the pcef 114 the pmf 102 is configured to receive a trigger from the dpi component 104 when one or more policy conditions are met the trigger initiates a process within the pmf 102 to determine which enforcement policies should be used to prevent or at least restrict future data traffic associated with for example the same subscriber it should be understood that although one can deploy traffic monitoring and enforcement functions on the same network element it is not desirable to do so in the wireless network because of performance and efficiency considerations accordingly the present invention separates the traffic detection element dpi component 104 and the traffic enforcement element pcef 114 to increase performance and efficiency referring now to fig3 an exemplary method 300 for practicing the present invention is shown the method 300 begins at block 302 and proceeds to block 304 wherein the pmf 102 establishes traffic policy conditions for the data traffic these policies can be associated with the subscriber through for example subscriber data stored in the spr 114 at block 306 the traffic analyzer 118 monitors the data traffic the traffic analyzer 118 is additionally made aware of any pre existing policy conditions or rules that are to be applied to the monitored traffic at block 308 if the traffic analyzer 118 detects that one or more of the policy conditions or rules have been met then the method 300 proceeds to block 310 and a trigger is sent to the pmf 102 to indicate an enforcement action is needed this offloading of the enforcement functions to a separate element alleviates much of the processing power that would typically be.