Evolution of Policy Control and Charging (PCC) Architecture for 3GPP Evolved System Architecture

The 3GPP system is currently being evolved into a system that is composed of heterogeneous access systems with the aim to provide various services at a higher-data-rate and lower-latency based on packet switched networks. Efficient resource usage, charging and international roaming, inherent features within the 3GPP system, are among the key capabilities to be retained in the evolved system. The Policy Control and Charging (PCC) architecture allows operators to perform service based QoS policy and flow based charging control. This paper describes the PCC architecture and how it may evolve in the future 3GPP system for both non-roaming and roaming scenarios. Different possible architectural options are analysed, where the advantages as well as the associated issues arising from these different options are described. The level of impact of the proposed architecture on the baseline (Release 6/7) radio access and core network architecture is also highlighted.