Software Defined Networking (SDN) / Network Function Virtualization (NFV) based Evolved Packet Core (EPC)

Software Defined Networking (SDN) / Network Function Virtualization (NFV) based Evolved Packet Core (EPC)

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  SDN-NFV based Evolved PacketCore Jacob Cooper Karla Saur Acknowledgements: Intel - Christian Maciocco, Ashok Sunder Rajan, Kannan Babu Ramia Sprint - Lyle Bertz, Arun Rajagopal, Vivek Vijayan © 2017 Intel Corporation * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others
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  2 Legal Information •  Thispresentation contains the general insights and opinions of Intel Corporation (“Intel”). The information in this presentation is provided for information only and is not to be relied upon for any other purpose than educational. Use at your own risk! Intel makes no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information in this presentation. Intel accepts no duty to update this presentation based on more current information. Intel is not liable for any damages, direct or indirect, consequential or otherwise, that may arise, directly or indirectly, from the use or misuse of the information in this presentation. •  Intel technologies’ features and benefits depend on system configuration and may require enabled hardware, software or service activation. Learn more at intel.com, or from the OEM or retailer. •  No license (express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise) to any intellectual property rights is granted by this document. •  Intel, the Intel logo and Xeon are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries. •  *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. •  © 2017 Intel Corporation.
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  Current Mobile NetworkArchitecture 3 •  EPC: Evolved Packet Core •  RAN: Radio Access Network •  H-PLMN: Home Public Land Mobile Network •  Subscriber’s Carrier Network •  V-PLMN: Visited Public Land Mobile Network •  Roaming Carrier Network •  MME: Mobility Management Entity •  Manages mobility events •  UE: User Equipment •  Cell Phones/Hotspots/Modem •  eNB: evolved Node B •  Base Station (Cell Towers) •  HSS: Home Subscriber Server •  User and Subscriber database, •  PCRF: Policy & Charging Rules Function •  Manages account QoS and Charging •  SGW: Serving Gateway •  Manages packet flow between Core and Radio Networks •  PGW: PDN Gateway •  Packet Data Network – or Packet Gateway •  Maps packets to user accounts, manages policy and charging •  SPGW: Serving & Packet Gateway •  Combined Serving and Packet Gateway functions on home network •  IMS: IP Multimedia Subsystem •  Access to IP services, including the Internet and Telephone networks •  E-UTRAN: Evolved Universal Terrestrial Access Network •  LTE Radio Access Network E-UTRAN UE MME SGW PGW eNB PGW HSS HSSH-PLMN V-PLMN S1-MME S1u S5 S11 S6a S6a S8 PCRF PCRF Gx Gx MME S10 IMS SGi IMSSGi SPGW S1u S11 SGiGx RAN EPC S1-MME [6]
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  Current Mobile NetworkArchitecture 4 •  EPC: Evolved Packet Core •  RAN: Radio Access Network •  H-PLMN: Home Public Land Mobile Network •  Subscriber’s Carrier Network •  V-PLMN: Visited Public Land Mobile Network •  Roaming Carrier Network •  MME: Mobility Management Entity •  Manages mobility events •  UE: User Equipment •  Cell Phones/Hotspots/Modem •  eNB: evolved Node B •  Base Station (Cell Towers) •  HSS: Home Subscriber Server •  User and Subscriber database, •  PCRF: Policy & Charging Rules Function •  Manages account QoS and Charging •  SGW: Serving Gateway •  Manages packet flow between Core and Radio Networks •  PGW: PDN Gateway •  Packet Data Network – or Packet Gateway •  Maps packets to user accounts, manages policy and charging •  SPGW: Serving & Packet Gateway •  Combined Serving and Packet Gateway functions on home network •  IMS: IP Multimedia Subsystem •  Access to IP services, including the Internet and Telephone networks •  E-UTRAN: Evolved Universal Terrestrial Access Network •  LTE Radio Access Network MME eNB S1-MME IMSSGi S1u S11 PCRFGx SGW PGW S5/S8 [6]
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  Current Mobile NetworkArchitecture 5 •  EPC: Evolved Packet Core •  RAN: Radio Access Network •  H-PLMN: Home Public Land Mobile Network •  Subscriber’s Carrier Network •  V-PLMN: Visited Public Land Mobile Network •  Roaming Carrier Network •  MME: Mobility Management Entity •  Manages mobility events •  UE: User Equipment •  Cell Phones/Hotspots/Modem •  eNB: evolved Node B •  Base Station (Cell Towers) •  HSS: Home Subscriber Server •  User and Subscriber database, •  PCRF: Policy & Charging Rules Function •  Manages account QoS and Charging •  SGW: Serving Gateway •  Manages packet flow between Core and Radio Networks •  PGW: PDN Gateway •  Packet Data Network – or Packet Gateway •  Maps packets to user accounts, manages policy and charging •  SPGW: Serving & Packet Gateway •  Combined Serving and Packet Gateway functions on home network •  IMS: IP Multimedia Subsystem •  Access to IP services, including the Internet and Telephone networks •  E-UTRAN: Evolved Universal Terrestrial Access Network •  LTE Radio Access Network E-UTRAN UE MME SGW PGW eNB PGW HSS HSSH-PLMN V-PLMN S1-MME S1u S5 S11 S6a S6a S8 PCRF PCRF Gx Gx MME S10 IMS SGi IMSSGi SPGW S1u S11 SGiGx RAN EPC S1-MME [6]
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  Current Mobile NetworkArchitecture 6 •  EPC: Evolved Packet Core •  RAN: Radio Access Network •  H-PLMN: Home Public Land Mobile Network •  Subscriber’s Carrier Network •  V-PLMN: Visited Public Land Mobile Network •  Roaming Carrier Network •  MME: Mobility Management Entity •  Manages mobility events •  UE: User Equipment •  Cell Phones/Hotspots/Modem •  eNB: evolved Node B •  Base Station (Cell Towers) •  HSS: Home Subscriber Server •  User and Subscriber database, •  PCRF: Policy & Charging Rules Function •  Manages account QoS and Charging •  SGW: Serving Gateway •  Manages packet flow between Core and Radio Networks •  PGW: PDN Gateway •  Packet Data Network – or Packet Gateway •  Maps packets to user accounts, manages policy and charging •  SPGW: Serving & Packet Gateway •  Combined Serving and Packet Gateway functions on home network •  IMS: IP Multimedia Subsystem •  Access to IP services, including the Internet and Telephone networks •  E-UTRAN: Evolved Universal Terrestrial Access Network •  LTE Radio Access Network MME eNB S1-MME IMSSGiS1u S11 SPGW PCRF Gx [6]
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  Connection Procedure 7 eNBUE MMEHSS SGW PGW PCRF 1 2 3 4 5 5 6a 6e 77 8a 8b 9 6b 6c 6d 10 10 10 10 11a 11d 11b 11c 12 12 12 12 MME S1-MME IMSSGi S1u S11 PCRFGx SGW PGW S5/S8 HSS S6a E-UTRAN UE eNB [6]
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  Current Network Deployment& Dimensioning 8 EPC MMES1-MME IMSSGi S1u S11 PCRFGx SGW PGW S5/S8 HSS S6a E-UTRAN UE eNB ~400 Million ~300K ~50 ~50~50 ~150 North America Market [1,2,3]
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  Projected Network Load 9 [1,3,4,5] MME S1-MME IMSSGiS1u S11 E-UTRAN eNB SPGW Mobile Phones 3% CAGR IoT 20-30% CAGR ~100x 5G Growth ~10x 5G Growth ~10x 5G Growth ~100x 5G Growth (Compound AnnualGrowth Rate)
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  NGIC: Next GenerationInfrastructure Core https://gerrit.opencord.org/#/q/project:ngic 10 Features Include: •  GTPv2C Support on S11 •  GTP-U Encap/Decap •  CDR: Charge Data Record •  ADC: Application Detection & Control •  Child Protection •  PCC: Policy & Charging Control •  IoT Support: with DDN (Downlink Data Notification •  And many more NGIC MME S1-MME IMS SGiS1u S11 eNB S11 S11 S1u S1u S1u SGi SGi SGi NB CP SB DP NB NB SB SB SB SDN [7,12] * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others •  SDN-based architecture •  Independent control or data scaling •  Collapsed functionalities •  Control Plane (CP), Data Plane (DP) fully virtualized
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  11 SDN Controller: •  Implementedas an FPC Agent •  FPC: Forwarding Policy Configuration •  Current IETF Draft •  Implemented as OpenDaylight Plugin •  https://github.com/opendaylight/fpc •  Performs discovery of Clients (Control Planes) and DPNs (Data Plane Nodes) NGIC NB CP SB DP NB NB SB SB SB SDN [13] * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others NGIC: Next Generation Infrastructure Core https://gerrit.opencord.org/#/q/project:ngic
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  Opendaylight Server FPC Plugin FPCAgent in OpenDaylight – Sprint https://wiki.opendaylight.org/view/Project_Proposals:FpcAgent Assignment Management Activation / Upstream Mgt HTTP RestCONF / NetConf ZeroMQ DPN Queue (Pub Sub) ZeroMQ Pub/Sub Cache Mgt (Inmemory DOM) HTTP RestCONF Notification DPNs ODL Storage ODL Flow Service ODL Openflow Plugin ODL Restconf Service FPC Topology API Calls (non-realtime) OpenFlow 1.3.1+ OpenFlow Switch HTTP RestCONF / NetConf FPC Control Plane API Calls (realtime) ODL Northbound APIs ODL Southbound APIs Notification ZeroMQ DPN To Agent Queue Under Development FPC Data Monitors (Data Changes) * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others [19] 12
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  13 NGIC A High PerformancePacket Core for Next Generation Cellular Networks SIGCOMM '17 , UC-Berkeley New Control Plane in 3GPP LTE/EPC Architecture for On-Demand Connectivity Service IEEE CloudNet 2013, Orange Labs A Comparison of SDN and NFV for Re-designing the LTE Packet Core IEEE NFV/SDN 2016, IIT Bombay Existing EPC SDN Architectures NGIC MME S1-MME IMS SGiS1u S11 eNB S11 S11 S1u S1u S1u SGi SGi SGi NB CP SB DP NB NB SB SB SB SDN [16,17,18, 20] * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others
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  Demo / TestSetup NGIC ng4T MME S11 ng4T RAN Emulation S1u SGi Control Plane Data Plane NB SB SDN ng4T Application Server [14] * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others 14 (next genera8on Telecommunica8on Technology Tes8ng Tools)
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  0 1000000 2000000 3000000 4000000 5000000 6000000 7000000 8000000 9000000 1 2 34 PACKETSPERSECOND NUMBER OF PACKET PROCESSING CORES Scaling with Number of Cores 50k Subs 250k Subs 500k Subs Presented by Sprint at NFV World Congress May 2017 Linear Scaling Characteristics All packet processing cores implement all network functions (PGW, SGW, etc) •  1 packet processing core •  2.125 Million pps (50k subs) •  1.625 Million pps (500k subs) •  4 packet processing cores •  8.2 Million pps (50k subs) •  6.5 Million pps (500k subs) Additional (overhead) cores for Data Plane Node •  Rx Core •  Tx Core •  Load-balancing Core •  Master Core •  Statistics Core Packet processing cores are in addition to the overhead cores [8,15] * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others 15
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  0 1000000 2000000 3000000 4000000 5000000 6000000 7000000 8000000 9000000 50000 125000 150000175000 250000 500000 PACKETSPERSECOND NUMBER OF SUBSCRIBERS Subs vs Packets per Second 1 Core 2 Cores 3 Cores 4 Cores Presented by Sprint at NFV World Congress May 2017 Impact of Subscriber Load •  Increasing subscriber load (number of subs) reduces pps numbers from 50k-175k subs •  Minimal to no impact to pps after 200k subs •  https://www.layer123.com/nfv-webcast-mle123-live/ [8,15] * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others 16
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  17 Demo
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  18 Press http://newsroom.sprint.com/sprint-launches-c3po-open-source-nfvsdnbased-mobile-core-reference-solution.htm Sprint LaunchesC3PO – Open Source NFV/SDN–Based Mobile Core Reference Solution Streamlined, high-performance data plane significantly improves network core performance SAN JOSE, Calif. (BUSINESS WIRE), May 15, 2017 - Sprint (NYSE: S) today announced the availability of C3PO (Clean CUPS Core for Packet Optimization – CUPS: Control & User Plane Separation), an open source NFV/SDN-based mobile core reference solution designed to significantly improve performance of the network core by providing a clean, streamlined, high-performance data plane for the packet core. “C3PO revolutionizes the network core and it’s part of our expanded toolbox of solutions to meet the coming wave of data in the years ahead,” said Günther Ottendorfer, Chief Operating Officer – Technology, Sprint. “C3PO is an important part of our NFV and SDN initiative, enabling Sprint to adapt more quickly to market demands and scale new services more efficiently and cost-effectively.” C3PO uses standard high-volume server hardware and streamlines mobile core architecture by collapsing multiple components into as few network nodes as possible. In lab tests conducted on Dell EMC DSS 9000 rack scale infrastructure with compute sleds running dual socket 14 core Intel® Xeon® processors E5-2680 v4, Sprint achieved 1.63 Mpps (million packets per second) throughput. This C3PO configuration demonstrated high efficiency by utilizing as few as seven processor cores - with one packet processing core and six processor cores supporting other tasks such as Control Plane, statistics, load balancer, operating system and other operations, for 500,000 subscribers using a typical Sprint traffic model. A similar C3PO configuration achieved 2.2 Mpps with a similar traffic model for 50,000 subscribers. [8] * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others
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  19 Sprint and IntelLabs Collaboration The availability of the solution is the result of four years of collaboration between Intel Labs and Sprint on a joint research effort to develop optimal DPDK-based data plane nodes and disaggregated evolved packet core architectures, as well as a platform for further 5G core infrastructure research. “C3PO makes traditional mobility architectures and software designs more streamlined, efficient and scalable,” said Dr. Ron Marquardt, Vice President of Technology at Sprint. “By combining Sprint’s real-world operator knowledge with Intel’s research on optimizing software for standard high-volume servers, we’ve developed a single solution that provides seven functions previously located within separate physical elements.” C3PO addresses bottlenecks in mobile core packet performance by separating and independently scaling the data plane and control plane. The C3PO architecture collapses multiple evolved packet core and SGi LAN elements in a single data plane instance. A serving gateway, packet gateway, deep packet inspection, child protection, carrier grade NAT, static firewall, and service function chaining, or any combination of these functions, can be collapsed into one data plane instance. C3PO is designed to be used by global operators and other third-parties as a reference for commercial applications. Intel Labs technologists built the next generation core control plane and data plane virtualized EPC applications, and Sprint developed the SDN controller enhancements. The EPC application code from Intel is available via the CORD project in ON.Lab, and the SDN plug-ins from Sprint are available via OpenDaylight. For more information, please visit: https://builders.intel.com/blog/opening-the-way-to-a-more-efficient-core-network/ [8] * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others Press http://newsroom.sprint.com/sprint-launches-c3po-open-source-nfvsdnbased-mobile-core-reference-solution.htm
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  20 References1.  “Wireless Snapshot2017”, https://www.ctia.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/ctia-wireless-snapshot.pdf, CITA, 2017 2.  “Ericsson Mobility Report”, https://www.ericsson.com/assets/local/mobility-report/documents/2017/ericsson-mobility-report-june-2017-north-america.pdf, Ericsson, June 2017 3.  Mohammadkhan, Ali, et al. "Considerations for re-designing the cellular infrastructure exploiting software-based networks." 2016 IEEE 24th International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP), . IEEE, 2016. 4.  Rajan, Ashok Sunder, et al. "Understanding the bottlenecks in virtualizing cellular core network functions." 2015 IEEE International Workshop on Local and Metropolitan Area Networks (LANMAN), IEEE, 2015. 5.  Archibald, Rennie, et al. "An IoT control plane model and its impact analysis on a virtualized MME for connected cars." 2016 IEEE International Symposium on Local and Metropolitan Area Networks (LANMAN), IEEE, 2016. 6.  3GPP, “General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) enhancements for Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) access”, TS 23.401, June 2016 7.  3GPP, “Architecture enhancements for control and user plane separation of EPC nodes”, TS 23.214, June 2016 8.  “Sprint Launches C3PO – Open Source NFV/SDN–Based Mobile Core Reference Solution”, http://newsroom.sprint.com/sprint-launches-c3po-open-source-nfvsdnbased-mobile-core-reference-solution.htm, Sprint, 2017 9.  “The Sprint NFV Journey: Accelerating Mobile Network Innovation with NFV OpenStack Cloud”, http://newsroom.sprint.com/the-sprint-nfv-journey.htm, Sprint, 2017 10.  “Sprint, Intel Join Forces on C3PO 5G User Plane Open Source Project”, https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/sprint-intel-join-forces-on-c3po-5g-user-plane-open-source-project/2017/05/, SDxCentral, 2017 11.  IETF, “Protocol for Forwarding Policy Configuration (FPC) in DMM”, draft-ietf-dmm-fpc-cpdp-07, https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dmm-fpc-cpdp-07, 2017 12.  NGIC Project, https://gerrit.opencord.org/#/q/project:ngic, CORD, 2017 13.  FPC Agent, https://github.com/opendaylight/fpc, OpenDaylight, 2017 14.  NG4T http://www.ng4t.com, next generation Telecommunication Technology Testing Tools, 2017 15.  Bertz, Lyle “Speeds and Resulting Needs driven by 5G”, https://www.layer123.com/nfv-webcast-mle123-live/, NFV World Congress, May 2017 16.  A. Mohammadkhan, K. K. Ramakrishnan, A. S. Rajan, and C. Maciocco. 2016. Considerations for re-designing the cellular infrastructure exploiting software based networks. In ICNP’16. 17.  S. B. H. Said et al., "New control plane in 3GPP LTE/EPC architecture for on-demand connectivity service," 2013 IEEE 2nd International Conference on Cloud Networking (CloudNet), San Francisco, CA, 2013, pp. 205-209. doi: 10.1109/CloudNet.2013.6710579 18.  Jain, Aman, et al. "A comparison of SDN and NFV for re-designing the LTE Packet Core." Network Function Virtualization and Software Defined Networks (NFV-SDN), IEEE Conference on. IEEE, 2016. 19.  “Project Proposals:FpcAgent”, https://wiki.opendaylight.org/view/Project_Proposals:FpcAgent, OpenDaylight, 2017 20.  Qazi, Zafar Ayyub and Walls, Melvin and Panda, Aurojit and Sekar, Vyas and Ratnasamy, Sylvia and Shenker, Scott. “A High Performance Packet Core for Next Generation Cellular Networks”. In SIGCOMM ’17. * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others