Modeling application-based charging management with traffic detection function in 3GPP

Recently, many traditional cellular services have been gradually replaced by the over-the-top applications. To meet the future demand of the data services, 3GPP has introduced the application-based charging (ABC) management to provide mobile data charging models based on subscribers' usage habits and the quality of service by each individual application. To realize the concept of ABC management, the functionality of application awareness with unknown service data flows must be performed. The existing policy and charging control (PCC) system needs to first identify different types of applications the subscribers are using and then to enforce policy and charging control per packet flow basis corresponding to its application type. To perform the task of application detection and control, in 3GPP release 11, a new network node called the traffic detection function (TDF) is introduced to the PCC system. Performing application awareness in the TDF incurs significant delay to collect and process the enough information. To bridge the gap between the current state-of-the-art 3GPP standard and the realization of application awareness in the PCC/TDF node, this paper first proposes a reference model to realize application awareness in the PCC system. Then, we propose an analytical model to evaluate the impact on delay incurred in the PCC system to support ABC management.