Mobile broadband solutions company Tekelec and telecoms IT solutions provider Tecnotree Corporation today announced successful interoperability testing between Tekelec’s Policy Server (PCRF) and Tecnotree’s Real-Time Convergent Charging system. This is the first announced integration between independent policy and charging vendors over the proposed Sy interface. This gives mobile service providers the scalability and Diameter signaling efficiency required to grow their mobile data networks and deliver personalized data plans.
The 3GPP and member organizations – including Tekelec and Tecnotree – are developing the Sy interface to improve Diameter-based communications between the PCRF and online charging systems (OCS). The new standard interface is being introduced this year.
Integration between policy management and charging systems is both a vital requirement and a potential obstacle to new personalized service plans. The majority of tier one mobile operators plan to integrate policy servers with separate charging systems rather than deploy pre-integrated policy and charging systems from a single vendor.
Join Tekelec for a webinar on Tuesday, February 7, at 11:00 EST to learn more about the options for policy and charging integration, and why independent solutions are service providers’ preference. Heavy Reading’s Graham Finnie and Tekelec’s Joanne Steinberg will examine the survey results and discuss the importance working with a policy vendor that has integrated its policy server with charging systems across multiple tier one operators
Tekelec published research from industry analyst firm Heavy Reading showing that the majority of tier one mobile operators plan to integrate policy servers with existing charging and billing systems rather than deploy pre-integrated policy and charging systems from a single vendor. The full release is here.
Some key findings include:
- Nearly 70 percent of tier ones said they will use the policy server (a policy and charging rules function, or PCRF) to perform some charging or rating functions.
- Tier one operators have run into significant challenges implementing online charging for data. For example, almost 60 percent cited higher costs due to customization and professional services.
Tekelec was recently named the top policy management vendor by Infonetics Research’s annual global service provider survey for the third consecutive year. Tekelec leads the list of companies named as a top policy vendor with 50 percent more respondents than the second-place company.
As many operators already know, policy management is fast becoming mission critical as service providers try to cope with the broadband data boom. Most early policy deployments have focused on one or two use cases such congestion control or fair-use management, but that’s all about to change. As traffic levels swell and competition heats up, operators are looking at a broader and more complex set of use cases. Creating a more sophisticated policy environment means more triggers and more frequent policy adaptations. So, it’s not surprising that operators looking for easy-to-use policy creation environment that makes it as simple as possible to create and deploy policies themselves.
Tekelec’s policy server/PCRF is designed to help providers shape policies quickly to respond to changing network conditions and subscriber behavior. With the system’s simple GUI, service-provider personnel, even non-specialists, can intuitively build complex policy rules. The GUI is based on a “wizard” interface, which contains a large number of triggers, conditions and actions. Using interactive pull-down menus, users can populate the network with any number of “if/then” cases. If needed, rules can be modified later, according to variables defined by the service provider, without the user having to know a specific language syntax. And, because Tekelec’s policy management system has been successfully integrated with an extensive list of other policy enforcement endpoints, operators can easily integrate the PCRF with their existing policy and charging infrastructure.
For more information, click here to download a free white paper that outlines key considerations in selecting a next-generation policy server.
Next week Tekelec will be sponsoring and speaking at 4G World in Chicago, Ill.
Randy Fuller, director of strategic marketing, will speak as a panelist at the “Role of Network Services in Delivering Differentiated Services” session during the “Service Enabling Strategies For 4G” track. Mr. Fuller will focus on policy management and enforcement, real-time charging and network intelligence that will enable service providers to profit from 4G services. The panel will be held on October 25 at 3:40 p.m. CT.
The next day at 2:30 p.m. CT, Matt McCann, principal architect, CTO Office, will discuss how to cost effectively scale and secure Diameter traffic in 4G networks. Mr. McCann will speak on key Diameter interfaces and policy, charging and mobility management. Discussion topics include several Diameter routing use cases:
Policy, charging, roaming and home subscriber server (HSS) access networks
In a recent Heavy Reading Policy survey, more than two-thirds of the respondents said they want to define their own policies, so they are seeking a policy-creation environment that is easy to use. Tekelec offers the leading policy management technology in the market and is the expert in deploying policy control solutions that are easy to use. Operators can easily add and re-configure policies to manage and control Quality of Service (QoS), charging, quota, optimization and admission control.
The Tekelec Policy Server supports a large menu of features and service plans, providing operators with the ability to establish business rules based on real-time information pulled from subscriber information, the network, or service behavior.
A new on-demand Webinar discusses the top reasons why service providers should choose Tekelec for their Policy Management solution. Tekelec offers the leading policy management technology in the market and is the expert in deploying policy control solutions that are easy to use. Operators can easily add and re-configure policies to manage and control Quality of Service (QoS), charging, quota, optimization and admission control.
Tekelec’s policy management solution stands out among all competitors. This videos discusses key differentiators of Tekelec’s solution that will benefit operators.
Joanne Steinberg, Director of Strategic Marketing, talks about how operators can use network and subscriber activity to create revenue from their mobile broadband network.
