3G/4G Policy Overview

The 3G/4G MATRIXX Policy Application provides the business logic to support real-time policy decisions and rules. It allows charging and network quality of service (QoS) to be flexibly and dynamically linked to customer, service, and network parameters.

MATRIXX Policy Application and MATRIXX Charging Application are tightly coupled, providing a single point of configuration for charging and policy. They leverage the same real-time core engine, access the same centralized subscriber reference data, balance and usage counters, and status information. MATRIXX Policy Application includes a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF).

MATRIXX Policy Application supports network policy control for many situations, including the following:

Spending and Usage Control
- Personalized Spending Control
- Fair Usage
- Bill Shock
QoS Control
- Subscriber Speed Tiers
- Service Tiers
- QoS Provisioning per Network Type
- Redirect and Service Pass Upsell
- Group/Shared Plans
Time of Day Control
- Happy Hours
- Parental Control
- Service Control during School Hours
VoLTE or ViLTE over AF
- Emergency Calls over the IP Media Subsystem (IMS)

MATRIXX Policy Application integrates policy support with MATRIXX Charging Application in one of two ways:

Use MATRIXX Policy Application in MATRIXX Engine to communicate over the Gx reference point to the policy and charging enforcement function (PCEF). Figure 1 shows the policy components of a MATRIXX environment using a PCRF internal to the MATRIXX Engine processing server.
Figure 1. Using the MATRIXX Policy Application for Policy Decisions

Note: MATRIXX Policy Application can integrate with one or more PCEFs simultaneously to support multi-vendor PCEFs for different kinds of networks.
Use one or more PCRFs external to the MATRIXX Engine. Those PCRFs communicate with the MATRIXX Charging Application (OCS) using the Sy reference point, and with the MATRIXX SPR using the Sp reference point. Figure 2 shows the policy components of a MATRIXX environment using an external PCRF.
Figure 2. Using an External PCRF for Policy Decisions

For information about the supported versions of the Sy and Gx reference points, see the discussion about working with the Diameter protocol in MATRIXX Diameter Integration.

Policy Selection During Rating

Whether you use an internal or external PCRF, you can define unique policy profiles composed of different policy components for each application. A product offer can contain multiple policy components, and multiple product offers can be applied when determining the policy. All policy components from one or more product offers are applied, and policy messages are constructed from the set of policy profiles selected during rating.

Only one non-supplemental product offer with applicable policy components is applied. However, all supplemental product offers with applicable policy components are applied. Policy supplemental product offers are used even if there are no non-supplemental product offers with an applicable policy component. A product offer can be configured as non-supplemental for charging, but supplemental for policy. For information about configuring product offers as supplemental and policy supplemental, see My MATRIXX Help.

Note: An offer can be policy supplemental, but not supplemental for charging. The setting of supplemental compared to non-supplemental is independent for charging, policy, and repository. For more information about supplemental, policy supplemental, and repository supplemental, see the discussion about general product offer properties in My MATRIXX Help.

Gx policy messages (RARs or CCAs) include the union of the following components in all applicable policy profiles:

PCC rule names
PCC rule group names
Event triggers

For each of the following policy profile items, if the item is defined in multiple selected policy profiles, only one value is used in the message:

Bearer Control Mode
Quality of Service (QoS)
Default EPS Bearer QoS
Supported Features

Each item is selected independently, so one item definition can come from one profile, and another from a different profile. For example, the policy message can contain the Bearer Control Mode from one policy profile and the QoS from a different policy profile.

Sy policy messages (SLAs or SNRs) include the union of the policy counters in all applicable policy profiles. If two or more profiles include the same policy counter name, the status values are compared. If the status values are different, only one of the status values is used and a warning is logged indicating which value was used.

Important: Because multiple policy profiles can be selected, you should ensure that pricing is configured to avoid the possibility that one of the selected profiles conflicts with another profile. For example, for Sy policies, the profiles selected by each policy component should include a separate set of policy counter names. If the selected policy counters conflict with each other, the value from only one of the profiles is used.

Extending Policy MDCs for Custom AVPs

MATRIXX Charging Application includes pre-configured MDCs that are mapped to policy messages. MDC definitions can be extended, and the mappings customized to support custom AVPs. Each policy session object includes an Attr field of type MtxPolicySessionExtension that includes any custom policy session fields. To save these field values throughout Gx and Sy policy sessions, you can map fields in the incoming network message to these Attr fields, or to any custom MtxPolicySessionExtension MATRIXX Data Container (MDC) fields. You can then set up rating based on that value. For more information about custom MDCs, see the discussion about configuring MDCs and MDC field extensions in MATRIXX Configuration. For information about AVP to MDC mapping, see Diameter Integration. For more information about policy session mapping, see My MATRIXX Help.