Adax Solutions for the PCRF
(Policy Control and Resource Function)

Adax Cavium-based products have the processing power to host the Policy and Charging applications while at the same time meeting their security and signaling requirements. Adax’ integrated IPsec with SCTP functionality provides developers with a tightly coupled secure signaling underpinning upon which to rest the required Diameter services. The Adax QuickPort programming and cross-compile environment makes developers feel at home right away and allows them to port their application from their current host onto the Adax PacketRunner and PktAMCs quickly and efficiently.

PCRF – Policy Control and Resource Function

The Policy Control and Resource Function (PCRF) server manages the service policy and sends QoS setting information for each user session and accounting rule information. The PCRF Server combines functionalities for the following two UMTS nodes:

• The Policy Decision Function (PDF)
• The Charging Rules Function (CRF)

The PDF is the network entity where the policy decisions are made. As the IMS session is being set up, SIP signaling containing media requirements are exchanged between the terminal and the Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF). At some time in the session establishment process, the PDF receives those requirements from the P-CSCF and makes decisions based on network operator rules, such as:

• Allowing or rejecting the media request.
• Using new or existing PDP context for an incoming media request.
• Checking the allocation of new resources against the maximum authorized

The CRFs role is to provide operator-defined charging rules applicable to each service data flow. The CRF selects the relevant charging rules based on information provided by the P-CSCF, such as Application Identifier, Type of Stream (audio, video, etc.), Application Data Rate, etc.