prefixes 2G and 3G refer to functionality that supports only GSM or UMTS, respectively, e.g. 2G SGSN refers only to the GSM functionality of an SGSN When the term/prefix is omitted, reference is made independently from the GSM or UMTS functionality.

process of apportioning charges between the Home Environment, Serving Network and Subscriber.

function whereby CDRs generated by the charging function(s) are transformed into bills requiring payment.

Part of the operator network, which is outside the core network that receives and processes CDR files from the core network charging functions. It includes functions that can provide billing mediation and billing or other (e.g. statistical) end applications. It is only applicable to offline charging (see "Online Charging System" for equivalent functionality in online charging).

network feature that provides the mechanisms to support operator specific services even when roaming outside HPLMN.

identifies a subscriber as having CAMEL services.

activity utilizing telecommunications network resources and related services for:

• user to user communication (e.g. a single call, a data communication session or a short message); or
• user to network communication (e.g. service profile administration); or
• inter-network communication (e.g. transferring calls, signalling, or short messages); or
• mobility (e.g. roaming or inter-system handover); and
• that the network operator may want to charge for.

As a minimum, a chargeable event characterises the resource / service usage and indicates the identity of the involved end user(s).

user involved in a chargeable event that has to pay parts or the whole charges of the chargeable event, or a third party paying the charges caused by one or all users involved in the chargeable event, or a network operator.

a function within the telecommunications network and the associated OCS/BD components whereby information related to a chargeable event is collected, formatted and transferred in order to make it possible to determine usage for which the charged party may be billed.

A formatted collection of information about a chargeable event (e.g. time of call set-up, duration of the call, amount of data transferred, etc) for use in billing and accounting. For each party to be charged for parts of or all charges of a chargeable event a separate CDR is generated, i.e. more than one CDR may be generated for a single chargeable event, e.g. because of its long duration, or because more than one charged party is to be charged.

a set of charging information forwarded by the CTF towards the CDF (offline charging) or towards the OCS (online charging). Each charging event matches exactly one chargeable event.

entity inside the core network domain, subsystem or service that is involved in charging for that domain, subsystem or service.

mechanism which directly interacts in real-time with an account and controls or monitors the charges, related to the service usage. Credit-Control is a process of: checking if credit is available, credit reservation, deduction of credit from the end user account when service is completed and refunding of reserved credit not used.

part of a communication network that provides network resources using a certain bearer technology.

partial CDR that contains a complete set of the fields specified in the present document. This includes all the mandatory and conditional fields as well as those fields that the PLMN operator has provisioned to be included in the CDR. The first Partial CDR shall be a Fully Qualified Partial CDR.

packet switched bearer and radio services for GSM and UMTS systems.

qualifier indicating that this clause or paragraph applies only to a GSM system. For multi-system cases this is determined by the current serving radio access network.

qualifier indicating that this paragraph applies only to GSM System.

qualifier indicating that this paragraph applies only to UMTS System.

change of radio access between different radio access technologies such as GSM and UMTS.

An IP transmission path of defined capacity, delay and bit error rate, etc. See TS 21.905 for the definition of bearer.

The association between a UE represented by an IPv4 address and/or an IPv6 prefix, and UE identity information, if available, and a PDN represented by a PDN ID (e.g. an APN). An IP-CAN session incorporates one or more IP-CAN bearers. Support for multiple IP-CAN bearers per IP-CAN session is IP-CAN specific. An IP-CAN session exists as long as UE IP addresses are established and announced to the IP network.

used for the 3GPP charging TSs that specify the domain / subsystem / service specific, online and offline, charging functionality. These are all the TSs in the numbering range from TS 32.250 to TS 32.271, e.g. TS 32.250 for the CS domain, or TS 32.270 for the MMS service. Currently, there is only one "tier 1" TS in 3GPP, which is TS 32.240 that specifies the charging architecture and principles. Finally, there are a number of top tier TSs in the 32.29x numbering range ([50] ff) that specify common charging aspects such as parameter definitions, encoding rules, the common Billing Domain (BD) interface or common charging applications.

near real-time charging and billing information is to be generated, processed, and transported to a desired conclusion in less than one (1) minute.

is a capability of routing specific IP flows over the WLAN access without traversing the EPC as defined in clause 4.1.5 of TS 23.402.

charging mechanism where charging information does not affect, in real-time, the service rendered.

charging mechanism where charging information can affect, in real-time, the service rendered and therefore a direct interaction of the charging mechanism with bearer/session/service control is required.

the entity that performs real-time Credit-Control. Its functionality includes transaction handling, rating, online correlation and management of subscriber account balances.

domain in which data is transferred between core network elements in packet switched mode.

CDR that provides information on part of a subscriber session. A long session may be covered by several partial CDRs. Two formats are considered for partial CDRs. One that contains all of the necessary fields (FQPC); the second has a reduced format (RPC).

An area defined within 3GPP Packet Domain for the purposes of reporting of UE presence within that area due to policy control and/or charging reasons. There are two types of Presence Reporting Area: "UE-dedicated Presence Reporting Area", and "Core Network pre-configuration Presence Reporting Area".

real-time charging and billing information is to be generated, processed, and transported to a desired conclusion in less than one (1) second.

partial CDRs that only provide mandatory fields and information regarding changes in the session parameters relative to the previous partial CDR. For example, location information is not repeated in these CDRs if the subscriber did not change its location.

payment of amounts resulting from the accounting process.

Offload of selected types of IP traffic (e.g. internet traffic) towards a defined IP network close to the UE's point of attachment to the access network. SIPTO is applicable to traffic offload for the macro-cellular access network and for the H(e)NB subsystem.

A subscriber is an entity (associated with one or more users) that is engaged in a subscription with a service provider. The subscriber is allowed to subscribe and unsubscribe services, to register a user or a list of users authorized to enjoy these services, and also to set the limits relative to the use that associated users make of these services.

part of one (calendar) day during which a particular tariff is applied. Defined by the time at which the period commences (the switch-over time) and the tariff to be applied after switch-over.

set of parameters defining the network utilization charges for the use of a particular bearer / session / service.

qualifier indicating that this clause or paragraph applies only to a UMTS system. For multi-system cases this is determined by the current serving radio access network.

the time period without quota granted or any quota being consumed for any rating group belonging to the Gy session.

An entity, not part of the 3GPP System that uses network resources by means of a subscription. The user may or may not be identical to the subscriber holding that subscription.

A device allowing a user access to network services. For the purpose of 3GPP specifications the interface between the UE and the network is the radio interface. A UE can be subdivided into a number of domains, the domains being separated by reference points. Currently defined domains are the USIM and ME Domains. The ME Domain can further be subdivided into several components showing the connectivity between multiple functional groups. These groups can be implemented in one or more hardware devices. An example of such connectivity is the TE - MT interface. Further, an occurrence of a User Equipment is an MS for GSM as defined in GSM TS 04.02 (GSM Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) Access Reference Configuration).

Interface between an MSC and a BSC

Reference point for the CDR file transfer from the Packet Switched CGF to the BD

Interface between a HLR and a SMSC

Interface between a MSC and a HLR

Interface between a MSC and a SMSC

Reference point between a CDF and the CGF for CDR transfer

Interface between an SGSN and a BSC

Interface between an GGSN and an HLR

Interface between an SMS-GMSC and an SGSN, and between a SMS-IWMSC and an SGSN

Interface between a SGSN and a CAMEL GSM SCF

Interface between an SGSN and an EIR

Interface between the Packet-Switched domain and an external packet data network

Interface between two GSNs within the same PLMN

Interface between two GSNs in different PLMNs

Interface between an SGSN and an HLR

Interface between an SGSN and an MSC/VLR.

Interface between a PCEF and a PCRF

Interface between a HSGW and a PCRF

Online charging reference point between a PCEF and an OCS

Online charging reference point between a TDF and an OCS

Offline charging reference point between a PCEF and anO FCS

Offline charging reference point between a TDF and an OFCS

Interface between the 3G SGSN and the UTRAN

Kilobits per second. 1 kbit/s = 210 bits per second

Megabits per second. 1 Mbit/s = 220 bits per second

Reference point between a non-ISDN compatible TE and MT. Typically this reference point supports a standard serial interface.

Offline charging reference point between a PCN network element and CDF

Online charging reference point between a PCN network element and the OCS

Interface between the Mobile Station (MS) and the GSM fixed network part

Interface between the User Equipment (UE) and the UMTS fixed network part

3rd Generation

Application Based Charging

Application Detection and Control

Advice of Charge

Access Point Name

Allocation and Retention Priority

Billing Domain

Customised Applications for Mobile network Enhanced Logic

Credit-Control-Answer

Credit-Control-Request

Charging Data Function

Charging Data Record

Charging Gateway

Charging Gateway Function

Cell Identity

Cellular Internet of Things

Control PlaneCS Circuit Switched

CAMEL Service Environment

Closed Subscriber Group

Closed Subscriber Group Identity

Charging Trigger Function

Diameter Credit-Control Application

Evolved Packet Core

Evolved Packet Data Gateway

Evolved Packet System

Event Charging with Unit Reservation

Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network

Flow Based bearer Charging

Fully Qualified Partial CDR

GSM EDGE Radio Access Network

Gateway GPRS Support Node

General Packet Radio Service

Global System for Mobile communication

GPRS Tunnelling Protocol

The GPRS protocol used for CDR transport. It is derived from GTP with enhancements to improve transport reliability necessary for CDRs.

Home eNode B

Home Node B

HNB and HeNB

Home Location Register

Home PLMN

High Rate Packet Data

HRPD Serving Gateway

Information Element

Immediate Event Charging

Internet Engineering Task Force

IP Flow Mobility

International Mobile Equipment Identity

International Mobile Subscriber Identity

Internet Protocol

IP Connectivity Access Network

Internet Protocol version 4

Internet Protocol version 6

Integrated Services Digital Network

International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunications standardization sector

Location Area Code

Location Request

Mobility management generated CDR

Multi Access PDN Connectivity

Mobile Country Code (part of IMSI)

Mobile Equipment

Mobile Location Center

Mobility Management Entity

Multimedia Messaging Service

Mobile Network Code (part of IMSI)

Mobile Originated

Mobile Originated Location Request

Mobile Station

Mobile Station ISDN number

Mobile Terminated

Mobile Terminated Location Request

Network-based IP flow mobility

Network Element

Network Identifier (part of the APN)

Network Induced - Location Request

Non-Seamless WLAN Offload

Operation, Administration, Maintenance and Provisioning

Online Charging Function

Online Charging System

Operator Identifier (part of the APN)

PDN Gateway

Policy and Charging Control

Policy and Charging Enforcement Function

Packet switched Core network Node (SGSN, GGSN, S-GW, P-GW, TDF)

Packet Data Network

Packet Data Protocol (e.g. IP)

Packet Data Unit

P-GW (enhanced by FBC) generated CDR

Public Land Mobile Network

Proxy Mobile IP

Point-to-Point Protocol

Presence Reporting Area

Packet Switched

QoS Class Identifier

Quality of Service

Radio Access Bearer

Routing Area Code

Radio Access Network Application Part

Residential Gateway

Radio Network Controller

Reduced Partial CDR

Service Area Code

SGSN (IP-CAN bearer) generated CDR

Serving Gateway

Session Charging with Unit Reservation

Service Data Flow

Serving GPRS Support Node

S-GW (IP-CAN bearer) generated CDR

Selected IP Traffic Offload

Short Message Service

SGSN delivered Short message Mobile Originated CDR

SGSN delivered Short message Mobile Terminated CDR

Transport PDU

Traffic Detection Function

TDF generated CDR

Technical Report

Technical Specification

Trusted WLAN Access Gateway

Trusted WLAN Access Network

Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

User Plane

Universal Subscriber Identity Module

UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network

Untrusted Wireless Access Network