3GPP-GGSN-MCC-
PLMN ID of GGSN N/A located in GGSN
MNC MNC
PLMN.)
SGSN PLMN 3GPP-SGSN-MCC- 3GPP-SGSN-MCC- 3GPP-SGSN-MCC-
PLMN ID of SGSN
Identifier MNC MNC MNC
3GPP-IMSI-MCC- 3GPP-IMSI-MCC-
PLMN ID of IMSI N/A N/A
MNC MNC
3GPP-SGSN- 3GPP-SGSN- 3GPP-SGSN-
SGSN IP address SGSN address
Address Address Address
IMSI served IMSI 3GPP-IMSI 3GPP-IMSI Subscription-ID

Configuring roaming awareness
• To enable the roaming awareness feature

set ng feature roaming-awareness enabled
• Make sure that you have the PLMN IDs analyzed as needed
• Then configure all the relevant charging profiles to be used for inbound and
outbound roaming users
• Specify the roaming-charging-profile-name and visiting-
charging-profile-name in the session profile
• roaming awareness needs to be enabled before roaming status is not allowed
to change through the Update PDP Context Request message

09 FNG31 Charging in Flexi NG

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Charging in Flexi NG

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• Flexi NG charging overview

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At the end of this module the participant can:

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S4/Gn/Gp S12 Gi/SGi Gx/Gxc

LIG OCS CG CG NMS

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• Flexi NG is targeted to support the following charging models:

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• PGW-CDRs are created

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• PGW-CDRs are created, based on 3GPP Release 10

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• SGW-CDRs are created, based on 3GPP Release 10

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• Recovery group /GtpPrime implements the Gz (Ga) interface on the AS nodes

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SGSN GTP-C GTP-U

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• Flexi NG accepts the PS-Furnish-Charging-Information AVP within the Service-Information

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• The general off-line charging configuration defines the following properties:

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– To view the charging node ID configuration:

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• Modifying the configuration file

– To view the CDR file type: Gz Bp

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• To set the maximum lifetime of a CDR file to 300 seconds:

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• For example, to create a charging profile for postpaid subscribers

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• To add a new charging profile

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• To modify an existing charging profile

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• Before you start

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• To add a new charging gateway charginggateway1 with