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6.1.2 Reporting
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Reporting refers to the differentiated IP‑CAN resource usage information (measured at the PCEF/TDF) being reported to the online or offline charging functions.
NOTE 1: Reporting usage information to the online charging function is distinct from credit management. Hence multiple PCC/ADC rules may share the same charging key for which one credit is assigned whereas reporting may be at higher granularity if serviced identifier level reporting is used.
The PCEF/TDF shall report usage information for online and offline charging.
The PCEF/TDF shall report usage information for each charging key value.
For service data flow charging, for the case of sponsored data connectivity, the reports for offline charging shall report usage for each charging key, Sponsor Identity and Application Service Provider Identity combination if Sponsor Identity and Application Service Provider Identifier have been provided in the PCC rules.
NOTE 2: Usage reports for online charging that include Sponsor Identity and Application Service Provider Identity is not within scope of the specification in this release. Online charging for sponsored data connectivity can be based on charging key as described in Annex N.
The PCEF shall report usage information for each charging key/service identifier combination if service identifier level reporting is requested in the PCC/ADC rule.
NOTE 3: For reporting purposes when charging is performed by the PCEF:
a) the charging key value identifies a service data flow if the charging key value is unique for that particular service data flow and
b) if the service identifier level reporting is present then the service identifier value of the PCC rule together with the charging key identify the service data flow.
The TDF shall report usage information for each charging key/service identifier combination if service identifier level reporting is requested in the ADC rule.
NOTE 4: For reporting purposes in case charging is performed by the TDF a) the charging key value identifies an application if the charging key value is unique for that application identified by ADC Rule and b) if the service identifier level reporting is present then the service identifier value of the ADC rule together with the charging key identify the application
NOTE 5: If operator applies this solution with both PCEF and TDF performing enforcement and charging for a single IP-CAN session, the PCRF is recommended to use a different charging keys provided to the PCEF and to the TDF.
For the case where the BBF locates in the PCEF, charging information shall be reported based on the result from the service data flow detection and measurement on a per IP‑CAN bearer basis.
For the case where the BBF is not located in the PCEF, charging information shall be reported based on the result from the service data flow detection and measurement, separately per QCI and ARP combination (used by any of the active PCC rules). In case 2a defined in clause 7.1, charging ID is provided to the BBERF via the PCRF if charging correlation is needed.
A report may contain multiple containers, each container associated with a charging key, charging key and Sponsor Identity (in case of sponsored connectivity) or charging key/service identifier.
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6.1.3 Credit management
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The credit management applies for online charging only and shall operate on a per charging key basis. The PCEF should initiate one credit management session with the OCS for each IP‑CAN Session subject to online charging, unless specified otherwise in an IP‑CAN specific annex. Alternatively, the PCEF may initiate one credit management session for each IP‑CAN bearer as defined in the applicable annex. The TDF should initiate one credit management session with the OCS for each TDF Session subject to online charging.
NOTE 1: Independent credit control for an individual service/application may be achieved by assigning a unique charging key value in the corresponding PCC/ADC rule.
The PCEF/TDF shall request a credit for each charging key occurring in a PCC/ADC rule. It shall be up to operator configuration whether the PCEF/TDF shall request credit in conjunction with the PCC/ADC rule being activated or when the first packet corresponding to the service/the application is detected. The OCS may either grant or deny the request for credit. The OCS shall strictly control the rating decisions.
NOTE 2: The term 'credit' as used here does not imply actual monetary credit, but an abstract measure of resources available to the user. The relationship between this abstract measure, actual money and actual network resources or data transfer, is controlled by the OCS.
During IP‑CAN session establishment and modification, the PCEF shall request credit using the information after applying policy enforcement action (e.g. upgraded or downgraded QoS information), if applicable, even though the PCEF has not signalled it yet in the IP‑CAN.
It shall be possible for the OCS to form a credit pool for multiple (one or more) charging keys, applied at the PCEF/TDF, e.g. with the objective of avoiding credit fragmentation. Multiple pools of credit shall be allowed per IP‑CAN bearer/TDF session. The OCS shall control the credit pooling decisions. The OCS shall, when credit authorization is sought, either grant a new pool of credit, together with a new credit limit, or give a reference to a pool of credit that is already granted for that IP‑CAN bearer/TDF session. The grouping of charging keys into pools shall not restrict the ability of the OCS to do credit authorisation and provide termination action individually for each charging key of the pool. It shall be possible for the OCS to group service data flows/applications charged at different rates or in different units (e.g. time/volume/event) into the same pool.
For each charging key, the PCEF/TDF may receive credit re-authorisation trigger information from the OCS, which shall cause the PCEF/TDF to perform a credit re-authorisation when the event occurs. If there are events which can not be monitored in the PCEF/TDF, the PCEF/TDF shall provide the information about the required event triggers to the PCRF. If information about required event triggers is provided to the PCRF, it is an implementation option whether a successful confirmation is required from the PCRF in order for the PCEF/TDF to consider the credit (re-)authorization procedure to be successful. The credit re-authorisation trigger detection shall cause the PCEF/TDF to request re-authorisation of the credit in the OCS. It shall be possible for the OCS to instruct the PCEF/TDF to seek re-authorisation of credit in case of the events listed in table 6.1.
Table 6.1: Credit re-authorization triggers
Credit re-authorization trigger
Description
Applicable for
Credit authorisation lifetime expiry
The OCS has limited the validity of the credit to expire at a certain time.
PCEF, TDF
Idle timeout
The service data flow identified by a PCC Rules or the application identified by an ADC Rule has been empty for a certain time.
PCEF, TDF
PLMN change
The UE has moved to another operators' domain.
PCEF, TDF
QoS changes
The QoS of the IP‑CAN bearer has changed.
PCEF
Change in type of IP‑CAN
The type of the IP‑CAN has changed.
PCEF, TDF
Location change (serving cell)
The serving cell of the UE has changed.
PCEF, TDF
Location change (serving area) (see note 2)
The serving area of the UE has changed.
PCEF, TDF
Location change (serving CN node) (see note 3)
The serving core network node of the UE has changed.
PCEF, TDF
Change of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area (see note 4)
The UE has entered or left a Presence Reporting Area
PCEF, TDF
NOTE 1: This list is not exhaustive. Events specific for each IP‑CAN are specified in Annex A and the protocol description may support additional events.
NOTE 2: A change in the serving area may also result in a change in the serving cell and possibly a change in the serving CN node.
NOTE 3: A change in the serving CN node may also result in a change in the serving cell and possibly a change in the serving area.
NOTE 4: The Presence Reporting Area(s) is provided by the OCS to the PCEF/TDF. The maximum number of PRA(s) per UE per PDN connection is configured in the OCS. The OCS may have independent configuration of the maximum number for Core Network pre-configured PRAs and UE-dedicated PRAs. The exact number(s) should be determined by operator in deployment.
If the Location change trigger is armed, the PCEF shall activate the relevant IP‑CAN specific procedure which reports any changes in location to the level indicated by the trigger. If credit-authorization triggers and event triggers require different levels of reporting of location change for a single UE, the location to be reported should be changed to the highest level of detail required. However, there should be no request being triggered for credit re-authorization to the OCS if the report received is more detailed than requested by the OCS.
NOTE 1: The access network may be configured to report location changes only when transmission resources are established in the radio access network.
The OCS determines at credit management session establishment/modification, based on local configuration, if the UE is located in an access type that supports reporting changes of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area. If the access type supports it, the OCS may subscribe to Change of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area at any time during the life time of the credit management session.
NOTE 2: If Presence Reporting Area reporting is not supported, the OCS may instead activate Location change reporting at cell and/or serving area level but due to the potential increase in signalling load, it is recommended that such reporting is only applied for a limited number of subscribers.
When activating reporting for change of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area, the OCS provides all of the PRA Identifier(s) to be activated for Core Network pre-configured Presence Reporting Area(s) and additionally all of PRA Identifier(s) and the list(s) of its elements for UE- dedicated Presence Reporting Area(s). (See Table 6.4 in clause 6.4 for details of the PRA Identifier(s) and the list(s) of elements comprising each Presence Reporting Area). If OCS is configured with a PRA identifier referring to the list of PRA Identifier(s) within a Set of Core Network predefined Presence Reporting Areas as defined in TS 23.401 [17], it activates the reporting of UE entering/leaving the individual PRA in the Set of Core Network predefined Presence Reporting Areas without providing the complete set of individual PRAs.
The OCS may change (activate/modify/remove) the Presence Reporting Area(s) to be reported by providing the updated PRA Identifier(s) to PCEF. For UE dedicated PRAs, the OCS may also change the list(s) of Presence Reporting Area elements related to the PRA Identifier(s).
The OCS may unsubscribe to Change of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area at any time during the life time of the credit management session.
The OCS may be notified during the life time of a credit management session that the UE is located in an access type where local OCS configuration indicates that reporting changes of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area is not supported. If so, the OCS unsubscribes to Change of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area, if previously activated.
Some of the re-authorization triggers are related to IP‑CAN bearer modifications. IP‑CAN bearer modifications, which do not match any credit re-authorization trigger (received from the OCS for the bearer) shall not cause any credit re-authorization interaction with the OCS.
If the PCRF set the Out of credit event trigger (see clause 6.1.4), the PCEF/TDF shall inform the PCRF about the PCC/ADC rules for which credit is no longer available together with the applied termination action.
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6.1.4 Event Triggers
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The Event Reporting Function (ERF) performs event trigger detection. When an event matching the event trigger occurs, the ERF shall report the occurred event to the PCRF. The Event Reporting Function is located either at the PCEF or, at the BBERF (if applicable) or, at the TDF for solicited application reporting (if applicable).
The event triggers define the conditions when the ERF shall interact again with PCRF after an IP‑CAN session establishment. The event triggers that are required in procedures shall be unconditionally reported from the ERF, while the PCRF may subscribe to the remaining events. Whether an event trigger requires a subscription by the PCRF is indicated in column 4 in table 6.2 below.
The PCRF subscribes to new event triggers or remove armed event triggers unsolicited at any time or upon receiving a request from the AF, an event report or rule request from the ERF (PCEF or BBERF or TDF) using the Provision of PCC Rules procedure or the Provision of QoS Rules procedure (if applicable) or the Provision of ADC Rules procedure (if applicable). If the provided event triggers are associated with certain parameter values then the ERF shall include those values in the response back to the PCRF. Event triggers are associated with all rules at the ERF of an IP‑CAN session (ERF is located at PCEF) or Gateway Control session (ERF is located at BBERF) or with Traffic Detection session (ERF is located in TDF). Event triggers determine when the ERF shall signal to the PCRF that an IP‑CAN bearer has been modified. It shall be possible for the ERF to react on the event triggers listed in table 6.2.
Table 6.2: Event triggers
Event trigger
Description
Reported from
Condition for reporting
PLMN change
The UE has moved to another operators' domain.
PCEF
PCRF
QoS change
The QoS of the IP‑CAN bearer has changed (note 3).
PCEF, BBERF
PCRF
QoS change exceeding authorization
The QoS of the IP‑CAN bearer has changed and exceeds the authorized QoS (note 3).
PCEF
PCRF
Traffic mapping information change
The traffic mapping information of the IP‑CAN bearer has changed (note 3).
PCEF
Always set
Resource modification request
A request for resource modification has been received by the BBERF/PCEF (note 6).
PCEF, BBERF
Always set
Routing information change
The IP flow mobility routing information has changed (when IP flow mobility as specified in TS 23.261 [23] applies) or the PCEF has received Routing Rules from the UE (when NBIFOM as specified in TS 23.161 [43] applies) (note 11) (note 16).
PCEF
Always set (note 15)
Change in type of IP‑CAN (see note 1)
The access type of the IP‑CAN bearer has changed.
PCEF
PCRF
Loss/recovery of transmission resources
The IP‑CAN transmission resources are no longer usable/again usable.
PCEF, BBERF
PCRF
Location change (serving cell) (see note 10)
The serving cell of the UE has changed.
PCEF, BBERF
PCRF
Location change (serving area)
(see notes 4 and 10)
The serving area of the UE has changed.
PCEF, BBERF
PCRF
Location change (serving CN node)
(see notes 5 and 10)
The serving core network node of the UE has changed.
PCEF, BBERF
PCRF
Change of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area (see note 17)
The UE is entering/leaving a Presence Reporting Area
PCEF, BBERF
PCRF
Out of credit
Credit is no longer available.
PCEF, TDF
PCRF
Enforced PCC rule request
PCEF is performing a PCC rules request as instructed by the PCRF.
PCEF
PCRF
Enforced ADC rule request
TDF is performing an ADC rules request as instructed by the PCRF.
TDF
PCRF
UE IP address change (see note 9)
A UE IP address has been allocated/released
PCEF
Always set
Access Network Charging Correlation Information
Access Network Charging Correlation Information has been assigned.
PCEF
PCRF
Usage report
(see note 7)
The IP-CAN session or the Monitoring key specific resources consumed by a UE either reached the threshold or needs to be reported for other reasons.
PCEF, TDF
PCRF
Start of application traffic detection and
Stop of application traffic detection (see note 8)
The start or the stop of application traffic has been detected.
PCEF, TDF
PCRF
SRVCC CS to PS handover
A CS to PS handover has been detected
PCEF
PCRF
Access Network Information report
Access information as specified in the Access Network Information Reporting part of a PCC rule.
PCEF, BBERF
PCRF
Credit management session failure
Transient/Permanent Failure as specified by the OCS
PCEF, TDF
PCRF for PCEF,
Always set for TDF
Addition / removal of an access to an IP-CAN session (note 11)
The PCEF reports when an access is added or removed
PCEF
Always set
Change of usability of an access (note 11)
The PCEF reports that an access becomes unusable or usable again (note 14)
PCEF
Always set
UE resumed from suspend state
The PCEF reports to the PCRF when it detects that the UE is resumed from suspend state.
PCEF
PCRF
NOTE 1: This list is not exhaustive. Events specific for each IP‑CAN are specified in clause A.
NOTE 2: A change in the type of IP‑CAN may also result in a change in the PLMN.
NOTE 3: Available only when the bearer binding mechanism is allocated to the PCRF.
NOTE 4: A change in the serving area may also result in a change in the serving cell and a change in the serving CN node.
NOTE 5: A change in the serving CN node may also result in a change in the serving cell and possibly a change in the serving area.
NOTE 6: Available only when the IP‑CAN supports corresponding procedures for bearer independent resource requests.
NOTE 7: Usage is defined as either volume or time of user plane traffic.
NOTE 8: The start and stop of application traffic detection are separate event triggers, but received under the same subscription from the PCRF. For unsolicited application reporting, these event triggers are always set for the TDF.
NOTE 9: If TDF for solicited application reporting is applicable, upon receiving this event report from PCEF, PCRF always updates the TDF.
NOTE 10: Due to the potential increase in signalling load, it is recommended that such event trigger subscription is only applied for a limited number of subscribers.
NOTE 11: Used when NBIFOM is supported by the IP-CAN session. Refer to clause 6.1.18 for the description of NBIFOM impacts to PCC. NBIFOM Routing Rules are defined in clause 6.12.
NOTE 12: Void.
NOTE 13: Void..
NOTE 14: Used in Network-initiated NBIFOM mode. The PCEF reports that an access becomes unusable or usable again are based on notifications received from the UE. This may correspond to the procedure "Access becomes Unusable and Usable" and to the procedure "IP flow mobility triggered by RAN Rule indication" defined in TS 23.161 [43].
NOTE 15: This event is always set when IFOM per TS 23.261 [23] applies or when NBIFOM per TS 23.161 [43] applies. In the latter case it applies in both Network-initiated NBIFOM mode and in UE-initiated NBIFOM mode.
NOTE 16: In UE-initiated NBIFOM mode this event indicates that the UE has created, modified or deleted Routing Rules. In Network-initiated NBIFOM mode this event indicates that the UE requests the network to create, modify or delete Routing Rules.
NOTE 17: The maximum number of PRA(s) per UE per PDN connection is configured in the PCRF. The PCRF may have independent configuration of the maximum number for Core Network pre-configured PRAs and UE-dedicated PRAs. The exact number(s) should be determined by operator in deployment.
If the Location change trigger is armed, the PCEF shall activate the relevant IP‑CAN specific procedure which reports any changes in location to the level indicated by the trigger. If credit-authorization triggers and event triggers require different levels of reporting of location change for a single UE, the location to be reported should be changed to the highest level of detail required. However, there should be no request being triggered for PCC rules or QoS rules (if applicable) update to the PCRF if the report received is more detailed than requested by the PCRF.
NOTE 1: The access network may be configured to report location changes only when transmission resources are established in the radio access network.
The PCRF determines at IP-CAN session establishment/modification, based on local configuration, if the UE is located in an access type that supports reporting changes of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area. If the access type supports it, the PCRF may subscribe to Change of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area at any time during the life time of the IP-CAN session
NOTE 2: If Presence Reporting Area reporting is not supported, the PCRF may instead activate Location change reporting at cell and/or serving area level but due to the potential increase in signalling load, it is recommended that such reporting is only applied for a limited number of subscribers.
When activating reporting for change of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area, the PCRF provides all of the PRA Identifier(s) to be activated for Core Network pre-configured Presence Reporting Area(s) and additionally all of PRA Identifier(s) and list(s) of its elements for UE-dedicated Presence Reporting Area(s) (See Table 6.4 in clause 6.4 for details of the PRA Identifier(s) and the list(s) of elements comprising each Presence Reporting Area). Setting the Change of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area event trigger shall not preclude the PCRF from simultaneously setting another Location change event trigger. If PCRF is configured with a PRA identifier referring to the list of PRA Identifier(s) within a Set of Core Network predefined Presence Reporting Areas as defined in TS 23.401 [17], it activates the reporting of UE entering/leaving the individual PRA in the Set of Core Network predefined Presence Reporting Areas without providing the complete set of individual PRAs.
The PCRF may change (activate/modify/remove) the Presence Reporting Area(s) to be reported by providing the updated PRA Identifier(s) to PCEF. For UE dedicated PRAs, the PCRF may also change the list(s) of Presence Reporting Area elements related to the PRA Identifier(s).
The PCRF may unsubscribe to Change of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area at any time during the life time of the IP-CAN session.
The PCRF may be notified during the life time of an IP-CAN session that the UE is located in an access type where local PCRF configuration indicates that reporting changes of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area is not supported. The PCRF unsubscribes to Change of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area, if previously activated.
IP‑CAN bearer modifications, which do not match any event trigger, shall cause no interaction with the PCRF.
The QoS change event trigger shall trigger the PCRF interaction for all changes of the IP‑CAN bearer QoS. The QoS change exceeding authorization event trigger shall only trigger the PCRF interaction for those changes that exceed the QoS of the IP‑CAN bearer that has been authorized by the PCRF previously. The ERF shall check the QoS class identifier and the bandwidth.
The Resource modification request event trigger shall trigger the PCRF interaction for all resource modification requests not tied to a specific IP‑CAN bearer received by PCEF/BBERF. The resource modification request received by PCEF/BBERF may include request for guaranteed bit rate changes for a traffic aggregate and/or the association/disassociation of the traffic aggregate with a QCI and/or a modification of the traffic aggregate.
The routing information change event trigger shall trigger the PCRF interaction for any change in how the IP flow is routed. The routing information change received by the PCEF is specified in TS 23.261 [23] (i.e. IP flow mobility routing rules) or TS 23.161 [43] (i.e. Routing Rules).
The enforced PCC rule request event trigger shall trigger a PCEF interaction to request PCC rules from the PCRF for an established IP‑CAN session. This PCEF interaction shall take place within the Revalidation time limit set by the PCRF in the IP‑CAN session related policy information (clause 6.4).
The enforced ADC rule request event trigger shall trigger a TDF interaction to request ADC rules from the PCRF for an established TDF session for solicited application reporting. This TDF interaction shall take place within the ADC Revalidation time limit set by the PCRF in the TDF session related policy information (clause 6.4).
NOTE 3: The enforced PCC rule request and the enforced ADC rule request mechanisms can be used to avoid signalling overload situations e.g. due to time of day based PCC/ADC rule changes.
The UE IP address change event trigger applies to the PCEF only and shall trigger a PCEF interaction with the PCRF in case a UE IPv4 address is allocated or released during the lifetime of the IP‑CAN session.
The Access Network Charging Correlation Information event shall trigger the PCEF to report the assigned access network charging identifier for the PCC rules that are accompanied with a request for this event at activation.
To activate usage monitoring, the PCRF shall set the Usage report event trigger and provide applicable usage thresholds for the Monitoring key(s) that are subject to usage monitoring in the requested node (PCEF or TDF, solicited application reporting). The PCRF shall not remove the Usage report event trigger while usage monitoring is still active in the PCEF/TDF.
If the Usage report event trigger is set and the volume or the time thresholds, earlier provided by the PCRF, are reached, the PCEF or TDF (whichever received the event trigger) shall report this event to the PCRF. If both volume and time thresholds were provided and the thresholds, for one of the measurements, are reached, the PCEF or TDF shall report this event to the PCRF and the accumulated usage since last report shall be reported for both measurements.
The Start of application traffic detection and Stop of application traffic detection events shall trigger an interaction with PCRF once the requested application traffic is detected (i.e. Start of application traffic detection) or the end of the requested application traffic is detected (i.e. Stop of application traffic detection) unless it is requested within a specific PCC Rule or ADC Rule to mute such a notification for solicited application reporting or unconditionally in case of unsolicited application reporting. The application identifier and service data flow descriptions, if deducible, shall also be included in the report. An application instance identifier shall be included in the report both for Start and for Stop of application traffic detection when service data flow descriptions are deducible. This is done to unambiguously match the Start and the Stop events.
The SRVCC CS to PS handover event trigger shall trigger a PCEF interaction with the PCRF to inform that a CS to PS handover procedure has been detected. The PCRF shall ensure, as specified in TS 23.216 [28], to allow voice media over the default bearer during the course of the CS to PS SRVCC procedure.
At PCC rule activation, modification and deactivation the ERF shall send, as specified in the PCC/QoS rule, the User Location Report and/or UE Timezone Report to the PCRF.
NOTE 4: At PCC rule deactivation the User Location Report includes information on when the UE was last known to be in that location.
The PCRF shall send the User Location Report and/or UE Timezone Report to the AF upon receiving an Access Network Information report corresponding to the AF session from the ERF.
If the event trigger for Access Network Information reporting is set, the ERF shall check the need for access network information reporting after successful installation/modification or removal of a PCC/QoS rule or upon termination of the IP-CAN session/bearer. The ERF shall check the Access Network Information report parameters (User Location Report, UE Timezone Report) of the PCC/QoS rules and report the access network information received in the corresponding IP-CAN bearer establishment, modification or termination procedure to the PCRF. The ERF shall not report any subsequent access network information updates received from the IP‑CAN without any previous updates of related PCC/QoS rules unless the associated IP-CAN bearer or connection has been released.
If the ERF receives a request to install/modify or remove a PCC/QoS rule with Access Network Information report parameters (User Location Report, UE Timezone Report) set and there is no bearer signalling related to this PCC/QoS rule (i.e. pending IP-CAN bearer signalling initiated by the UE or bearer signalling initiated by the ERF), the ERF shall initiate a bearer signalling to retrieve the current access network information of the UE and forward it to the PCRF afterwards.
If the Access Network Information report parameter for the User Location Report is set and the user location (e.g. cell) is not available to the ERF, the ERF shall provide the serving PLMN identifier to the PCRF which shall forward it to the AF.
The Credit management session failure event trigger shall trigger a PCEF or TDF interaction with the PCRF to inform about a credit management session failure and to indicate the failure reason and the affected PCC/ADC rules.
NOTE 5: As a result, the PCRF may decide about e.g. TDF session termination, IP-CAN session termination (via PCC rule removal), perform gating of services in the PCEF/TDF, switch to offline charging, rating group change, etc.
NOTE 6: For the PCEF the Credit management session failure event trigger applies to situations wherein the IP‑CAN session is not terminated by the PCEF due to the credit management session failure.
If the UE resumed from suspend state event trigger is set and the UE is resumed from suspend state in EPC, the PCEF shall report this event to the PCRF. The PCEF shall not report any subsequent UE resumed from suspend state updates received from the IP‑CAN to the PCRF. When receiving the event report that the UE is resumed, the PCRF may provision PCC Rules to the PCEF to trigger an IP-CAN Session modification procedure.
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6.1.5 Policy Control
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Policy control comprises functionalities for:
- Binding, i.e. the generation of an association between a service data flow and the IP‑CAN bearer transporting that service data flow;
- Gating control, i.e. the blocking or allowing of packets, belonging to a service data flow or specified by an application identifier, to pass through to the desired endpoint;
- Event reporting, i.e. the notification of and reaction to application events to trigger new behaviour in the user plane as well as the reporting of events related to the resources in the GW (PCEF);
- QoS control, i.e. the authorisation and enforcement of the maximum QoS that is authorised for a service data flow, an Application identified by application identifier or an IP‑CAN bearer;
- Redirection, i.e. the steering of packets, belonging to an application defined by the application identifier to the specified redirection address;
- IP‑CAN bearer establishment for IP‑CANs that support network initiated procedures for IP‑CAN bearer establishment.
In case of an aggregation of multiple service data flows (e.g. for GPRS a PDP context), the combination of the authorised QoS information of the individual service data flows is provided as the authorised QoS for this aggregate.
The enforcement of the authorized QoS of the IP‑CAN bearer may lead to a downgrading or upgrading of the requested bearer QoS by the GW (PCEF) as part of a UE-initiated IP‑CAN bearer establishment or modification. Alternatively, the enforcement of the authorised QoS may, depending on operator policy and network capabilities, lead to network initiated IP‑CAN bearer establishment or modification. If the PCRF provides authorized QoS for both, the IP‑CAN bearer and PCC rule(s), the enforcement of authorized QoS of the individual PCC rules shall take place first.
QoS authorization information may be dynamically provisioned by the PCRF or, if the conditions mentioned in clause 6.3.1 apply, it can be a predefined PCC rule in the PCEF. In case the PCRF provides PCC rules dynamically, authorised QoS information for the IP‑CAN bearer (combined QoS) may be provided. For a predefined PCC rules within the PCEF the authorized QoS information shall take affect when the PCC rule is activated. The PCEF shall combine the different sets of authorized QoS information, i.e. the information received from the PCRF and the information corresponding to the predefined PCC rules. The PCRF shall know the authorized QoS information of the predefined PCC rules and shall take this information into account when activating them. This ensures that the combined authorized QoS of a set of PCC rules that are activated by the PCRF is within the limitations given by the subscription and operator policies regardless of whether these PCC rules are dynamically provided, predefined or both.
For policy control, the AF interacts with the PCRF and the PCRF interacts with the PCEF as instructed by the AF. For certain events related to policy control, the AF shall be able to give instructions to the PCRF to act on its own, i.e. based on the service information currently available. The following events are subject to instructions from the AF:
- The authorization of the service based on incomplete service information;
NOTE 1: The QoS authorization based on incomplete service information is required for e.g. IMS session setup scenarios with available resources on originating side and a need for resource reservation on terminating side.
- The immediate authorization of the service;
- The gate control (i.e. whether there is a common gate handling per AF session or an individual gate handling per AF session component required);
- The forwarding of IP‑CAN bearer level information or events:
- Type of IP‑CAN (e.g. GPRS, etc.);
- Transmission resource status (established/released/lost);
- Access Network Charging Correlation Information;
- Credit denied.
NOTE 2: The credit denied information is only relevant for AFs not performing service charging.
To enable the binding functionality, the UE and the AF shall provide all available flow description information (e.g. source and destination IP address and port numbers and the protocol information). The UE shall use the traffic mapping information to indicate downlink and uplink IP flows.
If PCEF indicates that a PDN connection is carried over satellite access (of WB-E-UTRAN, NB-IoT or LTE-M RAT Types and specific values as defined in TS 23.401 [17]), the PCRF may take this information into account for the policy decision, e.g. together with any delay requirements provided by the AF.
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6.1.6 Service (data flow) Prioritization and Conflict Handling
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Service pre-emption priority enables the PCRF to resolve conflicts where the activation of all requested active PCC rules for services would result in a cumulative authorized QoS which exceeds the Subscribed Guaranteed bandwidth QoS.
For example, when supporting network controlled QoS, the PCRF may use the pre-emption priority of a service, the activation of which would cause the subscriber's authorized QoS to be exceeded. If this pre-emption priority is greater than that of any one or more active PCC rules, the PCRF can determine whether the deactivation of any one or more such rules would allow the higher pre-emption priority PCC rule to be activated whilst ensuring the resulting cumulative QoS does not exceed a subscriber's Subscribed Guaranteed Bandwidth QoS.
If such a determination can be made, the PCRF may resolve the conflict by deactivating those selected PCC rules with lower pre-emption priorities and accepting the higher priority service information from the AF. If such a determination cannot be made, the PCRF may reject the service information from the AF.
NOTE: Normative PCRF requirements for conflict handling are not defined. Alternative procedures may use a combination of pre-emption priority and AF provided priority indicator.
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6.1.7 Standardized QoS characteristics
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6.1.7.1 General
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The service level (i.e. per SDF or per SDF aggregate) QoS parameters are QCI, ARP, GBR and MBR.
Each Service Data Flow (SDF) is associated with one and only one QoS Class Identifier (QCI). For the same IP‑CAN session multiple SDFs with the same QCI and ARP can be treated as a single traffic aggregate which is referred to as an SDF aggregate. An SDF is a special case of an SDF aggregate. The QCI is scalar that is used as a reference to node specific parameters that control packet forwarding treatment (e.g. scheduling weights, admission thresholds, queue management thresholds, link layer protocol configuration, etc.) and that have been pre-configured by the operator owning the node (e.g. eNodeB). When required by operator policy, the eNodeB can be configured to also use the ARP priority level in addition to the QCI to control the packet forwarding treatment in the eNodeB for SDFs having high priority ARPs.
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6.1.7.2 Standardized QCI characteristics
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This clause specifies standardized characteristics associated with standardized QCI values. The characteristics describe the packet forwarding treatment that an SDF aggregate receives edge-to-edge between the UE and the PCEF (see figure 6.1.7‑1) in terms of the following performance characteristics:
1 Resource Type (GBR or Non-GBR);
2 Priority;
3 Packet Delay Budget;
4 Packet Error Loss Rate;
5 Maximum Data Burst Volume (for some GBR QCIs);
6 Data Rate Averaging Window (for some GBR QCIs).
Figure 6.1.7-1: Scope of the Standardized QCI characteristics for client/server (upper figure) and peer/peer (lower figure) communication
The standardized characteristics are not signalled on any interface. They should be understood as guidelines for the pre-configuration of node specific parameters for each QCI. The goal of standardizing a QCI with corresponding characteristics is to ensure that applications / services mapped to that QCI receive the same minimum level of QoS in multi-vendor network deployments and in case of roaming. A standardized QCI and corresponding characteristics is independent of the UE's current access (3GPP or Non-3GPP).
The one-to-one mapping of standardized QCI values to standardized characteristics is captured in table 6.1.7-A and table 6.1.7-B. The main differences between the two parts are that, in contrast to Part A, Part B of Table 6.1.7 describes QCIs for which the Packet Error Loss Rate calculation includes those packets that are not delivered within the Packet Delay Budget; and, it provides additional information on the Data Rate Averaging Window as well as the Maximum Data Burst Volume that needs to be delivered within the Packet Delay Budget.
Table 6.1.7-A: Standardized QCI characteristics
QCI
Resource Type
Priority Level
Packet Delay Budget
(NOTE 13)
Packet Error Loss
Rate (NOTE 2)
Example Services
1
(NOTE 3)
2
100 ms
(NOTE 1, NOTE 11)
10-2
Conversational Voice
2
(NOTE 3)
GBR
4
150 ms
(NOTE 1, NOTE 11)
10-3
Conversational Video (Live Streaming)
3
(NOTE 3, NOTE 14)
3
50 ms
(NOTE 1, NOTE 11)
10-3
Real Time Gaming, V2X messages
Electricity distribution - medium voltage (e.g. clause 7.2.2 of TS 22.261 [51])
Process automation - monitoring (e.g. clause 7.2.2 of TS 22.261 [51])
4
(NOTE 3)
5
300 ms
(NOTE 1, NOTE 11)
10-6
Non-Conversational Video (Buffered Streaming)
65
(NOTE 3, NOTE 9, NOTE 12)
0.7
75 ms
(NOTE 7,
NOTE 8)
10-2
Mission Critical user plane Push To Talk voice (e.g. MCPTT)
66
(NOTE 3, NOTE 12)
2
100 ms
(NOTE 1,
NOTE 10)
10-2
Non-Mission-Critical user plane Push To Talk voice
67
(NOTE 3, NOTE 12)
1.5
100 ms
(NOTE 1,
NOTE 10)
10-3
Mission Critical Video user plane
75
(NOTE 14)
2.5
50 ms
(NOTE 1)
10-2
V2X messages
71
5.6
150ms
(NOTE 1, NOTE 16)
10-6
"Live" Uplink Streaming (e.g. TS 26.238 [53])
72
5.6
300ms
(NOTE 1, NOTE 16)
10-4
"Live" Uplink Streaming (e.g. TS 26.238 [53])
73
5.6
300ms
(NOTE 1, NOTE 16)
10-8
"Live" Uplink Streaming (e.g. TS 26.238 [53])
74
5.6
500ms
(NOTE 1, NOTE 16)
10-8
"Live" Uplink Streaming (e.g. TS 26.238 [53])
76
5.6
500ms
(NOTE 1, NOTE 16)
10-4
"Live" Uplink Streaming (e.g. TS 26.238 [53])
5
(NOTE 3)
1
100 ms
(NOTE 1, NOTE 10)
10-6
IMS Signalling
6
(NOTE 4)
6
300 ms
(NOTE 1, NOTE 10)
10-6
Video (Buffered Streaming)
TCP-based (e.g. www, e-mail, chat, ftp, p2p file sharing, progressive video, etc.)
7
(NOTE 3)
Non-GBR
7
100 ms
(NOTE 1, NOTE 10)
10-3
Voice,
Video (Live Streaming)
Interactive Gaming
8
(NOTE 5)
8
300 ms
(NOTE 1)
10-6
Video (Buffered Streaming)
TCP-based (e.g. www, e-mail, chat, ftp, p2p file
9
(NOTE 6)
9
sharing, progressive video, etc.)
10
9
1100 ms
(NOTE 1, NOTE 17)
10-6
Video (Buffered Streaming)
TCP-based (e.g. www, e-mail, chat, ftp, p2p file sharing, progressive video, etc.) and any service that can be used over satellite access with these characteristics
69
(NOTE 3, NOTE 9, NOTE 12)
0.5
60 ms
(NOTE 7, NOTE 8)
10-6
Mission Critical delay sensitive signalling (e.g. MC-PTT signalling, MC Video signalling)
70
(NOTE 4, NOTE 12)
5.5
200 ms
(NOTE 7, NOTE 10)
10-6
Mission Critical Data (e.g. example services are the same as QCI 6/8/9)
79
(NOTE 14)
6.5
50 ms
(NOTE 1, NOTE 10)
10-2
V2X messages
80
(NOTE 3)
6.8
10 ms
(NOTE 10, NOTE 15)
10-6
Low latency eMBB applications (TCP/UDP-based);
Augmented Reality
NOTE 1: A delay of 20 ms for the delay between a PCEF and a radio base station should be subtracted from a given PDB to derive the packet delay budget that applies to the radio interface. This delay is the average between the case where the PCEF is located "close" to the radio base station (roughly 10 ms) and the case where the PCEF is located "far" from the radio base station, e.g. in case of roaming with home routed traffic (the one-way packet delay between Europe and the US west coast is roughly 50 ms). The average takes into account that roaming is a less typical scenario. It is expected that subtracting this average delay of 20 ms from a given PDB will lead to desired end-to-end performance in most typical cases. Also, note that the PDB defines an upper bound. Actual packet delays - in particular for GBR traffic - should typically be lower than the PDB specified for a QCI as long as the UE has sufficient radio channel quality.
NOTE 2: The rate of non congestion related packet losses that may occur between a radio base station and a PCEF should be regarded to be negligible. A PELR value specified for a standardized QCI therefore applies completely to the radio interface between a UE and radio base station.
NOTE 3: This QCI is typically associated with an operator controlled service, i.e. a service where the SDF aggregate's uplink / downlink packet filters are known at the point in time when the SDF aggregate is authorized. In case of E-UTRAN this is the point in time when a corresponding dedicated EPS bearer is established / modified.
NOTE 4: If the network supports Multimedia Priority Services (MPS) then this QCI could be used for the prioritization of non real-time data (i.e. most typically TCP-based services/applications) of MPS subscribers.
NOTE 5: This QCI could be used for a dedicated "premium bearer" (e.g. associated with premium content) for any subscriber / subscriber group. Also in this case, the SDF aggregate's uplink / downlink packet filters are known at the point in time when the SDF aggregate is authorized. Alternatively, this QCI could be used for the default bearer of a UE/PDN for "premium subscribers".
NOTE 6: This QCI is typically used for the default bearer of a UE/PDN for non privileged subscribers. Note that AMBR can be used as a "tool" to provide subscriber differentiation between subscriber groups connected to the same PDN with the same QCI on the default bearer.
NOTE 7: For Mission Critical services, it may be assumed that the PCEF is located "close" to the radio base station (roughly 10 ms) and is not normally used in a long distance, home routed roaming situation. Hence delay of 10 ms for the delay between a PCEF and a radio base station should be subtracted from this PDB to derive the packet delay budget that applies to the radio interface.
NOTE 8: In both RRC Idle and RRC Connected mode, the PDB requirement for these QCIs can be relaxed (but not to a value greater than 320 ms) for the first packet(s) in a downlink data or signalling burst in order to permit reasonable battery saving (DRX) techniques.
NOTE 9: It is expected that QCI-65 and QCI-69 are used together to provide Mission Critical Push to Talk service (e.g. QCI-5 is not used for signalling for the bearer that utilizes QCI-65 as user plane bearer). It is expected that the amount of traffic per UE will be similar or less compared to the IMS signalling.
NOTE 10: In both RRC Idle and RRC Connected mode, the PDB requirement for these QCIs can be relaxed for the first packet(s) in a downlink data or signalling burst in order to permit battery saving (DRX) techniques.
NOTE 11: In RRC Idle mode, the PDB requirement for these QCIs can be relaxed for the first packet(s) in a downlink data or signalling burst in order to permit battery saving (DRX) techniques.
NOTE 12: This QCI value can only be assigned upon request from the network side. The UE and any application running on the UE is not allowed to request this QCI value.
NOTE 13: Packet delay budget is not applicable on NB-IoT or when Enhanced Coverage is used for WB-E-UTRAN (see TS 36.300 [19]).
NOTE 14: This QCI could be used for transmission of V2X messages as defined in TS 23.285 [48].
NOTE 15: A delay of 2 ms for the delay between a PCEF and a radio base station should be subtracted from the given PDB to derive the packet delay budget that applies to the radio interface.
NOTE 16: For "live" uplink streaming (see TS 26.238 [53]), guidelines for PDB values of the different QCIs correspond to the latency configurations defined in TR 26.939 [54]. In order to support higher latency reliable streaming services (above 500ms PDB), if different PDB and PELR combinations are needed these configurations will have to use non-standardised QCIs.
NOTE 17: The worst case one way propagation delay for GEO satellite is expected to be ~270 ms, ~ 21 ms for LEO at 1200 km and ~13 ms for LEO at 600 km. The UL scheduling delay that needs to be added is also typically a two way propagation delay e.g. ~540 ms for GEO, ~42 ms for LEO at 1200 km and ~26 ms for LEO at 600 km. Based on that, the access network Packet delay budget is not applicable for QCIs that require access network PDB lower than the sum of these values when the specific types of satellite access are used (see TS 36.300 [19]). QCI-10 can accommodate the worst case PDB for GEO satellite type.
Table 6.1.7-B: Standardized QCI characteristics
QCI
Resource Type
Priority Level
Packet Delay Budget (NOTE B1)
Packet Error Loss
Rate (NOTE B2)
Maximum Data Burst Volume
(NOTE B1)
Data Rate Averaging Window
Example Services
82
(NOTE B6)
GBR
1.9
10 ms
(NOTE B4)
10-4
(NOTE B3)
255 bytes
2000 ms
Discrete Automation (TS 22.278 [38], clause 8 bullet g and TS 22.261 [51], table 7.2.2-1, "small packets")
83
(NOTE B6)
2.2
10 ms
(NOTE B4)
10-4
(NOTE B3)
1354 bytes
(NOTE B5)
2000 ms
Discrete Automation (TS 22.278 [38], clause 8 bullet g and TS 22.261 [51], table 7.2.2-1, "big packets")
84
(NOTE B6)
2.4
30 ms
(NOTE B7)
10-5
(NOTE B3)
1354 bytes
(NOTE B5)
2000 ms
Intelligent Transport Systems (TS 22.278 [38], clause 8, bullet h and TS 22.261 [51], table 7.2.2).
85
(NOTE B6)
2.1
5 ms
(NOTE B8)
10-5
(NOTE B3)
255 bytes
2000 ms
Electricity Distribution- high voltage (TS 22.278 [38], clause 8, bullet i and TS 22.261 [51], table 7.2.2 and Annex D, clause D.4.2).
NOTE B1: The PDB applies to bursts that are not greater than Maximum Data Burst Volume.
NOTE B2: This Packet Error Loss Rate includes packets that are not successfully delivered over the access network plus those packets that comply with the Maximum Data Burst Volume and GBR requirements but which are not delivered within the Packet Delay Budget.
NOTE B3: Data rates above the GBR, or, bursts larger than the Maximum Data Burst Volume, are treated as best effort and, in order to serve other packets and meet the PELR, this can lead to them being discarded.
NOTE B4: A delay of 1 ms for the delay between a PCEF and a radio base station should be subtracted from a given PDB to derive the packet delay budget that applies to the radio interface.
NOTE B5: This Maximum Data Burst Volume value is set to 1354 bytes to avoid IP fragmentation on an IPv6 based, IPSec protected GTP tunnel to the eNB (the value is calculated as in Annex C of TS 23.060 [12] and further reduced by 4 bytes to allow for the usage of a GTP-U extension header).
NOTE B6: This QCI is typically associated with a dedicated EPS bearer.
NOTE B7: A delay of 5 ms for the delay between a PCEF and a radio base station should be subtracted from a given PDB to derive the packet delay budget that applies to the radio interface.
NOTE B8: A delay of 2 ms for the delay between a PCEF and a radio base station should be subtracted from a given PDB to derive the packet delay budget that applies to the radio interface.
The Resource Type determines if dedicated network resources related to a service or bearer level Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) value are permanently allocated (e.g. by an admission control function in a radio base station). GBR SDF aggregates are therefore typically authorized "on demand" which requires dynamic policy and charging control. A Non GBR SDF aggregate may be pre-authorized through static policy and charging control.
The Maximum Data Burst Volume, if defined for the QCI (see Table 6.1.7-B), is the amount of data which the RAN is expected to deliver within the part of the Packet Delay Budget allocated to the link between the UE and the radio base station as long as the data is within the GBR requirements. If more data is transmitted from the application, delivery within the Packet Delay Budget cannot be guaranteed for packets exceeding the Maximum Data Burst Volume or GBR requirements.
The Data Rate Averaging Window, if defined for the QCI (see Table 6.1.7-B), is the 'sliding window' duration over which the GBR and MBR for a GBR SDF aggregate shall be calculated (e.g. in the RAN, PDN-GW and UE).
The Packet Delay Budget (PDB) defines an upper bound for the time that a packet may be delayed between the UE and the PCEF. For a certain QCI the value of the PDB is the same in uplink and downlink. The purpose of the PDB is to support the configuration of scheduling and link layer functions (e.g. the setting of scheduling priority weights and HARQ target operating points). Except for QCIs 82 and 83, the PDB shall be interpreted as a maximum delay with a confidence level of 98 percent. For services using QCI 82 or 83, a packet delayed by more than the PDB is included in the calculation of the PELR if the packet is within the Maximum Data Burst Volume and GBR requirements.
NOTE 1: The PDB denotes a "soft upper bound" in the sense that an "expired" packet, e.g. a link layer SDU that has exceeded the PDB, does not need to be discarded (e.g. by RLC in E-UTRAN). The discarding (dropping) of packets is expected to be controlled by a queue management function, e.g. based on pre-configured dropping thresholds.
The support for SRVCC requires QCI=1 only be used for IMS speech sessions in accordance to TS 23.216 [28].
NOTE 2: Triggering SRVCC will cause service interruption and/or inconsistent service experience when using QCI=1 for non-IMS services.
NOTE 3: Triggering SRVCC for WebRTC IMS session will cause service interruption and/or inconsistent service experience when using QCI=1. Operator policy (e.g. use of specific AF application identifier) can be used to avoid using QCI 1 for a voice service, e.g. WebRTC IMS session.
Services using a Non-GBR QCI should be prepared to experience congestion related packet drops and, except for QCI 80, 98 percent of the packets that have not been dropped due to congestion should not experience a delay exceeding the QCI's PDB. This may for example occur during traffic load peaks or when the UE becomes coverage limited. See Annex J for details. Packets that have not been dropped due to congestion may still be subject to non congestion related packet losses (see PELR below). Owing to its low latency objective, services using QCI 80 should anticipate that more than 2 percent of packets might exceed the PDB of QCI 80.
Except for services using QCI 82 or 83 services using a GBR QCI and sending at a rate smaller than or equal to GBR can in general assume that congestion related packet drops will not occur and 98 percent of the packets shall not experience a delay exceeding the QCI's PDB. Exceptions (e.g. transient link outages) can always occur in a radio access system which may then lead to congestion related packet drops even for services using a GBR QCI and sending at a rate smaller than or equal to GBR. Packets that have not been dropped due to congestion may still be subject to non congestion related packet losses (see PELR below). For services using QCI 82 or 83 a packet which is delayed by more than the PDB but is within the Maximum Data Burst Volume and GBR requirements, is counted as lost when calculating the PELR.
Every QCI (GBR and Non-GBR) is associated with a Priority level (see Table 6.1.7). The lowest Priority level value corresponds to the highest Priority. The Priority levels shall be used to differentiate between SDF aggregates of the same UE and it shall also be used to differentiate between SDF aggregates from different UEs. Via its QCI an SDF aggregate is associated with a Priority level and a PDB. Scheduling between different SDF aggregates shall primarily be based on the PDB. If the target set by the PDB can no longer be met for one or more SDF aggregate(s) across all UEs that have sufficient radio channel quality then the QCI Priority level shall be used as follows: in this case a scheduler shall meet the PDB of an SDF aggregate on QCI Priority level N in preference to meeting the PDB of SDF aggregates on next QCI Priority level greater than N, until the priority N SDF aggregate's GBR (in case of a GBR SDF aggregate) has been satisfied.
Other aspects related to the treatment of traffic exceeding an SDF aggregate's GBR are out of scope of this specification.
When required by operator policy, the eNodeB can be configured to use the ARP priority level in addition to the QCI priority level to determine the relative priority of the SDFs in meeting the PDB of an SDF aggregate. This configuration applies only for high priority ARPs as defined in clause 6.1.7.3.
NOTE 4: The definition (or quantification) of "sufficient radio channel quality" is out of the scope of 3GPP specifications.
NOTE 5: In case of E-UTRAN a QCI's Priority level and when required by operator policy, the ARP priority level may be used as the basis for assigning the uplink priority per Radio Bearer (see TS 36.300 [19] for details).
The Packet Error Loss Rate (PELR) defines an upper bound for the rate of SDUs (e.g. IP packets) that have been processed by the sender of a link layer protocol (e.g. RLC in E‑UTRAN) but that are not successfully delivered by the corresponding receiver to the upper layer (e.g. PDCP in E‑UTRAN). Thus, the PELR defines an upper bound for a rate of non congestion related packet losses. The purpose of the PELR is to allow for appropriate link layer protocol configurations (e.g. RLC and HARQ in E‑UTRAN). For a certain QCI the value of the PELR is the same in uplink and downlink.
NOTE 6: The characteristics PDB and PELR are specified only based on application / service level requirements, i.e. those characteristics should be regarded as being access agnostic, independent from the roaming scenario (roaming or non-roaming) and independent from operator policies.
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6.1.7.3 Allocation and Retention Priority characteristics
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The QoS parameter ARP contains information about the priority level, the pre-emption capability and the pre-emption vulnerability. The priority level defines the relative importance of a resource request. This allows deciding whether a bearer establishment or modification request can be accepted or needs to be rejected in case of resource limitations (typically used for admission control of GBR traffic). It can also be used to decide which existing bearers to pre-empt during resource limitations.
NOTE 1: The ARP priority level can be used in addition to the QCI to determine the transport level packet marking, e.g. to set the DiffServ Code Point of the associated EPS bearer, as described in TS 23.401 [17].
NOTE 2: When required by operator policy, the eNodeB can be configured to use the ARP priority level in addition to QCI priority level to control the packet forwarding treatment for SDFs having high priority ARPs.
The range of the ARP priority level is 1 to 15 with 1 as the highest level of priority. The pre-emption capability information defines whether a service data flow can get resources that were already assigned to another service data flow with a lower priority level. The pre-emption vulnerability information defines whether a service data flow can lose the resources assigned to it in order to admit a service data flow with higher priority level. The pre-emption capability and the pre-emption vulnerability can be either set to 'yes' or 'no'.
The ARP priority levels 1-8 should only be assigned to resources for services that are authorized to receive prioritized treatment within an operator domain (i.e. that are authorized by the serving network). The ARP priority levels 9-15 may be assigned to resources that are authorized by the home network and thus applicable when a UE is roaming.
NOTE 3: This ensures that future releases may use ARP priority level 1-8 to indicate e.g. emergency and other priority services within an operator domain in a backward compatible manner. This does not prevent the use of ARP priority level 1-8 in roaming situation in case appropriate roaming agreements exist that ensure a compatible use of these priority levels.
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6.1.8 Termination Action
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The termination action applies only in case of online charging. The termination action indicates the action, which the PCEF/TDF should perform when no more credit is granted. A packet that matches a PCC rule/ADC rule, indicating a charging key for which no credit has been granted, is subject to a termination action.
The defined termination actions include:
- Allowing the packets to pass through;
- Dropping the packets;
- The PCEF/TDF Default Termination Action;
- The re-direction of packets to an application server (e.g. defined in the termination action).
NOTE: Such a re-direction may cause an application protocol specific asynchronous close event and application protocol specific procedures may be required in the UE and/or AF in order to recover, e.g. as specified in RFC 2616 for HTTP.
The Default Termination Action for all charging keys, for which no more credit is granted and there is no specific termination action shall be pre-configured in the PCEF/TDF according to operator's policy. For instance, the default behaviour may consist of allowing packets of any terminated service to pass through the PCEF/TDF.
The OCS may provide a termination action for each charging key over the Gy interface. Any previously provided termination action may be overwritten by the OCS. A termination action remains valid and shall be applied by the PCEF/TDF until all the corresponding PCC/ADC rules of that charging key are removed or the corresponding IP‑CAN bearer is removed (for GPRS the PDP context).
The OCS shall provide the termination action to the PCEF/TDF before denying credit; otherwise the PCEF/TDF default termination action will be performed.
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6.1.9 Handling of packet filters provided to the UE by PCEF/BBERF
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The network shall ensure that the traffic mapping information negotiated with the UE reflects the bearer binding of PCC/QoS rules, except for those extending the inspection beyond what can be signalled to the UE. The PCC/QoS rules may restrict what traffic is allowed compared to what is explicitly negotiated with the UE. The PCRF may, per service data flow filter, indicate that the PCEF/BBERF is required to explicitly signal the corresponding traffic mapping information to the UE, e.g. for the purpose of IMS precondition handling at the UE. In absence of that indication, it is a PCEF/BBERF decision whether to signal the traffic mapping information that is redundant from a traffic mapping point of view.
NOTE 1: A new/modified PCC/QoS rule can cause that previously redundant and therefore omitted, traffic mapping information to cease being redundant and causing the PCEF/BBERF to signal the corresponding traffic mapping information to the UE.
NOTE 2: In order to signal a specific traffic mapping to a PDP context/EPS bearer without any previous TFT, if the operator policy is to continue allowing previously allowed traffic on that bearer, TFT filters that correspond to the previous traffic mapping need to be introduced as well.
NOTE 3: The PCEF/BERF can use all SDF filters for the generation of traffic mapping information. However if the number of SDF filters for an IP-CAN bearer exceeds the maximum number of filters that may be signalled to the UE (e.g. as specified in TS 24.008 [50]) another bearer needs to be established and a rebinding of PCC rules to bearers (by PCEF/BBERF) or even the splitting of the SDF template into two or more PCC rules (by PCRF) may be required.
The traffic mapping information (e.g. TFT filters for GPRS and EPS) that the network provides to the UE shall include the same content as the corresponding SDF filters in the SDF template received over the Gx/Gxx interface. The representation/format of the packet filters provided by the network to the UE is access-system dependent and may vary between accesses and may also be different from the representation/format of the SDF filters in the SDF template on the Gx/Gxx interface.
NOTE 4: After handover from one access-system to another, if the UE needs to determine the QoS provided in the target access to the pre-existing IP flows in the source access, the UE can perform packet filter comparison between the packet filters negotiated in the old access and those provided by the target access during QoS resource activation.
NOTE 5: If UE initiated procedures are supported and handover between access systems is to be supported, the content of the packet filters provided on the Gx/Gxx interface by the PCRF is restricted to the packet filter fields that all the accesses can provide to the UE.
In case traffic mapping information is required for a dedicated bearer and in the PCC/QoS rules corresponding to the bearer there is no SDF filter for the uplink direction having an indication to signal corresponding traffic mapping information to the UE, the PCEF/BBERF derives traffic mapping information based on implementation specific logic (e.g. traffic mapping information that effectively disallows any useful packet flows in uplink direction as described in clause 15.3.3.4 of TS 23.060 [12]) and provides it to the UE.
NOTE 6: For GPRS and EPS, the state of TFT packet filters, as defined in TS 23.060 [12], for an IP-CAN session requires that there is at most one bearer with no TFT packet filter for the uplink direction.
NOTE 7: This PCEF behaviour covers also the case that a PCC rule with an application identifier is the only PCC rule that is bound to a dedicated bearer.
NOTE 8: For a default bearer, the PCEF/BBERF will not add traffic mapping information that effectively disallows any useful packet flows in uplink direction on its own. Traffic mapping information is only generated from SDF filters which have an indication to signal corresponding traffic mapping information to the UE.
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6.1.10 IMS Emergency Session Support
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6.1.10.1 Architecture model and Reference points
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Emergency bearer services (i.e. IP-CAN session for the IMS emergency services) are provided by the serving network to support IMS emergency when the network is configured to support emergency services. Emergency services are network services provided through an Emergency APN and may not require a subscription depending on operator policies and local regulatory requirements. For emergency services the architecture for the non-roaming case as described in clause 5.1 is the only applicable architecture model.
For emergency services, the Sp reference point does not apply.
Emergency services are handled locally in the serving network. Therefore the S9 reference point does not apply.
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6.1.10.2 PCC Rule Authorization and QoS rule generation
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The PCC Rule Authorization and QoS Rule generation function selects QoS parameters that allow prioritization of IMS Emergency sessions. If an IMS Emergency session is prioritized the QoS parameters shall contain an ARP value that is reserved for intra-operator use of IMS Emergency services.
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6.1.10.3 Functional Entities
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6.1.10.3.1 PCRF
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The PCRF shall determine based on the PDN-id if an IP-CAN Session concerns an IMS emergency session.
For an IP-CAN session serving an IMS emergency session, the PCRF makes authorization and policy decisions that restrict the traffic to emergency destinations, IMS signalling and the traffic to retrieve user location information (in the user plane) for emergency services. An IP-CAN session serving an IMS emergency session shall not serve any other service and shall not be converted to/from any IP-CAN session serving other services.
If the UE IP address belongs to an emergency APN, the PCRF does not perform subscription check; instead it utilizes the locally configured operator policies to make authorization and policy decisions.
For IMS, it shall be possible for the PCRF to verify that the IMS service information is associated with a UE IP address belonging to an emergency APN. If the IMS service information does not contain an emergency related indication and the UE IP address is associated with an emergency APN, the PCRF shall reject the IMS service information provided by the P‑CSCF (and thus to trigger the release of the associated IMS session), see TS 23.167 [21].
The PCRF performs according to existing procedure:
- If IMS service information containing an emergency related indication is received from the P‑CSCF with an UE IP address associated to an Emergency APN, the PCRF initiates an IP-CAN session Modification Request for the IP‑CAN session serving the IMS session to the PCEF to provide PCC Rule(s) that authorize media flow(s).
- At reception of an indication that the IMS emergency session is released from the P-CSCF, the PCRF removes the PCC rule(s) for that IMS session with an IP‑CAN session Modification Request.
In addition, upon Rx session establishment the PCRF shall provide the IMEI(SV) (if available) and the EPC-level subscriber identifiers (IMSI, MSISDN) (if available), received from the PCEF at IP-CAN session establishment, if so requested by the P-CSCF.
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6.1.10.3.2 PCEF
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The PCEF initiates the IP‑CAN Session termination if the last PCC rule for this IP‑CAN session is removed according to existing procedure.
In addition, at reception of an IP‑CAN Session Modification Request triggered by the PCRF for an IP‑CAN session serving an IMS emergency session that removes all PCC rules with a QCI other than the default bearer QCI and the QCI used for IMS signalling, the PCEF shall start a configurable inactivity timer (e.g. to enable PSAP Callback session). When the configured period of time expires the PCEF shall initiate an IP‑CAN Session Termination Request for the IP‑CAN session serving the IMS Emergency session.
If a PCRF-Initiated IP‑CAN Session Modification Request, providing new PCC rule(s) with a QCI other than the default bearer QCI and the QCI used for IMS signalling, the PCEF shall cancel the inactivity timer.
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6.1.10.3.3 P-CSCF
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The P‑CSCF performs according to existing procedure:
- At reception of an indication that an IMS emergency session is established, the P‑CSCF sends IMS service information to the PCRF.
- At reception of an indication that an IMS emergency session is released, the P‑CSCF interacts with the PCRF to revoke the IMS service information.
In addition, the P‑CSCF shall include an emergency related indication when providing IMS service information to the PCRF; see TS 23.167 [21].
Moreover, the P-CSCF upon Rx session establishment may request the PCRF to provide the IMEI(SV) and the EPC-level subscriber identifiers (IMSI, MSISDN) corresponding to the Rx session.
NOTE: The IMEI(SV) and the EPC-level subscriber identifiers (IMSI, MSISDN) can be used to support authentication of roaming users in deployments with no IMS-level roaming interfaces or to support PSAP callback functionality for anonymous IMS emergency sessions, as described in TS 23.167 [21].
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6.1.10.4 PCC Procedures and Flows
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At Indication of IP-CAN Session Establishment that includes a PDN-id that identifies an Emergency APN the PCRF ignores subscription information from the SPR. The PCRF uses locally configured operator policies to make authorization and policy decisions.
At Indication of IP-CAN Session Establishment and Gateway Control Session Establishment, the user identity (e.g. IMSI) may not be available, or can not be authenticated. In this case, the IMEI shall be used to identify the UE.
An IP-CAN session for an emergency service shall be restricted to the destination address(es) associated with the emergency service only.
6.1.10a Restricted Local Operator Services Support
Restricted Local Operator Services (i.e. IP-CAN session for the Restricted Local Operator Services) (as specified in TS 23.221 [55]) are provided by the serving network when the network is configured to support Restricted Local Operator Services.
The PCC handling of Restricted Local Operator Services is very similar to that of emergency service as specified in clause 6.1.10 with the following differences:
- RLOS APN and IMS RLOS session are used for Restricted Local Operator Services.
- Architecture model and Reference points (clause 6.1.10.1).
Restricted Local Operator Services do not require a subscription.
- PCC Rule Authorization and QoS rule generation (clause 6.1.10.2).
The Restricted Local Operator Services is not a prioritized services and the ARP can be determined based on operator policy.
- Functional Entity: PCRF (clause 6.1.10.3.1).
The PCRF shall determine based on the RLOS APN if an IP-CAN Session relates to an IMS RLOS session.
- Functional Entity: PCEF (clause 6.1.10.3.2).
Duration of PDN connection for RLOS is controlled through local policies in PCEF. Handling of inactivity timer for the emergency PDN connection is not applicable for RLOS.
- Functional Entity: P-CSCF (clause 6.1.10.3.3).
Indication of IMS RLOS session is used.
- PCC Procedures and Flows (clause 6.1.10.4).
The PDN-id identifies an RLOS APN.
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6.1.11 Multimedia Priority Service Support
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6.1.11.1 Architecture model and Reference points
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Subscription data for MPS is provided to PCC through the Sp reference point. To support MPS service, the PCRF shall subscribe to changes in the MPS subscription data for Priority EPS Bearer Service. Dynamic invocation for MPS is provided from an AF, using the Priority indicator, over Rx. Dynamic invocation for Data Transport Service is provided by sending an MPS for Data Transport Service request to the PCRF over Rx. Dynamic invocation for MPS for Messaging is provided by sending an MPS for Messaging request to the PCRF over Rx.
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6.1.11.2 PCC rule authorization and QoS rule generation
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For MPS service, the PCRF shall generate the corresponding PCC/QoS rule(s) with the ARP/QCI parameters as appropriate for the prioritized service.
For non-MPS service, the PCRF shall generate the corresponding PCC/QoS rule(s) as per normal procedures, without consideration whether the MPS Priority EPS Bearer Service is active or not, but upgrade the ARP/QCI values suitable for MPS when the Priority EPS Bearer Service is invoked. When the Priority EPS Bearer Service is revoked, the PCRF shall change the ARP/QCI values modified for Priority EPS Bearer Service to appropriate values.
NOTE 1: The above statements for the Priority EPS Bearer Service are also applicable for the MPS for Data Transport Service and for MPS for Messaging Service.
Whenever one or more AF sessions of an MPS service are active within the same PDN connection, the PCRF shall ensure that the ARP priority level of the default bearer is at least as high as the highest ARP priority level used by any authorized PCC rules belonging to an MPS service. If the ARP pre-emption capability is enabled for any of the authorized PCC rules belonging to an MPS service, the PCRF shall also enable the ARP pre-emption capability for the default bearer.
NOTE 2: This ensures that services using dedicated bearers are not terminated because of a default bearer with a lower ARP priority level or disabled ARP pre-emption capability being dropped during mobility events.
NOTE 3: This PCRF capability does not cover interactions with services other than MPS services.
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6.1.11.3 Priority EPS Bearer Service
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The MPS Priority EPS Bearer Service targets the ARP and/or QCI of bearer(s), enabling the prioritization of all traffic on the same bearer.
The PCRF shall, at the activation of the Priority EPS Bearer Service:
- modify the ARP of the default bearer as appropriate for the Priority EPS Bearer Service under consideration of the requirement described in clause 6.1.11.2; and
- if modification of the QCI of the default bearer is required, modify the QCI of the default bearer as appropriate for the Priority EPS Bearer Service; and
- modify the ARP of PCC/QoS Rules installed before the activation of the Priority EPS Bearer Service to the ARP as appropriate for the Priority EPS Bearer Service under consideration of the requirement described in clause 6.1.11.2; and
- if modification of the QCI of the PCC/QoS Rules is required, modify the QCI of the PCC/QoS Rules installed before the activation of the Priority EPS Bearer Service to the QCI as appropriate for the Priority EPS Bearer Service.
The PCRF shall, at the deactivation of the Priority EPS Bearer Service:
- modify the ARP of the default bearer to an appropriate value according to PCRF decision under consideration of the requirement described in clause 6.1.11.2; and
- if modification of the QCI of the default bearer is required, modify the QCI of the default bearer to an appropriate value according to PCRF decision; and
- for PCC/QoS rules modified due to the activation of Priority EPS bearer service:
- modify the ARP to an appropriate value according to PCRF decision under consideration of the requirement described in clause 6.1.11.2; and
- if modification of the QCI of PCC/QoS Rules is required, modify the QCI to an appropriate value according to PCRF decision.
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6.1.11.4 Bearer priority for IMS Multimedia Priority Services
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In addition to the mechanism specified in clause 6.1.11.2, IMS Multimedia Priority Services may require upgrade of the dedicated IM CN signalling bearer and the default bearer, e.g. in order to mitigate the IP-CAN session termination due to resource limitation at a location change the default bearer and dedicated IM CN signalling bearer may need an upgraded ARP.
At reception of the indication that the IMS Signalling Priority is set for the IP-CAN Session or at reception of service authorization from the P-CSCF (AF) including an MPS session indication and the service priority level the PCRF shall under consideration of the requirement described in clause 6.1.11.2:
- modify the ARP of the default bearer as appropriate for the IMS Multimedia Priority Service; and
- if upgrade of the dedicated IM CN signalling bearer is required, modify the ARP in all the PCC/QoS rules that describe the IM CN signalling traffic to the value appropriate for IMS Multimedia Priority Services.
When the PCRF detects that the P-CSCF (AF) released all the MPS session and the IMS Signalling Priority is not set for the IP-CAN session the PCRF shall under consideration of the requirement described in clause 6.1.11.2:
- modify the ARP of the default bearer to an appropriate value according to PCRF decision; and
- modify the ARP in all PCC/QoS Rules that describe the IM CN signalling traffic to an appropriate value according to PCRF decision.
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6.1.11.5 Bearer priority for MPS for Data Transport Service
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MPS for Data Transport Service enables the prioritization of all traffic on the default bearer and other bearers upon AF request. The QoS modification to the default bearer and other bearers is done based on operator policy and regulatory rules by means of local PCRF configuration.
NOTE 1: If no configuration is provided, MPS for Data Transport Service applies only to the default bearer.
Upon receipt of an MPS for Data Transport Service invocation/revocation request from the UE, the AF or the PCRF authorizes the request. If the UE has an MPS subscription, MPS for Data Transport Service is authorized by the AF or the PCRF, based on AF decision. If the Service User is using a UE that does not have an MPS subscription, the AF authorizes MPS for Data Transport Service.
- In the case that the AF authorizes the MPS for Data Transport Service request, after successful authorization, the AF sends the MPS for Data Transport Service request to the PCRF over Rx for QoS modifications, including an indication that PCRF authorization is not needed. In this case, the PCRF shall not perform a subscription check for MPS for Data Transport Service requests. The AF also indicates to the PCRF whether the request is for invoking or revoking MPS for Data Transport Service.
- In the case that the AF does not authorize the MPS for Data Transport Service request, the AF sends the request over Rx to the PCRF for authorization and QoS modifications, including an indication that PCRF authorization is needed. In this case, the PCRF shall perform an MPS subscription check for the MPS for Data Transport Service request. The AF also indicates whether the request is for invoking or revoking MPS for Data Transport Service. The PCRF will inform the AF when the UE does not have an MPS subscription associated with the request.
After successful authorization by either AF or PCRF as described above, the PCRF shall, at the activation of MPS for Data Transport Service over Rx, perform the same steps for QoS modifications as described in clause 6.1.11.3 for the activation of the Priority EPS Bearer Service.
NOTE 2: To keep the PCC rules bound to the default bearer, the PCRF can either modify the ARP/QCI of these PCC rules accordingly or set the Bind to Default Bearer PCC rule attribute.
The PCRF shall inform the AF of the success or failure of the MPS for Data Transport Service invocation/revocation request.
The PCRF shall at the deactivation of MPS for Data Transport Service over Rx perform the same steps described in clause 6.1.11.3 for the deactivation of the Priority EPS Bearer Service.
If the bearers are deactivated for other reasons than an AF request, the PCRF shall notify the AF by terminating the Rx session.
The AF may also request an SDF for priority signalling between the UE and the AF, where the AF includes the Priority indicator over Rx, in order to enable the PCRF to set appropriate QoS values for the signalling bearer.
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6.1.11.6 Priority for MPS for Messaging
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MPS for Messaging (specified in clause 4.3.18.1 of TS 23.401 [17]) requires MPS priority on the IM CN signalling bearer for messages delivered via SMS over IP (TS 23.204 [56]) and via IMS Messaging (clause 5.16 of TS 23.228 [39]). IMS Session-based Messaging also requires MPS priority for media flow(s).
When the P-CSCF obtains the MPS for Messaging indication, as specified in TS 23.228 [39], the P‑CSCF may send an MPS for Messaging indication to the PCRF over the Rx interface to request the PCRF to modify the IM CN signalling bearer for MPS for Messaging. If the IM CN signalling bearer does not already receive MPS priority treatment, for example based on a prior request for MPS service that upgraded the IM CN signalling bearer, or based on the IMS Signalling Priority information in the SPR (see clause 6.2.4) and under consideration of the requirements described in clause 6.1.11.2, the PCRF shall:
- modify the ARP and QCI of the IM CN signalling bearer to values appropriate for MPS for Messaging Service.
When the PCRF receives an MPS for Messaging clearing (disabling) indication via Rx, the PCRF shall, while considering other services simultaneously requiring priority treatment of the IM CN signalling bearer as described in clause 6.1.11.2:
- modify the ARP and QCI of the IM CN signalling bearer to appropriate values according to PCRF decision.
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6.1.12 ADC rule authorization
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ADC Rule authorization refers to the PCRF decision about which predefined and/or dynamic ADC rules to activate for a TDF session and is only applicable in case of solicited application reporting.
It may also comprise the selection of parameters (monitoring key, enforcement actions etc.) for dynamic ADC rules to be applied once the traffic is detected.
User profile configuration, received within subscription information, indicating whether application detection and control can be enabled, shall be taken into account by PCRF, when deciding on ADC rule authorization.
NOTE 1: The enforcement actions are only applicable in case of solicited application reporting.
NOTE 2: For unsolicited application reporting, all ADC rules pre-provisioned at TDF are authorized.
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6.1.13 Redirection
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Redirection of application traffic is an option applicable in the TDF or the PCEF enhanced with ADC.
PCRF may control redirection by provisioning and modifying dynamic ADC rules over the Sd interface for a TDF, or dynamic PCC rules over the Gx interface for a PCEF enhanced with ADC. The PCRF may enable/disable redirection and set a redirect destination for every dynamic ADC rule or PCC rule.
Redirect information (redirection enabled/disabled and redirect destination) within a PCC Rule or within an ADC rule respectively, instructs the PCEF enhanced with ADC, or the TDF whether or not to perform redirection towards a specific redirect destination. The redirect destination may be provided as part of the dynamic PCC/ADC Rule, or may be preconfigured in the PCEF enhanced with ADC or the TDF. A redirect destination provided in a dynamic PCC/ADC Rule overrides the redirect destination preconfigured in the PCEF enhanced with ADC or in the TDF for this PCC/ADC Rule.
The redirection is enforced by the PCEF enhanced with ADC or the TDF on uplink application's traffic matching the ADC or PCC rule for which redirection is enabled.
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6.1.14 Resource sharing for different AF sessions
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The P-CSCF (i.e. AF) may indicate to the PCRF that media of an AF session may share resources with media belonging to other AF sessions according to TS 23.228 [39]. For every media flow, the P-CSCF may indicate that the media flow may share resources in both directions or in one direction only (UL or DL).
The PCRF makes authorization and policy decisions for the affected AF sessions individually and generates a PCC/QoS rule for every media flow in any AF session.
If the PCRF received identical indication(s) for resource sharing for multiple AF sessions, the PCRF may request the PCEF/BBERF to realize resource sharing for the corresponding set of PCC/QoS rules. The PCRF provides a DL and/or UL sharing indication with the same value for those PCC/QoS Rules that are candidate to share resources according to the direction of resource sharing indicated by the AF.
For each direction, the PCEF/BBERF shall take the highest GBR value from each set of PCC/QoS Rules related with the same sharing indication for this direction and bound to the same bearer and uses that value as input for calculating the GBR of the bearer. For each direction, the PCEF/BBERF may take the MBR value of the most demanding PCC/QoS Rule included in each set of PCC Rules related with the same sharing indication for this direction and bound to the same bearer and uses that as input for calculating the MBR of the bearer.
The AF session termination or modification procedure that removes media flows triggers the removal of the corresponding PCC/QoS Rules from the PCEF/BBERF. The PCEF/BBERF shall recalculate the GBR (and MBR) value of the bearer whenever a set of PCC/QoS Rules with the same sharing indication changes.
Resource sharing is applied as long as there are at least two active PCC/QoS rules with the same sharing indication bound to the same bearer.
Resource sharing for different AF sessions is possible only if the P-CSCF, the PCRF and the PCEF/BBERF support it.
NOTE: This procedure assumes that applications/service logic must do the necessary coordination, e.g. pause sending or employ gating, to avoid service data flows interfering and to ensure that multiple flows comply with the combined QoS parameters.
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6.1.15 Reporting of RAN user plane congestion information
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6.1.15.1 General
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RAN User Plane Congestion Information (RUCI) is reported to the PCRF to enable the PCRF to take the RAN user plane congestion status into account for policy decisions.
The RUCI includes the following information:
- The IMSI identifying the UE impacted by congestion;
- eNB identifier, ECGI or SAI identifying the eNB, E-UTRAN cell or Service Area, respectively, serving the UE.
NOTE: Whether in case of E-UTRAN the eNB identifier or the ECGI is included in the RUCI is up to operator configuration in the RCAF.
- APN for which congestion information is reported;
- Congestion level or an indication of the "no congestion" state.
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6.1.15.2 Reporting restrictions
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Depending on the operator's congestion mitigation policy, it may not be necessary to have RUCI reporting for all users. An operator shall be able to specify restrictions for RUCI reporting on a per UE per APN basis. Reporting restrictions can be used to activate or deactivate the RUCI reporting. Reporting restrictions can also be used to limit RUCI reporting. This is achieved by defining one or more sets of congestion levels, such that the RCAF indicates only that the UE experiences a congestion level within the given set but does not indicate the congestion level itself within that set. The sets must be non-overlapping such that a congestion level belongs to a single set only. Reporting restrictions can also be used to deactivate reporting of the congested cell's identifier as part of the RUCI.
NOTE: The support for the reporting restrictions is optional and used only if both the PCRF and the RCAF support this feature.
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6.1.15.3 UE mobility between RCAFs
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A RCAF is assumed to serve a geographical area. A UE may move from the area handled by one RCAF to an area handled by a different RCAF. RCAF nodes cannot detect mobility by themselves: an RCAF node cannot differentiate whether a UE that is no longer affected by congestion has moved to another RCAF or not. When a given RCAF indicates no congestion to the PCRF for a given UE on the Np interface, this should be interpreted as no congestion experienced at the given RCAF which does not exclude that another RCAF may report that the same UE experiences congestion.
Consistent operation for UE mobility is ensured by applying the following rules at the PCRF.
- The PCRF maintains the RCAF which has last indicated that the UE is affected by congestion.
- When a new RCAF indicates that the UE is affected by congestion, the PCRF sends a message to the old RCAF to explicitly release context at the old RCAF.
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6.1.16 Negotiation for future background data transfer
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The AF may contact the PCRF via the SCEF (and the Nt interface) to request a time window and related conditions for future background data transfer.
NOTE 1: The SCEF may contact any PCRF in the operator network.
The AF request shall contain an ASP identifier, the volume of data to be transferred per UE, the expected amount of UEs, the desired time window and optionally, network area information (e.g. list of cell ids, TAs/RAs).
NOTE 2: A 3rd party application server is typically not able to provide any specific network area information and if so, the AF request is for the whole operator network.
The PCRF shall first retrieve all existing transfer policies stored for any ASP from the SPR. Afterwards, the PCRF shall determine, based on the information provided by the AF and other available information (e.g. network policy, congestion level (if available), load status estimation for the required time window and network area, existing transfer policies) one or more transfer policies.
A transfer policy consists of a recommended time window for the background data transfer, a reference to a charging rate for this time window and optionally a maximum aggregated bitrate (indicating that the charging according to the referenced charging rate is only applicable for the aggregated traffic of all involved UEs that stays below this value). Finally, the PCRF shall provide the transfer policies to the AF together with a reference ID. If the AF received more than one transfer policy, the AF shall select one of them and inform the PCRF about the selected transfer policy.
NOTE 3: The maximum aggregated bitrate (optionally provided in a transfer policy) is not enforced in the network. The operator may apply offline CDRs processing (e.g. combining the accounted volume of the involved UEs for the time window) to determine whether the maximum aggregated bitrate for the set of UEs was exceeded by the ASP and charge the excess traffic differently.
NOTE 4: It is assumed that the 3rd party application server is configured to understand the reference to a charging rate based on the agreement with the operator.
The selected transfer policy is finally stored by the PCRF in the SPR together with the reference ID and the network area information. The same or a different PCRF can retrieve this transfer policy and the corresponding network area information from the SPR and take them into account for future decisions about transfer policies for background data related to the same or other ASPs.
At the time the background data transfer is about to start, the AF provides for each UE the reference ID together with the AF session information to the PCRF (via the Rx interface). The PCRF retrieves the corresponding transfer policy from the SPR and derives the PCC rules for the background data transfer according to this transfer policy.
NOTE 5: The AF will typically contact the PCRF for the individual UEs to request sponsored connectivity for the background data transfer.
NOTE 6: A transfer policy is only valid until the end of its time window. The removal of outdated transfer policies from the SPR is up to implementation.
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6.1.17 Traffic Steering Control
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Traffic steering control is triggered by the PCRF initiated request and consists in applying a specific (S)Gi-LAN traffic steering policy for traffic detected based on application level information or service data flow level information for the purpose of steering the subscriber's selected traffic to appropriate (S)Gi-LAN service functions deployed by the operator or 3rd party service provider.
The PCRF uses one or more pieces of information such as network operator's policies, user subscription, user's current RAT, network load status, application identifier, time of day, UE location, APN, related to the subscriber session and the application traffic as input for selecting a traffic steering policy.
The PCRF controls traffic steering in the PCEF, TDF or TSSF by provisioning and modifying traffic steering control information. Traffic steering control information consists of a traffic description and a reference to a traffic steering policy that is configured in the PCEF, TDF or TSSF.
The PCEF, TDF or TSSF performs necessary actions to enforce the traffic steering policy referenced by the PCRF. For enforcing the traffic steering policy, the PCEF, TDF or TSSF may support traffic steering related functions as defined by other standard organizations. The mechanism used for routing the traffic between the service functions within the (S)Gi-LAN, is out of 3GPP scope.
The traffic steering control may be deployed using PCEF only, using TDF only, or using TSSF only, or using a combination of PCEF/TDF and TSSF.
When a combination of PCEF/TDF with traffic steering control feature and TSSF is deployed, the PCEF/TDF is utilized for application detection and packet marking while traffic steering is done using TSSF. In this case the PCC/ADC Rules provided to the PCEF/TDF for application detection shall be at application level while the traffic steering control information provided to the TSSF for traffic detection and steering control shall be at service data flow level only, i.e. the Application identifier and Traffic steering policy identifier shall be included over Gx/Sd reference point for detection of the traffic and packet marking and the Service data flow filter(s) and Traffic steering policy identifier shall be included over St reference point for traffic steering control. The value used for packet marking at the PCEF/TDF (according to the Traffic steering policy identifier received from the PCRF) shall be the same as the one within the Service data flow filter (using filter information described in clause 6.2.2.2) that is sent to the TSSF and used for traffic steering. Alternatively, the Application Identifier may be used for traffic detection at the TSSF. In this case the value used for packet marking at the PCEF/TDF (according to the Traffic steering policy identifier received from the PCRF) shall be the same as the one configured in the TSSF for that Application Identifier.
NOTE 1: The above principle also enables a deployment scenario in which the PCEF/TDF acts as an uplink traffic classifier while the downlink traffic classifier, located in (S)Gi-LAN, acts only at service data flow filter level. This deployment scenario is applicable for applications with deducible service data flow filters only. In this case, the PCEF/TDF deduces the downlink service data flow description and communicates the related information to the downlink classifier.
NOTE 2: The SDF filter(s) can be used for traffic detection at the TSSF when the PCEF/TDF is configured to do packet marking and forwarding using ToS or TC values in the IP header. The Application Identifier can be used when the PCEF/TDF is configured to do packet marking and forwarding using e.g. GRE or NSH.
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6.1.18 PCC support of NBIFOM
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6.1.18.1 General
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Clause 6.1.18 refers to Network Based IP Flow Mobility as described in TS 23.161 [43].
When PCC control for NBIFOM applies for an IP-CAN session:
- Multiple IP-CAN types (3GPP EPS and Non 3GPP EPS) may be simultaneously associated with the same IP-CAN session.
- The PCRF sends PCC rules including NBIFOM related information as defined in clause 6.3.1.
- In UE-initiated NBIFOM mode this is based on Routing Rules received from the UE.
- For network-initiated NBIFOM mode, the PCRF determines the NBIFOM related information for a PCC rule as defined in clause 6.2.1.1 (including information about UE requested mapping of IP flows to an access, Change of usability of an Access).
- A change of access may trigger the modification of the charging key or the monitoring key in a PCC rule if access dependent charging or usage monitoring is required by the operator.
- The PCRF decides whether NBIFOM applies for the IP-CAN session, based on information about the support for NBIFOM received from the PCEF and operator policies that may take into account subscription information.
- The PCEF notifies the PCRF when an access is added or removed using the event trigger defined in clause 6.1.4.
- The PCEF notifies the PCRF when an access becomes Unusable or Usable again or when the move-to-WLAN or move-from-WLAN event occurs, both events are notified to the PCRF using the event trigger "Change of the usability of an access" as defined in clause 6.1.4.
- The PCRF may reject the NBIFOM Routing Rules received from the UE based on user subscription.
In following conditions the PCRF mentioned above is the H-PCRF:
- The UE is served by its HPLMN, or
- The PDN connection is served by a PGW in the Home PLMN (Home Routed roaming configuration), or
- The PDN connection is served by a PGW in the V-PLMN (LBO configuration) and S9 is deployed and the V-PCRF supports NBIFOM. In that case, the V-PCRF acts as a relay of information.
The PCRF mentioned above is the V-PCRF in the case when, through roaming agreement, the HPLMN operator allows the VPLMN operator to operate the V-PCRF without S9; this includes authorization of roamers to use NBIFOM. In that case, network control related with subscription such as checking the total usage allowance does not apply.
NOTE 1: If the Home operator wants to enforce control of the NBIFOM functionality on a PDN connection by the H-PCRF, the Home operator should ensure that the Home Routed roaming configuration applies to this PDN connection.
NOTE 2: NBIFOM may be deployed without PCC support. This is defined in TS 23.161 [43].
In a multi access IP-CAN session, every PCC Rule is associated to one allowed access within the IP-CAN session. The information about the allowed access may be explicitly included in the PCC Rule, within the Allowed Access Type. Otherwise, the default NBIFOM access for the traffic on the IP-CAN session shall be applied as allowed access for a PCC rule. The bearer binding mechanism in the PCEF shall, in addition to the requirements defined in 6.1.1.4, ensure that a PCC Rule is associated to an IP-CAN bearer belonging to the allowed access.
The PCEF may provide the following information for each access in a multi access IP-CAN session:
- Location of the subscriber as defined in clauses A.4, H.3 and H.4.
- A serving PLMN identifier as defined in clauses A.4, H.3 and H.4.
- RAT type as defined in clauses A.4, H.3 and H.4.
For the purpose of usage monitoring in the PCEF when NBIFOM applies for an IP-CAN session, the PCRF may receive an individual Monitoring key per access from SPR.
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6.1.18.2 NBIFOM impacts on IP-CAN procedures
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PCC support of NBIFOM requires following modifications to IP-CAN session procedures:
- IP-CAN session establishment.
During the IP-CAN session establishment, the PCEF informs the PCRF about the UE and network support of NBIFOM and the requested NBIFOM mode (defined in TS 23.161 [43]). The PCRF takes a policy decision on whether NBIFOM may apply to the IP-CAN session (the hPCRF decides the NBIFOM mode according to TS 23.161 [43]) and informs the PCEF about its decision.
- Addition of an access.
When the PCEF receives both a handover request and a NBIFOM indication from the UE, the PCEF initiates an IP-CAN Session Modification procedure, to:
- Notify the PCRF about the addition of an access to the IP-CAN session together with the IP-CAN type and the RAT type of this access. If UE-initiated NBIFOM mode was selected at IP-CAN session establishment the notification contains also the default NBIFOM access selected by the UE.
- Notify the PCRF with the NBIFOM Routing Rules, if the UE included Routing Rules with the access addition request in UE-initiated NBIFOM mode.
The PCRF takes policy decisions and communicates them to the PCEF:
- The PCRF may reject the addition of the access if the multi-access IP-CAN session would correspond to an invalid combination of IP-CAN and RAT Types or is not allowed by the subscription. In this release of the specification the only allowed combination corresponds to the UE using a 3GPP access and a WLAN access.
- If network-initiated NBIFOM mode was selected at IP-CAN session establishment, the PCRF indicates the default NBIFOM access to the PCEF.
- In UE-initiated NBIFOM mode the PCRF verifies the default NBIFOM access provided by the UE. If it complies with the subscription the PCRF provides this default NBIFOM access to the PCEF. If not, the PCRF selects a different default NBIFOM access and provides it to the PCEF.
- In UE-initiated NBIFOM mode, the PCRF may receive NBIFOM Routing Rules created by the UE. The PCRF may reject a NBIFOM Routing Rule due to subscription limitations. Otherwise, the PCRF determines for each NBIFOM Routing Rule the impacted PCC rule and provides or modifies this PCC rule.
- The PCRF shall ensure that there is at least one PCC Rule that can be bound to the default bearer of each access.
- Removal of an access.
When the PCEF is informed about the removal of an access of a multi-access IP-CAN session, the PCEF initiates an IP-CAN Session Modification procedure, to notify the PCRF about the removal of an access together with the IP-CAN type and the RAT type of this access. The PCRF determines the affected PCC rules and replies with updated PCC Rules or informs about the PCC Rules that are to be removed.
The PCC rules corresponding to the removed access are then modified or deleted by the PCEF accordingly. This shall not trigger the sending of Routing Rules deletion to the UE in Network-initiated NBIFOM mode.
NOTE 2: The UE deletes the Routing Rules locally in case of removal of access as described in TS 23.161 [43].
NOTE 3: The PCRF can also decide to trigger the removal of an access by updating or removing all PCC rules that are bound to this access. The removal of all PCC Rules bound to an access removes the access unless there are PCC Rules not known to the PCRF defined in the PCEF for this particular access.
- Network-initiated IP flow mobility within a PDN connection (Network-initiated NBIFOM mode).
When a multi-access IP-CAN session has been set-up in Network-initiated NBIFOM mode, the PCRF may at any time determine that flows should be moved from a source access to a target access. In that case, the PCRF provides updated PCC Rules with a modified Allowed Access Type and the Routing Rule Identifier using an IP-CAN Session Modification procedure (i.e. the Allowed Access Type can be added, changed or removed).
The PCRF request triggers the sending of Routing Rules creation (when the Allowed Access Type is added) or Routing Rules modification (when the Allowed Access Type is changed) to the UE which may be rejected by the UE due to local radio conditions. In that case the PCRF gets notified which PCC rules cannot be modified. This notification from the PCEF contains an indication of the cause of the rejection received from the UE.
The PCRF request triggers the sending of Routing Rules deletion to the UE when the Allowed Access Type is removed.
- UE-initiated IP flow mobility within a PDN connection (UE-initiated NBIFOM mode).
When the PCEF has received a request from the UE to create / modify / delete a Routing Rule, the PCEF initiates an IP-CAN Session Modification procedure and provides the Routing Rule received from the UE to the PCRF as an NBIFOM Routing Rule. The PCRF may reject an NBIFOM Routing Rule received from the UE due to subscription limitations. Otherwise the PCRF determines and updates the impacted PCC rule (as described in 6.12.2) and provides the updated PCC rule to the PCEF.
- UE requested mapping of IP flows to an access (Network-initiated NBIFOM mode).
This procedure is only used in Network-initiated NBIFOM mode when the UE wants to request the network to apply specific mappings of IP flows to an access.
When the PCEF has received a request from the UE to have the network create / modify / delete a Routing Rule, the PCEF initiates an IP-CAN Session Modification procedure and provides the information received from the UE to the PCRF as an NBIFOM Routing Rule. The PCRF may reject an NBIFOM Routing Rule received from the UE due to subscription limitations. Otherwise the PCRF determines and updates the impacted PCC rule (as described in clause 6.12.2) and provides the updated PCC rule to the PCEF. The updated PCC rule triggers the sending of a Routing Rules creation / modification / deletion to the UE (as described above for Network-initiated IP flow mobility).
- Indication that an access becomes unusable / usable again or indication of move-to-WLAN / move-from-WLAN (Network-initiated NBIFOM mode).
The PCEF initiates an IP-CAN Session Modification procedure to notify the PCRF about the change of usability of an access to the PCRF. For every PCC rule that is currently bound to this access, the PCRF shall either change the Allowed Access Type and provide the updated PCC rule to the PCEF or remove this PCC rule. This triggers the sending of Routing Rules modification to the UE. If the PCRF receives an indication that an access become usable again, The PCRF may update the PCC rules, e.g. by changing the Allowed Access Type and provide the updated PCC rules to the PCEF. This triggers the sending of Routing Rules modification to the UE.
- Reporting Access Network Information to the AF.
The PCRF reports to the AF only Access Network Information associated with one access even though different media of the AF session are carried by different accesses.
If the PCRF has received a request for Access Network Information from the AF and PCC rules related with the AF request are bound to multiple accesses, the PCRF selects one PCC rule to be associated with Access Network Information reporting from the PCEF. The selected PCC rule should correspond to the 3GPP access: Using the 3GPP access reduces the risk of getting non-trustable location information from the S2b access of the IP-CAN session.
- UE resource request for a multi-access IP-CAN session.
When the UE wants to request the network to allocate resources for one or more IP flows in the non-default NBIFOM access, the UE shall provide a corresponding Routing Rule in the same request in the UE-initiated mode. Without such Routing Rule, the network shall reject the UE resource request.
NOTE 4: UE resource requests in the default NBIFOM access do not require a Routing Rule as the generated PCC rule will be bound to dedicated bearer in this access.
- PCRF initiated IP-CAN session modification.
When network-initiated NBIFOM mode applies and the PCRF modifies the service data flow filter or precedence in a PCC rule for which a corresponding Routing Rule exists, the PCEF shall also modify this Routing Rule at the UE accordingly.
When network-initiated NBIFOM mode applies and the PCRF removes a PCC rule for which a corresponding Routing Rule exists, the PCEF shall also remove the corresponding Routing Rule at the UE.
When UE-initiated NBIFOM mode applies and if a new PCC rule is created due to the request from the network (e.g. request from the AF or application detection information from the PCEF/TDF), the PCRF shall determine that the new PCC rule is bound to the default access. UE may initiate IP flow mobility request to bind the IP flow to another access later.
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6.1.19 Resource reservation for services sharing priority
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To enable the usage of the same bearer, an AF may indicate to the PCRF that a media flow of an AF session is allowed to use the same priority as media flows belonging to other AF sessions (instead of the service priority provided for this media flow). In this case, the AF will provide a priority sharing indicator in addition to the application identifier and the service priority. For MCPTT, the service priority and the priority sharing indicator are defined in TS 23.179 [46]. The priority sharing indicator is used to indicate what media flows are allowed to share priority.
The PCRF makes authorization and policy decisions for the affected AF sessions individually and generates a PCC/QoS rule for every media flow as specified in clause 6.1.1.3. The application identifier and the service priority are used to calculate the ARP priority. The AF may also provide suggested pre-emption capability and vulnerability values per media flow to the PCRF. The ARP pre-emption capability and the ARP pre-emption vulnerability are set according to operator policies and regulatory requirements, also taking into consideration the application identifier and suggested values, when provided by the AF. The priority sharing indicator is stored for later use.
For PCC/QoS rules with the same QCI assigned and having an associated priority sharing indicator, the PCRF shall try to make authorization and policy decisions taking the priority sharing indicator into account and modify the ARP of these PCC/QoS rules as follows, (the original ARP values are stored for later use):
- The modified ARP priority is set to the highest of the original priority among all the PCC/QoS rules that include the priority sharing indicator;
- The modified ARP pre-emption capability is set if any of the original PCC/QoS rules have the ARP pre-emption capability set;
- The modified ARP pre-emption vulnerability is set if all the original PCC/QoS rules have the ARP pre-emption vulnerability set.
NOTE 1: Having the same setting for the ARP parameter in the PCC/QoS rules with the priority sharing indicator set enables the usage of the same bearer. Furthermore, a combined modification of the ARP parameter in the PCC/QoS rules ensures that a bearer modification is triggered when a media flow with higher service priority starts.
If the PCRF receives an indication that a PCC/QoS rule provisioning or modification failed (due to resource reservation failure) then, the PCRF may apply pre-emption and remove active PCC/QoS rules from the PCEF and then retry the PCC/QoS rule provisioning or modification procedure. If the PCRF does not apply pre-emption, the AF is notified using existing procedures (as defined in clause 6.1.5) that the resource reservation for the new media flow failed.
The AF may optionally provide pre-emption control information, including pre-emption capability and vulnerability values, in addition to the priority sharing indicator to the PCRF. If so, the PCRF shall apply pre-emption and remove active PCC/QoS rules according to this information when receiving an indication that a PCC/QoS rule provisioning or modification failed. The pre-emption control information indicates:
- whether media flows sharing priority are candidates to being pre-empted taking into account pre-emption capability and vulnerability values;
- how to perform pre-emption among multiple potential media flow candidates of same priority: most recently added media flow, least recently added media flow, media flow with highest requested bandwidth in the AF request.
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6.1.20 Management of Packet Flow Descriptions using the PFDF
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The Management of Packet Flow Descriptions (PFDs) enables the PCEF and TDF to perform accurate application detection when PFDs are provided by an ASP (via the SCEF and the PFDF) and then to apply enforcement actions as instructed in the PCC/ADC Rule.
The operator is able to configure pre-defined PCC/ADC Rules in the PCEF/TDF or dynamic PCC/ADC Rules in the PCRF that include at least an application identifier for service data flow or application detection, charging control information, i.e. charging key and optionally the Sponsor identifier or the ASP identifier or both. Depending on the service level agreements between the operator and the Application Server Provider, it may be possible for the ASP to provide individual PFDs or the full set of PFDs for each application identifier maintained by the ASP to the PCEF/TDF via the SCEF and the PFDF. The PFDs become part of the application detection filters in the PCEF/TDF and therefore are used as part of the logic to detect traffic generated by an application. The ASP may remove or modify some or all of the PFDs which have been provisioned previously for one or more application identifiers. When a removed/modified PFD was used to detect application traffic related to an application identifier in a PCC/ADC Rule of an IP-CAN/TDF session and the PCEF/TDF has reported the application start as described in clause 4.5 to the PCRF for the application instance corresponding to this PFD, the PCEF/TDF shall report the application stop to the PCRF for the corresponding application instance identifier if the removed/modified PFD in PCEF/TDF results in that the stop of the application instance is not being able to be detected.
NOTE 1: The management of Packet Flow Descriptions is optional and is only used if the PFDF is deployed and the PCEF or the TDF supports this feature.
Each PFD may be identified by a PFD id. A PFD id is unique in the scope of a particular application identifier. There may be different PFD types associated to an application identifier, see TS 23.682 [42] for the definition of PFD.
The PFDs may be retrieved by PCEF/TDF from PFDF in "pull" mode or may be provisioned from PFDF to the PCEF/TDF in "push" mode.
When the "push" mode is used, the PFDF distributes PFDs for each application identifier to those PCEFs/TDFs that enable access to those applications. The PFDF may be configured with the list of PCEFs/TDFs where PFDs should be distributed. There are three methods to provision PFDs from the PFDF to the PCEF/TDF, as described in clause 7.12.2:
a) Push of whole PFDF state according to operator configuration in PFDF (e.g. provision per day according to operator configuration);
b) Selective push of an ASP change in the PFD set (i.e. ASP changes the PFD set while operator configuration defines when to push);
c) Selective push of an ASP change in the PFD set according to ASP request (i.e. ASP indicates to push changes in a PFD set within the time interval indicated by the Allowed Delay as described in TS 23.682 [42]).
NOTE 2: In all cases listed above, how to protect the PCEF/TDF from overload during the procedure to provision PFDs is up to Stage 3.
The SCEF may be configured with a minimum allowed delay based on SLA to authorize the allowed delay provided by the ASP, as defined in TS 23.682 [42].
When the "pull" mode is used, at the time a PCC/ADC Rule with an application identifier for which PFDs provisioned by the PFDF are not available is activated or provisioned, the PCEF/TDF requests all PFDs for that application identifier from the PFDF. The PFDs retrieved for an application identifier from the PFDF are cached in the PCEF/TDF with an associated caching timer to control how long the PFDs are valid. When the caching timer elapses, if there are still active PCC/ADC rules that refer to the corresponding application identifier, the PCEF/TDF reloads the PFD(s) from the PFDF. When the PCEF/TDF removes the last PCC/ADC rule that refers to the corresponding application identifier, or when the caching timer expires and no PCC/ADC rule refers to the application identifier, the PCEF/TDF may remove the PFD(s) related with the application identifier.
NOTE 3: It is assumed that all PCEF(s)/TDF(s) and PFDF(s) in an operator network are configured with the same default caching time value to be applied for all application identifiers.
Within one PLMN, "push" mode only, "pull" mode only, or a combination of "pull" and "push" mode may be supported if the feature is supported.
When the "pull" mode is used, the PFDF may provide to the PCEF/TDF a caching time value per application identifier. The PCEF/TDF receives the caching time value together with the PFD(s) from the PFDF over Gw/Gwn and applies this value for the application identifier instead of the configured default caching time value. In case no caching time value is received from PFDF, the PCEF/TDF uses the configured default caching time value.
NOTE 4: The configuration of a caching time value per application identifier PFDF is based on the SLA between the operator and the ASP.
When only "pull" mode is supported in one PLMN, if the Allowed Delay is shorter than the caching time value stored for this application identifier, or shorter than the default caching time if no application-specific caching time is stored, the PFDF sends a response to SCEF with an indication that the Allowed Delay cannot be met. The PFDF may still store the PFD(s) and if so, indicate this to the SCEF. The PFDF shall also include the caching time value in the response to the SCEF. The SCEF shall forward the indication that the PFDF stored the PFD(s) (if available) and the caching time value to the ASP when informing that the Allowed Delay could not be met.
If the PFDs are managed by local O&M procedures, PFD retrieval is not used; otherwise, the PFDs retrieved from PFDF overrides any PFDs pre-configured in the PCEF/TDF. If all PFDs retrieved from the PFDF are removed for an application identifier, the pre-configured PFDs shall be applied again for the application identifier. The PCEF/TDF may differentiate the need for PFD retrieval based on operator configuration in the PCEF/TDF.
The AF requests including an application identifier may trigger the activation or provisioning of a PCC/ADC Rule in the PCEF/TDF by the PCRF based on operator policies.
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6.1.21 3GPP PS Data Off
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This feature, when activated by the user, prevents downlink traffic and may prevent uplink traffic via 3GPP access except for 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services.
NOTE 1: Preventing uplink packets that don't belong to 3GPP Data Off Exempt Services in PDN GW implies that the exempt uplink packets in the UE have traversed the Serving GW but get dropped in the PDN GW. If this happens, it's not possible to verify accounting information collected at the Serving GW for inter-operator charging. However, the subscriber may not be charged for those packets.
The 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services are a set of operator services, defined in TS 22.011 [49], that are the only allowed services in downlink direction when the 3GPP PS Data Off feature has been activated by the user.
When PCRF is deployed, it shall be configured with the list of 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services and the event trigger of 3GPP PS Data Off status change is used to inform the PCRF about every change of the 3GPP PS Data Off status.
NOTE 2: The PCRF can be configured with a list of 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services per APN. The list of 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services for an APN can also be empty, or can allow for any service within that APN, according to operator policy.
NOTE 3: The PCRF can be configured with up to two lists of 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services for UEs in HPLMN and for UEs camping in any VPLMNs using mechanism as specified in clause 6.2.1.1.
NOTE 4: For the PDN connection used for IMS services, the 3GPP Data Off Exempt Services are enforced in the IMS domain as specified TS 23.228 [39]. Policies configured in the PCRF need to ensure that IMS services are allowed when the 3GPP Data Off status of the UE is set to "activated", e.g. by treating any service within a well-known IMS APN as 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services.
When the PCRF is informed about the activation of 3GPP PS Data Off, it shall update the PCC rules in such a way that only packets for services belonging to the list of 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services are forwarded while all other packets are discarded.
NOTE 5: In order for the PCEF to prevent the services that do not belong to the list of 3GPP PS Data Off Exempted Services, if the services are controlled by dynamic PCC rules, the PCRF could modify the PCC rules by setting the gate status to "closed" for the downlink and optionally uplink directions in all active dynamic PCC rules or remove those dynamic PCC rules. If the services are controlled by predefined PCC rules, the PCRF can deactivate those predefined PCC rules. PCC rule with wild-carded service data flow filters can be among the PCC rules that are modified, removed or deactivated in that manner. In this case, it can be necessary that the PCRF at the same time installs or activates PCC rules for data-off exempt services.
NOTE 6: For example, four PCC rules (A, B, C, D) are active for a PDN connection with PCC rule A representing a 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Service. When 3GPP PS Data Off is activated, the PCRF could either modify PCC rules B, C and D if they are dynamic PCC rules by closing the gate in downlink and optionally in uplink direction or remove/deactivate PCC rules B, C and D if they are predefined PCC rules. PCC rule A does not need to be changed as it represents 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Service. Assuming that PCC rule B contained wild-carded service data flow filters which has enabled some 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Service is removed or deactivated, an additional PCC rule E can be installed or activated as well to enable the downlink traffic for that 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Service.
NOTE 7: The network configuration can ensure that at least one PCC Rule is bound to the default bearer when Data Off is activated in order to avoid deletion of an existing PDN connection or in order not to fail a PDN connection establishment.
When the PCRF receives service information from the AF, in addition to what is specified in clause 6.2.1.0, PCRF shall check if the requested service information belongs to the 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services. If the requested service belongs to 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services, PCRF shall continue as specified in clause 6.2.1.0. If the requested service doesn't belong to the 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services, PCRF shall reject the service request.
When the PCRF is informed about the deactivation of 3GPP PS Data Off, it shall perform policy control decision as specified in clause 6.2.1.0 and perform PCC rule operations as specified in clause 6.3.2 2 to make sure that the services are allowed according to user's subscription and operator policy (irrespective of whether they belong to the list of 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services).
When PCRF is not deployed, predefined PCC rules, as example, can be configured in the PCEF to ensure the following:
- when the PCEF is informed about activation of 3GPP PS Data Off, only packets for services belonging to the list of 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services are forwarded while all other packets are discarded. The list of 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services for UEs camping in HPLMN and the list of 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services for UEs camping in VPLMN can be different and
- When PCEF is informed about deactivation of 3GPP PS Data Off, downlink packets are forwarded according to the operator policy for the subscriber.
NOTE 8: For example, the PCEF can be configured with three sets of predefined PCC rules: one set for UEs with 3GPP PS Data Off status "inactive", the second set for UE camping in the HPLMN with 3GPP PS Data Off status "active" and the third set for UEs camping in the VPLMN with 3GPP PS Data Off status "active". The set of predefined PCC rules for UE 3GPP PS Data Off status "active" can be equivalent to the set of predefined PCC rules for UE 3GPP PS Data Off status "inactive" with the following two differences: All services belonging to the list of 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services can be represented by PCC rule(s) which allows the traffic to pass while in all other PCC rules (not belonging to the list of 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services) the gate status can be "closed" for the downlink direction. When the PCEF is informed about the change of UE 3GPP PS Data Off status, it can replace the currently active set of predefined PCC rules with the other set of predefined PCC rules.
When the UE 3GPP PS Data Off status is "active" and a handover from one access-system to another occurs, the PCRF performs the above operations so that the downlink traffic for services not belonging to the list of 3GPP PS Data Off Exempt Services is only prevented via the 3GPP access.
When NBIFOM applies for the IP-CAN session, the PCRF shall not modify PCC rules associated to the IP-CAN type "Non 3GPP EPS".
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6.2 Functional entities
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6.2.1 Policy Control and Charging Rules Function (PCRF)
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6.2.1.0 General
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The PCRF encompasses policy control decision and flow based charging control functionalities.
The PCRF provides network control regarding the service data flow detection, gating, QoS and flow based charging (except credit management) towards the PCEF and/or TDF.
The PCRF provides network control regarding the application detection, gating, QoS and application based charging (except credit management) towards the TDF and the PCEF enhanced with ADC.
The PCRF shall apply the security procedures, as required by the operator, before accepting service information from the AF.
The PCRF shall decide whether application traffic detection is applicable, as per operator policies, based on user profile configuration, received within subscription information.
The PCRF shall decide how certain service/application traffic shall be treated in the PCEF and in the TDF, if applicable and ensure that the PCEF user plane traffic mapping and treatment is in accordance with the user's subscription profile.
If Gxx applies, the PCRF shall provide QoS rules with identical service data flow templates as provided to the PCEF in the PCC rules. If the service data flow is tunnelled at the BBERF, the PCRF shall provide the BBERF with information received from the PCEF to enable the service data flow detection in the mobility tunnel at the BBERF. In case 2a, defined in clause 7.1, the PCRF may also provide to the BBERF the charging ID information received from the PCEF. If IP flow mobility as specified in TS 23.261 [23] applies, the PCRF shall, based on IP flow mobility routing rules received from the PCEF, provide the authorized QoS rules to the applicable BBERF as specified in clause 6.1.1.3.
The PCRF should for an IP‑CAN session derive, from IP‑CAN specific restrictions, operator policy and SPR data, the list of permitted QoS class identifiers and associated GBR and MBR limits for the IP‑CAN session.
The PCRF may check that the service information provided by the AF is consistent with both the operator defined policy rules and the related subscription information as received from the SPR during IP‑CAN session establishment before storing the service information. The service information shall be used to derive the QoS for the service. The PCRF may reject the request received from the AF when the service information is not consistent with either the related subscription information or the operator defined policy rules and as a result the PCRF shall indicate that this service information is not covered by the subscription information or by operator defined policy rules and may indicate, in the response to the AF, the service information that can be accepted by the PCRF (e.g. the acceptable bandwidth). In the absence of other policy control mechanisms outside the scope of PCC, it is recommended that the PCRF include this information in the response.
When receiving service information from the AF, the PCRF may temporarily reject the AF request (e.g. if the service information is not consistent with the operator defined policy rules for the congestion status of the user). To temporarily reject the AF request the PCRF shall indicate a re-try interval to the AF. When receiving a re-try interval from the PCRF the AF shall not send the same service information to the PCRF again (for the same IP‑CAN session) until the re-try interval has elapsed.
NOTE 1: How the PCRF derives the re-try interval is up to implementation.
In this Release, the PCRF supports only a single Rx reference point, i.e. there is one AF for each AF session.
The PCRF authorizes QoS resources. The PCRF uses the service information received from the AF (e.g. SDP information or other available application information) and/or the subscription information received from the SPR to calculate the proper QoS authorization (QoS class identifier, bitrates). The PCRF may also take into account the requested QoS received from the PCEF via Gx interface.
NOTE 2: The PCRF provides always the maximum values for the authorized QoS even if the requested QoS is lower than what can be authorized.
The Authorization of QoS resources shall be based on complete service information unless the PCRF is required to perform the authorization of QoS resources based on incomplete service information. The PCRF shall after receiving the complete service information, update the affected PCC rules accordingly.
The PCRF may use the subscription information as basis for the policy and charging control decisions. The subscription information may apply for both session based and non-session based services.
The PCRF determines whether a Gx session from the PCEF is to be linked with a Gateway Control Session from the BBERF by matching the IPv4 address and/or IPv6 network prefix and conditionally the UE Identity, PDN Connection ID and PDN ID towards open Gateway Control Sessions. When IP flow mobility as specified in TS 23.261 [23] applies, one Gx session may be linked with multiple Gateway Control Sessions.
If the BBERF does not provide any PDN ID at the Gateway Control Session Establishment, then the PCRF maintains Gateway Control Session to Gx session linking to the Gx sessions where the assigned CoA and UE Identity (if available over Gxx) are equal. The PCRF and BBERF shall be capable of separating information for each IP‑CAN session within the common Gateway Control Session.
If the BBERF provides a PDN ID at the Gateway Control Session Establishment, then the PCRF maintains Gateway Control Session to Gx session linking where the UE identity and PDN ID are equal. If the BBERF provides a PDN ID at Gateway Control Session establishment, it may also indicate in the Gateway Control Session establishment that the PCRF shall not attempt linking the new Gateway Control Session with an existing Gx session immediately. If the PCRF receives such an indication, it keeps the new Gateway Control Session pending and defers linking until an IP-CAN session establishment or an IP-CAN session modification with matching UE Identity, PDN ID and IP-CAN type arrives via Gx.
If the BBERF provides a PDN ID and a PDN Connection ID at the Gateway Control Session establishment, then the PCRF maintains Gateway Control Session to Gx session linking where the UE identity, PDN Connection ID and PDN ID are equal.
When a BBERF establishes multiple Gateway Control Sessions for the same PDN ID and the IP‑CAN type changes, the PCRF assumes that this constitutes inter-system BBERF relocations of existing Gateway Control Sessions. The BBERF may supply UE IPv4 address and/or IPv6 network prefix (if known) that can be used for linking the new Gateway Control Session to the existing Gx session. If the UE IPv4 address and/or IPv6 network prefix is/are not provided in the new Gateway Control Session establishment, the PCRF shall defer the linking with existing Gx session until receiving an IP-CAN Session modification with matching UE Identity, IP‑CAN type, PDN Connection ID and PDN ID.
The PCRF determines which case applies as described on clause 7.1.
If an AF requests the PCRF to report on the signalling path status, for the AF session, the PCRF shall, upon indication of loss of resources from the PCEF, for PCC rules corresponding to the signalling traffic notify the AF on changes to the signalling path status. The PCRF needs to have the knowledge of which PCC rules identify signalling traffic.
Negotiation of IP‑CAN bearer establishment mode takes place via Gx for 3GPP IP‑CANs. For non-3GPP IP‑CANs specified in TS 23.402 [18] negotiation of bearer establishment mode takes place via Gx when GTP is used and via Gxx for the rest of the cases. For other accesses supporting multiple IP‑CAN bearer establishment modes, if Gxx applies, the negotiation takes place via Gxx, otherwise via Gx. To support the different IP‑CAN bearer establishment modes (UE-only or UE/NW) the PCRF shall:
- shall set the IP‑CAN bearer establishment mode for the IP‑CAN session based on operator configuration, network and UE capabilities;
- shall, if the bearer establishment mode is UE/NW, decide what mode (UE or NW) shall apply for a PCC rule and resolve race conditions between for requests between UE-initiated and NW-initiated requests;
NOTE 3: For an operator-controlled service, the UE and the PCRF may be provisioned with information indicating which mode is to be used.
- may reject a UE request that is already served by a NW-initiated procedure in progress. When rejecting a UE-initiated request by sending a reject indication, the PCRF shall use an appropriate cause value which shall be delivered to the UE.
NOTE 4: This situation may e.g. occur if the PCRF has already triggered a NW-initiated procedure that corresponds to the UE request.
- guarantee the precedence of dynamic PCC rules with SDF template containing SDF filter(s) (and optionally also for SDF templates consisting of an application identifier) for network controlled services in the service data flow detection process at the PCEF by setting the PCC rule precedence information to appropriate values.
If an AF requests the PCRF to report on the change of type of IP‑CAN, the PCRF shall provide to the AF the information about the IP‑CAN type the user is currently using and upon indication of change of IP‑CAN type, notify the AF on changes of the type of IP‑CAN. In the case of 3GPP IP‑CAN, the information of the Radio Access Technology Type (e.g. UTRAN) shall be also reported to the AF. If IP flow mobility as specified in TS 23.161 [43] or in TS 23.261 [23] applies, the PCRF shall provide to the AF the new IP-CAN type information together with the affected service information. When IP flow mobility is allowed within an IP‑CAN session, the PCRF shall only report to an AF the IP‑CAN type change when the IP flow mobility applies to the service information provided by this AF.
NOTE 5: The PCRF can also use the dynamic or pre-defined PCC Rules related to the IMS signalling to request Access Network Information reporting. This can be used to support e.g. regulatory requirements for SMS over IP, where the IMS network (i.e. P‑CSCF) needs to retrieve the user location and/or UE Time Zone information. Note that due to regulatory requirements, the Access Network Information can be requested for SMS over IP, impacting a large number of PDN Connections, that can lead to significant increase in signalling load when the Access Network Information is requested from the Access Node (e.g. MME).
If an AF requests the PCRF to report Access Network Information, the PCRF shall set the Access Network Information report parameters in the corresponding PCC rule(s) or QoS rule(s) and provision them together with the corresponding event trigger to the PCEF or BBERF as per procedure in clause 7.4.2. For those PCC rule(s) or QoS rule(s) based on preliminary service information the PCRF may assign the QCI and ARP of the default bearer to avoid signalling to the UE. In addition the SDF filter(s) shall not be marked as to be used for signalling to the UE as traffic mapping information.
If an AF requests the PCRF to report Access Network Information, The PCRF shall also set the corresponding event trigger to the PCEF or BBERF as per procedure in clause 7.4.2. The PCRF shall, upon receiving the subsequent Access Network Information report corresponding to the AF session from the PCEF or BBERF, forward the Access Network Information as requested by the AF.
If an AF requests the PCRF to report the PLMN identifier where the UE is currently located, then the PCRF shall provide the PLMN identifier to the AF if available.Otherwise, the PCRF shall provision both the corresponding PCC rules and QoS Rules if applicable and the event trigger to report PLMN change to the PCEF. The PCRF shall, upon receiving of the PLMN identifier from the PCEF forward this information to the AF as defined in the procedures in clause 6.1.4.
If an AF requests the PCRF to report Access Network Charging Correlation Information, the PCRF shall provide to the AF the Access Network Charging Correlation Information, which will identify the usage reports that include measurement for the flows, once the Access Network Charging Correlation Information is known at the PCRF. If not known in advance, the PCRF subscribes for the Access Network Charging Correlation Information event for the applicable PCC rule(s), unless a single charging identifier per IP-CAN session is used as described below.
The PCEF provides at IP‑CAN session establishment both a charging identifier and an optional indication that the charging identifier is the only one for that IP‑CAN session, as defined in clause 5.1.3 of TS 32.251 [9]. In absence of the indication there is a separate charging identifier for each IP‑CAN bearer to identify usage reports that include measurements for flows served by each individual bearer. When the PCEF indicates that a single charging identifier is used for the IP‑CAN session, the PCRF uses the charging identifier received at IP‑CAN session establishment to provide Access Charging Correlation information to the AF for all flows, instead of subscribing to the Access Network Charging Correlation Information event trigger for the applicable PCC Rule(s) as described above.
If Gxx applies and the PCEF provided information about required event triggers, the PCRF shall provide these event triggers to the BBERF and notify the PCEF of the outcome of the provisioning procedure by using the PCRF initiated IP‑CAN Session Modification procedure, as defined in clause 7.4.2. The PCRF shall include the parameter values received in the response from the BBERF in the notification to the PCEF. When multiple BBERFs exist (e.g. in IP flow mobility case), the PCEF may subscribe to different or common set of event triggers at different BBERFs; when the PCRF receives event notification from any BBERF, the PCRF shall include both the parameters values received from the BBERF and also the information for identifying the BBERF in the notification to the PCEF.
If Sd applies and the TDF provided information about required event triggers, the PCRF shall provide these event triggers to the PCEF or BBERF, if Gxx applies and notify the TDF of the outcome of the provisioning procedure within the PCEF initiated IP‑CAN Session Modification procedure, as defined in clause 7.4.1. The PCRF shall include the parameter values, received in the response from the PCEF/BBERF, in the notification to the TDF. The relevant Event Triggers are: PLMN change, Location change, Change in type of IP‑CAN, RAT type change, SGSN change, Serving GW change, User CSG Information change in CSG cell, User CSG Information change in subscribed hybrid cell, User CSG Information change in un-subscribed hybrid cell, Change of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area.
NOTE 6: For IP flow mobility feature enabled, the TDF doesn't have accurate information about the location and the type of RAT the user is attached to.
When the PCRF gets an event report from the BBERF that is required by the PCEF, the PCRF shall forward this event report to the PCEF.
When the PCRF gets an Event Report from the PCEF/BBERF that is required by the TDF, the PCRF shall forward this Event Report to the TDF.
The PCRF may support usage monitoring control. Usage is defined as either volume or time of user plane traffic.
The PCRF may receive information about total allowed usage per PDN and UE from the SPR, i.e. the overall amount of allowed resources (based either on traffic volume and/or traffic time) that are to be monitored for the PDN connections of a user. In addition information about total allowed usage for Monitoring key(s) per PDN and UE may also be received from the SPR. For the purpose of usage monitoring per access type , the PCRF receives an individual Monitoring key per access type from SPR.
For the purpose of usage monitoring control the PCRF shall request the Usage report trigger and provide the necessary usage threshold(s), either volume threshold, time threshold, or both volume threshold and time threshold, upon which the requested node (PCEF or TDF) shall report to the PCRF. The PCRF shall decide if and when to activate usage monitoring to the PCEF and TDF.
The PCRF may provide a Monitoring time to the PCEF/TDF for the Monitoring keys(s) and optionally specify a subsequent threshold value for the usage after the Monitoring time.
If the PCEF reports usage before the Monitoring time is reached, the Monitoring time is not retained by the PCEF. Therefore the PCRF may again provide a Monitoring time and optionally the subsequent threshold value for the usage after the Monitoring time in the response.
It shall be possible for the PCRF to request a usage report from the requested node (PCEF or TDF).
NOTE 7: The PCRF ensures that the number of requests/following policy decisions provided over Gx/Sd reference point do not cause excessive signalling load by e.g. assigning the same time for the report only for a preconfigured number of IP-CAN/TDF sessions.
Once the PCRF receives a usage report from the requested node (PCEF or TDF) the PCRF shall deduct the value of the usage report from the totally allowed usage for that PDN and UE (in case usage per IP-CAN session is reported). If usage is reported from the TDF or the PCEF, the PCRF shall deduct the value of the usage report from the totally allowed usage for individual Monitoring key(s) for that PDN and UE (in case of usage for one or several Monitoring keys is reported).
NOTE 8: The PCRF maintains usage thresholds for each Monitoring key and IP‑CAN session that is active for a certain PDN and UE. Updating the total allowanced usage after the PCEF reporting, minimizes the risk of exceeding the usage allowance.
If the PCEF or TDF reports usage for a certain Monitoring key and if monitoring shall continue for that Monitoring key then the PCRF shall provide new threshold value(s) in the response to the PCEF or TDF respectively. If Monitoring time and subsequent threshold value are used then the PCRF provides them to the PCEF or TDF as well.
The PCRF may provide a new volume threshold and/or a new time threshold to the PCEF or TDF, the new threshold values overrides the existing threshold values in the PCEF or TDF.
If monitoring shall no longer continue for that Monitoring key, then the PCRF shall not provide a new threshold in the response to the PCEF / TDF.
NOTE 9: If the PCRF decides to deactivate all PCC rules or ADC rules associated with a certain Monitoring key, then the conditions defined in clause 6.6.2 for continued Monitoring will no longer be fulfilled for that Monitoring key.
If all IP-CAN session of a user to the same APN is terminated, the PCRF shall store the remaining allowed usage, i.e. the information about the remaining overall amount of resources, in the SPR.
The PCRF may authorise an application service provider to request specific PCC decisions (e.g. authorisation to request sponsored IP flows, authorisation to request QoS resources). For sponsored data connectivity (see Annex N), the PCRF may receive a usage threshold from the AF.
If the AF specifies a usage threshold, the PCRF shall use the Sponsor Identity to construct a Monitoring key for monitoring the volume, time, or both volume and time of user plane traffic and invoke usage monitoring on the PCEF/TDF. The PCRF shall notify the AF when the PCEF/TDF reports that a usage threshold for the Monitoring key is reached provided that the AF requests to be notified for this event. If the usage threshold is reached, the AF may terminate the AF session or provide a new usage threshold to the PCRF. Alternatively, the AF may allow the session to continue without specifying a usage threshold. If the AF decides to allow the session to continue without specifying a usage threshold, then monitoring in the PCEF/TDF shall be discontinued for that monitoring key by the PCRF, unless there are other reasons for continuing the monitoring.
If the AF revokes the service information and the AF has notified previously a usage threshold to the PCRF, the PCRF shall report the usage up to the time of the revocation of service authorization.
If the IP-CAN session terminates and the AF has specified a usage threshold then the PCRF shall notify the AF of the accumulated usage (i.e. either volume, or time, or both volume and time) of user plane traffic since the last usage report.
The PCRF performs authorizations based on sponsored data connectivity profiles stored in the SPR. If the AF is in the operator's network and is based on the OSA/Parlay-X GW (TS 23.198 [24]), the PCRF is not required to verify that a trust relationship exists between the operator and the sponsors.
If the H-PCRF detects that the UE is accessing the sponsored data connectivity in the roaming scenario with home routed access, it may allow the sponsored data connectivity in the service authorization request, reject the service authorization request, or initiate the AF session termination based on home operator policy.
NOTE 10: Sponsored data connectivity is not supported in the roaming with visited access scenario in this Release.
If the AF request includes an AF application identifier then, based on the operator policies the PCRF may trigger the activation of a predefined PCC/ADC Rule or provide a dynamic PCC/ADC rule with an appropriate application identifier in the PCEF/TDF.
For the solicited application reporting, it is PCRF's responsibility to coordinate the PCC rules and QoS rules, if applicable, with ADC rules in order to ensure consistent service delivery.
The PCRF uses the information relating to subscriber spending available in the OCS as input for policy decisions related to e.g. QoS control, gating or charging conditions.
The PCRF uses the RUCI received from the RCAF as input for policy decisions.
If the AF contacts the PCRF via the SCEF (and the Nt interface) to request a time window and related conditions for future background data transfer, the PCRF shall determine possible transfer policies (as described in clause 6.1.16) and send them to the AF together with a reference ID. If the AF received more than one transfer policy, the AF selects one of them and informs the PCRF about the selected transfer policy. The PCRF shall store the selected transfer policy in the SPR together with the reference ID and the network area information. Whenever the PCRF receives a reference ID from the AF during a subsequent transfer of AF session information (via the Rx interface), the PCRF shall retrieve the corresponding transfer policy from the SPR and apply it as one of the inputs for policy decisions for this IP-CAN session.
The PCRF uses one or more pieces of information defined in the clause 6.2.1.1 as input for the selection of traffic steering policies used to control the steering of the subscriber's traffic to appropriate (S)Gi-LAN service functions.
NOTE 11: In order to allow the PCRF to select and provision an application based traffic steering policy, the reporting of detected applications to the PCRF or any other information such as the RAT type, the RUCI etc. defined in clause 6.2.1.1 can be used.
At reception of the IMS service information from the P-CSCF, if configured through policy, the PCRF determines the Maximum Packet Loss Rate for UL and DL based on the IMS service information and taking into account information defined in TS 26.114 [45] and sends it to PCEF along with the PCC rule for the voice media.
NOTE 12: Based on local configuration, the PCRF sets the Maximum Packet Loss Rate (UL, DL) corresponding to either the most robust codec configuration (e.g. codec, mode, redundancy) or the least robust codec configuration of the negotiated set in each direction.
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6.2.1.1 Input for PCC decisions
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The PCRF shall accept input for PCC decision-making from the PCEF, the BBERF if present, the TDF if present, the SPR and if the AF is involved, from the AF, as well as the PCRF may use its own predefined information. These different nodes should provide as much information as possible to the PCRF. At the same time, the information below describes examples of the information provided. Depending on the particular scenario all the information may not be available or is already provided to the PCRF.
The PCEF and/or BBERF may provide the following information:
- Subscriber Identifier;
- The IMEI(SV) of the UE;
- IPv4 address of the UE;
- IPv6 network prefix assigned to the UE;
- NBIFOM Routing Rules (when NBIFOM as specified in TS 23.161 [43] applies);
- IP flow routing information (when IP flow mobility as specified in TS 23.261 [23] applies);
NOTE 1: IP flow routing information and NBIFOM Routing Rules are provided only by the PCEF.
- Change of usability of an Access (when NBIFOM as specified in TS 23.161 [43] applies);
- IP‑CAN bearer attributes;
NOTE 2: If IP flow mobility as specified in TS 23.161 [43] or in TS 23.261 [23] applies, an IP-CAN session may be active over multiple accesses and thus some IP‑CAN bearer attributes may have a different value depending on the access type;
- Request type (initial, modification, etc.);
- Type of IP‑CAN (e.g. GPRS, etc.);
NOTE 3: The Type of IP‑CAN parameter should allow extension to include new types of accesses.
- Location of the subscriber;
NOTE 4: See clause 6.1.4 for the description of this location information.
NOTE 5: Depending on the type of IP‑CAN, the limited update rate for the location information at the PCEF may lead to a UE moving outside the area indicated in the detailed location information without notifying the PCEF.
- A PDN ID;
- A PLMN identifier;
- IP‑CAN bearer establishment mode;
- 3GPP PS Data Off status.
The PCEF enhanced with ADC or the TDF may provide the following information:
- Detected application identifier;
- Allocated application instance identifier;
- Detected service data flow descriptions.
The SPR may provide the following information for a subscriber, connecting to a specific PDN:
- Subscriber's allowed services, i.e. list of Service IDs;
- For each allowed service, a pre-emption priority;
- Information on subscriber's allowed QoS, including:
- the Subscribed Guaranteed Bandwidth QoS;
- a list of QoS class identifiers together with the MBR limit and, for real-time QoS class identifiers, GBR limit.
- Subscriber's charging related information;
- Spending limits profile containing an indication that policy decisions depend on policy counters available at the OCS that has a spending limit associated with it and optionally the list of relevant policy counters.
- Subscriber category;
- Subscriber's usage monitoring related information;
- Subscriber's profile configuration;
- Sponsored data connectivity profiles;
- MPS EPS Priority, MPS Priority Level (See TS 23.401 [17] for more detail on MPS Subscription);
- IMS Signalling Priority.
NOTE 6: The MPS Priority Level represents user priority.
NOTE 7: The MPS Priority Level is one among other input data such as operator policy for the PCRF to set the ARP value. The MPS EPS Priority and MPS Priority Level are consistent with the corresponding parameters defined in the HSS.
The SPR may provide the following policy information related to an ASP (see clause 6.1.16):
- The ASP identifier;
- A transfer policy together with a reference ID, the volume of data to be transferred per UE, the expected amount of UEs and the network area information.
The AF, if involved, may provide the following application session related information, e.g. based on SIP and SDP:
- Subscriber Identifier;
- IP address of the UE;
- Media Type;
- Media Format, e.g. media format sub-field of the media announcement and all other parameter information (a= lines) associated with the media format;
- Bandwidth;
- Sponsored data connectivity information (see clause 5.2.1);
- Flow description, e.g. source and destination IP address and port numbers and the protocol;
- AF application identifier;
- AF Communication Service Identifier (e.g. IMS Communication Service Identifier), UE provided via AF;
- AF Application Event Identifier;
- AF Record Information;
- Flow status (for gating decision);
- Priority indicator, which may be used by the PCRF to guarantee service for an application session of a higher relative priority;
NOTE 8: The AF Priority information represents session/application priority and is separate from the MPS EPS Priority indicator.
- Emergency indicator;
- Indicator for Restricted Local Operator Services;
- Application service provider.
NOTE 9: The application service provider may be identified in numerous forms e.g. the AF application identifier or the host realm at Diameter level.
The OCS, if involved, may provide the following information for a subscriber:
- Policy counter status for each relevant policy counter.
The RCAF, if involved, may provide the following information for a subscriber:
- Subscriber Identifier.
- Identifier of the eNB, E-UTRAN cell or Service Area serving the subscriber.
NOTE 10: Whether in case of E-UTRAN the eNB identifier or the ECGI are included in the RUCI is up to operator configuration in the RCAF.
NOTE 11: Depending on the RUCI reporting interval configured in the RCAF, a UE may move outside the area indicated without the RCAF immediately notifying the PCRF. The PCRF can avoid receiving information about the cell currently serving a UE from multiple sources (i.e. via the Np and the Gx interface) by deactivating reporting of the congested cell's identifier over Np. In case PCRF receives information about the cell currently serving a UE via Np and Gx, then the information received via Gx is expected to take precedence.
- APNs.
- Congestion level or an indication of the "no congestion" state.
In addition, the predefined information in the PCRF may contain additional rules based on charging policies in the network, whether the subscriber is in its home network or roaming, depending on the IP‑CAN bearer attributes.
The QoS Class Identifier (see clause 6.3.1) in the PCC rule is derived by the PCRF from AF or SPR interaction if available. The input can be SDP information or other available application information, in line with operator policy.
The Allocation/Retention Priority in the PCC Rule is derived by the PCRF from AF or SPR interaction if available, in line with operator policy.
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6.2.1.2 Subscription information management in the PCRF
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The PCRF may request subscription information from the SPR for an IP‑CAN session at establishment or a gateway control session at establishment. The subscription information may include user profile configuration indicating whether application detection and control should be enabled. The PCRF should specify the subscriber ID and, if available, the PDN identifier in the request. The PCRF should retain the subscription information that is relevant for PCC decisions until the IP‑CAN session termination and the gateway control session termination.
The PCRF may request notifications from the SPR on changes in the subscription information. Upon reception of a notification, the PCRF shall make the PCC decisions necessary to accommodate the change in the subscription and updates the PCEF and/or the BBERF and/or the TDF by providing the new PCC and/or QoS and/or ADC decisions if needed. The PCRF shall send a cancellation notification request to the SPR when the related subscription information has been deleted.
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6.2.1.3 V-PCRF
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6.2.1.3.1 General
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The V-PCRF (Visited-Policy and Charging Rules Function) is a functional element that encompasses policy and charging control decision functionalities in the V-PLMN. The V-PCRF includes functionality for both home routed access and visited access (local breakout).
The V‑PCRF determines based on the subscriber identity if a request is for a roaming user.
A Gateway Control Session request received over the Gxx reference point may trigger a request over the S9 reference point from the V‑PCRF to the H‑PCRF.
If a Gateway Control Session establishment request is received that can not be bound to an existing Gx session then the associated IP‑CAN session is either home routed or it is visited access but the IP‑CAN session establishment request has not yet been received over Gx.
For this case the V-PCRF may determine based on PDN-Id carried in the GW control session and roaming agreements if the request shall be proxied to the H‑PCRF over S9 or not. The V-PCRF may choose not to proxy the Gateway Control Session Establishment only if the PDN-Id indicates the request is for visited access.
The Gateway Control Session Establishment request should only be proxied to the H‑PCRF over S9 in case the V‑PCRF is configured to do so e.g. based on roaming agreement.
NOTE: Proxying the Gateway Control Session Establishment makes the H‑PCRF aware of the Gateway Control Session and enables binding in case a subsequent IP‑CAN Session is established with home routed access or visited access.
If the V‑PCRF determines that a Gateway Control Session Establishment shall be proxied to the H‑PCRF over S9 then the reply from the H‑PCRF shall also be communicated back to the GW (BBERF) over Gxx.
In case the V‑PCRF determines that a Gateway Control Session Establishment request shall not be proxied, then the V‑PCRF shall respond to the request made by the GW (BBERF) without notifying the H‑PCRF.
If an IP‑CAN session establishment request is received for a roaming user over the Gx reference point, then the V‑PCRF shall conclude that the IP‑CAN session use visited access and act as described in clause 6.2.1.3.3.
NOTE 2: Through roaming agreement, the HPLMN operator may allow the VPLMN operator to operate the V‑PCRF without using the capabilities described in clause 6.2.1.3.3 (i.e. no S9 is used). In such case, the PCRF in the VPLMN has no access to subscriber policy information from the HPLMN, only static policies will apply based on roaming agreements. The VPCRF may also interact with the AF in the VPLMN in order to generate PCC Rules for services delivered via the VPLMN. V-PCRF uses locally configured policies according to the roaming agreement with the HPLMN operator as input for PCC Rule generation.
If a Gateway Control and QoS rules provision is received by the V‑PCRF over the S9 reference point for a Gateway Control session which is not associated, at the V-PCRF, with an existing Gx session, the V‑PCRF shall conclude that the IP‑CAN session associated with the Gateway Control session is home routed and act as described in clause 6.2.1.3.2.
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6.2.1.3.2 V-PCRF and Home Routed Access
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The V-PCRF provides functions to proxy Gxx interactions between the BBERF and the H-PCRF as follows:
- Gateway Control Session establishment and termination;
- Gateway Control and QoS Policy Rules Provision;
- Gateway Control and QoS Rule Request.
The V-PCRF provides functions to enforce visited operator policies regarding QoS authorization requested by the home operator as indicated by the roaming agreements. The V-PCRF informs the H-PCRF when a request has been denied and may provide the acceptable QoS Information.
Within an IP‑CAN session, a different V-PCRF may be selected when a new Gateway Control Session is established.
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6.2.1.3.3 V-PCRF and Visited Access (local breakout)
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The V-PCRF provides functions to:
- Enforce visited operator policies regarding QoS authorization requested by the home operator e.g. on a per QCI or service basis as indicated by the roaming agreements. The V-PCRF informs the H-PCRF when a request has been denied and may provide the acceptable QoS Information for the service.
- When Gxx interaction is terminated locally at the V-PCRF, perform Gx to Gateway Control Session linking.
‑ When Gxx interaction is terminated locally at the V-PCRF, extract QoS rules (defined in clause 6.5) from PCC rules (defined in clause 6.3) provided by the H‑PCRF over the S9 reference point. The V‑PCRF provides updated PCC rules to the PCEF and QoS rules to the BBERF, if appropriate.
‑ For the case of AF in the VPLMN:
‑ Proxy Rx authorizations over the S9 reference point to the H‑PCRF;
‑ Relay event subscriptions and notifications between the H‑PCRF and V‑AF
When Gx interactions are proxied between the PCEF and the H-PCRF, the V-PCRF proxies:
- Indication of IP‑CAN Session Establishment and Termination;
- Policy and Charging Rule Provisioning;
- Request Policy and Charging Rules.
If a Gateway Control Session is used and if during the IP‑CAN Session Establishment the Gateway Control Session Establishment procedure was proxied to the H‑PCRF (according to the logic in clause 6.2.1.3.1), then the V‑PCRF shall also proxy all other Gateway Control Session procedures to the H‑PCRF.
If the Gateway Control Session was not proxied to the H‑PCRF then the V‑PCRF shall handle all Gateway Control Session procedures locally and not proxy them to the H‑PCRF. This has the following implications:
‑ An IP‑CAN Session modification may trigger the V‑PCRF to update the Gateway Control Session if required in order to maintain the alignment of PCC and QoS Rules.
‑ An IP‑CAN Session termination procedure may trigger the V‑PCRF to terminate the Gateway Control Session if the Gateway Control Session was established for the purpose of a single IP‑CAN session. Otherwise a Gateway Control and QoS Rules Provision procedure may be initiated to remove the QoS Rules associated with the IP‑CAN session.
‑ On receiving a Gateway Control and QoS Rules Request message from the BBERF, the V-PCRF performs the procedure described in clause 7.7.3.2 for the event reporting for PCEF in visited network and locally terminated Gxx interaction.
NOTE 1: The V-PCRF has to set the event triggers at the PCEF in a way that the PCEF would trigger a PCEF initiated IP‑CAN Session Modification Procedure if an interaction with the H-PCRF is required.
When Rx components are proxied between an AF in the VPLMN and the H‑PCRF, the V‑PCRF shall proxy service session information between the AF and the H‑PCRF.
The V-PCRF shall support functionality to generate ADC rules from the PCC rules providing application detection and control as instructed by the H‑PCRF over S9. The V‑PCRF shall provide updated PCC Rules to the PCEF and generated ADC rules to the TDF, as appropriate in the VPLMN configuration.
NOTE 2: There may be situations where the TDF or PCEF enhanced with ADC is not able to detect the traffic requested by the H-PCRF. Prior agreements could be arranged to ensure that there is a common understanding of the meaning of application identifiers transferred between PLMNs.
The V‑PCRF shall install the event triggers in the PCEF, in the TDF and in the BBERF that were provided for the IP‑CAN session and install additional event triggers in the BBERF that are relevant only to the PCEF (i.e. such event triggers are typically set by the OCS) or the TDF. On receiving an Event report from the PCEF/BBERF, the V-PCRF forwards it to the TDF, if TDF has previously subscribed for it.
NOTE 3: Event reports over Gxx that are relevant only to the PCEF will not trigger a PCEF initiated IP‑CAN session modification procedure.
For UEs in a local breakout scenario, the RCAF may contact the V-PCRF with the RUCI information. Congestion information shall not be exposed via the S9 interface.
Within an IP‑CAN session the same V-PCRF remains for the whole lifetime of the IP‑CAN session.
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6.2.1.4 H-PCRF
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6.2.1.4.1 General
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The H‑PCRF (Home‑Policy and Charging Rules Function) is a functional element that encompasses policy and charging control decision functionalities in the H‑PLMN and in the VPLMN. The H‑PCRF includes functionality for both home routed access and visited access (local breakout).
If a Gateway Control Session is used and a Gateway Control Session Establishment is indicated over S9, then one or more of the following cases applies:
1. One (or several) home routed IP‑CAN sessions are known to the H‑PCRF that can be bound to the Gateway Control session. For such IP‑CAN sessions, the H‑PCRF shall act as described in clause 6.2.1.4.2.
2. No IP‑CAN session is known to the H‑PCRF that can be bound to the Gateway Control session. This is the case when an IP‑CAN session establishment process has not yet been initiated over Gx or S9.
If an IP‑CAN Session Establishment is received over Gx then the H‑PCRF shall conclude that the IP‑CAN session is home routed and act as described in clause 6.2.1.4.2.
If an IP‑CAN Session Establishment is received over S9 then the H‑PCRF shall conclude that the IP‑CAN session use visited access and act as described in clause 6.2.1.4.3.
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6.2.1.4.2 H-PCRF and Home Routed Access
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The H‑PCRF shall use the S9 reference point to proxy information to the BBERF via the V‑PCRF for the following related Gxx procedures:
‑ Gateway Control Session establishment and termination;
‑ Gateway Control and QoS Policy Rules Provision;
‑ Gateway Control and QoS Rule Request.
If an IP‑CAN session termination is received over the Gx reference point, then the H‑PCRF shall initiate a Gateway Control Session Termination procedure over S9 if the Gateway Control Session was established for the purpose of a single IP‑CAN session. Otherwise a Gateway Control and QoS Rules Provision procedure may be initiated over S9 to remove the QoS Rules in the BBERF associated with the IP‑CAN session.
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6.2.1.4.3 H-PCRF and Visited Access (Local Breakout)
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The H‑PCRF shall use the S9 reference point to proxy information to the PCEF (and indirectly also to the BBERF when the Gateway Control Session is not proxied to the H-PCRF and indirectly also to the TDF) via the V‑PCRF for the following related Gx procedures:
- Indication of IP‑CAN Session Establishment and Termination messages;
- Policy and Charging Rule Provisioning messages;
- Request Policy and Charging Rules messages.
When the Gateway Control Session is proxied to the H-PCRF, the H PCRF shall use the S9 reference point to proxy information to the BBERF via the V PCRF for the following related Gxx procedures:
- Indication of Gateway Control Session Establishment and Termination messages;
- QoS Rules Provisioning messages;
- Request QoS Rules messages.
The H-PCRF shall generate PCC rules for application traffic detection, notification and policy control when the TDF is located in the VPLMN.
The H‑PCRF should generate PCC rules for both of the cases when the AF is located in the VPLMN and when the AF is located in the HPLMN. The H‑PCRF provides the PCC rules to the V‑PCRF over the S9 reference point.
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6.2.1.5 Handling of Multiple BBFs associated with the same IP‑CAN session
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6.2.1.5.1 Handling of two BBFs associated with the same IP-CAN session during handover
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The procedures specified in this clause apply when the case of multiple BBFs occurs during handovers. The two BBFs can be located in two separate BBERFs, or one BBF is located in the PCEF and the other one in a BBERF. If the PCRF determines that there is more than one BBF associated with the same IP‑CAN session, the PCRF handles the multiple BBFs as follows:
- The PCRF classifies the BBERF which reports the same IP‑CAN type as that reported by the PCEF as the primary BBERF and a BBERF that reports an IP‑CAN type different from that reported by the PCEF as non-primary BBERF. If there are more than one BBERFs that report the same IP‑CAN type as that reported by the PCEF, the BBERF that last created the GW Control Session with the PCRF is classified as the primary BBERF and other BBERF(s) are classified as non-primary BBERF(s).
NOTE 1: During handover where the BBF moves from a BBERF to the PCEF (e.g. handover from PMIP to GTP), when the PCEF reports a new IP-CAN type, the BBERF is classified as a non-primary BBERF. There is no primary BBERF but the active BBF is in the PCEF.
NOTE 2: During handover where the BBF moves from the PCEF to a BBERF (e.g. handover from GTP to PMIP), when the BBERF creates a Gateway Control Session, it is classified as a non-primary BBERF. This BBERF subsequently gets classified as the primary BBERF when the PCEF reports an IP‑CAN type which is the same as that reported by the BBERF.
- When a new (primary/non-primary) BBERF supporting NW/UE bearer establishment mode creates a GW Control session, the PCRF provides to the new BBERF QoS rules corresponding to SDFs. For a change of IP‑CAN type, the QoS parameters of some of the QoS rules may be changed or some QoS rules may not be provided to the new BBERF, e.g. depending of the capability of the target RAT. When a new (primary/non-primary) BBERF supporting only UE bearer establishment mode creates a GW Control session, the PCRF authorizes the setup of the default bearer and only pushes down QoS rules in response to specific requests from the BBERF.
NOTE 3: After completion of the handover procedure to the new BBERF, the UE can still initiate the access specific procedures to modify or release the resources that were originally allocated based on UE-initiated resource allocation. Such operations and the associated changes to QoS rules are handled following the normal UE-initiated resource management procedures.
NOTE 4: To facilitate the UE's determination of QoS resources in the target access allocated to pre-existing IP flows the access system is required to provide packet filters with the same content as that in the SDF template filters received over the Gx/Gxx interface (see clause 6.1.9).
- If the BBF is located in any of the BBERF, the PCRF keeps track of QoS rules activation by all the BBERFs. The PCRF updates PCC rules to the PCEF based on activation status of QoS rules in the primary BBERF.
- If the primary-BBERF reports failure to activate a QoS rule, the PCRF also removes the same QoS rule from the non-primary BBERFs, if any are already installed and the corresponding PCC rule from the PCEF. If a non-primary BBERF reports failure to install a QoS rule, the PCRF updates the status for that particular BBERF in its record but does not perform any further action.
- When path-switch occurs and the PCEF informs the PCRF of a new IP‑CAN type, if a BBERF is re-classified as a primary BBERF, the PCRF may update QoS rules in the BBERF corresponding to the PCC rules in the PCEF.
- For the case of UE initiated resource reservation through the non-primary BBERF: If a non-primary BBERF request results in a change of the QoS rules active in the primary-BBERF, e.g. creation of a new QoS rule or results in modification of an existing QoS rule, then the PCRF shall reject the request.
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5817f2cb61f7e615e7879961cd761fa6
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23.203
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6.2.1.5.2 Handling of multiple BBFs with IP-CAN session flow mobility
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The procedures specified in this clause apply when the case of multiple BBFs occurs during flow mobility scenarios as specified in TS 23.261 [23]. The multiple BBFs can be located in either separate BBERFs, or one BBF is located in the PCEF and the other ones in separate BBERFs. If the PCRF determines that there is more than one BBF associated with the same IP‑CAN session due to flow mobility, the PCRF handles the multiple BBFs as follows:
- The default route may be associated with one of the BBFs. The PCRF does not differentiate between primary and secondary BBF.
- If, based on routing information received from the PCEF, the PCRF determines that the bearer binding for a service data flow is located in a BBERF, the PCRF provides QoS rules for bearer binding to the appropriate BBERF/BBF. Each service data flow is associated with one BBF based on the routing information. If no explicit routing information for a service data flow is available from the PCEF, the PCRF provides PCC/QoS rules for the service data flow based on the default route.
- When the route of a service data flow changes from one source BBF to another target BBF, the PCRF removes the QoS rules related to the service data flow from the source BBF (if the source BBF is located in a BBERF) and provisions the QoS rules related to the service data flow to the target BBF (if the target BBF is located in a BBERF).
- The PCRF may select different bearer establishment mode for different BBFs. Provision of PCC/QoS rules to a specific BBF follows the rule provision procedures based on the bearer establishment mode selected for that BBF.
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23.203
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6.2.2 Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF)
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23.203
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6.2.2.1 General
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The PCEF encompasses service data flow detection, policy enforcement and flow based charging functionalities.
This functional entity is located at the Gateway (e.g. GGSN in the GPRS case and PDG in the WLAN case). It provides service data flow detection, user plane traffic handling, triggering control plane session management (where the IP‑CAN permits), QoS handling and service data flow measurement as well as online and offline charging interactions.
A PCEF shall ensure that an IP packet, which is discarded at the PCEF as a result from PCC rule enforcement or flow based charging, is neither reported for offline charging nor cause credit consumption for online charging.
NOTE 1: For certain cases e.g. suspected fraud an operator shall be able to block the service data flow but still be able to account for any packets associated with any blocked service data flow.
The PCEF is enforcing the Policy Control as indicated by the PCRF in two different ways:
- Gate enforcement. The PCEF shall allow a service data flow, which is subject to policy control, to pass through the PCEF if and only if the corresponding gate is open;
- QoS enforcement:
- QoS class identifier correspondence with IP‑CAN specific QoS attributes. The PCEF shall be able to convert a QoS class identifier value to IP‑CAN specific QoS attribute values and determine the QoS class identifier value from a set of IP‑CAN specific QoS attribute values.
- PCC rule QoS enforcement. The PCEF shall enforce the authorized QoS of a service data flow according to the active PCC rule (e.g. to enforce uplink DSCP marking).
- IP‑CAN bearer QoS enforcement. The PCEF controls the QoS that is provided to a combined set of service data flows. The policy enforcement function ensures that the resources which can be used by an authorized set of service data flows are within the "authorized resources" specified via the Gx interface by "authorized QoS". The authorized QoS provides an upper bound on the resources that can be reserved (GBR) or allocated (MBR) for the IP‑CAN bearer. The authorized QoS information is mapped by the PCEF to IP‑CAN specific QoS attributes. During IP-CAN bearer QoS enforcement, if packet filters are provided to the UE, the PCEF shall provide packet filters with the same content as that in the SDF template filters received over the Gx interface.
The PCEF is enforcing the charging control in the following way:
- For a service data flow (defined by an active PCC rule) that is subject to charging control, the PCEF shall allow the service data flow to pass through the PCEF if and only if there is a corresponding active PCC rule with and, for online charging, the OCS has authorized credit for the charging key. The PCEF may let a service data flow pass through the PCEF during the course of the credit re-authorization procedure.
For a service data flow (defined by an active PCC rule) that is subject to both Policy Control and Charging Control, the PCEF shall allow the service data flow to pass through the PCEF if and only if the right conditions from both policy control and charging control happen. I.e. the corresponding gate is open and in case of online charging the OCS has authorized credit for its charging key.
For a service data flow (defined by an active PCC rule) that is subject to policy control only and not charging control, the PCEF shall allow the service data flow to pass through the PCEF if and only if the conditions for policy control are met.
A PCEF may be served by one or more PCRF nodes. The PCEF shall contact the appropriate PCRF based on the packet data network (PDN) connected to, together with, a UE identity information (if available and which may be IP‑CAN specific). It shall be possible to ensure that the same PCRF is contacted for a specific UE irrespective of the IP‑CAN used.
The operator may configure an indicator in HSS which is delivered to the PCEF within the Charging Characteristics and used by the PCEF to not establish the Gx session during the IP-CAN session establishment procedure.
NOTE 2: The decision to not establish the Gx session applies for the life time of the IP-CAN session.
NOTE 3: The indicator in the HSS is operator specific, therefore its value is understood within the HPLMN and can be used in both non-roaming or home routed roaming cases.
The PCEF shall, on request from the PCRF, modify a PCC rule, using the equivalent PCEF behaviour as the removal of the old and the activation of the new (modified) PCC rule. The PCEF shall modify a PCC rule as an atomic operation. The PCEF shall not modify a predefined PCC rule on request from the PCRF.
The PCEF should support predefined PCC rules.
For online charging, the PCEF shall manage credit as defined in clause 6.1.3.
The operator may apply different PCC rules depending on different PLMN. The PCEF shall be able to provide identifier of serving network to the PCRF, which may be used by the PCRF in order to select the PCC rule to be applied.
The operator may configure whether Policy and Charging Control is to be applied based on different access point.
The PCEF shall gather and report IP‑CAN bearer usage information according to clause 6.1.2. The PCEF may have a pre-configured Default charging method. Upon the initial interaction with the PCRF, the PCEF shall provide pre-configured Default charging method if available.
At IP‑CAN session establishment the PCEF shall initiate the IP‑CAN Session Establishment procedure, as defined in clause 7.2. In case the SDF is tunnelled at the BBERF, the PCEF shall inform the PCRF about the mobility protocol tunnelling header of the service data flows. In case 2a, defined in clause 7.1, the PCEF may provide charging ID information to the PCRF. The PCEF shall inform the PCRF on whether it is enhanced with ADC, or provide the TDF address, if one is configured at the PCEF. If no PCC rule was activated for the IP‑CAN session, the PCEF shall reject the IP‑CAN session establishment.
If there is no PCC rule active for a successfully established IP‑CAN session at any later point in time, e.g. through a PCRF initiated IP‑CAN session modification, the PCEF shall initiate an IP‑CAN session termination procedure, as defined in clause 7.3.2. If the PCRF terminates the Gx session, the PCEF shall initiate an IP‑CAN session termination procedure, as defined in clause 7.3.2.
If there is no PCC rule active for a successfully established IP‑CAN bearer at any later point in time, e.g. through a PCRF initiated IP‑CAN session modification, the PCEF shall initiate an IP‑CAN bearer termination procedure, as defined in clause 7.4.1.
If the IP‑CAN session is modified, e.g. by changing the characteristics for an IP‑CAN bearer, the PCEF shall first use the event trigger to determine whether to request the PCC rules for the modified IP‑CAN session from the PCRF; afterwards, the PCEF shall use the re-authorisation triggers, if available, in order to determine whether to require re-authorisation for the PCC rules that were either unaffected or modified. If the PCEF receives an unsolicited update of the PCC rules from the PCRF (IP‑CAN session modification, clause 7.4.2), the PCC rules shall be activated, modified or removed as indicated by the PCRF.
The PCEF shall inform the PCRF about the outcome of a PCC rule operation. If network initiated procedures apply to the PCC rule and the corresponding IP‑CAN bearer can not be established or modified to satisfy the bearer binding, then the PCEF shall reject the activation of a PCC rule.
The PCEF shall inform the PCRF about any removal of a PCC rule, that the PCRF has activated, that occurs without explicit instruction from the PCRF.
When IP-CAN bearer resources are released, i.e. at IP-CAN session termination or PCEF-initiated IP-CAN session modification notifying that PCC Rules are removed, the PCEF shall also provide, if available, the reason why resources are released, i.e. RAN/NAS Release Cause, TWAN Release Cause or UWAN Release Cause.
NOTE 4: In case of a rejection of a PCC rule activation the PCRF may e.g. modify the attempted PCC rule, de-activate or modify other PCC rules and retry activation or abort the activation attempt and, if applicable, inform the AF that transmission resources are not available.
If network initiated procedures for IP‑CAN bearer establishment apply this also includes provisioning the UE with traffic mapping information. See clause 6.1.9, Annex A and Annex D for details.
If another IP‑CAN session is established by the same user, this is treated independently from the existing IP‑CAN session.
To support the different IP‑CAN bearer establishment modes (UE-only or UE/NW) the PCEF shall:
- forward the network and UE capabilities to the PCRF;
- apply the IP‑CAN bearer establishment mode for the IP‑CAN session set by the PCRF.
During an IP‑CAN session modification, the PCEF shall provide information (belonging to the IP‑CAN bearer established or modified) to the PCRF as follows:
- in UE-only bearer establishment mode, the PCEF shall send the full QoS and traffic mapping information;
- in UE/NW bearer establishment mode, the PCEF shall:
- at UE-initiated bearer establishment, send the full QoS and traffic mapping information;
- at UE-initiated bearer modification, send information on the requested change to QoS bitrates and changes to the traffic mapping information;
- at NW-initiated bearer establishment or modification, the PCEF shall not send any QoS or traffic mapping information.
When flow mobility as specified in TS 23.261 [23] applies, the PCEF shall provide IP flow mobility routing information to the PCRF as follows:
- the default route to be used if no explicit routing information for a service data flow is provided;
- the route for an IP flow.
The PCEF shall derive the routing information from the IP flow mobility flow bindings installed in the PCEF, as defined in TS 23.261 [23].
If there are events which can not be monitored in the PCEF, the PCEF shall provide the information about the required event triggers to the PCRF using the PCEF initiated IP‑CAN Session Modification procedure, as defined in clause 7.4.1, or in the response to a PCRF initiated IP‑CAN Session Modification, as defined in clause 7.4.3. If the triggers were provided by the OCS at credit authorization, it is an implementation option whether a successful confirmation is required from the PCRF in order for the PCEF to consider the credit (re-)authorization procedure to be successful.
IP‑CAN-specific parameters may be sent by the PCRF to the PCEF or the PCEF to the PCRF. The IP‑CAN Session Modification procedure may be used to deliver these parameters to allow interaction between the BBERF and the PCEF by way of the PCRF. This is required in accesses that require these parameters to be sent indirectly.
The PCEF shall support usage monitoring as specified in clause 4.4.
The PCEF enhanced with ADC shall handle application traffic detection as per request from PCRF as well as report about the detected application traffic along with service data flow descriptions, if deducible, to the PCRF, if requested by the PCRF.
The PCEF shall support traffic steering as specified in clause 6.1.17.
The PCEF shall support 3GPP PS Data Off as specified in clause 6.1.21.
The PCEF forwards the Maximum Packet Loss Rate for UL and DL, if received from PCRF for the PCC rule bound to a QCI=1 bearer. In the case multiple PCC Rules share one QCI=1 bearer and the PCEF received multiple Maximum Packet Loss Rates, the PCEF chooses the lowest value per direction related to these PCC rules.
When the PCRF provides updated PCC rules for the IP-CAN session to the PCEF and the PCC rules were not enforced due to that the UE is in suspend state, e.g. due to SRVCC to GERAN without DTM support as specified in clause 6.2.2.1 in the TS 23.216 [28] or CSFB to UTRAN without PS Handover as specified in clause 6.5 in the TS 23.272 [52], the PCEF shall indicate to the PCRF that the PCC Rules were not enforced with the reason that the UE is in suspend state. Upon reception of the failure indication, the PCRF may subscribe to UE resumed from suspend state event trigger.
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6.2.2.2 Service data flow detection
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This clause refers to the detection process that identifies the packets belonging to a service data flow. Each PCC rule contains a service data flow template, which defines the data for the service data flow detection as a set of service data flow filters or an application identifier referring to an application detection filter.
For PCC rules that contain an application identifier (i.e. that refer to an application detection filter), the order and the details of the detection are implementation specific. The application detection filter may be extended with the PFDs provided by the PFDF as described in clause 6.1.20. The new PFDs provided by the PFDF replace the existing ones in the PCEF. When multiple PFDs are associated with application identifier, the application is detected when any of the PFDs associated with the application identifier is matched. In addition, if a PFD contains multiple attributes, the PFD is only matched when every attribute contained in the PFD has a matching value.
Once an application has been detected, enforcement and charging shall however be applied under consideration of the PCC rule precedence, i.e. when multiple PCC rules overlap, only the enforcement and charging actions of the PCC rule with the highest precedence shall be applied.
For PCC Rules that contain an application identifier (i.e. that refer to an application detection filter) the detection of the uplink part of the service data flow may be active in parallel on other bearers with non-GBR QCI (e.g. the default bearer) in addition to the bearer where the PCC rule is bound to.
NOTE 1: When PCC rules with application detection filters cannot be used to generate traffic mapping information for the UE, the application detection may need to inspect traffic on multiple bearers. The PCEF uses implementation specific logic to determine for what bearers the up-link service data flow detection applies. The uplink traffic will get the QoS of the bearer carrying the traffic. The QCI of the bearer may therefore be different than the QCI of the PCC rule detecting the service data flow. The charging and other enforcement functions performed by the PCEF will still be carried out based on parameters of the PCC rule detecting the service data flow. If the PCC rule contains a GBR QCI, the GBR resource reservation will only apply on the bearer where the PCC rule is bound to. The PCRF can prevent that uplink GBR resources are reserved by providing an uplink GBR value of zero in the PCC rule.
The PCEF shall discard a packet in the case that there is no service data flow template of the same direction (i.e. of the IP‑CAN session for the downlink or of the IP‑CAN bearer for the uplink) detecting the packet.
NOTE 2: For the uplink direction, discarding packets due to no matching service data flow template is also referred to as uplink bearer binding verification. For the case a BBERF is present, uplink bearer binding verification is done by the BBERF.
NOTE 3: If PCC Rule containing an Application Identifier inspects traffic on multiple bearers in the uplink, such detected traffic counts as detection by that PCC rule.
The remainder of this clause describes the detection of service data flows identified by a service data flow filter (i.e. does not apply to PCC rules containing an application identifier):
- Each service data flow template may contain any number of service data flow filters;
- Each service data flow filter is applicable uplink, downlink or both uplink and downlink;
- Service data flow filters are applied for each direction, so that the detection is applied independently for the downlink and uplink directions;
NOTE 4: Service data flow filters that apply in both uplink and downlink should be used whenever the underlying IP‑CAN and access type supports this.
NOTE 5: A service data flow template may include service data flow filters for one direction, or for both directions.
- Each service data flow filter may contain information about whether the explicit signalling of the corresponding traffic mapping information to the UE is required.
NOTE 6: This information enables e.g. the generation/removal of traffic mapping information for a default IP‑CAN bearer as well as the usage of PCC rules with specific service data flow filters on a default IP‑CAN bearer without the need to generate traffic mapping information.
Figure 6.3: Relationship of service data flow, packet flow, service data flow template and service data flow filter
Service data flow filters identifying the service data flow may:
- be a pattern for matching the IP 5 tuple (source IP address or IPv6 network prefix, destination IP address or IPv6 network prefix, source port number, destination port number, protocol ID of the protocol above IP). In the pattern:
- a value left unspecified in a filter matches any value of the corresponding information in a packet;
- an IP address may be combined with a prefix mask;
- port numbers may be specified as port ranges.
- the pattern can be extended by the Type of Service (TOS) (IPv4) / Traffic class (IPv6) and Mask;
- consist of the destination IP address and optional mask, protocol ID of the protocol above IP, the Type of Service (TOS) (IPv4) / Traffic class (IPv6) and Mask and the IPSec Security Parameter Index (SPI);
- consist of the destination IP address and optional mask, the Type of Service (TOS) (IPv4) / Traffic class (IPv6) and Mask and the Flow Label (IPv6).
NOTE 7: The details about the IPSec Security Parameter Index (SPI), the Type of Service (TOS) (IPv4) / Traffic class (IPv6) and Mask and the Flow Label (IPv6) are defined in clause 15.3 of TS 23.060 [12].
- extend the packet inspection beyond the possibilities described above and look further into the packet and/or define other operations (e.g. maintaining state). Such service data flow filters must be predefined in the PCEF.
NOTE 8: Such filters may be used to support filtering with respect to a service data flow based on the transport and application protocols used above IP. This shall be possible for HTTP and WAP. This includes the ability to differentiate between TCP, Wireless-TCP according to WAP 2.0, WDP, etc, in addition to differentiation at the application level. Filtering for further application protocols and services may also be supported.
For downlink traffic, the downlink parts of all the service data flow templates associated with the IP‑CAN session for the destination address are candidates for matching in the detection process.
Figure 6.4: The service data flow template role in detecting the downlink part of a service data flow and mapping to IP‑CAN bearers
For uplink traffic, the uplink parts of all the service data flow templates associated with the IP‑CAN bearer (details according to clause A), are candidates for matching in the detection process.
Figure 6.5: The service data flow template role in detecting the uplink part of a service data flow
NOTE 9: To avoid the PCEF discarding packets due to no matching service data flow template, the operator may apply open PCC rules (with wild-carded service data flow filters) to allow for the passage of packets that do not match any other candidate service data flow template.
Service data flow templates shall be applied in the order of their precedence.
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6.2.2.3 Measurement
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The PCEF shall support data volume, duration, combined volume/duration and event based measurement for charging. The Measurement method indicates what measurement type is applicable to the PCC rule.
NOTE 1: Event based charging is only applicable to predefined PCC rules and PCC rules using an application detection filter (i.e. with an application identifier).
The PCEF measurement measures all the user plane traffic, except traffic that PCC causes to be discarded.
The PCEF shall maintain a measurement per IP‑CAN bearer (IP‑CAN specific details according to Annex A and Annex D) and Charging Key combination.
If Service identifier level reporting is mandated in a PCC rule, the PCEF shall maintain a measurement for that Charging Key and Service Identifier combination, for the IP‑CAN bearer (IP‑CAN specific details according to Annex A and Annex D).
NOTE 2: In addition, the GW may maintain IP‑CAN bearer level measurement if required by the operator.
For usage monitoring, the PCEF shall support volume and time measurement for an IP-CAN session and maintain a measurement for each IP-CAN session for which the PCRF has requested the Usage report trigger and provided threshold values on an IP‑CAN session level. The PCEF shall be able to support volume and time measurements simultaneously for a given IP-CAN session.
The PCEF shall support volume and time measurement per Monitoring key and maintain a measurement for each Monitoring key if the PCRF has requested the Usage report trigger and provided threshold values on Monitoring key level. The PCEF shall be able to support volume and time measurements simultaneously for a given Monitoring Key.
The PCEF shall support simultaneous volume and time measurement for usage monitoring on IP‑CAN session level and Monitoring key level for the same IP‑CAN session.
Volume and time measurements for usage monitoring purposes on IP‑CAN session level and on Monitoring key level shall be performed independently of each other. If the PCC rule is associated with an indication of exclusion from session level monitoring, the PCEF shall not consider the corresponding service data flow for the volume and time measurement on IP-CAN session level.
If the Usage report reached event trigger is set and a volume or a time threshold is reached, the PCEF shall report this event to the PCRF. The PCEF shall continue to perform volume or time measurement after the threshold is reached and before a new threshold is provided by the PCRF. At IP-CAN session termination or if the conditions defined in clause 6.6.2 for continued monitoring are no longer met, or if the PCRF explicitly requests a usage report, the PCEF shall inform the PCRF about the resources that have been consumed by the user since the last usage report for the affected Monitoring keys, including the resources consumed before and after the Monitoring time was reached, if provided according to clause 6.2.1.0.
If combined volume and time measurements are requested by the PCRF, then the reporting shall be done for both together. For example, if the volume threshold is reached, the consumed time shall be reported as well and, in order to continue combined volume and time measurements, the PCRF shall provide a new time threshold along with a new volume threshold. The PCEF shall continue to perform volume and time measurement after the threshold is reached and before a new threshold is provided by the PCRF. If new threshold is provided only for time or volume, then the measurements shall continue only for that provided type and the accumulated usage for the non provided type shall be discarded by the PCEF.
When the PCRF requests to report usage, the PCEF shall report the accumulated usage to the PCRF according to the provided usage threshold, i.e. the PCEF reports accumulated volume when the volume threshold was provided by the PCRF, accumulated time when the time threshold was provided by the PCRF and both accumulated volume and accumulated time when volume threshold and time threshold were provided by the PCRF.
If the Usage thresholds for a Monitoring key are not provided to the PCEF in the acknowledgement of an IP-CAN Session modification where its usage was reported, then the usage monitoring shall not continue in the PCEF for that Monitoring key.
When the Monitoring time occurs, the accumulated volume and/or time usage shall be recorded by the PCEF and:
- If the subsequent usage threshold value is provided, the usage threshold shall be reset to this value by the PCEF.
- Otherwise, the usage threshold shall be set by the PCEF to the remaining value of the threshold previously sent by the PCRF (i.e. excluding the accumulated usage).
The first usage report after the Monitoring Time was reached shall indicate the usage up to the Monitoring time and usage after the Monitoring time.
In order to support time based usage monitoring, the PCRF may optionally indicate to the PCEF, along with other usage monitoring information provided, the Inactivity Detection Time. This value represents the time interval after which the time measurement shall stop for the Monitoring key, if no packets are received belonging to the corresponding Monitoring Key during that time period. Time measurement shall resume on receipt of a further packet belonging to the Monitoring key.
Time measurement for a Monitoring key shall also be stopped when time based usage monitoring is disabled, if this happens before the Inactivity Detection Time is reached.
If an Inactivity Detection Time value of zero is provided, or if no Inactivity Detection Time is present within the usage monitoring information provided by the PCRF, the time measurement shall be performed continuously from the point at which it was started until time based usage monitoring is disabled.
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6.2.2.4 QoS control
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The PCEF enforces the authorized QoS for an IP‑CAN bearer according to the information received via the Gx interface and depending on the bearer establishment mode.
Only the GBR per bearer is used for resource reservation (e.g. admission control in the RAN). The MBR (per PCC rule / per bearer) is used for rate policing.
For a UE-initiated IP‑CAN bearer establishment or modification the PCEF receives the authorized QoS (QCI, ARP, GBR, MBR) for a bearer that the PCEF has identified for the PCRF. The PCEF shall enforce it which may lead to a downgrading or upgrading of the requested bearer QoS.
NOTE 1: The MBR is an average value, which is measured over some time period. Services may generate media with variable bitrate. For example, TS 26.114 [45] describes the bitrate variations that may be generated for real-time conversational media in the MTSI service. The policing function in the PCEF should take such bitrate variations into account.
For a network initiated IP‑CAN bearer establishment or modification the PCEF receives the authorized QoS per PCC rule (QCI, ARP, GBR, MBR). For GBR bearers the PCEF should set the bearer's GBR to the sum of the GBRs of all PCC rules that are active and bound to that GBR bearer. If a set of PCC Rules is subject to resource sharing as specified in clause 6.1.14 the PCEF should use, for each applicable direction, the highest GBR from the set of PCC Rules sharing resources as input for calculating the bearer´s GBR. For GBR bearers the PCEF should set the bearer's MBR to the sum of the MBRs of all PCC rules that are active and bound to that GBR bearer. If a set of PCC Rules is subject to resource sharing as specified in clause 6.1.14 the PCEF may, for each applicable direction, use the highest MBR from the set of PCC Rules as input for calculating the bearer´s MBR.
NOTE 2: Since the PCRF controls the GBR value in the PCC rule, the PCRF can prevent that uplink GBR resources are reserved by providing an uplink GBR value of zero for that PCC rule, This may be useful e.g. for a PCC rule with application identifier as the uplink traffic can be received in other bearers than the one the PCC rule is bound to.
For an IP‑CAN that supports non-GBR bearers that have a separate MBR (e.g. GPRS) the PCEF may, before or in connection with activation of the first PCC rule with a certain QCI, receive the authorized QoS (QCI, MBR) for that QCI. The authorized MBR per QCI only applies to non-GBR bearers and it sets an upper limit for the MBR that the PCEF assigns to a non-GBR bearer with that QCI. In case multiple IP‑CAN bearers within the same IP‑CAN session are assigned the same QCI, the authorized MBR per QCI applies independently to each of those IP‑CAN bearers. The PCRF may change the authorized MBR per QCI at any time. An authorized GBR per QCI shall not be signalled on Gx.
NOTE 3: The intention of the authorized MBR per QCI is to avoid frequent IP‑CAN bearer modifications as PCC rules are dynamically activated and deactivated. That is, the PCEF may choose to assign the authorized MBR per QCI to a non-GBR bearer with that QCI.
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6.2.2.5 Application Detection
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The PCEF shall detect Start and Stop of the application traffic for the PCC rules used for application detection (i.e. with application identifier) that the PCRF has activated at the PCEF. The PCEF shall report, if the PCRF has subscribed to the event, unless the notification is muted for the specific PCC Rule, to the PCRF:
- For the Start of application event trigger: the application identifier and, when service data flow descriptions are deducible, the application instance identifier and the service data flow descriptions to use for detecting that application traffic with a dynamic PCC rule as defined in clause 6.1.4.
- For the Stop of application event trigger: the application identifier and if the application instance identifier was reported for the Start, also the application instance identifier as defined in the clause 6.1.4.
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6.2.2.6 Traffic steering
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When the PCRF provides a Traffic Steering Policy Identifier(s) in a PCC rule, the PCEF shall enforce the referenced traffic steering policy for the service data flow. A traffic steering policy is locally configured and can be used for the uplink, the downlink or for both directions.
To enforce the traffic steering policy, the PCEF performs deployment specific actions as configured for that traffic steering policy. The PCEF may for example perform packet marking where, for the traffic identified by the service data flow template (defined by an active PCC rule), the PCEF provides information for traffic steering, as part of the packets, to the (S)Gi-LAN. This information for traffic steering identifies, explicitly or implicitly, a specific set of service functions and their order via which the traffic needs to be steered in the (S)Gi-LAN.
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6.2.3 Application Function (AF)
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The Application Function (AF) is an element offering applications that require dynamic policy and/or charging control over the IP‑CAN user plane behaviour. The AF shall communicate with the PCRF to transfer dynamic session information, required for PCRF decisions as well as to receive IP‑CAN specific information and notifications about IP‑CAN bearer level events. One example of an AF is the P‑CSCF of the IM CN subsystem.
The AF may receive an indication that the service information is not accepted by the PCRF together with service information that the PCRF would accept. In that case, the AF rejects the service establishment towards the UE. If possible the AF forwards the service information to the UE that the PCRF would accept.
An AF may communicate with multiple PCRFs. The AF shall contact the appropriate PCRF based on either:
- the end user IP Address; and/or
- a UE identity that the AF is aware of.
NOTE 1: By using the end user IP address, an AF is not required to acquire any UE identity in order to provide information, for a specific user, to the PCRF.
In case of private IP address being used for the end user, the AF may send additional PDN information (e.g. PDN ID) over the Rx interface. This PDN information is used by the PCRF for session binding and it is also used to help selecting the correct PCRF.
For certain events related to policy control, the AF shall be able to give instructions to the PCRF to act on its own, i.e. based on the service information currently available as described in clause 6.1.5.
The AF may use the IP‑CAN bearer level information in the AF session signalling or to adjust the IP‑CAN bearer level event reporting.
The AF may request the PCRF to report on IP‑CAN bearer level events (e.g. the signalling path status for the AF session). The AF shall cancel the request when the AF ceases handling the user.
NOTE 2: The QoS authorization based on incomplete service information is required for e.g. IMS session setup scenarios with available resources on originating side and a need for resource reservation on terminating side.
The AF may request the PCRF to report on the change of type of IP‑CAN. The PCRF shall report the IP-CAN type and subsequent changes to the AF together with the information of the Radio Access Technology Type (e.g. UTRAN) as defined in access specific annexes. The change of the Radio Access Technology Type (e.g. UTRAN) shall be also reported to the AF, even if the IP‑CAN type is unchanged.
The AF may request the PCRF to report any combination of the user location and/or UE Timezone at AF session establishment, modification or termination. For AF session termination the communication between the AF and the PCRF shall be kept alive until the PCRF report is received.
The AF may request the PCRF to report changes of the PLMN identifier where the UE is currently located at AF session establishment. The PLMN identifier reporting remains until the AF session is terminated.
If IP-CAN bearer resources corresponding to the AF session are released, the PCRF reports to the AF, if available, the reason why IP-CAN bearer resources are released i.e. RAN/NAS Release Cause, TWAN Release Cause or UWAN Release Cause.
If IP-CAN bearer resources corresponding to the AF session are released, the PCRF reports to the AF, if available, the User Location Information and/or the UE Timezone.
NOTE 3: The H-PCRF informs the AF of event triggers that cannot be reported. For detail see Annex L.
To support sponsored data connectivity (see Annex N), the AF may provide the PCRF with the sponsored data connectivity information, including optionally a usage threshold, as specified in clause 5.2.1. The AF may request the PCRF to report events related to sponsored data connectivity.
If the user plane traffic traverses the AF, the AF may handle the usage monitoring and therefore it is not required to provide a usage threshold to the PCRF as part of the sponsored data connectivity information.
In order to mitigate RAN user plane congestion, the Rx reference point enables transport of the following information from the PCRF to the AF:
- Re-try interval, which indicates when service delivery may be retried on Rx.
NOTE 4: Additionally, existing bandwidth limitation parameters on Rx interface during the Rx session establishment are available in order to mitigate RAN user plane congestion.
When receiving service information from the AF, the PCRF may temporarily reject the AF request (e.g. if the service information is not consistent with the operator defined policy rules for the congestion status of the user). To temporarily reject the AF request the PCRF shall indicate a re-try interval to the AF. When receiving a re-try interval from the PCRF the AF shall not send the same service information to the PCRF again (for the same IP‑CAN session) until the re-try interval has elapsed.
The AF may contact the PCRF via the SCEF (and the Nt interface) to request a time window and related conditions for future background data transfer (as described in clause 6.1.16). If the PCRF replies with more than one transfer policy, the AF shall select one of them and inform the PCRF about the selected transfer policy. The reference ID provided by the PCRF shall be used by the AF during every subsequent transfer of AF session information related to this background data transfer (via the Rx interface).
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6.2.4 Subscription Profile Repository (SPR)
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The SPR logical entity contains all subscriber/subscription related information needed for subscription-based policies and IP‑CAN bearer level PCC rules by the PCRF. The SPR may be combined with or distributed across other databases in the operator's network, but those functional elements and their requirements for the SPR are out of scope of this document.
NOTE 1: The SPR's relation to existing subscriber databases is not specified in this Release.
The SPR may provide the following subscription profile information (per PDN, which is identified by the PDN identifier):
- Subscriber's allowed services;
- For each allowed service, a pre-emption priority;
- Information on subscriber's allowed QoS, including the Subscribed Guaranteed Bandwidth QoS;
- Subscriber's charging related information (e.g. location information relevant for charging);
- Subscriber's User CSG Information reporting rules;
- List of Presence Reporting Area identifiers and optionally the elements for one or more of the Presence Reporting Areas;
- Subscriber category;
- Subscriber's usage monitoring related information;
- MPS EPS Priority and MPS Priority Level;
- IMS Signalling Priority;
- Subscriber's profile configuration indicating whether application detection and control can be enabled.
- Spending limits profile containing an indication that policy decisions are based on policy counters available at OCS that has a spending limit associated with it and optionally the list of policy counters.
The SPR may provide the following sponsored data connectivity profile information:
- A list of Application Service Providers and their applications per sponsor identity.
NOTE 2: The sponsored data connectivity profile may be locally configured at the PCRF.
If the IMS Signalling Priority is set, it indicates that the IMS Signalling Bearer and the Default Bearer are assigned ARP appropriate for MPS at the time of the establishment of the PDN connection for IMS, i.e. EPS Attach or PDN Connectivity Request.
The SPR may provide the following policy information related to an ASP (see clause 6.1.16):
- The ASP identifier;
- A transfer policy together with a reference ID, the volume of data to be transferred per UE, the expected amount of UEs and the network area information.
NOTE 3: The information related to an ASP is only available in the SPR after being stored by the PCRF as described in clauses 6.1.16 and 7.11.1.
NOTE 4: A transfer policy is only valid until the end of its time window. The removal of outdated transfer policies from the SPR is up to implementation.
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6.2.5 Online Charging System
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The Online Charging System (OCS) performs online credit control functions as specified in TS 32.240 [3].
The OCS may trigger the PCEF to initiate an IP‑CAN bearer service termination at any point in time.
NOTE: As the OCS performs the credit control per charging key basis (and thus has not necessarily the knowledge about the existence of any specific service/application), it is recommended to use different charging keys for any service/application that shall not be unintentionally interrupted.
There may be several OCSs in a PLMN. The default OCS addresses (i.e. the primary address and secondary address) shall be locally pre-configured within the PCEF and TDF. OCS addresses may also be passed once per IP‑CAN session or TDF session from the PCRF to the PCEF or TDF. The OCS addresses provided by the PCRF shall have a higher priority than the pre-configured ones.
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6.2.6 Offline Charging System (OFCS)
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The Offline Charging System is specified in TS 32.240 [3].
There may be several OFCSs in a PLMN. The default OFCS addresses (i.e. the primary address and secondary address) shall be locally pre-configured within the PCEF and TDF. OFCS addresses may also be passed once per IP‑CAN session or TDF session from the PCRF to the PCEF or TDF. The addresses provided by the PCRF shall have a higher priority than the pre-configured ones.
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6.2.7 Bearer Binding and Event Reporting Function (BBERF)
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6.2.7.1 General
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The BBERF includes the following functionalities:
- Bearer binding.
- Uplink bearer binding verification.
- Event reporting to the PCRF.
- Sending or receiving IP‑CAN-specific parameters, to or from the PCRF.
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6.2.7.2 Service data flow detection
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The service data flow detection at the BBERF is identical to the detection at PCEF with the following modifications:
- If the service data flow is tunnelled at the BBERF, the BBERF uses information on the mobility protocol tunnelling header provided by the PCRF and the QoS rules to detect the service data flows.
For the uplink direction, the BBERF applies QoS rules with a bearer binding to the bearer that the packet arrived on. The uplink bearer binding verification is successful if there is a QoS rule with a matching uplink SDF filter. The BBERF shall discard packets for which the uplink bearer binding verification fails.
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6.2.7.3 QoS Control
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The ARP, GBR, MBR and QCI are used by the BBERF in the same way as in the PCEF for resource reservation.
When access network is not utilizing QCI based QoS parameters, the BBERF shall be able to convert a QoS class identifier value to QoS attribute values used in the access network and determine the QoS class identifier value from a set of QoS attribute values used in the access network.
NOTE: The definition of the mapping between QCI and Non 3GPP access specific QoS is outside of scope for 3GPP.
The BBERF controls the QoS that is provided to a combined set of service data flows. BBERF ensures that the resources which can be used by an authorized set of service data flows are within the "authorized resources" specified via the Gxx interface by "authorized QoS". The authorized QoS provides an upper bound on the resources that can be reserved (GBR) or allocated (MBR) for the service data flows.
In order to support the different IP‑CAN bearer establishment modes (UE-only or UE/NW), the BBERF shall support the same procedures for handling different IP‑CAN bearer establishment modes as specified for the PCEF in clauses 6.2.2.1 and 6.2.2.4.
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6.2.8 User Data Repository (UDR)
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The UDR is a functional entity that acts as a single logical repository storing user data. As such it may contain all subscriber/subscription related information needed by the PCRF. In deployment scenarios where the UDR is used it replaces the SPR. The UDR provides a unique reference point to fetch these subscriber/subscription data. This reference point is named Ud. More information on the UDR can be found in TS 23.335 [25].
The SPR data listed in clause 6.2.4 are stored in the UDR, the information model remains unspecified.
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6.2.9 Traffic Detection Function (TDF)
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6.2.9.1 General
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The TDF is a functional entity that performs application detection and reporting of detected application and its service data flow description to the PCRF. The TDF supports solicited application reporting and/or unsolicited application reporting. The application detection filter may be extended with the PFDs provided by the PFDF as described in clause 6.1.20. The new PFDs provided by the PFDF replace the existing ones in the PCEF.
The TDF shall detect Start and Stop of the application traffic for the ADC rules that the PCRF has activated at the TDF (solicited application reporting) or which are pre-provisioned at the TDF (unsolicited application reporting). The TDF shall report, unless the notification is muted for the specific ADC Rule in case of solicited application reporting, to the PCRF:
- For the Start of application event trigger: the application identifier and, when service data flow descriptions are deducible, the application instance identifier and the service data flow descriptions to use for detecting that application traffic with a dynamic PCC rule as defined in clause 6.1.4.
- For the Stop of application event trigger: the application identifier and if the application instance identifier was reported for the Start, also the application instance identifier as defined in the clause 6.1.4.
For solicited application reporting, the PCRF can request the TDF to also perform enforcement actions, charging and usage monitoring.
For those cases where service data flow description is not possible to be provided by the TDF to the PCRF, the TDF performs:
- Gating;
- Redirection;
- Bandwidth limitation;
- Charging.
for the detected applications.
For those cases where service data flow description is provided by the TDF to the PCRF the actions resulting of application detection may be performed by the PCEF as part of the charging and policy enforcement per service data flow as defined in this document or may be performed by the TDF.
NOTE: The PCEF can be enhanced with application detection and control feature as specified in clause 6.2.2.5.
The TDF shall support usage monitoring as specified in clause 4.4 and the usage reporting functions as specified in clause 6.2.2.3 for the PCEF.
The TDF shall support data volume, duration, combined volume/duration and event based measurement for charging. The Measurement method indicates what measurement type is applicable for the ADC rule.
NOTE 1: Events to be charged are predefined in the TDF.
The TDF measurement measures all the user plane traffic, except packets discarded by ADC-rule enforcement or due to MBR-enforcement.
The TDF shall maintain a measurement per TDF session and Charging Key combination.
If Service identifier level reporting is mandated in an ADC rule, the TDF shall maintain a measurement for that Charging Key and Service identifier combination, for the TDF session.
If there are required events which cannot be monitored in the TDF (e.g. related to the location changes), the TDF shall request the information about these Event Triggers from the PCRF using either:
- The IP-CAN Session Establishment procedure, as defined in clause 7.2, or
- The PCEF initiated IP-CAN Session Modification procedure, as defined in clause 7.4.1, or
- In the response to a PCRF initiated IP-CAN Session Modification, as defined in clause 7.4.2, or
- Within the Update of the subscription information in the PCRF procedure, as defined in clause 7.5.
For unsolicited application reporting, the TDF performs only application detection and reporting functionality but neither enforcement actions nor usage monitoring. The TDF should handle each IPv4 address and IPv6 prefix, assuming the max prefix length used in the access network, within a separate TDF session. The PCRF shall, if needed, correlate TDF sessions that correspond to the same IP-CAN session.
The TDF shall support traffic steering as specified in clause 6.1.17.
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6.2.9.2 Traffic steering
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When the PCRF provides a Traffic Steering Policy Identifier(s) in an ADC rule, the TDF shall enforce the referenced traffic steering policy for the application. A traffic steering policy is locally configured and can be used for the uplink, the downlink or for both directions.
To enforce the traffic steering policy, the TDF performs deployment specific actions as configured for that traffic steering policy. The TDF may for example perform packet marking where, for the traffic identified by the Application Identifier or by the service data flow filter list (defined by an active ADC rule), the TDF provides information for traffic steering, as part of the packets, to the (S)Gi-LAN. This information for traffic steering identifies, explicitly or implicitly, a specific set of service functions and their order via which the traffic needs to be steered in the (S)Gi-LAN.
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6.2.10 RAN Congestion Awareness Function (RCAF)
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A RAN Congestion Awareness Function (RCAF) is an element which reports RAN User Plane Congestion Information (RUCI) via the Np interface to the PCRF to enable the PCRF to take the RAN user plane congestion status into account for policy decisions. The RCAF sends the RUCI to the PCRFs serving the UEs' PDN connections as follows:
- For a PDN connection in a non-roaming scenario the RCAF reports the RUCI to the PCRF.
- For a PDN connection in a local breakout scenario, based on operator configuration, the RCAF reports the RUCI to the V-PCRF.
- For a PDN connection in a home routed scenario, based on the roaming agreement with the HPLMN and operator configuration, the RCAF reports the RUCI to the H-PCRF.
NOTE 1: Reporting of congestion information to the HPLMN may be used e.g. in case of a group of PLMNs which belong to a single business entity.
The RCAF determines whether a given PDN connection is served in a local breakout or a home routed roaming scenario based on the APN operator identifier received as part of the APN information from the MME or the S4-SGSN as documented in TS 23.401 [17] and TS 23.060 [12], respectively.
NOTE 2: Operator configuration can be used to limit RUCI reporting on the Np interface to certain APNs only.
In addition if the RCAF detects that a UE is no longer subject to congestion (i.e. the UE is no longer detected in any of the congested cells that the RCAF is monitoring) then the RCAF shall indicate the no congestion state to the PCRFs serving the UE.
Any RUCI changes shall be reported by RCAF unless reporting restrictions apply.
The RCAF maintains a context on per UE and per APN basis. The context is identified by the IMSI and the APN. It contains the following information:
- The previously reported congestion level over the Np reference point.
- The reporting restrictions received from the PCRF. The reporting restrictions are stored by the RCAF until the PCRF explicitly signals to remove the reporting restrictions.
- The logical PCRF id received from the PCRF to identify the PCRF that is the Np destination for the RCAF when sending aggregate messages.
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6.2.11 Service Capability Exposure Function (SCEF)
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A Service Capability Exposure Function (SCEF) is an element which provides a means to securely expose the services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network interfaces (for further details see TS 23.682 [42]).
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6.2.12 Traffic Steering Support Function (TSSF)
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The TSSF is a function that receives traffic steering control information from the PCRF and ensures that the related traffic steering policy is enforced in the (S)Gi-LAN.
A traffic steering policy is locally configured in TSSF and can be used for uplink, downlink or for both directions. To ensure that the traffic steering policy is enforced, the TSSF performs deployment specific actions as configured for that traffic steering policy. For example, the TSSF may configure traffic detection and forwarding entities in the (S)Gi-LAN to fulfil the traffic steering policy.
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6.2.13 Packet Flow Description Function (PFDF)
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A Packet Flow Description Function (PFDF) is an element which stores PFDs associated with an application identifier and transfers them to the PCEF/TDF via Gw/Gwn interface to enable the PCEF/TDF to perform application detection when the PFDs are managed by a 3rd party SP.
The PFDF receives PFDs for an application identifier from the SCEF as defined in TS 23.682 [42].
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6.3 Policy and charging control rule
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6.3.1 General
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The Policy and charging control rule (PCC rule) comprises the information that is required to enable the user plane detection of, the policy control and proper charging for a service data flow. The packets detected by applying the service data flow template of a PCC rule form a service data flow.
Two different types of PCC rules exist: Dynamic rules and predefined rules. The dynamic PCC rules are provisioned by the PCRF via the Gx reference point, while the predefined PCC rules are directly provisioned into the PCEF and only referenced by the PCRF. The usage of predefined PCC rules for QoS control is possible if the BBF remains in the PCEF during the lifetime of an IP-CAN session. In addition, predefined PCC rules may be used in a non-roaming situation and if it can be guaranteed that corresponding predefined QoS rules are configured in the BBF and activated along with the predefined PCC rules.
NOTE 1: The procedure for provisioning predefined PCC rules is out of scope for this specification.
NOTE 2: There may be another type of predefined rules that are not explicitly known in the PCRF and not under the control of the PCRF. The operator may define such predefined PCC rules, to be activated by the PCEF on one IP‑CAN bearer within the IP‑CAN session. The PCEF may only activate such predefined PCC rules if there is no UE provided traffic mapping information related to that IP‑CAN bearer. The IP‑CAN session termination procedure deactivates such predefined PCC rules.
There are defined procedures for activation, modification and deactivation of PCC rules (as described in clause 6.3.2). The PCRF may activate, modify and deactivate a PCC rule at any time, over the Gx reference point. However, the modification procedure is applicable to dynamic PCC rules only.
Each PCC rule shall be installed for a single IP‑CAN bearer only (for further details about predefined PCC rules see clause 6.3.2).
The operator defines the PCC rules.
Table 6.3 lists the information contained in a PCC rule, including the information name, the description and whether the PCRF may modify this information in a dynamic PCC rule which is active in the PCEF. The Category field indicates if a certain piece of information is mandatory or not for the construction of a PCC rule, i.e. if it is possible to construct a PCC rule without it.
Table 6.3: The PCC rule information
Information name
Description
Category
PCRF permitted to modify for a dynamic PCC rule in the PCEF
Rule identifier
Uniquely identifies the PCC rule, within an IP‑CAN session.
It is used between PCRF and PCEF for referencing PCC rules.
Mandatory
no
Service data flow detection
This part defines the method for detecting packets belonging to a service data flow.
Precedence
Determines the order, in which the service data flow templates are applied at service data flow detection, enforcement and charging. (NOTE 9).
Conditional (NOTE 13)
yes
Service data flow template
Either a list of service data flow filters or an application identifier that references the corresponding application detection filter for the detection of the service data flow.
Mandatory (NOTE 7)
Conditional (NOTE 12)
Mute for notification
Defines whether application's start or stop notification is to be muted.
Conditional (NOTE 8)
No
Charging
This part defines identities and instructions for charging and accounting that is required for an access point where flow based charging is configured
Charging key
The charging system (OCS or OFCS) uses the charging key to determine the tariff to apply to the service data flow.
yes
Service identifier
The identity of the service or service component the service data flow in a rule relates to.
yes
Sponsor Identifier
An identifier, provided from the AF which identifies the Sponsor, used for sponsored flows to correlate measurements from different users for accounting purposes.
Conditional
(NOTE 6)
yes
Application Service Provider Identifier
An identifier, provided from the AF which identifies the Application Service Provider, used for sponsored flows to correlate measurements from different users for accounting purposes.
Conditional
(NOTE 6)
yes
Charging method
Indicates the required charging method for the PCC rule.
Values: online, offline or neither.
Conditional
(NOTE 4)
no
Measurement method
Indicates whether the service data flow data volume, duration, combined volume/duration or event shall be measured.
This is applicable to reporting, if the charging method is online or offline.
Note: Event based charging is only applicable to predefined PCC rules and PCC rules used for application detection filter (i.e. with an application identifier).
yes
Application Function Record Information
An identifier, provided from the AF, correlating the measurement for the Charging key/Service identifier values in this PCC rule with application level reports.
no
Service identifier level reporting
Indicates that separate usage reports shall be generated for this Service identifier.
Values: mandated or not required
Yes
Policy control
This part defines how the PCEF shall apply policy control for the service data flow.
Gate status
The gate status indicates whether the service data flow, detected by the service data flow template, may pass (Gate is open) or shall be discarded (Gate is closed) at the PCEF.
Yes
QoS class identifier
Identifier for the authorized QoS parameters for the service data flow.
Values: see NOTE 1.
Conditional
(NOTE 2)
Yes
UL-maximum bitrate
The uplink maximum bitrate authorized for the service data flow
Conditional
(NOTE 3)
Yes
DL-maximum bitrate
The downlink maximum bitrate authorized for the service data flow
Conditional
(NOTE 3)
Yes
UL-guaranteed bitrate
The uplink guaranteed bitrate authorized for the service data flow
Yes
DL-guaranteed bitrate
The downlink guaranteed bitrate authorized for the service data flow
Yes
UL sharing indication
Indicates resource sharing in uplink direction with service data flows having the same value in their PCC rule
No
DL sharing indication
Indicates resource sharing in downlink direction with service data flows having the same value in their PCC rule
No
Redirect
Redirect state of the service data flow (enabled/disabled)
Conditional (NOTE 10)
Yes
Redirect Destination
Controlled Address to which the service data flow is redirected when redirect is enabled
Conditional
(NOTE 11)
Yes
ARP
The Allocation and Retention Priority for the service data flow consisting of the priority level, the pre-emption capability and the pre-emption vulnerability
Conditional
(NOTE 5)
Yes
Bind to Default Bearer
Indicates that the dynamic PCC rule shall always have its bearer binding with the default bearer.
Conditional
(NOTE 15)
Yes
PS to CS session continuity
Indicates whether the service data flow is a candidate for vSRVCC.
Conditional
No
Access Network Information Reporting
This part describes access network information to be reported for the PCC rule when the corresponding bearer is established, modified or terminated.
User Location Report
The serving cell of the UE is to be reported. When the corresponding bearer is deactivated and if available, information on when the UE was last known to be in that location is also to be reported.
Yes
UE Timezone Report
The time zone of the UE is to be reported.
Yes
Usage Monitoring Control
This part describes identities required for Usage Monitoring Control.
Monitoring key
The PCRF uses the monitoring key to group services that share a common allowed usage.
Yes
Indication of exclusion from session level monitoring
Indicates that the service data flow shall be excluded from the IP-CAN session usage monitoring
Yes
Traffic Steering Enforcement Control
This part describes identities required for Traffic Steering Enforcement Control.
Traffic steering policy identifier(s)
Reference to a pre-configured traffic steering policy at the PCEF (NOTE 14).
Yes
NBIFOM related control Information
This part describes PCC rule information related with NBIFOM (defined in TS 23.161 [43]. Refer also to clause 6.1.18.
Allowed Access Type
The access to be used for traffic identified by the PCC rule
Yes
Routing Rule Identifier
The Routing Rule identifier to be used in NBIFOM routing rule
No
RAN support information
This part defines information supporting the RAN for e.g. handover threshold decision.
UL Maximum Packet Loss Rate
The maximum rate for lost packets that can be tolerated in the uplink direction for service data flow. It is defined in clause 5.4.1 of TS 23.401 [17].
Conditional (NOTE 16)
Yes
DL Maximum Packet Loss Rate
The maximum rate for lost packets that can be tolerated in the downlink direction for service data flow. It is defined in clause 5.4.1 of TS 23.401 [17].
Conditional (NOTE 16)
Yes
NOTE 1: The QoS class identifier is scalar and accommodates the need for differentiating QoS in all types of 3GPP IP‑CAN. The value range is expandable to accommodate additional types of IP‑CAN.
NOTE 2: The QoS class identifier is mandatory when the bearer binding is allocated to the PCEF.
NOTE 3: Mandatory when the QoS class identifier is of Resource Type GBR. Used to activate policy control on SDF level at the PCEF.
NOTE 4: Mandatory if there is no default charging method for the IP‑CAN session.
NOTE 5: Mandatory when policy control on SDF level applies unless otherwise stated in an access-specific Annex.
NOTE 6: Applicable to sponsored data connectivity.
NOTE 7: Either service data flow filter(s) or application identifier shall be defined per each rule. application identifier can only be used for PCEF enhanced with ADC.
NOTE 8: Optional and applicable only if application identifier exists within the rule.
NOTE 9: For PCC rules based on an application detection filter, the precedence is only relevant for the enforcement, i.e. when multiple PCC rules overlap, only the enforcement, reporting of application starts and stops, monitoring and charging actions of the PCC rule with the highest precedence shall be applied.
NOTE 10: Optional and applicable only if application identifier exists within the rule.
NOTE 11: If Redirect is enabled.
NOTE 12: YES, in case the service data flow template consists of a set of service data flow filters. NO in case the service data flow template consists of an application identifier.
NOTE 13: The Precedence is mandatory for PCC rules with SDF template containing SDF filter(s). For dynamic PCC rules with SDF template containing an application identifier, the precedence is either preconfigured in PCEF or provided in the PCC rule from PCRF.
NOTE 14: The Traffic steering policy identifier can be different for uplink and downlink direction. If two Traffic steering policy identifiers are provided, then one is for uplink direction, while the other one is for downlink direction.
NOTE 15: The presence of this attribute causes the QCI/ARP of the rule to be ignored. This attribute is defined for selected accesses as specified in the access specific Annexes.
NOTE 16: Optional and applicable only for voice service data flow in this Release.
The Rule identifier shall be unique for a PCC rule within an IP‑CAN session. A dynamically provided PCC rule that has the same Rule identifier value as a predefined PCC rule shall replace the predefined rule within the same IP‑CAN session.
The Service data flow template may comprise any number of Service data flow filters. A Service data flow filter contains information for matching user plane packets. A Service data flow filter, provided from the PCRF, contains information elements as described in clause 6.2.2.2. The Service data flow template filtering information within an activated PCC rule is applied at the PCEF to identify the packets belonging to a particular service data flow.
NOTE 3: Predefined PCC rules may include service data flow filters, which support extended capabilities, including enhanced capabilities to identify events associated with application protocols.
Alternatively, the Service data flow template consists of an application identifier that references an application detection filter that is used for matching user plane packets. The application identifier is also identifying the application, for which the rule applies. The same application identifier value can occur in more than one PCC rule with the following restrictions:
- The same application identifier value can be used for a dynamic PCC rule and one or multiple predefined PCC rules. If so, the PCRF shall ensure that there is at most one PCC rule active per application identifier value at any time.
NOTE 4: The configuration of the Application Identifier in the PCEF can include the set of information required for encrypted traffic detection as defined in Annex X.
The Mute for notification defines whether notification to the PCRF of application's starts or stops shall be muted. Absence of this parameter means that start/stop notifications shall be sent.
The Precedence defines in what order the activated PCC rules within the same IP‑CAN session shall be applied at the PCEF for service data flow detection. When a dynamic PCC rule and a predefined PCC rule have the same precedence, the dynamic PCC rule takes precedence. For dynamic PCC rules that contain an application identifier, the Precedence shall be either preconfigured at the PCEF or provided dynamically by the PCRF within the PCC Rules.
NOTE 5: The operator shall ensure that overlap between the predefined PCC rules can be resolved based on precedence of each predefined PCC rule in the PCEF. The PCRF shall ensure that overlap between the dynamically allocated PCC rules can be resolved based on precedence of each dynamically allocated PCC rule. Further information about the configuration of the PCC rule precedence is described in Annex G.
NOTE 6: Whether precedence for dynamic PCC rules that contain an application identifier is preconfigured in PCEF or provided in the PCC rule from the PCRF depends on network configuration.
For downlink packets all the service data flow templates, activated for the IP‑CAN session shall be applied for service data flow detection and for the mapping to the correct IP‑CAN bearer. For uplink packets the service data flow templates activated on their IP‑CAN bearer shall be applied for service data flow detection (further details provided in clause 6.2.2.2 and the IP-CAN specific annexes).
The Charging key is the reference to the tariff for the service data flow. Any number of PCC Rules may share the same charging key value. The charging key values for each service shall be operator configurable.
NOTE 7: Assigning the same Charging key for several service data flows implies that the charging does not require the credit management to be handled separately.
NOTE 8: If the IP flow mobility is supported and the tariff depends on what access network is in use for the service data flow, then a separate Charging key can be allocated for each access network and the PCRF can set the Charging key in accordance with the access network in use.
The Service identifier identifies the service. PCC Rules may share the same service identifier value. The service identifier provides the most detailed identification, specified for flow based charging, of a service data flow.
NOTE 9: The PCC rule service identifier need not have any relationship to service identifiers used on the AF level, i.e. is an operator policy option.
The Sponsor Identifier indicates the (3rd) party organization willing to pay for the operator's charge for connectivity required to deliver a service to the end user.
The Application Service Provider Identifier indicates the (3rd) party organization delivering a service to the end user.
The Charging method indicates whether online charging, offline charging, or both are required or the service data flow is not subject to any end user charging. If the charging method identifies that the service data flow is not subject to any end user charging, a Charging key shall not be included in the PCC rule for that service data flow, along with other charging related parameters. If the charging method is omitted the PCEF shall apply the default charging method as determined at IP‑CAN session establishment (see clause 6.4). The Charging method is mandatory if there is no default charging method for the IP‑CAN session.
The Measurement method indicates what measurements apply to charging for PCC rule.
The Service Identifier Level Reporting indicates whether the PCEF shall generate reports per Service Identifier. The PCEF shall accumulate the measurements from all PCC rules with the same combination of Charging key/Service identifier values in a single report.
The Application function record information identifies an instance of service usage. A subsequently generated usage report, generated as a result of the PCC rule, may include the Application function record information, if available. The Application Function Record Information may contain the AF Charging Identifier and/or the Flow identifiers. The report is however not restricted to include only usage related to the Application function record information reported, as the report accumulates the usage for all PCC rules with the same combination of Charging key/Service identifier values. If exclusive charging information related to the Application function record information is required, the PCRF shall provide a service identifier, not used by any other PCC rule of the IP‑CAN session at this point in time, for the AF session.
NOTE 10: For example, the PCRF may be configured to maintain a range of service identifier values for each service which require exclusive per instance charging information. Whenever a separate counting or credit management for an AF session is required, the PCRF shall select a value, which is not used at this point in time, within that range. The uniqueness of the service identifier in the PCEF ensures a separate accounting/credit management while the AF record information identifies the instance of the service.
The Gate indicates whether the PCEF shall let a packet identified by the PCC rule pass through (gate is open) the PCEF, or the PCEF shall discard (gate is closed) the packet.
NOTE 11: A packet, matching a PCC Rule with an open gate, may be discarded due to credit management reasons.
The QoS Class Identifier for the service data flow. The QoS class identifier represents the QoS parameters for the service data flow. The PCEF maintains the mapping between QoS class identifier and the QoS concept applied within the specific IP‑CAN. The bitrate information is separate from the QoS class identifier value.
The bitrates indicate the authorized bitrates at the IP packet level of the SDF, i.e. the bitrates of the IP packets before any IP‑CAN specific compression or encapsulation.
The UL maximum-bitrate indicates the authorized maximum bitrate for the uplink component of the service data flow.
The DL maximum-bitrate indicates the authorized maximum bitrate for the downlink component of the service data flow.
The UL guaranteed-bitrate indicates the authorized guaranteed bitrate for the uplink component of the service data flow.
The DL guaranteed-bitrate indicates the authorized guaranteed bitrate for the downlink component of the service data flow.
The 'Maximum bitrate' is used for enforcement of the maximum bit rate that the SDF may consume, while the 'Guaranteed bitrate' is used by the PCEF to determine resource allocation.
The UL sharing indication indicates that resource sharing in uplink direction for service data flows with the same value in their PCC rule shall be applied by the PCEF as described in clauses 6.1.14 and 6.2.2.4.
The DL sharing indication indicates that resource sharing in downlink direction for service data flows with the same value in their PCC rule shall be applied by the PCEF as described in clauses 6.1.14 and 6.2.2.4.
The Redirect indicates whether the uplink part of the service data flow should be redirected to a controlled address.
The Redirect Destination indicates the target redirect address when Redirect is enabled.
The Allocation and Retention Priority indicates the allocation, retention and priority of the service data flow. The ARP contains information about the priority level, the pre-emption capability and the pre-emption vulnerability. The Allocation and Retention Priority resolves conflicts of demands for network resources.
The Bind to Default Bearer indicates that the dynamic PCC rule shall be bound to the default bearer.
The PS to CS session continuity is present if the service data flow is a candidate for vSRVCC according to TS 23.216 [28].
The access network information reporting parameters (User Location Report, UE Timezone Report) instruct the PCEF about what information to forward to the PCRF when the PCC rule is activated, modified or removed.
The Monitoring Key is the reference to a resource threshold. Any number of PCC Rules may share the same monitoring key value. The monitoring key values for each service shall be operator configurable.
The Indication of exclusion from session level monitoring indicates that the service data flow shall be excluded from the IP-CAN session usage monitoring.
The Traffic Steering Policy Identifier(s) is a reference to a pre-configured traffic steering policy at the PCEF as defined in clause 6.11.1.
The Allowed Access Type applies only in case of NBIFOM. The Allowed Access Type indicates the IP-CAN type that is to be used for the transfer of traffic identified by the PCC rule. The PCEF uses the Allowed Access Type as input for the bearer binding. When network-initiated NBIFOM mode applies, the PCEF shall also create / modify / delete a corresponding Routing Rule for such a PCC rule at the UE as described in clause 6.1.18.2. When the Allowed Access Type is not provided within a PCC rule, the traffic identified by the PCC rule is to be transferred on the default NBIFOM access.
The Routing Rule Identifier applies only in case of NBIFOM. The PCRF provides it to the PCEF only when network-initiated NBIFOM mode applies.
The UL Maximum Packet Loss Rate indicates the maximum rate for lost packets that can be tolerated in the uplink direction.
The DL Maximum Packet Loss Rate indicates the maximum rate for lost packets that can be tolerated in the downlink direction.
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6.3.2 Policy and charging control rule operations
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Policy and charging control rule operations consist of activation, modification and de-activation of PCC rules.
Activation of a dynamic PCC rule provides the PCC rule information to the PCEF via the Gx reference point.
Activation of a predefined PCC rule provides an identifier of the relevant PCC rule to the PCEF via the Gx reference point.
Activation of a predefined PCC rule, not known in the PCRF, may be done by the PCEF based on operator policy. The PCEF may only activate such predefined PCC rule if there are no UE provided traffic mapping information related to the IP‑CAN bearer. Further restrictions regarding the usage of predefined PCC rules are described in clause 6.3.1.
An active PCC rule means that:
- the service data flow template shall be used for service data flow detection;
- the service data flow template shall be used for mapping of downlink packets to the IP‑CAN bearer determined by the bearer binding;
- the service data flow template shall be used for service data flow detection of uplink packets on the IP‑CAN bearer determined by the bearer binding;
- usage data for the service data flow shall be recorded (further details can be found in clause 6.1.2 Reporting and clause 6.1.3 Credit Management);
- policies associated with the PCC rule, if any, shall be invoked.
- for service data flow detection with an application detection filter, the start or the stop of the application traffic is reported to the PCRF, if applicable and requested by the PCRF. In that case, the notification for Start may include service data flow filters, (if possible to provide) and the application instance identifier associated with the service data flow filters.
A predefined PCC rule is known at least, within the scope of one access point.
NOTE 1: The same predefined PCC rule can be activated for multiple IP‑CAN bearers in multiple IP‑CAN sessions.
A predefined PCC rule is bound to one and only one IP-CAN bearer per IP‑CAN session. For a predefined PCC rule whose service data flow cannot be fully reflected for the uplink direction in terms of traffic mapping information sent to the UE, the PCEF may apply the uplink service data flow detection at additional IP‑CAN bearers with non-GBR QCI of the same IP‑CAN session. The deactivation of such a predefined PCC rule ceases its service data flow detection for the whole IP‑CAN session.
The PCRF may, at any time, modify an active, dynamic PCC rule.
The PCRF may, at any time, deactivate an active PCC rule in the PCEF via the Gx reference point. At IP‑CAN bearer termination all active PCC rules on that bearer are deactivated without explicit instructions from the PCRF to do so.
Policy and charging control rule operations can be also performed in a deferred mode. A PCC rule may have either a single deferred activation time, or a single deferred deactivation time or both.
A PCC rule with only a deferred activation time shall be inactive until that time. A PCC rule with only a deferred deactivation time shall be active until that time. When the rule activation time occurs prior to the rule deactivation time, the rule is inactive until the activation and remains active until the deactivation time occurs. When the rule deactivation time occurs prior to the rule activation time, the rule is initially active until the deactivation time, then remains inactive until the activation time and then becomes active again. An inactive PCC rule, that has not been activated yet, is still considered to be installed and may be removed by the PCRF.
The PCRF may modify a currently installed PCC rule, including setting, modifying or clearing its deferred activation and/or deactivation time. When modifying a dynamic PCC rule with a prior and/or new deferred activation and/or deactivation time, the PCRF shall provide all attributes of that rule, including attributes that have not changed.
NOTE 2: In this case, the PCRF omission of an attribute that has a prior value will erase that attribute from the rule.
Deferred activation and deactivation of PCC rules can only be used for PCC rules that belong to the IP‑CAN bearer without traffic mapping information.
NOTE 3: This limitation prevents dependencies on the signalling of changed traffic mapping information towards the UE.
Deferred modification of PCC rules shall not be applied for changes of the QoS or service data flow filter information of PCC rules.
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6.4 IP‑CAN bearer and IP‑CAN session related policy information
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The purpose of the IP‑CAN bearer and IP‑CAN session related policy information is to provide policy and charging control related information that is applicable to a single IP‑CAN bearer or the whole IP‑CAN session respectively. The PCRF provides the IP‑CAN bearer and IP‑CAN session related policy information to the PCEF and BBERF (if applicable) using the PCC rule and QoS rule (if applicable) provision procedure. The IP‑CAN bearer related policy information may be provided together with rules or separately.
Table 6.4 lists the PCC related IP‑CAN bearer and IP‑CAN session related policy information.
Table 6.4: PCC related IP‑CAN bearer and IP‑CAN session related policy information
Attribute
Description
PCRF permitted to modify the attribute
Scope
Charging information
(NOTE 2)
Defines the containing OFCS and/or OCS addresses.
No
IP‑CAN session
Default charging method
(NOTE 2)
Defines the default charging method for the IP‑CAN session.
No
IP‑CAN session
Event trigger
Defines the event(s) that shall cause a re-request of PCC rules for the IP‑CAN bearer.
Yes
IP‑CAN session
Authorized QoS per bearer (UE-initiated IP‑CAN bearer activation/modification)
(NOTE 1)
Defines the authorised QoS for the IP‑CAN bearer (QCI, GBR, MBR).
Yes
IP‑CAN bearer
Authorized MBR per QCI (network initiated IP‑CAN bearer activation/modification)
(NOTE 1)
(NOTE 3)
Defines the authorised MBR per QCI.
Yes
IP‑CAN session
Revalidation time limit
Defines the time period within which the PCEF shall perform a PCC rules request.
Yes
IP‑CAN session
PRA Identifier(s)
Defines the Presence Reporting Area(s) to monitor for the UE with respect to entering/leaving
Yes
IP-CAN session
List(s) of Presence Reporting Area elements (NOTE 4)
Defines the elements of the Presence Reporting Area(s)
Yes
IP-CAN session
Default NBIFOM access
The access to be used for all traffic that does not match any existing Routing Rule
Yes (only at the addition of an access to the IP-CAN session)
IP-CAN session
NOTE 1: Depending on the bearer establishment mode; only one Authorized QoS information has to be used.
NOTE 2: These attributes should not be provided to BBERF.
NOTE 3: This attribute is only applicable when the IP‑CAN supports non-GBR bearers that have a separate MBR (e.g. for GPRS).
NOTE 4: The list of PRA elements shall be a short list of elements.
Upon the initial interaction with the PCEF, the PCRF may provide Charging information containing OFCS and/or OCS addresses to the PCEF defining the offline and online charging system addresses respectively. These shall override any possible predefined addresses at the PCEF. If received by the PCEF, it supersedes the Primary OFCS/OCS address and Secondary OFCS/OCS address in the charging characteristics profile.
Upon the initial interaction with the PCEF, the PCRF may provide Default charging method indicating what charging method shall be used in the IP‑CAN session for every PCC rule where the charging method identifier is omitted, including predefined PCC rules that are activated by the PCEF. If received by the PCEF, it supersedes the Default charging method in the charging characteristics profile.
Upon every interaction with the ERF, the PCRF may provide event triggers for the IP‑CAN session. Event triggers are used to determine which IP‑CAN bearer modification causes the ERF to re-request PCC rules. The triggers are listed in clause 6.1.4.
The semantics of the authorized QoS per bearer (UE-initiated IP‑CAN bearer activation/modification) and the authorized MBR per QCI (network initiated IP‑CAN bearer activation/modification) are captured in clause 6.2.2.4.
The Revalidation time limit defines the time period within which the PCEF shall trigger a request for PCC rules for an established IP‑CAN session.
Upon every interaction with the PCEF, the PCRF and the OCS may activate / deactivate reporting changes of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area by setting / unsetting the corresponding event trigger or credit reauthorization trigger by providing the PRA Identifier(s) and additionally the list(s) of elements comprising the Presence Reporting Area for UE-dedicated Presence Reporting Area(s), as described in clauses 6.1.4 and 6.1.3, respectively.
The PCEF shall combine the requests from PCRF and the OCS.
When the Change of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area is armed, i.e. when the PCRF or the OCS subscribes to reporting change of UE presence in a particular Presence Reporting Area and the reporting change of UE presence in this Presence Reporting Area was not activated before, the PCEF shall activate the relevant IP‑CAN specific procedure which reports when the UE enters or leaves a Presence Reporting Area (an initial report is received when the IP‑CAN specific procedure is activated). The PCEF reports the PRA Identifier(s) and indication(s) whether the UE is inside or outside the Presence Reporting Area(s) and indication(s) if the corresponding Presence Reporting Area(s) is set to inactive by the serving node to the PCRF and/or the OCS.
NOTE: The serving node can activate the reporting for the PRAs which are inactive as described in the TS 23.401 [17].
When neither the PCRF nor the OCS are subscribed to change of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area for a particular Presence Reporting Area, the PCEF shall deactivate the relevant IP‑CAN specific procedure which reports when the UE enters or leaves a Presence Reporting Area.
The PCEF stores PCRF or OCS subscription to reporting for changes of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area and forwards the PRA Identifier(s) and indication(s) whether the UE is inside or outside the Presence Reporting Area(s) received from the serving node according to the corresponding subscription.
When a PRA set identified by a PRA Identifier was subscribed to report changes of UE presence in Presence Reporting Area by the PCRF and/or OCS, the PCEF additionally receives the PRA Identifier of the PRA set from the serving node, along with the individual PRA Identifier(s) belonging to the PRA set and indication(s) of whether the UE is inside or outside the individual Presence Reporting Area(s), as described in TS 23.401 [17].
6.4a TDF session related policy information
The purpose of the TDF session related information is to provide information that is applicable to the whole TDF session. The PCRF provides the TDF session related information to the TDF (if applicable) using ADC rule provision procedure.
Table 6.4a lists the TDF session related policy information.
Table 6.4a: TDF session related policy information
Attribute
Description
PCRF permitted to modify the attribute
Charging Characteristics
Defines how to control TDF behaviour regarding online and offline charging.
No
Charging information
Defines the containing OFCS and/or OCS addresses.
No
Default charging method
Defines the default charging method for the TDF session.
No
Event trigger
Defines the event(s) that shall cause a re-request of ADC rules for the TDF session.
Yes
Maximum downlink bit rate
Defines the maximum downlink bit rate per TDF session.
Yes
Maximum uplink bit rate
Defines the maximum uplink bit rate per TDF session.
Yes
ADC Revalidation time limit
Defines the time period within which the TDF shall perform an ADC rules request.
Yes
Upon the initial interaction with the TDF, the PCRF may provide Charging Characteristics to the TDF, if received from the PCEF, defining how to control TDF behaviour regarding online and offline charging.
Upon the initial interaction with the TDF, the PCRF may provide Charging information containing OFCS and/or OCS addresses to the TDF defining the offline and online charging system addresses respectively. These shall override any possible predefined addresses at the TDF. If received by the TDF, it supersedes the Primary OFCS/OCS address and Secondary OFCS/OCS address predefined at the TDF.
Upon the initial interaction with the TDF, the PCRF may provide Default charging method indicating what charging method shall be used in the TDF session for every ADC rule where the charging method identifier is omitted. If received by the TDF, it supersedes the defined Default charging method.
If Charging Characteristics are received by the PCRF from the PCEF, the PCRF may take them into account when providing Charging information and Default charging method to the TDF. In case the TDF receives both Charging Characteristics and Charging information and Default charging method parameters, the Charging Information and Default charging method shall supersede the values received in Charging Characteristics.
Upon every interaction with the TDF, the PCRF may provide Maximum downlink bit rate and/or Maximum uplink bit rate for the TDF session.
NOTE: To avoid down-link packets being discarded in PCEF when TDF performs charging, the PCRF should set the Maximum downlink bit rate to the DL APN-AMBR.
Upon every interaction with the TDF, the PCRF may provide event triggers for the TDF session. Event triggers are used to determine which event causes the TDF to re-request ADC rules. The triggers applicable for the TDF are listed in clause 6.1.4.
The ADC Revalidation time limit defines the time period within which the TDF shall trigger a request for ADC rules for an established TDF session.
6.4b APN related policy information
The purpose of the APN related policy information is to provide policy and charging control related information that is applicable to all IP‑CAN sessions of a UE to the same APN. The PCRF provides APN related policy information to the PCEF using the PCC provision procedure together with PCC rules or separately.
Table 6.4b-1 lists the applicable PCC specific APN related policy information.
Table 6.4b-1: PCC specific APN related policy information
Attribute
Description
PCRF permitted to modify the attribute
Scope
Authorized APN-AMBR
Defines the APN-AMBR for the total bandwidth usage of non-GBR QCI traffic at the APN.
Yes
All IP‑CAN sessions for the same UE within the same APN
Subsequent APN-AMBR (NOTE 1)
Defines the APN-AMBR for the total bandwidth usage of non-GBR QCI traffic at the APN to be applied by the PCEF when the APN-AMBR change time is reached.
No
(NOTE 2)
All IP‑CAN sessions for the same UE within the same APN
APN-AMBR change time (NOTE 1)
Defines the time at which the PCEF shall apply the Subsequent APN-AMBR for the total bandwidth usage of non-GBR QCI traffic at the APN.
No
(NOTE 2)
All IP‑CAN sessions for the same UE within the same APN
NOTE 1: Both parameters shall be provided together. The PCRF may provide up to four instances of them. If multiple instances are provided, the values of the APN-AMBR change time have to be different and should not be too close to each other in order to reduce the risk for signalling overload.
NOTE 2: The PCRF may replace all instances that have been provided previously with a new instruction. A previously provided Subsequent APN-AMBR or APN-AMBR change time cannot be individually modified.
The PCRF may provide the (unconditional) Authorized APN-AMBR in every interaction with the PCEF. The PCEF shall apply the Authorized APN-AMBR as APN-AMBR for all IP‑CAN sessions of the UE to the same APN and shall communicate the changed APN-AMBR to the UE.
NOTE 1: There is always an unconditional value for the APN-AM BR available at the PCEF. The initial value is received as Subscribed APN-AMBR in an access specific manner and the PCRF can overwrite it by providing an Authorized APN-AMBR.
NOTE 2: In order to reduce the risk for signalling overload, the PCRF should avoid simultaneous provisioning of Authorized APN-AMBR for many UEs (e.g. by spreading over time).
The Authorized APN-AMBR may be provided together with conditions, i.e. a list of RAT types and/or a list of IP-CAN types. One or multiple instances of conditional APN-AMBR, with different conditions, may be provided by the PCRF. The PCEF shall apply a conditional Authorized APN-AMBR as APN-AMBR only if the current RAT type and IP-CAN type match one of the RAT types and IP-CAN types specified in the conditions, respectively. Otherwise the PCEF shall apply the unconditional Authorized APN-AMBR as APN-AMBR. A changed APN-AMBR shall be communicated to the UE.
NOTE 3: Guidance what conditional Authorized APN-AMBR value to use in case the current RAT type and IP-CAN type match multiple conditional Authorized APN-AMBRs is specified in stage 3.
Conditional Authorized APN-AMBR(s) are not applied for a PDN connection supporting NBIFOM.
Upon PCRF changing the unconditional Authorized APN-AMBR or providing a conditional Authorized APN-AMBR, the PCEF shall discard any previously received conditional Authorized APN-AMBR.
The PCRF may provide the unconditional and/or one or multiple instances of conditional Authorized APN-AMBR together with an APN-AMBR change time, referred to as Subsequent APN-AMBR. When the APN-AMBR change time is reached, the PCEF shall apply the unconditional and/or conditional Subsequent APN-AMBR as unconditional and/or conditional Authorized APN-AMBR and discard any previously applied conditional Authorized APN-AMBRs.
NOTE 4: The modification is made in the same way as if the PCRF had modified the Authorized APN-AMBR at that point in time.
Up to four instances of Subsequent APN-AMBR may be provided by the PCRF. The PCEF shall discard any previously received Subsequent APN-AMBR instances on explicit instruction as well as whenever the PCRF provides a new instruction for one or more subsequent changes to the APN-AMBR or any other subsequent parameter.
NOTE 5: In order to provide further Subsequent APN-AMBRs in a timely fashion the PCRF can use its own clock to issue the desired changes or use the Revalidation time limit parameter (clause 6.4) to trigger a PCEF request for a policy decision.
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6.5 Quality of Service Control rule
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6.5.1 General
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The Quality of Service control rule (QoS rule) comprises the information that is required to enable the user plane detection and the QoS control for a service data flow in the BBERF. The packets detected by applying the service data flow template of a QoS rule are designated a service data flow.
NOTE 1: The BBERF only supports service data flow templates consisting of a set of service data flow filters.
The PCRF shall ensure that each PCC rule in the PCEF has a corresponding active QoS rule in the BBERF. The QoS rule shall contain the same service data flow template, precedence and the QoS information as the corresponding PCC rule.
NOTE 2: During the course of a BBERF change procedure the BBERF might not be able to maintain the correspondence throughout the procedure. The post-condition for the procedure shall however be that corresponding PCC and QoS rules are active at the PCEF and BBERF.
There are defined procedures for activation, modification and deactivation of QoS rules (as described in clause 6.5.2). The PCRF may activate, modify and deactivate a QoS rule over the Gxx reference point.
The QoS rules are derived from the PCC rules.
Table 6.5 lists the information contained in a QoS rule, including the information name and whether the PCRF may modify this information in a QoS rule which is active in the BBERF. For the IE description, refer to clause 6.3.1. The Category field indicates if a certain piece of information is mandatory or not for the construction of a QoS rule, i.e. if it is possible to construct a QoS rule without it.
Table 6.5: The QoS rule information
Information name
Category
PCRF permitted to modify for an active QoS rule in the BBERF
Rule identifier
(NOTE 1)
Mandatory
No
Service data flow detection
Precedence
Mandatory
Yes
Service data flow template
Mandatory
Yes
QoS control
QoS class identifier
(NOTE 2)
Mandatory
Yes
UL-maximum bitrate
Conditional
(NOTE 3)
Yes
DL-maximum bitrate
Conditional
(NOTE 3)
Yes
UL-guaranteed bitrate
Conditional
(NOTE 3)
Yes
DL-guaranteed bitrate
Conditional
(NOTE 3)
Yes
UL sharing indication
No
DL sharing indication
No
ARP
Conditional
(NOTE 3)
Yes
PS to CS session continuity
Conditional
No
Access Network Information Reporting
User Location Report
Conditional
Yes
UE Timezone Report
Conditional
Yes
NOTE 1: The Rule-Identifier uniquely defines an active QoS rule for a certain BBERF within the scope of a UE.
NOTE 2: The QoS class identifier is scalar and accommodates the need for differentiating QoS in all types of IP‑CAN. The value range is expandable to accommodate operator specific policies.
NOTE 3: If present in the corresponding PCC rule.
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6.5.2 Quality of Service control rule operations
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QoS control rule operations consist of activation, modification and de-activation of QoS rules.
Activation of a dynamic QoS rule provides the QoS rule information to the BBERF via the Gxx reference point.
An active QoS rule means that:
- the service data flow template shall be used for service data flow detection;
- the service data flow template shall be used for mapping of downlink packets to the IP‑CAN bearer determined by the bearer binding;
- the service data flow template shall be used for service data flow detection of uplink packets on the IP‑CAN bearer determined by the bearer binding;
- QoS procedures associated with the QoS rule, if any, shall be invoked.
The PCRF may, at any time, modify an active QoS rule.
The PCRF may, at any time, deactivate an active QoS rule in the BBERF via the Gxx reference point. At IP‑CAN bearer termination all active QoS rules on that bearer are deactivated without explicit instructions from the PCRF to do so.
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6.6 Usage Monitoring Control specific information
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6.6.1 General
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The Usage Monitoring Control information comprises the information that is required to enable user plane monitoring of resources for individual applications/services, groups of applications/services, for an IP-CAN session or for a TDF session.
Table 6.6: Usage Monitoring Control related information
Information name
Description
Category
Scope
Monitoring key
The PCRF uses the monitoring key to group services that share a common allowed usage.
Mandatory
IP-CAN session,
TDF session
Volume threshold
(NOTE 1)
Defines the traffic volume value after which the PCEF or the TDF shall report usage to the PCRF for this monitoring key.
Optional
Monitoring key
Time threshold
(NOTE 1)
Defines the resource time usage after which the PCEF or the TDF shall report usage to the PCRF.
Optional
Monitoring key
Monitoring time
Defines the time at which the PCEF or the TDF shall reapply the Volume and/or Time Threshold.
Optional
Monitoring Key
Subsequent Volume threshold
Defines the traffic volume value after which the PCEF or the TDF shall report usage to the PCRF for this Monitoring key for the period after the Monitoring time.
Optional, Conditional
(NOTE 2)
Monitoring Key
Subsequent Time threshold
Defines resource time usage after which the PCEF or the TDF shall report usage to the PCRF for this Monitoring key for the period after the Monitoring time.
Optional, Conditional
(NOTE 2)
Monitoring Key
Inactivity Detection Time
Defines the period of time after which the time measurement shall stop, if no packets are received.
Optional, Conditional
(NOTE 3)
Monitoring Key
NOTE 1: This attribute is also used by the PCEF/TDF, e.g. during IP-CAN/TDF session termination, to inform the PCRF about the resources that have been consumed by the UE.
NOTE 2: This attribute is applicable in presence of Monitoring Time only.
NOTE 3: This attribute is applicable in presence of Time threshold only.
The Monitoring Key is the reference to a resource threshold. Any number of PCC/ADC Rules may share the same monitoring key value. The monitoring key values for each service shall be operator configurable.
It shall also be possible for an operator to use the Monitoring Key parameter to indicate usage monitoring on an IP‑CAN session level at the PCEF or on a TDF session level at the TDF.
The Volume threshold indicates the overall user traffic volume value after which the PCEF or the TDF shall report the Usage threshold reached trigger to the PCRF.
The Time threshold indicates the overall resource time usage after which the PCEF or the TDF shall report the Usage threshold reached trigger to the PCRF.
The Monitoring time indicates the time at which the PCEF or the TDF shall store the accumulated usage information.
The Subsequent Volume threshold indicates the overall user traffic volume value measured after Monitoring time, after which the PCEF or the TDF shall report the Usage threshold reached trigger to the PCRF.
The Subsequent Time threshold indicates the overall resource time usage measured after Monitoring time, after which the PCEF or the TDF shall report the Usage threshold reached trigger to the PCRF.
The Inactivity Detection Time indicates the period of time after which the time measurement shall stop, if no packets are received during that time period.
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6.6.2 Usage Monitoring Control operations
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Usage monitoring on IP‑CAN session, TDF session or monitoring key level is active in the PCEF or TDF provided that certain conditions are met. The conditions for continued monitoring on session level are:
- For IP-CAN session level monitoring at the PCEF, an IP-CAN session is active and a volume and/or time threshold value for the IP‑CAN session has been provided.
- For TDF session level monitoring at the TDF, a TDF session is active and a volume and/or time threshold value has been provided.
For usage monitoring on Monitoring key level at the PCEF or the TDF the following conditions are applicable:
- A volume and/or time threshold has been provided for a Monitoring key to the PCEF and there is at least one PCC rule activated for the IP-CAN session that is associated with that Monitoring key.
- A volume and/or time threshold has been provided for a Monitoring key to the TDF and there is at least one ADC rule at the TDF activated for the TDF session that is associated with that Monitoring key.
NOTE: The PCRF is recommended to use monitoring so that the same traffic is not monitored by both PCC rules and ADC rules. This avoids double counting.
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6.7 S2c based IP flow mobility Routing rule
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6.7.1 General
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The clause 6.7 refers to UE based IP flow mobility as described in TS 23.261 [23].
The routing rule comprises the information that is required for the PCRF to install the QoS rules for a service data flow at the right BBERF in flow mobility scenarios. The PCRF relies on the IP flow mobility routing information contained in the IP flow mobility routing rule to the applicable BBERF for each PCC/QoS rule. The IP flow mobility routing rules are provided by the PCEF to the PCRF during IP‑CAN session establishment or modification.
The PCEF derives IP flow mobility routing rules based on flow binding information received from the UE as described in TS 23.261 [23].
Table 6.7 lists the information contained in a routing rule, including the information name, the description and whether the PCEF may modify this information in an updated version of the rule. The Category field indicates if a certain piece of information is mandatory or not.
Table 6.7: The routing rule information
Information name
Description
Category
PCEF permitted to modify in an update
Rule identifier
Uniquely identifies the routing rule within an IP‑CAN session. It is assigned by the PCEF.
Mandatory
No
Routing information
This clause defines the method for detecting packets belonging to a flow and the route for the flow.
Precedence
Determines the order, in which the routing filters are applied.
Mandatory
Yes
Packet filter
A list of packet filters for the detection of IP flows.
Mandatory
Yes
IP flow mobility Routing Address
The IP flow mobility Routing Address that the matching IP flows use.
Mandatory
Yes
The Rule identifier shall be unique for a routing rule within an IP-CAN session. It is assigned by the PCEF.
The Precedence defines in what order the routing rules is used by the PCRF to determine where to route a service data flow. The Precedence is derived from the priority included in the Binding Update as specified in TS 23.261 [23].
The Packet filter may comprise any number of packet filters, containing information for matching service data flows. The format of the packet filters is the same as the service data flow filter described in clause 6.2.2.2. A default packet filter can be specified by using wild card filter.
The IP flow mobility Routing Address identifies the IP address to be used for all service data flows matching the packet filters specified for this routing rule. The IP flow mobility Routing Address can be equal to the care-of address, or to the UE IP address (home address) in case of home link operations.
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6.7.2 Routing rule operations
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IP flow mobility routing rule operations consist of installation, modification and removal of routing rules.
During installation of a routing rule, the PCEF provides the routing rule information to the PCRF via the Gx reference point. The PCRF uses all the installed routing rules related to an IP‑CAN Session to select BBERF for any service data flow related for that IP-CAN Session.
The PCEF may, at any time, modify or remove an installed routing rule based on updated flow binding information received from the UE as described in TS 23.261 [23].
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6.8 Application Detection and Control Rule
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6.8.1 General
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The Application Detection and Control rule (ADC rule) comprises the information that is required in order to:
- identify the rule;
- detect the Start and Stop of traffic for a certain application;
- apply enforcement actions and charging for the application traffic detected by the rule;
- apply charging for the application traffic detected by the rule.
ADC rules are applicable over the Sd reference point. Over the Sd reference point, the ADC rules are used to support application detection and control as defined in clause 4.5 including traffic steering control as defined in clause 4.8.
ADC Rules are also applicable over the St reference point. Over the St reference point, the ADC rules are used to transfer traffic steering control information as defined in clause 6.11.1.
ADC rules definitions are assumed to be directly provisioned into the TDF or TSSF and referenced by the PCRF with the ADC Rule identifier.
NOTE 1: The method to perform the detection, in particular for the Start and Stop, may extend beyond the IP header and is out of scope for this document.
Two types of ADC rules exist: Predefined and dynamic ADC rules. A predefined ADC rule is constant and shall not be changed. For a dynamic ADC rule, some parameters can be provided and modified by the PCRF as defined in Table 6.8.
There are defined procedures for activation, modification and deactivation of ADC rules (as described in clause 6.8.2). The PCRF may activate, modify and deactivate an ADC rule at any time. The modification procedure is applicable to dynamic ADC rules only.
The operator defines the ADC rules.
Table 6.8 lists the information contained in an ADC rule that can be exchanged over the Sd and St reference point, including the information element name, the description, whether the PCRF may modify this information in a dynamic ADC rule which is active in the TDF and the applicable reference point (i.e. Sd and/or St) for the corresponding information element. The Category field indicates if a certain piece of information is mandatory or not for the construction of an ADC rule, i.e. if it is possible to construct an ADC rule without it.
Table 6.8: The Application Detection and Control rule information
Information name
Description
Category
PCRF permitted to modify for a dynamic ADC rule
Applicable reference point
ADC Rule identifier
Uniquely identifies the ADC rule within a TDF/TSSF session.
It is used between PCRF and TDF/TSSF for referencing ADC rules.
Mandatory
No
Sd, St
Application detection
This clause defines the detection and the application name.
Sd, St
Precedence
For ADC, the precedence is only relevant for the enforcement, i.e. when multiple ADC rules overlap, only the enforcement, reporting of application starts and stops, monitoring and charging actions of the ADC rule with the highest precedence shall be applied.
Optional
Yes
Sd, St
Application identifier
(NOTE 2)
References the corresponding application detection filter for the detection of the service data flow. References the corresponding application, for which the rule applies.
Conditional
(NOTE 5)
No
Sd, St
Service data flow filter list
A list of service data flow filters for the detection of the traffic.
Conditional
(NOTE 5)
No
Sd, St
Mute for notification
Defines whether application's start or stop notification is to be muted.
Optional
No
Sd
Usage Monitoring Control
This clause describes identities required for Usage Monitoring Control.
Sd
Monitoring key
The PCRF uses the monitoring key to group applications that share a common allowed usage.
Optional
Yes
Sd
Indication of exclusion from session level monitoring
Indicates that the application shall be excluded from the TDF session usage monitoring.
Optional
Yes
Sd
Enforcement control
This clause defines how the TDF shall apply enforcement actions for the detected application traffic.
Sd
Gate status
The gate status indicates whether the detected application may pass (Gate is open) or shall be discarded (Gate is closed) at the TDF.
Optional
Yes
Sd
UL-maximum bit rate
The uplink maximum bit rate authorized for the application traffic
Optional
Yes
Sd
DL-maximum bit rate
The downlink maximum bit rate authorized for the application traffic
Optional
Yes
Sd
Redirect
Redirect state of detected application traffic (enabled/disabled)
Optional
Yes
Sd
Redirect Destination
Controlled Address to which detected application traffic should be redirected when redirect is enabled
Conditional
(NOTE 1)
Yes
Sd
DSCP value
Downlink packets of detected application traffic shall be marked with this DSCP value.
Optional
(NOTE 4)
Yes
Sd
Charging
This clause defines identities and instructions for charging and accounting that is required for an access point where application usage charging is configured
Sd
Charging key
The charging system (OCS or OFCS) uses the charging key to determine the tariff to apply for the application.
Optional
Yes
Sd
Service identifier
Identifies one or more applications to the charging system.
Optional
Yes
Sd
Sponsor Identifier
An identifier, provided from the AF which identifies the Sponsor, used for sponsored flows to correlate measurements from different users for accounting purposes.
Conditional
(NOTE 7)
Yes
Application Service Provider Identifier
An identifier, provided from the AF which identifies the Application Service Provider, used for sponsored flows to correlate measurements from different users for accounting purposes.
Conditional
(NOTE 7)
Yes
Sd
Charging method
Indicates the required charging method for the ADC rule.
Values: online, offline or neither.
Conditional
(NOTE 3)
No
Sd
Measurement method
Indicates whether the application data volume, duration, combined volume/duration or event shall be measured.
This is applicable for reporting, if the charging method is online or offline.
Optional
Yes
Sd
Service identifier level reporting
Indicates that separate usage reports shall be generated for this Service identifier.
Values: mandated or not required.
Optional
Yes
Sd
Traffic Steering Enforcement Control
This part describes identities required for Traffic Steering Enforcement Control.
Sd, St
Traffic steering policy identifier(s)
Reference to a pre-configured traffic steering policy at the TDF/TSSF (NOTE 6).
Optional
Yes
Sd, St
NOTE 1: If Redirect is enabled.
NOTE 2: For every ADC rule this information is pre-configured in the TDF.
NOTE 3: Mandatory if there is no default charging method for the TDF session. It is possible to activate both online and offline charging for the same ADC Rule.
NOTE 4: See Annex U for details regarding how to apply policy and charging control for an application detected and marked by the TDF in the downlink direction (typically application with non-deducible service data flows).
NOTE 5: Either Application identifier or Service data flow filter list shall be included.
NOTE 6: The Traffic steering policy identifier can be different for uplink and downlink direction. If two Traffic steering policy identifiers are provided, then one is for uplink direction, while the other one is for downlink direction.
NOTE 7: Applicable to sponsored data connectivity.
The ADC Rule identifier shall be unique for an ADC rule within a TDF/TSSF session.
NOTE 2: The PCRF has to ensure that there is no dynamically provided ADC rule that has the same Rule identifier value as any of the predefined ADC rules.
The Precedence defines, if multiple ADC rules overlap, which ADC Rule shall be applied for the purpose of enforcement, reporting of application start and stop, monitoring and charging. When a dynamic ADC rule and a predefined ADC rule have the same precedence, the dynamic ADC rule takes precedence. For dynamic ADC rules, the Precedence shall be either preconfigured at the TDF/TSSF or provided dynamically by the PCRF within the ADC Rules.
NOTE 3: The operator shall ensure that overlap between the predefined ADC rules can be resolved based on precedence of each predefined ADC rule in the TDF. For dynamic ADC rules, if precedence is not preconfigured in the TDF, the PCRF shall ensure that overlap between the dynamic ADC rules can be resolved based on precedence of each dynamic ADC rule.
The Application identifier references the corresponding application detection filter that is used for matching user plane packets. It is also used for identifying the application, for which the rule applies, during reporting to the PCRF. The same application identifier value can occur in more than one ADC rule. If so, the PCRF shall ensure that there is at most one ADC rule active per application identifier value at any time.
NOTE 4: The same application identifier value could be used for a dynamic ADC rule and a predefined ADC rule or for multiple predefined ADC rules.
NOTE 5: The configuration of the Application Identifier in the TDF can include the set of information required for encrypted traffic detection as defined in Annex X.
Instead of Application identifier, the Service data flow filter list may be provided which comprises one or more Service data flow filters and is used by the TDF or TSSF to identify the packets belonging to a detected traffic. The format of the Service data flow filter is described in clause 6.2.2.2, except the filters extending the inspection to look further into the packet and/or define other operations as those are identified by Application Identifier.
The Mute for notification defines whether notification of application's start or stop shall be muted to the PCRF. Absence of this parameter means that start/stop notifications shall be sent.
The Monitoring Key is the reference to a resource threshold. Any number of ADC Rules may share the same monitoring key value. The monitoring key values for each application shall be operator configurable.
The Indication of exclusion from session level monitoring indicates that the application shall be excluded from the TDF session usage monitoring.
The Gate status indicates whether the TDF shall let detected application traffic pass through (gate is open) the TDF or the TDF shall discard (gate is closed) the application traffic.
The UL maximum-bitrate indicates the authorized maximum bitrate for the uplink component of the detected application traffic.
The DL maximum-bitrate indicates the authorized maximum bitrate for the downlink component of the detected application traffic.
NOTE 6: The maximum bit rate is an average value, which is measured over some time period. Services may generate media with variable bitrate. The policing function should take such bitrate variations into account.
The Redirect indicates whether the uplink part of the detected application traffic should be redirected to a controlled address.
The Redirect Destination indicates the target redirect address when Redirect is enabled.
The DSCP value indicates the value with which a TDF marks downlink application traffic identified by an ADC rule.
The Charging key is the reference to the tariff for the application. Any number of ADC Rules may share the same charging key value. The charging key values for each application shall be operator configurable.
NOTE 7: Assigning the same Charging key for several applications implies that the charging does not require the credit management to be handled separately.
The Service identifier identifies one or more applications to the charging system. ADC Rules may share the same Service identifier value. The service identifier provides the most detailed identification specified for application based charging.
NOTE 8: The Service Identifier need not have any relationship to service identifiers used on the AF level, i.e. is an operator policy option.
The Sponsor Identifier indicates the (3rd) party organization willing to pay for the operator's charge for connectivity required to deliver a service to the end user.
The Application Service Provider Identifier indicates the (3rd) party organization delivering a service to the end user.
The Charging method indicates whether online charging, offline charging, or both are required or the application is not subject to any end user charging. If the charging method identifies that the application is not subject to any end user charging, a Charging key shall not be included in the ADC rule for that application, along with other charging related parameters. If the charging method is omitted, the TDF shall apply the default charging method as determined at TDF session establishment (see clause 6.4a). The Charging method is mandatory if there is no default charging method for the TDF session.
The Measurement method indicates what measurements apply for charging for ADC rule.
The Service Identifier Level Reporting indicates whether the TDF shall generate reports per Service Identifier. The TDF shall accumulate the measurements from all ADC rules with the same combination of Charging key/Service Identifier values in a single report.
The Traffic Steering Policy Identifier(s) is a reference to a pre-configured traffic steering policy at the TDF/TSSF as defined in clause 6.11.1.
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6.8.2 Application Detection and Control rule operations over Sd
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Application Detection and Control rule operations apply to solicited reporting and consist of activation, modification and deactivation of ADC rules.
Activation: The PCRF provides the ADC Rule identifier to the TDF. The PCRF may provide data for usage monitoring and enforcement control for a dynamic ADC rule.
An active ADC rule means that:
- The application traffic, matching the corresponding application, can be detected; and
- Start or stop of application traffic is reported to the PCRF, if applicable and requested by the PCRF; the notification for Start may include service data flow filters, if possible to provide; and the application instance identifier associated with the service data flow filter; and
- Monitoring and enforcement, as specified within the rule, is applied.
The PCRF may, at any time, modify an active, dynamic ADC rule.
The PCRF may, at any time, deactivate an active ADC rule. The TDF session termination shall deactivate all ADC rules for that IP‑CAN session.
Application Detection and Control rule activation/deactivation operations can also be performed in a deferred mode. An ADC rule may have either a single deferred activation time, or a single deferred deactivation time or both.
An ADC rule with only a deferred activation time shall be inactive until that time. An ADC rule with only a deferred deactivation time shall be active until that time. When the rule activation time occurs prior to the rule deactivation time, the rule is inactive until the activation and remains active until the deactivation time occurs. When the rule deactivation time occurs prior to the rule activation time, the rule is initially active until the deactivation time, then remains inactive until the activation time and then becomes active again. An inactive ADC rule, that has not been activated yet, is still considered to be installed and may be removed by the PCRF.
The PCRF may modify a currently installed dynamic ADC rule, including setting, modifying or clearing its deferred activation and/or deactivation time.
When modifying a dynamic ADC rule with a prior and/or new deferred activation and/or deactivation time, the PCRF shall provide all attributes of that rule, including attributes that have not changed.
NOTE: In this case, the PCRF omission of an attribute that has a prior value will erase that attribute from the rule.
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6.9 Policy decisions based on spending limits
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Policy decisions based on spending limits is a function that allows PCRF taking actions related to the status of policy counters that are maintained in the OCS.
The identifiers of the policy counters that are relevant for a policy decision in the PCRF may be stored in the PCRF or possibly in SPR. The PCRF is configured with the actions associated with the policy counter status that is received from OCS.
The PCRF may request the status of policy counters in the OCS using the Initial or Intermediate Spending Limit Report Request Procedure. The OCS provides the current status of the requested policy counters to the PCRF. The OCS may in addition provide one or more pending statuses for a requested policy counter together with the time they have to be applied. The PCRF shall immediately apply the current status of a policy counter. A pending status of a policy counter shall autonomously become the current status of a policy counter at the PCRF when the indicated corresponding time is reached. Subsequently provided information for pending statuses of a policy counter shall overwrite the previously received information.
The PCRF may subscribe to spending limit reporting for policy counters from the OCS using the Initial or Intermediate Spending Limit Report Request procedure. If spending limit reporting for a policy counter is enabled, the OCS shall notify the PCRF of changes in the status of this policy counter (e.g. daily spending limit of $2 reached) and optionally pending statuses of this policy counter together with their activation time (e.g. due to a billing period that will expire at midnight). The PCRF may cancel spending limit reporting for specific policy counter(s) using the Intermediate Spending Limit Report Request procedure, or for all policy counter(s) using the Final Spending Limit Report Request procedure.
The PCRF uses the status of each relevant policy counter and optional pending policy counter statuses if known, as input to its policy decision to apply operator defined actions, e.g. change the QoS (e.g. downgrade APN-AMBR), modify the PCC/QoS/ADC Rules to apply gating or change charging conditions.
NOTE: The relationship between a policy counter identifier and the Charging Key could be 1-1. However it could also be assumed that services that share the same Charging Key can be associated with different policy counters i.e. although they are rated in the same way they are subject to different actions regarding (e.g. QoS and gating) and are therefore counted separately. Likewise services that share the same policy counters can be associated with different Charging Key.
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5817f2cb61f7e615e7879961cd761fa6
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23.203
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6.11 Traffic Steering Control Information
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5817f2cb61f7e615e7879961cd761fa6
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23.203
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6.11.1 General
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The traffic steering control information comprises the information that is required to enable traffic steering for a detected application or service data flow. The traffic steering control information is transferred:
- From the PCRF to the PCEF within PCC rules over Gx reference point;
- From the PCRF to the TDF within ADC rules over Sd reference point;
- From the PCRF to the TSSF within ADC rules over St reference point.
NOTE 1: In this release of the specification, traffic steering control information does not contain the IP-CAN specific parameters such as e.g. RAT type, which may be needed by the (S)Gi-LAN service functions.
Table 6.11 lists the components of traffic steering control information and their corresponding information names in PCC/ADC rule.
Table 6.11: Traffic steering control information
Component of traffic steering control information
Corresponding information name in ADC rule (NOTE 1)
Corresponding information name in PCC rule (NOTE 2)
Rule Name
ADC Rule Identifier
Rule identifier
Description of Traffic
Application Identifier
or Service data flow filter list
Service Data Flow Template
Traffic steering policy identifier(s) (NOTE 3)
Traffic steering policy identifier(s)
(NOTE 3)
Traffic steering policy identifier(s)
(NOTE 3)
Precedence
Precedence
Precedence
NOTE 1: The information definition refers to Table 6.8.
NOTE 2: The information definition refers to Table 6.3.
NOTE 3: The Traffic steering policy identifier can be different for uplink and downlink direction. If two Traffic steering policy identifiers are provided, then one is for uplink direction, while the other one is for downlink direction.
The Traffic Steering Policy Identifier is a reference to traffic steering policy locally configured at the PCEF/TDF/TSSF. The traffic steering policy identifies, explicitly or implicitly, a specific set of service functions and their order via which the traffic, identified by the description of traffic included in the traffic steering control information, needs to be steered in the (S)Gi-LAN.
For traffic steering control at the PCEF, the PCC Rule operations described in the clause 6.3.2 apply.
For traffic steering control at the TDF, the ADC Rule operations over Sd described in the clause 6.8.2 apply.
For traffic steering control at the TSSF, the Traffic Steering Control operations over St described in the clause 6.11.2 apply.
NOTE 2: In order for PCEF/TDF to measure the user plane traffic that is sent to a specific set of service functions, identified by a Traffic Steering Policy Identifier, a specific Charging Key or generic Charging Key and a specific Service Identifier is assigned to the PCC/ADC rule per each Traffic Steering Policy Identifier for which separate measurements are needed and the applicable measurement type as required. In case of Service Identifier usage, the PCC/ADC Rule also includes service identifier level reporting.
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5817f2cb61f7e615e7879961cd761fa6
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23.203
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6.11.2 Traffic Steering Control Operations over St
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Traffic steering control operations over St consists of provisioning, modification and removal of traffic steering control information.
Provisioning: Provisioning of traffic steering control information to the TSSF includes the activation of traffic steering policy, so that the traffic detected by the service data flow filter list or the application identifier can be steered in the SGi-LAN according to the information associated with the traffic steering policy identifier. The PCRF provides the UE IP address and the associated APN when provisioning of traffic steering control information to the TSSF. The TSSF uses the APN to determine the PDN.
NOTE: The APN is provided from PCRF to the TSSF for the cases when the PCEF supports multiple APNs with overlapping IP addresses. In that case, the same UE IP address can be allocated to different UEs when they access different PDNs, each APN provides access to a different PDN.
When using ADC Rules, the following applies:
- For pre-defined ADC rules in TSSF, the PCRF provides the ADC Rule identifier(s) to the TSSF;
- For dynamic ADC Rules, the PCRF provides traffic steering control information within the ADC rules to the TSSF.
Modification: The PCRF may modify traffic steering control information to change the traffic steering policy identifier(s), the precedence, the service data flow filters or application identifier.
When using ADC Rules, the PCRF may modify a dynamic ADC rule.
Removal: The PCRF may, at any time, remove traffic steering control information.
When using ADC Rules, the PCRF may remove ADC Rule(s).
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