Open Policy Control Platforms

Whitepaper
/
How open policy control platforms help
operators save costs and launch new
services fast

Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Why traditional approaches to PCRF aren’t fit for purpose anymore ............................................................................................................. 4
A future proof approach to PCRF .................................................................................................................................................................. 5
Video on-demand at tier 1 Central European operator .................................................................................................................................. 6
Beyond PCRF ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Disruptive buzz words that don’t mean much to policy control ...................................................................................................................... 9
What Computaris offers ............................................................................................................................................................................... 10
DigitalRoute solution promotion………………………………………............................................................................................................... 11
About………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..12

Introduction
The role of policy in telecoms has changed
radically over the last few years. A series of
disruptive dynamics are coming together,
dynamics that have caused operators to re-
assess their business models, their
technological foundations and the services
they offer to customers and partners. With
near-total penetration in terms of mobile
device ownership in developed markets and
continued growth in developing markets,
operators are looking to maximize utilization of
their network assets while continuing to assure
quality of service and experience at a carrier-
grade level.
The stakes are far greater than ever before
because operators are no longer providing a
limited range of services that they alone
control. Instead, they’re offering a far greater
number of services, sometimes with partners,
sometimes by themselves and sometimes with
the services of over-the-top (OTT) providers
which ride over their networks but do not
involve operators in the value chain.
Accepting the fact that they (operators) are
moving away from owning the service and that
they need to be the “best and smartest” carrier
of 3rd party services will be next competitive
frontier.
Importantly, some of these services will have
extremely short lifecycles – of as little as a few
days for services related to a specific event –
so operators need to be able to launch,
manage and kill services rapidly and regularly.
Service proliferation has moved the policy and
charging rules function (PCRF) on from being
about protecting the network and enabling
policy to be applied to a limited number of
static services that have long lifecycles, such
as flat rate data tariffs or simple monthly
allowance.
Shared data plans include offerings such as,
as per service, per device, per day time or per
location data bundles as well as free access to
specific services to be shared across a family
unit. The capabilities of the bundle can be
apportioned among family members and
directly controlled by the user with an exposed
WEB interface, typically the contract-holding
parent. Often additional detailed rules may be
added by the master user such as filtering for
the parental control. Equally, enterprises are
adopting bundles in which capacity and
services are apportioned among employees.
They’re also looking to segment private and
business use. That’s important for corporate
taxation compliance but it also enables
enterprises to ensure employees pay for
personal use but do not get charged for their
business-related consumption.
In spite of the transformations that are
continuing in the telecoms market, the motives
for policy remain unchanged with four key
drivers for deploying PCRF:
1) Making money by using policy to support
premium services such as HD video and
enabling new propositions to be launched
2) Saving cost through maximizing utilization
of network equipment to postpone new
network investment and limiting
unprofitable network consumption
3) Addressing new technology and new
services such as LTE and VoLTE by
supporting them with policy control in new
Diameter-based signaling environments
4) Achieving regulatory compliance by
enabling usage caps on roaming to ensure
compliance with anti-bill shock or roaming
regulation
/
services fast
page 3

Why traditional approaches
to PCRF aren’t fit for
purpose anymore
Traditional PCRF products – generally –
were adequate for addressing the specific
requirements of a service they were
designed to support. However, greater
flexibility is now required and operators’
time to market challenges mean that the
traditional approach of developing a PCRF
product to support a new service is too
time consuming, requires too much
repeated work every time a new service is
launched and relies too heavily on the
product vendor.
Triggering a programme of service-specific
product development by a PCRF vendor
every time an operator wants to launch a
new service is a flawed methodology on
two levels. First it will take time to
communicate the functionality required
and further time for the vendor to develop
the product to address the requirements –
and often it turns out not to be possible to
address such requirements effectively.
Secondly, that development work comes at
a cost to an operator.
Operators can’t go through this type of
planning process that can take many
months in order to launch an event-
specific service that may have a life of only
a few weeks or days while a sports
tournament is going on, for example. That
would see operators not only incur the cost
of development but also limit their ability to
make money because of the delay in being
able to launch a new service. In some
cases opportunities to provide a service at
a specific event may be missed because
the system cannot be made ready in time.
Greater flexibility is now required and
operators’ time to market challenges mean
that the traditional approach of developing
a PCRF product to support a new service
is too time consuming and requires too
much repeated work every time a new
service is launched and relies too heavily
on the product vendor.
More routinely, though, operators will find
their ability to compete hindered. For
example, if an operator-competitor
launches a new service, the operator will
need to launch a competing and
comparable service in as short a time
frame as possible.
Every day lost in time to market is a day of
service revenue lost and, worse if the new
service is compelling, the operator could
start to lose subscribers and suffer all the
substantial costs connected to subscriber
churn as a result.
page 4
/
services fast

A future proof approach to
PCRF
What is needed is a new approach to
PCRF that removes the constraints
associated with traditional policy control
products. Those constraints are mainly
related to a lack of flexibility, which can
lead to complex configuration
requirements when operators want to add
new services or make changes to policy.
Open platforms for PCRF that enable
flexible configuration are required to meet
operators’ goals of achieving new service
deployment in days and achieving that in a
cost effective way. One way of achieving
that acceleration of time to market and a
reduction in cost is to select a system to
which changes can be made without
vendor involvement.
Flexible configuration is at the heart of that
because it can easily complement any
type of predefined scenarios that operators
have to follow. Typical policy systems are
limiting because of the inflexible nature of
the pre-defined scenarios that policy
product vendors offer, any additional
configuration or adaptation to particular
business needs involving time consuming
and costly additional development work
done exclusively by the product vendor. A
key benefit is to avoid reinventing the
wheel every time an operator launches a
new service.
The flexible configuration approach means
that the same technical foundations can be
used to support different types of services.
With an open PCRF platform even the
data model behind it can be modified so it
can be based not only on time or data
consumption but centered on some other
metric such as capacity availability, the
status of the user or the value to the
operator of the service being consumed.
Services built on such an open PCRF can
very quickly integrate with external
elements and operators and potentially
partner companies can add new interfaces
without touching the core of the platform.
The PCRF can be connected to an
application or connected to a new billing
platform, for example, and that is what
makes it so flexible. The logic can be
manipulated or changed as demand
dictates.
Beyond the domestic services managed
by the operator, a large extent of new
services are becoming ready to be
deployed over the network, but with an
external party as the owner. These are not
just OTT services but also traditional
MVNO services, very much managed and
orchestrated outside the operator
infrastructure. In order to be the “best and
smartest” carrier of these services there
needs to be an “openness” to the key
elements of service control, which spells
PCRF amongst others. This “openness”
manifests itself as the ability to expose
network-controlling functions as more
abstract and simple functions to be
consumed by different external BSS
systems.
Wouldn’t an operator who provides the
outside content community with the tools
to self-service their services and
subscribers be more attractive than one
who locks everything into a black box
without visibility? Flexible configuration
and openness in terms of API and
Information availability as part of the PCRF
product will ensure that this opportunity
can be capitalized on.
page 5
/
services fast

Video-on-demand at tier 1
Central European operator
An example of how flexible configuration
enables operators to accelerate time to
market and create new services tailored
for specific expenses is a recent
Computaris engagement at a central
European operator.
The operator’s country was host to a large
sports tournament and wanted to offer a
range of custom services, including video
content, relating to the tournament.
However, its existing PCRF was a closed
solution that could not address the time to
market needs of the operator so the
operator began to look for alternatives.
The operator was faced with a situation in
which even very simple projects took from
a few weeks to several months to
complete and the operator wanted to be
able to launch new services and functions
in days. Delay caused by vendor lock-in
and waiting for a vendor’s research and
development department to make changes
would be unacceptable.
Computaris proposed a new system based
on an open platform that offered a much
more flexible architecture. In addition,
because Computaris is a systems
integrator, it develops new services for the
operator without involving the platform
vendor’s research and development
department.
During the deployment, Computaris
migrated the services from the old PCRF
to the new environment in a completely
transparent way. The new PCRF solution
looks the same from the interface
perspective as the old system but offers
radically faster time to market for new
services without vendor lock-in. This
enabled the operator to offer a video-on-
demand service almost immediately,
providing content from the sports
championship. Computaris was required to
implement sophisticated logic on the
PCRF within a few weeks and the service
was live for just a few weeks.
Customers of the operator received
special treatment and were not required to
pay for the videoon-demand service when
they were on an LTE network. Computaris
created policies based on the method of
access used and in that respect the
deployment was not a typical video-on-
demand experience. However, the
platform reveals far greater benefit
because it is applicable to many future use
cases without substantial additional
development. The new PCRF solution
looks the same from the interface
perspective as the old system but offers
radically faster time to market for new
services without vendor lock-in.
Launch of fixed mobile convergence at
an operator
Another example of how Computaris
works with operators to enable a fast roll-
out of new data services is a recent
engagement at a large tier 1 mobile
operator planning to offer a new converged
fixed and mobile service on the market.
The operator had already begun the
process of rolling out a solution from a
traditional PCRF provider.
page 6
/
services fast

Video-on-demand at tier 1
Central European operator
However, two months before the
commercial launch, it was clear this would
not be fast enough to meet the operator’s
deadlines and having public
announcements already made there were
both an expectation on the market and an
internal pressure to have all services
ready. The operator turned to Computaris
for the implementation of the PCRF
functionality on an open platform. The
result is that, within less than two months
the service was live and successfully
running.
VoLTE with PCRF integration
Computaris has completed a proof of
concept that integrates VoLTE with the
PCRF and enables tests to be performed
end-to-end. That proof of concept was
configured in just a few days and
demonstrates how accelerated policy
configuration can enable operators to bring
new services to market rapidly and also
enable the business case behind a new
service.
/
services fast
page 7

Beyond PCRF
PCEF and DPI, VoLTE, OCS Integration
Policy control, policy and charging
enforcement function (PCEF) and deep
packet inspection (DPI) platforms are all
systems build to enable operators to
create the data services that the market
demands from them. Also, in terms of
VoLTE IMS integration over Rx interface
will become increasingly important.
Computaris can help operators cope with
all the platforms and components they
have, leveraging its experience in using
them. Increasingly there is the requirement
for integration of PCRF with online
charging systems (OCS) and interaction
with BSS layer or with external providers
through open PCRF infrastructure.
Traditionally, that has been performed by
an S4 interface, which was not defined in a
detailed way, and integration has been
done by OCS vendors according to their
understanding of operators’ requirements.
It’s therefore important to have a PCRF
that can integrate with the OCS without
changes being required to the OCS. That
would create additional delay in bringing
new functions to market. The difference
with an open PCRF platform is that it can
adapt to the network, and associated
systems, rather than requiring the network
to adapt to the particular policy system.
Integration of that with PCEF, including
fast integration with DPI function of packet
gateways, delivers the ability to modify
logic or interfaces very quickly.
In order to implement sophisticated
services or products within PCRF, this
logic needs to be implemented on the
packet gateway side and this allows
features to be added on the PCRF side
that cannot be added on the PCEF side.
This is less applicable to applications such
as limiting traffic but more valuable
because it enables an operator to assign a
usage quota for particular customers or for
the buckets of usage within a shared or
bundled tariff. Computaris’ approach
means the quotas for a given service can
be controlled on the PCRF side or the
PCEF side. That knowledge of both is
important because delivery of PCRF,
PCEF and DPI makes it easier to build
complicated services more quickly.
/
services fast

Disruptive buzz words that
don’t mean much to policy
control
Big Data
Although there has been huge hype
surrounding big data and analytics as
potential new sources of revenue, the
implications for policy control are negligible
at the moment.
Operators certainly have huge data
repositories and those are under-exploited
from a monetization perspective but, from
a practical point of view, the application of
big data to PCRF is still a remote prospect.
Computaris understands big data and
sees it being applied to policy
management but not in the short-term.
Instead, the data in policy management is
more likely to be combined – in a method
yet to be determined – with data from
other systems. Potentially an area such as
mediation is where the data source in
more likely to be taken from.
For now, though, big data from a practical
point of view remains a remote concept
when it comes to policy control and
management.
Network functions virtualization
Network functions virtualization (NFV),
along with adjacent technology software
defined networks (SDN), are seen as
transformative to operators because they
decouple the service carried over the
network from the hardware. Virtualization
means that operators will not need
servicespecific hardware and they will be
able to ensure maximized utilization of
network equipment.
In addition, because the network is not
constrained by the equipment it is
composed of, new services will be able to
be launched more rapidly and there will, in
general, be greater flexibility available to
operators because of their usage of virtual
machines. The flipside of that is that more
will be managed by software and a greater
reliance on IT rather network expertise will
emerge.
Where operators traditionally had switches
that were controlled by proprietary network
equipment vendor software, SDN and NFV
extract control out of the network and bring
the scalability of cloud computing to the
network.
The policy function is software-based and
therefore fits well with the NFV concept but
it really is nothing new and Computaris
doesn’t see virtualization as a key source
of disruption for policy control and
management in the future. However the
NFV will still be a differentiator in the policy
vendor landscape. Mostly since openness
and configurability are key attributes of any
virtual network function in the NFV. The
ability to be externally configurable and
later deployed with new connectivity
settings, new or updated processing rules,
such as policy and charging rules, and
later deployed with the new rule-base is
not something that “all” PCRF vendors
provide support for.
Yes, much of the increased utilization
arguments start to become less clear in
smaller operators, or operators that only
have one operating unit. Those operators
don’t need the scalability that large
operator groups have because each
market has its own characteristics so the
need for volume capability is not so acute.
In large markets, such as the US, the
operators have already consolidated their
operations and, although Computaris has
virtualization capabilities, demand for
virtualization of policy functions has not
materialized.
/
services fast

What Computaris offers
Computaris is different to a traditional
policy control and management vendor
because it does not have specific products
to sell. Instead it takes a consultative,
rather than product-oriented, approach
that enables it to build an understanding of
the issues an operator faces before using
its experience to build an appropriate
solution.
That solution may use a policy product
from a specific vendor but Computaris is
not locked-in to a specific technology or
product so will always build the best
solution available to meet the operator’s
requirements. Often that will involve
bespoke development of the products
used so they are configured to match the
operator’s needs.
This means that Computaris is not limited
by the capabilities of a specific product
and can engage with operators on widely
diverse projects, using the best available
technical base for each.
The systems integration background that
Computaris has enables them to select the
most appropriate solution for a particular
operator product or service. In addition,
that integration experience means
Computaris has the knowledge to identify
what works and what will not. That’s why
when operators need to achieve fast
results they turn to Computaris.
Computaris’ project involvements at 50+
operators across the globe empower them
to give impartial advice and develop
customized solutions quickly. For example,
Computaris already offers consultancy and
services on an open PCRF platform for
VoLTE services. VoLTE challenges
operators in many ways because service
quality is critical to ensure the voice
experience is good and VoLTE relies on an
all-IP environment.
Computaris is not only a provider of policy
solutions, it covers all BSS/OSS domain,
having a broad hands-on experience
gathered from 1000+ telecom projects. It
has expertise that covers the data plane
encompassing: real time network
monitoring, congestion control and
capacity planning, intelligent mobile traffic
offload to Wi-Fi quality of experience
management, web and video optimization,
content caching, and extensive network
analytics and reporting. In the signaling
plane, Computaris has expertise in
diameter signaling and load balancing, in
addition to
Working as prime integrator, Computaris is
able to provide complete solutions to
operators, taking responsibility for system
design and combining best of breed
products from leading vendors into
comprehensive platforms for operators.
The flexibility provided enables operators
to break the shackles of vendor lock-in and
achieve true operational flexibility as they
transform to succeed amongst the
disruptive challenges inherent in the
market. PCRF.
/
services fast

DigitalRoute solution
promotion
Not all mediation products on the market
meet the requirements for playing the role
of a strategic integration platform. We
would like to present a proven example –
Mediation Zone from Digital Route. The
platform has proved itself in numerous real
life deployments. It supports multiple
integration areas from batch CDR
mediation, on line charging and billing
communication and Extract Transform
Load processes to delivering Service
Creation environments and even specific,
complete, built over solutions like Policy
Management (PCRF), Usage
Management and Routing Control.
/ Natural step in evolution of mediation
platforms
/ Links to DR documents
/ NFV
DigitalRoute general description
The MediationZone platform is based on
an open architecture and is adaptable
through configuration to support multiple
use cases that may be required in a
customer solution. Any necessary
functionality can easily be obtained by
combining off the shelf features and
options. These options can themselves be
configured in order to accommodate
custom business logic. The MediationZone
platform is fundamentally different to
alternatives on the market because it was
built from first principles with ease of use,
scalability and performance in mind. A
platform independent solution due to the
early decision to use Java long before it
was fashionable to do so, MZ runs on
Commodity, off-the- shelf hardware. The
system’s performance is sufficient to
handle both the incredible volumes of data
and the increasing diversity and variety of
data formats and sources relevant to any
Service provider anywhere in the world,
over 2G, 3G, or 4G networks or a
combination of all of them.
In any situation that requires network data
to be collected, processed and forwarded
and regardless of output parameters,
MediationZone is proven able to cope. Its
integrated Real-time, Batch and database
collection functionality together with an
intuitive graphical interface allow the user
to easily build new business models and
deploy them without disrupting existing
runtime environments.
Using Java, DigitalRoute has designed
MediationZone to run on any operating
system. It provides dynamic loading of
new software, which in return allows the
user to add and change functions at run-
time.
Additionally, the just-in-time compilation
functionality optimizes the executing code
to achieve bestin-class performance.
Given the breadth of the Java community
globally, the number of libraries and
degree of technology support available is
near unlimited. DigitalRoute’s industry
leading GUI, Development Toolkit and
unique, modular design enable
MediationZone users to make changes
with ease, adding not only new interfaces
but also altering existing ones without any
vendor involvement (unless requested).
Users can easily add functionality in the
solution to support their own process.
Furthermore, the scalable nature of
MediationZone enables both horizontal
and vertical ways of adding processing
power, whether via additional hardware
such as CPU, RAM, disc or working
instances such as execution contexts to
share the load of the processing, or
another approach.
/
services fast

About
DigitalRoute
DigitalRoute has been providing new
approaches to enterprise data
management since 1999. Its software
platform offers high throughput and
provides a unique degree of user
configurability, processing all usage and
statistical data extracted from the
networks, including both billable and non-
billable events. This means customers
gain greater cost efficiencies, improved
times-to-market for new service offerings,
the ability to monetize any data, and the
means to enhance end-customer
satisfaction. DigitalRoute makes network
events available to the right systems in the
right formats in the most appropriate
volumes at the required times, without
losing a single bit. This is the foundation
from which multiple, mission-critical use-
cases can be addressed in the areas of
Online Control and Data Processing.
Over 300 leading companies worldwide
actively use DigitalRoute technology to
meet their data management needs,
including a number of OEM partners who
use our platform as a central part of their
own offerings. DigitalRoute is built on the
core values of Expertise, Open-
Mindedness and Commitment.
DigitalRoute is a venture-backed, privately
held company with a turnover of 30m EUR
in 2013 and a record of profitability since
2005. With close to 200 employees, the
company is headquartered in Stockholm,
Sweden with regional offices in
Gothenburg, Atlanta, and Kuala Lumpur.
Computaris
Computaris provides system integration
and software development for the mobile
industry. Its customers know that even
highly complex projects are always
delivered on time and on budget. It does
this through its disciplined yet flexible
approach toward problem-solving.
Computaris has experts with deep domain
expertise that guide customers through
their challenges from start to finish, making
all projects streamlined and personal.
Computaris has delivered over 1,000
successful projects across 20 years and
has worked with over 70 operators in 50
countries.
Computaris has an enviable track-record
across real-time rating and charging,
messaging, provisioning, mediation,
subscriber data management, mobile
broadband data policy management,
loyalty and churn management.
Computaris is part of the R Systems
Group, a company with over 2,500
employees and 100 million USD turnover.
For more information, please visit
www.computaris.com.
Got any questions? Contact us:
/
Email: marketing@computaris.com
page 12
/
services fast

/
Thank
you!
/
[+44]20.7193.9189
www.computaris.com

Open Policy Control Platforms

More Related Content

Viewers also liked

Similar to Open Policy Control Platforms

More from Computaris

Recently uploaded

Open Policy Control Platforms