The policy control function (PCF) in mobile networks determines the resources and services that can be used to support connected devices. It is a vital part of ensuring the customer experience for modern voice and data services. It determines, for example, whether customers are subscribed to 4G or 5G services, their data allocations, whether they are fixed or mobile subscribers, and even what entertainment services they may have subscribed to through their operator.
What is Nokia Policy Controller
The cloud-native Nokia Policy Controller is a combined scalable network function fulfilling both 5G policy rules and interoperability with 4G with independently scalable sub-functions. As combined microservices-based stateless network function has interfaces serving 4G Diameter and 5G HTTP/2 service-based architecture.
Nokia’s Policy Controller was designed for the needs of 5G and IoT to provide scale and simplicity even for the most complex use cases. Fully cloud-native, it can be deployed rapidly into multi-vendor networks and provides the elasticity and reliability required for efficient and effective policy control. Production-ready for 5G today, almost 100 service providers around the world rely on Nokia’s policy management capabilities for 5G, 4G and fixed networks.
Nokia 5G Core Policy Controller
What are the benefits of Nokia Policy Controller?
Comprehensive capabilities
Addresses a wide range of use cases with a comprehensive set of field-proven capabilities
Automation
Continuous delivery via DevOps tools
Integration
Ease of network integration with built in Diameter manipulation
Flexibility
Creating rules without relying on fixed rule table schedules supported by A.R.T rule system including 150+ patents
Interoperability with 4G
Provides an integrated PCRF+PCF but separate deployments are also supported
Service management
GUI and API functions of a service platform to interact with CRM and other systems
Different deployments
Designed for multi-vendor installations and fully pre-integrated with other Nokia solutions as well
Learnings from the installed bease
Leverages rich heritage of the previous Policy and Charging product generation with over 100 deployments
High performance and modularity
Based on Nokia’s Common Software Foundation: updated software sourcing, development, and delivery practices for speed, quality, and serviceability
How to improve delivering 4G and 5G services using policy management
5G notably expands the services that the network supports compared to 4G/LTE. There is no use case that works without policy control — both traditional and cutting-edge use cases for consumers and enterprises require a flexible policy control function (PCF). As we enter the 5G era, many of the new use cases will be in Industry 4.0 and include critical machine-type communications (cMTC) for industrial automation, as well as massive IoT networks. This means that with 5G, there is a much wider range of devices and use cases and greater complexity in terms of policy rules.
Read our e-book to discover how to manage this complexity and scale in a flexible and agile way.
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