Oracle Communications Cloud

Native Core, Policy and

Charging Rules Function
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core,
Policy and Charging Rules Function (cnPCRF)
handles policy and charging functionality in a
3G and 4G network. It helps service providers to
quickly and easily deploy complex network
policies, supporting wireless, fixed, cable and
IoT/M2M networks. The carrier grade cloud
native policy solution leverages Oracle’s cloud
expertise with signaling and policy heritage,
with more than 40 deployments worldwide
within the most demanding tier 1 carrier
networks.
OVERVIEW
Telecom networks are evolving rapidly in response to the growing demand for better,
faster connectivity and the changing life style of consumers. The onus of preparing Key Business Benefits
the network infrastructure for this evolution falls on service providers. Moreover, the
Oracle Communications cnPCRF is the
proliferation of IoT devices together with the increasing consumer base, promise to
one stop solution for creating and
test the scaling limits and intelligence of carrier deployments and their ability to
managing complex policies in a telecom
dynamically and efficiently use network resources. To deal with this demand, an core network. cnPCRF provides following
intelligent and robust policy management system has to be integrated at the center business benefits:
of the telecom core network.
 Prepares the network for coming wave
Operators have invested heavily in the 4G Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network and the of massive IoT connections and
current market trend suggests that 4G will stay for few more years before 5G could broadband services
completely takeover, in fact by 2025 the percentage of 4G connections is projected to  Reduces cost of managing a 4G
hit ~59% with 5G accounting for 15% of total connection1. This implies that operators network
have to gradually phase out the current 3G and 4G networks while introducing and  Helps CSPs to provide better QoS and
monetizing new 5G services, thereby supporting both 4G and 5G networks in parallel. create differentiation for their services

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The adoption of cloud native architecture provides operators the much needed
scalability, flexibility as well as the CAPEX reductions, these are required to support
today’s and tomorrow’s networks. Operators will be required to leverage full
capabilities of their network, while still having to maintain Quality of Service (QoS)
and providing better, differentiated services to their customers. This can be done by
crafting a sophisticated policy management system at the core of the network; one
which provides flexibility, scalability, resiliency, visibility, and agility. Key Features

Oracle Communications cnPCRF is

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION designed for the cloud, leveraging
Oracle’s engineering capability and
Oracle Communications cnPCRF is architected as microservices based on the cloud experience of developing a market
native principles. It provides the flexible and resilient network policy system needed leading PCRF solution. The main
to meet the demanding requirements of today’s communication service providers. features of cnPCRF are as follows:
The cnPCRF also helps in enabling a smooth transition for the telecom network from  Cloud native solution with support for
4G to 5G. Oracle Communications PCRF is the market-leading independent policy CI/CD and DevOps workflows
management system, and has received exhilarating response from operators around
 Supports diameter connector
the globe. cnPCRF is based on the features sets of the Oracle Communications PCRF,
yet it is re-architected from the ground up for the cloud, including upgraded features  Supports geo-redundancy and Life
Cycle Management
to further enhance the efficiency of policy management in a telecom network, by
providing ultimate flexibility, extensibility, modularization and assurance to the  Provides configuration management
operators to rapidly and securely deploy new policies and support existing and new service
use cases.  Offer higher capacity throughput with
better resource utilization
Cloud native policy solution offers opportunity to avoid multiple platform migrations
and leapfrogs the policy solution directly to the 5G core industry defined target  Automated and orchestratable solution
Service Based Architecture.  Pre-packages modules from Oracle for
use case realization

Figure 1. Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, PCRF System Architecture

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cnPCRF Core Features

Oracle Communications cnPCRF has the Oracle’s PCRF functionalities with brand new
product architecture designed for the cloud. The cnPCRF comes with a new policy
designer/configuration & troubleshooting GUI, besides a set of new functionalities
and architectural changes, the prominent features are listed below:
Oracle Communications Solutions

 Compliant with 3GPP Release 15  Oracle Communications Cloud Native

Core, Binding Support Function (BSF)
 Supports hardware neural deployment including operators’ specific  Oracle Communications Cloud Native
hardware type for 5G CNE or legacy PCRF hardware Core, Service Communication Proxy
(SCP)
 Leverages a common Oracle Communications Cloud Native Environment
 Oracle Communications Cloud Native
(CNE)
Core, Network Repository Function
(NRF)
 Packaged to support VM-based and container-based cloud infrastructure
 Oracle Communications Cloud Native
 Policy solution handling 4G Policy and Charging Control (PCC) use cases Core, Unified Data Repository (UDR)
with support to legacy diameter based interfaces  Oracle Communications Cloud Native
Core, Unstructured Data Storage
 Supports CI/CD Function (UDSF)
 Oracle Communications Cloud Native
 Integrated with Kubernetes and 5G/CNE common services
Core, Policy Control Function (PCF)
 Integrated with DevOps workflows  Oracle Communications Cloud Native
Core, Network Function Cloud Native
 Serves as a “ladder” in 4G/5G PCC evolution Environment (NF CNE)
 Oracle Communications Cloud Native
 Supports all legacy diameter interfaces
Core, Interworking and Mediation
Function (IWF)
Oracle communication cnPCRF supports segregation of connectivity, business and
data management tier following the corresponding logical grouping of  Oracle Communications Cloud Native
microservices/components. Core, Network Exposure Function
(NEF)
 Connectivity: Composed of components interfacing with external entities  Oracle Communications Cloud Native
Core, Network Slice Selection Function
 Business Logic: Application layer that runs the cnPCRF/5G Policy Control (NSSF)
Function (PCF) business logic, policy engine and various services that can be
 Oracle Communications Cloud Native
enabled based on deployment needs
Core, Security and Edge Protection
Proxy (SEPP)
 Data Management: Data layer responsible for storing various types of
persistent data Oracle Communications Cloud Native
deployable Network Functions (NFs)
Oracle Communications Policy Design and Run-time Environment enable service providers to manage and
monetize the 5G network. CSPs can
Oracle Communications cnPCRF comes with the reliable and robust Oracle manage and analyze quality of service
Communications Policy design and run-time environment. and create policies for innovative digital
lifestyle services through Oracle
Table 1: Oracle Policy Design and Run-time Environment Communications products and solutions.

Component Decsription

Design  Modular and flexible domain driven policy design

 Modules will encompass data model, triggers,
conditions and actions
 Modules can be designed via a GUI and will also allow
any language supported by JVM (e.g. Java, Groovy,
etc.)
 Pre-packaged modules provided by Oracle

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  Modules can be extended or built by operators

Run-time  Run time engine service to expose APIs

 Run time engine service to be stateless and
independently scalable

Testing  Automated testing framework to enable regression and

validation of policy logic and modules

Virtual PCRF (vPCRF) vs cloud native PCRF (cnPCRF)

Oracle Communications cnPCRF differentiates itself with vPCRF on several grounds
ranging from system architecture to platforms supported by them.
Table 2: vPCRF vs cnPCRF

Features Virtual PCRF Cloud Native PCRF

Architecture Monolithic architecture Microservices based 3-Tier

with integrated session architecture with
store segregation of interface,
business and DB layer

Platform Supported On-Premise, NFV Cloud Native, Kubernetes

over NFV

Configuration CMP Policy Wizard Policy Configuration GUI,

Management API

Alarms and KPI CMP, SNMP Prometheus Alert

Management Manager, SNMP support
using web hooks

Session Store COMCOL MySQL cluster

Redundancy Support 1+1+1 (Local and Geo Stateless NFs with DB level
Redundancy ) redundancy to support
local and Geo redundancy

Rule engine Integrated in MPE Groovy based Intuitive

PRE/GUI as separate
micro-service

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 Policy testing capability Not supported Policy testing framework
enables policy designers
to validate policy logic

SUMMARY
Operators across the globe are utilizing telecom network capabilities to provide
differentiated offerings with improved QoS while moving away from purpose built
hardware, monolithic software and legacy deployment, and are adopting a cloud
native framework. The need to offer differentiated new services and efficiently
monetizing these services will require a reliable and cost effective policy
management. The Oracle carrier grade cloud native policy solution helps operators
evolve their 3G and 4G networks in a cost effective and efficient way, while they take
their first step towards adopting 5G technologies. Oracle Communications with its
decades of experience in this domain and wide portfolio of advanced cloud
technologies is optimally positioned to support telecom operators in their evolution
towards better and more sophisticated telecom network.

1 Global Mobile Trends 2020, GSMAintelligence.com

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