Optimization of Charging Control in 3G Mobile Networks

Abstract

The charging predicament in communication networks is complex and multifaceted because it involves issues such as customer requirements whilst ensuring compatibility with existing and planned protocols and a diverse set of desired services. Therefore, it is essential to understand and evaluate the usefulness of available and emerging new techniques that provide improvement and extend the capability of charging schemes in order to reduce congestion, ensure and deliver quality of service to the users who need it most and hence achieve the most efficient consumption of resources available. This paper describes a charging simulation model based on Opnet UMTS model for the dimensioning of Charging Data Record (CDR) generation process by analysing the real network load, to estimate how many CDRs are generated at various points in the network and to realise optimisation techniques to assess the reasonable time duration for trigger settings and optimal rate of CDR generation.