Real-Time Online Charging System
Carrier-grade online charging system supporting real-time rating, balance management, and policy-controlled charging for voice, data, messaging, and digital services.
Transactions flowing in real time — rating, authorizing, protecting revenue
Five-nines reliability across all charging domains — every missed transaction is lost revenue.
In-memory rating engine completes price determination, balance check, and reservation in under one millisecond.
Carrier-scale throughput proven at Tier-1 operators with 10M+ subscribers and growing.
Diameter Ro/Gy, CAP, and 5G Nchf — one convergent platform for all network generations.
Carrier-Grade Charging Architecture
Modular, distributed internal architecture with clear separation of concerns between charging, rating, balance management, and CDR generation
Session-Based Charging (SBCF)
Manages ongoing voice/data/IMS sessions with unit reservation and quota control
Event-Based Charging (EBCF)
Handles one-time events — SMS, MMS, content purchases — with immediate or reserved unit charging
Rating Function (RF)
Determines price and tariff based on service type, time, location, and subscriber plan
Account Balance Mgmt (ABMF)
In-memory balance check, reservation, and counter management with sub-ms response
Charging Gateway (CGF)
Generates and correlates CDRs, transfers to billing domain via standard Bo interface
The Real-Time Charging Lifecycle
Six steps from network request to revenue capture — every one completed in under a second
Service Request
Network element (GGSN, MSC, IMS CSCF, or 5G SMF) sends a charging request via Diameter Ro/Gy or Nchf.
Subscriber Authentication
Identity and service context validated against HSS/UDM. MSISDN/IMSI resolution with cached profile lookup.
Real-Time Rating
Rating Function determines monetary price using multi-dimensional tariffs — service type, time-of-day, location, QoS class.
Balance Reservation
ABMF checks available balance, reserves units in memory, evaluates counter rules, and applies cross-wallet logic.
Authorization Response
Grant or deny with allocated quota (time, volume, events). Policy rules applied for QoS throttling or redirection.
CDR Generation & Close
CGF generates Charging Data Record, correlates partial records across domains, transfers to billing via Bo.
Protocol Interface Specifications
Standards-compliant connectivity across every network domain and generation
Convergent Charging — 4G to 5G
One platform, all generations. Run Diameter Ro/Gy for 4G EPC and IMS alongside Nchf for 5G SA. Migrate subscribers between networks without touching the charging layer. No dual-system overhead, no data sync, no reconciliation headaches.
Multi-Wallet, Multi-Currency Balance Engine
Unlimited wallets per subscriber — voice, data, SMS, roaming, family bundles, promotional credits, loyalty points. Cross-wallet consumption rules, shared bundles across accounts, real-time currency conversion. Operators launch innovative tariff plans without platform constraints.
Policy-Coupled Dynamic Charging
Gx/Gy coupling enables real-time QoS-based charging decisions. When a subscriber hits their data cap, don't just cut them off — offer a speed boost upsell, throttle to a "free" tier, or redirect to a top-up portal. Every policy decision becomes a revenue opportunity.
Carrier-Grade Resilience
Active-active geo-redundant deployment. In-memory session state replicated across nodes. Automatic failover with zero transaction loss. Rolling upgrades without downtime. Independently audited at 99.999% uptime across production deployments serving 10M+ subscribers.
Revenue You Can Measure
Real-time charging isn't just technology — it's the difference between captured and lost revenue
Five-nines across voice, data, SMS, and digital services domains
Industry average is 3–5%. Our OCS customers report leakage under 0.3%
Active-active geo-redundancy with in-memory session replication
Frequently Asked Questions
How does OCS differ from a traditional billing system?
OCS performs real-time charging — every call, SMS, or data session is rated and authorized before or during the service. Traditional billing processes CDRs in batch after the fact, which cannot prevent overspend or enable real-time top-ups. OCS is essential for prepaid services and real-time credit control.
Can ZBensoft OCS handle both 4G and 5G charging?
Yes. The platform supports Diameter Ro/Gy interfaces for 4G (EPC/IMS) and the Nchf service-based interface for 5G Core. A single convergent platform can manage both 4G and 5G subscribers simultaneously, making migration seamless.
What throughput can the OCS platform support?
ZBensoft OCS is designed for carrier-grade scale, supporting 10M+ subscribers and over 200 million transactions per day. The distributed in-memory architecture with active-active geo-redundancy ensures linear scalability — add nodes to increase capacity without downtime.
Full-Stack Technology for Your Telecom Business
ZBensoft integrates charging, core network, and AI capabilities to help operators run efficiently and grow sustainably.
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