Amdocs Announces 5G-Ready Online Charging System for Communications and Media Companies

Amdocs, the provider of software and services to communications and media companies, was first in the industry to announce a 5G-ready online charging system. This new solution enables service providers to process traffic from multiple network slices through a common online charging system, in accordance with the 5G standards guidelines published by 3GPP in December 2017.

Network slicing is a key capability in 5G networks, as it allows service providers to run multiple logical networks that meet the varying performance needs of different services – from eHealth and autonomous vehicles, which demand the lowest possible latency, to less-critical but bandwidth-demanding virtual and augmented reality applications.

The latest release of Amdocs’ market-leading digital monetization suite provides a centralized charging entity for the monetization of all service configurations made possible by network slicing. It includes an innovative isolation mechanism that ensures the level of activity in one network slice does not impact another. Deployed in the cloud with the OpenStack cloud framework, the solution provides the elasticity to scale on-demand in support of changing activity levels.

“Our customers are leading the way in the industry’s transition to 5G, which will serve as the backbone for a new generation of services that require the higher bandwidth, lower latency and greater agility that 5G provides,” said Anthony Goonetilleke, group president of Amdocs Technology. “As such, we have developed the latest version of our Digital Monetization suite to help them monetize the advanced product configurations that network slicing enables. It will also help them ensure that a customer connected to a 24/7 vital eHealth service, delivered over one network slice, is not impacted by an overload of events from another network slice streaming a live football match.”

“We are happy 3GPP has adopted guidelines that are consistent with the direction we have taken with our portfolio. This ability of our online charging system to support multiple network slices, coupled with its deployment in the cloud with the OpenStack cloud framework, is going to be critical to agility and the customer experience in 5G environments,” added Goonetilleke.