Charging: online vs offline in 5G (CHF)

Converged Charging with CHF

In 4G, charging was split between two separate systems: OCS for online real-time prepaid billing and OFCS for offline postpaid CDR-based billing. Maintaining two parallel charging systems was expensive and complex. 5G introduces the Charging Function (CHF), a single converged network function that handles both online and offline charging through the Nchf service interface. The SMF communicates with CHF to manage all charging aspects of a PDU session. This convergence simplifies the operator's billing architecture and enables hybrid charging models that were difficult to implement with…