Deliver differentiating mobile data
services beyond ocs capabilities

The Pharos Policy Engine (PPE) lets you create differentiated mobile data services with policies that let you control the network resources that subscribers are allowed to use for each of your mobile data services, based on a wide array of criteria including Quality of Service (QoS), QoS Class Identifier (QCI), location, device type, APN selected, radio access network type, and time of day amongst other things.

Vitally, PPE enables you to deliver innovative and differentiated products that are unattainable solely through an OCS. In fact, PCRF complements and enhances the capabilities of your existing OCS by letting you create innovative and differentiated products that provide you with granular control over service charging.

PPE's PCRF component is the central policy decision point of the larger 3GPP Policy Charging Control (PCC) architecture. It is the first element that the mobile packet core consults to determine which service policies to apply to each mobile data session.

Using inputs from your network and optionally, from external systems, the PCRF makes real-time decisions to determine the appropriate service control and charging rules for each mobile data session.

Acting as the network’s real-time decision engine, PPE applies the service-handling policies you define to manage key aspects of each data session, including Quality of Service (QoS), bandwidth allocation, and service priority, ensuring that critical services are appropriately prioritised. In parallel, it facilitates charging by applying your defined rules to determine how and when customers are charged, for example by using different rating groups for peak versus off-peak usage.

PPE's PCRF is responsible for performing the following main tasks:

• Policy Enforcement: PPE’s rules engine enforces the service-handling policies which you create on the system. Policies can be based on user-specific attributes, network conditions, and various other contextual factors. PPE continuously evaluates each subscriber session and data flow, making real-time, dynamic decisions and automatically updating policies as network conditions and subscriber context change.
• Charging Control: The rules engine facilitates charging control by applying charging rules to subscribers' usage patterns. These charging rules determine how much a subscriber should be charged for certain services or types of data usage. For example, it lets you apply different rating groups for data usage during peak and off-peak hours or for specific types of content.
• Dynamic Decision Making: The rules engine makes real-time and dynamic decisions based on incoming data, network conditions, and predefined policy and charging rules. It evaluates the relevant policies and charging rules for each subscriber session and applies appropriate actions.
• Usage Information Policy Decisions: PPE gathers subscriber usage information from the PGW and lets you use this info to make policy decisions. Uniquely, it can obtain policy-relevant data directly from the PGW and other external systems without consulting the OCS, ensuring decisions can still be made even when the OCS is not involved. This usage information is independent of the OCS and can be obtained even if an OCS is not part of an APN configuration.
• External Source Policy Decisions: PPE distinguishes itself from other systems by allowing you to make policy decisions based on source data from external systems in addition to your Packet Gateway (PGW) and Online Charging System (OCS).
• QoS, Bandwidth, and Priority Management: The rules engine manages Quality of Service (QoS), bandwidth allocation, and priorities of network services and applications. It ensures that critical services receive the necessary resources and prioritises traffic based on the policies that you define.
• Session Event Monitoring: PPE monitors key session events, including session initiation, modification, and termination, and uses these triggers to apply the appropriate policy and charging actions at the right time.
• Policy Control and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) Interaction: The rules engine interacts with the PCEF in your network to enforce the policies and charging rules. PPE instructs the PCEF to implement the actions dictated by its rules engine, such as throttling bandwidth, blocking access to certain services, or applying differential rating groups.

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