Convergent Charging solutions

Convergent charging brings together online and off-line charging systems to address new and emerging 5G monetization use cases. Introduced by 3GPP, the charging function (CHF) collects all network and service usage data. 

The 5G charging function (5G CHF) enables payments (understands how much a user should be charged for services consumed) and allows CSPs to create new services and offers and roll these out quickly and efficiently to consumers.

Convergent charging for any 5G use case

Unlocking the monetization potential of 5G demands high flexibility of the charging solution to support future rating and charging models. Triggers for charging could include quality of service, slices, API events, IoT device streams – essentially the new 5G charging solution should be capable of “Charging Anything”. In addition, the new charging system should simplify and automate new product and offer creation for the 5G ecosystem. No-code or low-code monetization systems can catalyze this offer creation process speeding up time to market.

Nokia's Convergent Charging solutions are built for the dynamic needs of the 5G economy. It provides real-time rating and charging capabilities, enabling CSPs to effectively monetize all new revenue opportunities and provide a better experience for their consumer and enterprise customers. To cater to the needs of our different customers, Nokia Charging solutions are available in two deployment models:

Flexibility in 5G monetization: no-code functionality in converged charging

Nokia Converged Charging (NCC) is a cloud native charging solution that provides real-time rating and charging capabilities, enabling new monetization opportunities for communication service providers (CSPs) and enterprises. NCC covers the role of OCS in 4G network, CCS in 5G, and with its flexible product and no code functionality offers can be used to rate and charge for any type of usage.

Fast integration with 5G SA: BSS transformation with Convergent Charging

AVA Charging as a Service - The SaaS evolution of our proven Nokia Converged Charging (NCC) solution accelerates 5G BSS transformation, offers fast proven integration with 5G SA network functions, and provides CSPs the capability to rapidly bring new commercial product offers to market through automation, product catalog with pre-defined use cases and GUI driven no-code charging configuration.

Nokia's Convergent Charging solutions are designed to support all current and future services and offers and help CSPs effectively monetize 5G. Built on a cloud native architecture using microservices, it can be deployed over public cloud or operator defined Container as a Service (CaaS) environments.

Proven to scale, our Charging solutions are commercially deployed in customer environments exceeding 100+ million subscribers. Carrier grade performance is assured - charging records for more than 1.5 billion customers are handled by Nokia Charging solutions across the globe today.

Our Enterprise Edge charging solution to drive new monetization capabilities, comes with the ability to intelligently rate and charge at the edge as well as usage management and re-rating functionality. The solution includes:

• Edge charging: Go beyond connectivity with the deployment of a charging module at the edge (eCHF) for simple charging and intelligent aggregation. The solution enables greater flexibility (control of what is processed at the edge, and what at the central charging function) and efficiency (efficient charging for low business value devices leading to savings of up to 40%) of the charging function. 
• Monetization Manager: Increased rating and charging flexibility and accuracy with Usage and Re-Rate Manager.

This further enhances NCC as a future-ready 5G charging solution enabling charging beyond and giving CSPs and Enterprises greater monetization flexibility, efficiency, and accuracy.