1. Slide title In CAPITALS 50 pt Slide subtitle 32 pt Verification of a GPRS Charging System in a Simulated Test Environment Author: Kirsi Koskenheimo Supervisor: Prof. Raimo Kantola

2. Top right corner for field-mark, customer or partner logotypes. See Best practice for example. Slide title 40 pt Slide subtitle 24 pt Text 24 pt Bullets level 2-5 20 pt © Ericsson AB 2006Kirsi Koskenheimo2006-09-052 Contents  Background and Goals  Flexible Charging in GGSN  Simulated Test Environment  Simulations and Results  Conclusions  Further Development

3. Top right corner for field-mark, customer or partner logotypes. See Best practice for example. Slide title 40 pt Slide subtitle 24 pt Text 24 pt Bullets level 2-5 20 pt © Ericsson AB 2006Kirsi Koskenheimo2006-09-053 Background and Goals  Problem –GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node) support starting at Finland  Lack of knowledge about node, simulators and charging  How to solve it –Familiarize with GGSN, simulators and flexible charging –Setting up a test network  GGSN  Outline (charging node simulator)  Trembler (SGSN & MS/UE simulator)  Sgsnemu (SGSN emulator)  Dummynet (delay, queue and bandwidth limitation simulator)  Ethereal (network protocol analyzer) –Investigate the suitability of simulated test environment to testing of flexible charging  What is possible to test with simulators in test environment?

4. Top right corner for field-mark, customer or partner logotypes. See Best practice for example. Slide title 40 pt Slide subtitle 24 pt Text 24 pt Bullets level 2-5 20 pt © Ericsson AB 2006Kirsi Koskenheimo2006-09-054 Flexible Charging in GGSN  Until now, PS charging often based on flat rate (monthly fee) –Flat rate pricing not enough especially on QoS network  Traditional charging volume and byte based  3GPP specification of Flow Based Charging (FBC) –Possibility to separately charge services that use the same bearer –Identification of charging data  Based on QoS  Based on traffic destination –Charging rules  Separate rules based on Access Point Name (APN)  Separate rules for UL and DL  Separate rules for users

5. Top right corner for field-mark, customer or partner logotypes. See Best practice for example. Slide title 40 pt Slide subtitle 24 pt Text 24 pt Bullets level 2-5 20 pt © Ericsson AB 2006Kirsi Koskenheimo2006-09-055 Different Browsing Areas Portal home Search Promotions Customer Care News Free Area Sports Business International Ring tones Games Clips Downloads Area Rest of the Internet News Area Internet Area

6. Top right corner for field-mark, customer or partner logotypes. See Best practice for example. Slide title 40 pt Slide subtitle 24 pt Text 24 pt Bullets level 2-5 20 pt © Ericsson AB 2006Kirsi Koskenheimo2006-09-056 Flexible Charging in GGSN  Ericsson solution: Service Aware Charging & Control (SACC)  Enables charging based on different price levels  Pre- and Postpaid Charging  Byte- and Block-Based Charging  Time- and Volume-Based Charging (kuva)

7. Top right corner for field-mark, customer or partner logotypes. See Best practice for example. Slide title 40 pt Slide subtitle 24 pt Text 24 pt Bullets level 2-5 20 pt © Ericsson AB 2006Kirsi Koskenheimo2006-09-057 Simulated Test Environment

8. Top right corner for field-mark, customer or partner logotypes. See Best practice for example. Slide title 40 pt Slide subtitle 24 pt Text 24 pt Bullets level 2-5 20 pt © Ericsson AB 2006Kirsi Koskenheimo2006-09-058 Simulations and Results  Determination of Test Cases –Cover a wide range of GGSN charging –Focus on prepaid users  Tested functionalities –Traffic filtering –Identification of Prepaid users –Charging at different time of day (ToD) –Service authorization (roaming, time) –Byte- and Block-Based charging –Time- and Volume-Based charging

9. Top right corner for field-mark, customer or partner logotypes. See Best practice for example. Slide title 40 pt Slide subtitle 24 pt Text 24 pt Bullets level 2-5 20 pt © Ericsson AB 2006Kirsi Koskenheimo2006-09-059 Simulations and Results  Problems faced –Lack of components  (Not possible to generate all situations that exist in real life)  Not possible to filter traffic –Some exact messages  Not possible to perform with used simulators –Charging Data Records (CDR)  No stable system

10. Top right corner for field-mark, customer or partner logotypes. See Best practice for example. Slide title 40 pt Slide subtitle 24 pt Text 24 pt Bullets level 2-5 20 pt © Ericsson AB 2006Kirsi Koskenheimo2006-09-0510 Simulations and Results  Results –Simulated test environment is applicable to the testing of SACC charging –Basic SACC functions were tested successfully with simulators.  Traffic was filtered correctly  Prepaid users were identified correctly  Rating was dependent of ToD  Services could be authorized successfully  Services could be charged correctly based on time or volume  Services could be charged correctly based on byte or block –Basic functionalities can be more easily performed with simulators than with real charging nodes –More complex testing can also be executed but it requires more knowledge of charging and coding.

11. Top right corner for field-mark, customer or partner logotypes. See Best practice for example. Slide title 40 pt Slide subtitle 24 pt Text 24 pt Bullets level 2-5 20 pt © Ericsson AB 2006Kirsi Koskenheimo2006-09-0511 Conclusions  A diverse test environment was set up, although all testing possibilities were not used.  Knowledge of the SACC solution, the simulators and GGSN configuration was obtained  The features that can be tested in the simulated test environment were found and tested.  The created test environment enables more versatile testing than what was performed in this thesis.

12. Top right corner for field-mark, customer or partner logotypes. See Best practice for example. Slide title 40 pt Slide subtitle 24 pt Text 24 pt Bullets level 2-5 20 pt © Ericsson AB 2006Kirsi Koskenheimo2006-09-0512 Further Development  More specific testing –Specific message creation  In hexadecimal format –Different rates for specific days (e.g. weekends)  In hexadecimal format  Use of other PCs and simulators –Sgsnemu  Traffic generation –Dummynet  Propagation delays

13. Top right corner for field-mark, customer or partner logotypes. See Best practice for example. Slide title 40 pt Slide subtitle 24 pt Text 24 pt Bullets level 2-5 20 pt © Ericsson AB 2006Kirsi Koskenheimo2006-09-0513 Thank You  Comments?  Questions?

14. Top right corner for field-mark, customer or partner logotypes. See Best practice for example. Slide title 40 pt Slide subtitle 24 pt Text 24 pt Bullets level 2-5 20 pt © Ericsson AB 2006Kirsi Koskenheimo2006-09-0514

15. Top right corner for field-mark, customer or partner logotypes. See Best practice for example. Slide title 40 pt Slide subtitle 24 pt Text 24 pt Bullets level 2-5 20 pt © Ericsson AB 2006Kirsi Koskenheimo2006-09-0515 Additional Slides

16. Top right corner for field-mark, customer or partner logotypes. See Best practice for example. Slide title 40 pt Slide subtitle 24 pt Text 24 pt Bullets level 2-5 20 pt © Ericsson AB 2006Kirsi Koskenheimo2006-09-0516 3GPP Specification vs. Ericsson Solution GGSN/TPF PRS/ CRF EUS CCS/ CCF SRAP/GxSCAP/Gy SURP CCF = Credit Control Function CCS = Credit Control Server CRF = Charging Rules Function EUS = External Update Server GGSN = Gateway GPRS Support Node PRS = Policy and Rating Server SCAP = Service Charging Application Protocol SRAP = Service Rating Application Protocol SURP = Subscription Update Request Protocol TPF = Traffic Plane Function

17. Top right corner for field-mark, customer or partner logotypes. See Best practice for example. Slide title 40 pt Slide subtitle 24 pt Text 24 pt Bullets level 2-5 20 pt © Ericsson AB 2006Kirsi Koskenheimo2006-09-0517 Time-Based Block Charging Inactivity time period: 3 blocks (B) User is charged in: B1, B2, B3, B4, B9 User will not be charged for: B5, B6, B7, B8 (time between the 2 nd and the 3 rd charging event is larger than 3B)

18. Top right corner for field-mark, customer or partner logotypes. See Best practice for example. Slide title 40 pt Slide subtitle 24 pt Text 24 pt Bullets level 2-5 20 pt © Ericsson AB 2006Kirsi Koskenheimo2006-09-0518 Volume-Based Block Charging