Mavenir shows path to monetise network as a service

Having spent the best part of 2021 demonstrating a range of communication solutions based on Open RAN technology, network software provider Mavenir has announced a cloud-native, modular and microservices-based Converged Charging Solution (CCS), which enables communications service providers (CSPs) to monetise network as a service from 3G, 4G and 5G networks.

The company sees its 100% microservices, API first, cloud-native, and headless (MACH)-based CCS product – a component of the Mavenir Digital Enablement (MDE) platform – as making it easy to create and quickly deploy new services in response to market demand.

Mavenir MDE can standalone or overlay existing business support systems. This CCS enables CSPs to introduce what are seen as “disruptive” use cases such as new digital service brand or new digital MVNO service quickly and cost-effectively while avoiding extensive network-wide impacts. Mavenir’s CCS fully supports 3GPP Release 16 specifications and conforms to TM Forum Open API standards.

The extensible data model is described as being vital for innovative CSPs looking to unlock and capitalise on new 5G revenue streams by quickly making changes to and incrementally evolving the system to handle new use-cases without losing time and capital on development.

The flexible core data model is driven by a graphical rules engine designed to simplify service creation with no-code/low-code design and templates that empower CSPs to create new plans and rules without additional coding.

“In the new, use case-driven future, the importance of an agile and robust charging and monetisation platform becomes paramount,” said Sandeep Singh, general manager of the MDE business unit, explaining the rationale for the product’s launch.

“Mavenir’s composable architecture makes the transition much easier, allowing CSPs to install this CCS alongside existing charging solutions, starting with a small collection of microservices, incrementally growing, and eventually migrating to the new solution. The unique stateless architecture allows distribution of various CCS microservices to either a single centralised datacentre, or multiple distributed data centres, including edge datacentres.

“This provides CSPs the advantage of supporting a robust and scalable solution with a small footprint. CSPs can then easily launch new ultra-reliable low-latency communication [URLLC] and massive machine-type communications [mMTC] use cases requiring edge deployment for ultra low-latency needs.”

CSPs can deploy the CCS as a lightweight CHF solution for handling 5G network charging function traffic to generate network usage records without the need for any rating. Other packages include online, offline, or converged 5G rating and monetisation handlers, and 4G diameter online traffic handlers for supporting both OCS and CCS use-cases in a unified solution.