Amdocs, a provider of software and services to communications and media companies, today announced its integrated set of charging and policy functions, managed by a central catalog, to serve the 5G Value Plane, allowing service providers to play a central role in the emerging 5G, cloud and edge ecosystem.
The 5G Value Plane acts as a powerful and distributed “5G brain,” empowering the seamless integration of business, IT, enterprises and partners with the 5G network. This allows service providers to become more than a connectivity provider and drive premium 5G service offerings while enabling new non-linear business models such as B2B2X, network-as-a-service (NaaS), private enterprise networks (PEN) and IoT.
The potential of 5G for service providers lies in the opportunity to dynamically leverage new 5G network assets and tailor them to enable innovative next-generation business relationships and experiences across consumer, enterprise and IoT markets, while continuously ensuring performance. Shifting from an infrastructure to platform mindset in order to leverage service provider assets for 5G monetization, the integrated Amdocs solutions serving the 5G Value Plane encompass charging (CHF) and policy (PCF) functions managed by a centralized, business-driven catalog, as well as an AI-powered network data and analytics function (NWDAF) and enhanced API exposure through the network exposure function (NEF). Technology bridging is included to ensure reverse compatibility, investment protection and key function rationalization for previous network generations. This is designed to permit the best possible experiences as users and devices drift on and off 5G networks in real-world conditions.
The 5G Value Plane also empowers service providers to adopt public cloud business models in their network, supporting on-demand, real-time consumption of a wide range of resources and services, with innovative pricing and real-time exposure, designed to open new revenue streams for service providers, enabling the development of new multi-party business models and improving their ability to monetize the 5G network.
In a recent research paper1, Frost & Sullivan noted: “5G will create completely new markets, and CSPs that are prepared will see dramatic revenue increases. With Amdocs 5G monetization solutions serving the 5G Value Plane, CSPs can offer unique network capabilities that support 5G applications and monetize 5G based on the value of the connection. In addition to the 5G Value Plane, the Amdocs CES21 customer experience suite for CSPs addresses a host of essential 5G functions to deliver 5G as a true platform.”
“Now that 5G networks are being deployed worldwide, service providers are focusing on the new monetization opportunities that 5G presents. When upgrading their mobile cores, service providers will have to explore not only how to make 5G work, but how to monetize it in innovative ways, enabling new services and completely new business models,” said Anthony Goonetilleke, group president, Media, Network and Technology, Amdocs. “This approach will require a very tight link and exposure from the business/application/service level, down to the dynamic programmable network – making sure end users get the exact performance they paid for. This is precisely where the 5G Value Plane, powered by Amdocs’ monetization solutions, comes into play.”
