Architecture Overview PCC

Owned by Kevin Wu
Last updated: Apr 26, 2024 by Jenni Wallin
4 min read

The Policy Charging and Control (PCC) solution consists of the following components:

  • - Contains the Access, Control and Execution Zones for the execution of workflows.

  • Real-time Data Repository - For storage of runtime information, available to any Execution Zone. This is called Data Repository throughout this document.

The Policy Charging and Control solution is designed for high availability, with high throughput and low latency. The setup of the solution depends on which type of data repository you have selected: Couchbase, Redis (ElastiCache Cluster on AWS), or MySQL Cluster.

PCC Setup when Using Couchbase

When using Couchbase, the setup is divided into the following parts:

PCC Architecture when using Couchbase

  • [CZ01] and [CZ02] - Two separate Platforms Containers, their databases, and various monitoring and management processes for the collection of statistics. Two [CZs] are required for failover purposes, and one of them will be on standby.

  • [EZ01] and [EZ02] - Two Execution Containers, hosting the pico instances, i.e. ECs, that run the workflows that are required by the PCC solution. Two are required for failover purposes.

  • [DR01], [DR02] and [DR03] - A Couchbase cluster that contains the Data Repository where all data pertaining to processing is stored. The minimum cluster should consist of three nodes with one replication per bucket.

Names within [ ] are used throughout the document to describe on what machines the corresponding function is to be installed, e g [CZ01] or [EZ01]. When the number is omitted, e g [CZ], the name refers to both [CZ01] and [CZ02] etc.

This instruction is written for the recommended minimal High Availability installation of the Policy Charging and Control solution which consists of seven machines when using Couchbase. In order for the solution to be highly available, an additional process surveillance tool is required for ensuring that all processes are up and running, and for the failover of e.g. [CZ] to a different machine in case it goes down. See High Availability in PCC for more information.

When Couchbase is used as a data repository, the functionality is split between a minimum of three nodes in a cluster.

PCC Setup when Using Redis

When using Redis for PCC in AWS, you use Amazon ElastiCache. Monitoring functions are not included in this setup.

The setup is divided into the following parts:

PCC Architecture when using Redis

  • [CZ01] and [CZ02] - Contains the

    Control Zone and various management processes for the management of the data repository. Two [CZs] are required for failover purposes, and one of them will be on standby.

  • [EZ01+DR01], [EZ02+DR02] - Contain the Execution Zones, where the workflows are executed, as well as the Data Repository where all data pertaining to processing is stored. Two [EZs] are required for failover purposes.

This instruction is written for the recommended minimal High Availability installation of the Policy Charging and Control solution. For information on how many shards to create, see https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonElastiCache/latest/UserGuide/Shards.html. For information on the high availability of Amazon ElastiCache, see https://aws.amazon.com/documentation/elasticache/.

This instruction is based on the assumption that each "component" above corresponds to one machine, i.e. the names within [] are used throughout the document to describe on what machines the corresponding function is to be installed. Referring to [CZ] means the machines containing all the functions listed in that component.

PCC Setup when Using MySQL Cluster

When using MySQL Cluster, the setup is divided into the following parts:

  • [CZ01] and [CZ02] - Two separate Platforms Containers, their databases, and various monitoring and management processes for the collection of statistics. Two [CZs] are required for failover purposes, and one of them will be on stand-by.

  • [EZ01] and [EZ02] - Two Execution Containers, hosting the pico instances, i e ECs, that run the worfklows that are required by the PCC solution. Two are required for failover purposes.

  • [DR01] and [DR02] - Contains the Data Repository where all data pertaining to processing is stored.

Names within [ ] are used throughout the document to describe on what machines the corresponding function is to be installed, e g [CZ01] or [EZ01] . When the number is omitted, e g [CZ], the name refers to both [CZ01] and [CZ02] etc.