High-available policy and charging-control in geographical redundancy PCRF configurations

The present invention is related to handling redundancy of a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) in a wireless communication network having an active PCRF, a standby PCRF and a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) by replicating accumulative quota usage of the active PCRF in a memory of the standby PCRF every time an update request is received at the active PCRF. The present invention is directed to a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) active in a wireless communication network having a standby PCRF and a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF), wherein the PCRF includes a memory in which accumulative quota usage is stored. The PCRF includes a network interface unit which receives update requests. The PCRF includes a processing unit which produces a message having the accumulative quota usage from the memory and that is sent to the standby PCRF from the network interface unit every time an update request is received by the network interface unit so the standby PCRF can become an active PCRF when a switchover is required. The present invention is also directed to a method for handling redundancy of a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) in a wireless communication network having an active PCRF, a standby PCRF and a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF).