5G Charging Architecture
Maryse Gardella, Gerald Görmer · Wiley 5G Ref · 2019
Abstract The 5G System (5GS) offers operators opportunities to create new business models by extending, beyond broadband connectivity, capabilities for new vertical industries. To support commercial deployments of 5GS, it is essential to incorporate charging capabilities for operators to be able to monetize investments based on their business models. For this purpose, the charging framework evolved toward 5G from circuit switch network via evolved packet core and other 3GPP domains or services. With 5G, 3GPP networks moved toward a service‐based architecture (SBA) enabling flexible and efficient deployment of various features and services by taking advantage of state‐of‐the‐art software techniques. The charging framework adopted the SBA, via introduction of the new charging function (CHF) as the service producer, to fully integrate to the 5GS and move to APIs technique in 3GPP style. The fundamental charging trigger function component of the charging architecture reused in 5G to identify the appropriate network function for network resource/service usage data collection is the service consumer. Prior to 5G, online charging and offline charging were handled separately, and the first service defined for CHF is the “converged charging service,” which combines quota management and charging data record generation. In the first 5G release, charging for 5G data connectivity and short message service are addressed, encompassing various functionalities such as service continuity, user plane selection close to the access network, concurrent access to local and centralized services, and network slicing. More charging capabilities are expected to be added, in particular for network slicing.