By WG SA5 -  Author Shan CHEN (Huawei)

3GPP SA5 specifies 5G LAN charging based on the charging requirements from 3GPP SA1 TS 22.261 and SA2 TS 23.501 and TS 23.502, to support the B2B scenarios which provides functions similar to LANs and virtual private networks.

The 5G Virtual Network (VN) group consists of a set of UEs using private communication for 5G LAN-type services. 5G System supports the 5G VN group management and 5G VN group communication, specified in the clause 5.29 of TS 23.501.

• 5G System supports management of 5G VN Group identification and membership (i.e. definition of 5G VN group identifiers and membership) and 5G VN Group data.
• 5G System supports communication for a single 5G VN group, including one to one communication and one to many communications based on different user plane architecture options: using local switch, using N19 tunnel, or using N6 tunnel.

5G LAN charging

The 5G LAN-type service charging specified in the clause 6.2 of TS 32.240, including the 5G VN group management charging and 5G VN group communication charging.

The 5G VN group configuration is either provided by OA&M (Operations, Administration and Maintenance) or provided by an AF to the NEF. The 5G VN group management charging is applicable for the 5G VN group addition/deletion/modification (i.e.5G VN members), including the following two optional architecture specified in TS 32.254. which optional charging architecture to be used is depended on the operator’s decision.

• CEF based charging: obtains the 5G VN group information from UDM by CEF, and reports to CHF.

Figure 1: UDM converged charging architecture

• NEF based charging: reports the 5G VN group charging information by NEF based on the API invocation from AF. NEF exposure function Northbound Application Program Interfaces (APIs) charging, using the NEF embedding the CTF.

Figure 2: Northbound API converged charging architecture

The 5G VN group communication includes one to one communication and one to many communications. The 5G VN group communication charging is applicable for traffic forwarding via PDU session of 5G VN group members which covered by 5G data connectivity domain converged charging architecture specified in TS 32.255, using the SMF embedding the CTF.

Figure 3: 5G data connectivity domain charging architecture 

5G LAN Charging SID/WIDs

Specifications and Releases

The common charging specifications for all 5G services are also used for the 5G LAN charging, including the Nchf_ConvergedCharging and corresponding CDR update to support 5G LAN charging.

• TS 32.291: "Charging management; 5G system, charging service; Stage 3".
• TS 32.298: "Charging management; Charging Data Record (CDR) parameter description".

Specific charging specifications for 5G LAN charging in Rel-17 are the following:

• TR 28.822: "Study on charging aspect of 5G LAN-type services".
• TS 32.240: "Charging architecture and principles" --- Clause 6.2 5G LAN-type service charging.
• TS 32.254: "Exposure function Northbound Application Program Interfaces (APIs) charging"---Annex B (normative): Support 5G VN group management charging.
• TS 32.255: "5G Data connectivity domain charging; stage 2"---Clause 5.1.15 5G LAN-type Service Communication.

Please be aware that this page is a snapshot of the work going on in 3GPP at the time of writing. The full up-to-date picture of all work is contained in the Work Plan (https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Information/WORK_PLAN/)