Openet Announces Availability of IP-Multimedia Systems (IMS) On-Line Charging Service (OCS) and Charging Collection Function (CCF) Nodes
March 14, 2005 - Openet
Continuing its innovation and industry lead in real-time charging and network-edge rating solutions, Openet announces its support for charging nodes within the emerging IMS body of standards, enabling network operators to offer revenue-rich multi-media based services.
Dublin, Ireland and Reston, VA, 14th March 2005; Openet Telecom, a world leader in advanced mediation, real-time charging and network-edge rating, today announces its capability to support charging nodes in conformance with IMS standards. IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) provides an architecture within which operators can increase revenue by incorporating multi-media based features such as Instant Messaging, premium content, video streaming, presence management and buddy lists into their service offerings. These new services have led to three charging components being defined by 3GPP as part of the IMS standard which is now being rapidly adopted throughout the wireless, wireline, broadband, and cable/MSO industries.
As the uptake in IMS across global operators increases pace, today’s announcement from Openet makes available two critical new charging components needed for successful deployment in this architecture – the Charging Collection Function (CCF) and the Online Charging Service (OCS). These are added to the Charging Gateway Function (CGF) already supported and released previously by Openet.
The FusionWorks OCS provides a solution for the IMS OCS requirement for on-line charging. On-line charging is essential for services where ‘in session’ charging and control are critical. The solution delivers both session- and event-based charging capability along with the embedded rating capabilities as defined in the IMS OCS standards. This solution takes advantage of the strengths of the combined FusionWorks ActiveCharge and ActiveRate systems, running on the FusionWorks Framework, to deliver the combined performance, scalability, stability and correlation requirements as outlined in the IMS standards.
The FusionWorks CCF provides a solution for the IMS off-line collection function. This function allows rich information about IP data sessions to be passed downstream, enabling sophisticated value-based charging and bundling using a wide variety of multi-media attributes. Core to the CCF is the new Diameter protocol for which Openet announced full support last week. Openet already supports Diameter-based interfaces for some of the largest and most innovative network operators. Recent inter-operability tests have confirmed that the FusionWorks platform fully supports the base Diameter protocol (compliant with RFC3588).
Commenting on the announcement, John Rainger, Openet CEO, stated “Openet’s intention is to be the leading innovator in on-line charging systems. We have delivered software to the IMS standards in anticipation of our customers’ needs, many of whom wish to implement an IMS architecture without locking themselves into specific equipment vendors in the future. Our software based approach provides the buffer to enable exactly that”.
Chief Technical Officer and founder of Openet, Joe Hogan, remarked “Our announcement of these solutions underscores our belief that many Tier-1 operators have begun a migration towards IMS in earnest. Openet, responding to customer needs, began working with the IMS architecture over eighteen months ago. Our commitment to IMS has driven many of our recent acquisition and R&D decisions. We welcome the continued evolution of the IMS OCS standard, as it echoes what we have long held to be true - on-line charging with embedded network-grade rating is key to delivering a low latency, high performance, real-time charging platform”.
About Openet
Openet is a leading worldwide provider of event processing and transaction management solutions. The Transactional Intelligence of the company's solutions extracts increased value from diverse service provider networks, enabling rapid introduction of new services and reliable, cost-effective management of existing services. Openet is focused on delivering best-in-class network edge solutions and specialized engagement processes that create business value from network activity. A global company, Openet's implementations include long-running engagements with the world's leading service providers such as British Telecom, Orange, AT&T and Verizon Wireless. For more information, visit www.openet.com.
