5G UPF

Architecture
 5G UPF - Specifications

3GPP TS 23.501 - System Architecture for the 5G System

3GPP TS 23.502 - Procedures for the 5G System

Architecture
& Interfaces
 One UPF for all PDU sessions

Source : (3GPP TS 23.501 version 15.2.0 Release 15)

Different UPF different PDU sessions
One PDU session – multiple Data networks
Roaming scenario
Roaming non-3GPP 3GPP
 UPF Interfaces

N3: Reference point between the (R)AN and the UPF.

N4: Reference point between the SMF and the UPF.
N6: Reference point between the UPF and a Data Network.
N9: Reference point between two UPFs.
SMF
N4 N4

N3 N9
RAN UPF UPF N6 Data
network
N4 Interface ( SMF  UPF )
N4 Interface ( SMF  UPF )
 N4 Interface

N4 Interface - Bridge between the control plane and the user plane
N4 - Conduit for PDU session management and traffic steering towards the UPF
and PDU usage and event reporting towards the SMF
The PFD Management procedure is used by an SMF to provision, update, and
remove PFDs in the UPF
The SMF conveys the policy rules obtained from the PCF regarding packet
handling, forwarding, and usage reporting to the UPF
N4 node-level procedures are used to establish and manage the interface between
an SMF and a UPF
The setup and release procedures establish and terminate N4 interfaces
Either the SMF or the UPF may initiate a setup or an update procedure, while the
release procedure is always initiated by the SMF
 • Horizontally Scalable
• Deployable on any cloud platforms (no
dependency on HW platform)
• Shall be able to provide 59s availability
• UPF should be stateless – DB storage
• UPF- C should support third party silicon
Architecture • One Smart NIC – multiple UPF instances
• UPF VNF lifecycle management through
Goals ONAPWipro’s UPF should be inter-
operable with third party
components(SMF, RAN, EMF)
• Part of Service based architecture
• Network slicing capable
 UPF Horizontal scaling

SMF
N4
N4

UPF 1 .... UPF N

UPF –u1
UPF –u1

..
UPF –u2

..
UPF –u2
UPF –un
N3 N6 UPF –un N3 N6

N3 N6
N3 N6 N6
N3 N6
Network Slicing – Multiple SMF
Architecture
Overview
Functional Architecture
 Servers/Processors

x86/64 Architecture

Integrated with the DPDK, VPP supports existing NIC

Physical devices including:

architecture Intel i40e, Intel ixgbe physical and virtual

functions, Intel e1000, virtio, vhost-user, Linux
TAP
HP rebranded Intel Niantic MAC/PHY
Cisco VIC
 UP
Linux
SMF process

CLI Netconf
parser N4
server
Agent

Config
Central
UPF-C Physical OAM IPC – TCP/IP DB
architecture
UPF- C UPF-U Session
Manager DB
Physical NIC/ v-port

OVS UPF-C
standby
UPF-U UPF-U
 UPF-C UPF-C UP
Active Linux
Standby process

OVS

Central Stats
OAM Engine
IPC – TCP/IP
UPF-U Physical
architecture VPP
UPF- U

DPDK (Network I/O) UPF-U

SR-IoV NIC
 The VPP platform supports package installation on
the following operating systems:
• Debian
• Ubuntu 16.04
• Centos 7.3
Platform
FD.iO support
services • Runs as a Linux user-space process:
• same image works in a VM, in a Linux container,
or over a host kernel
• KVM and ESXi: NICs via PCI direct-map
• Vhost-user, netmap, virtio paravirtualized NICs
• Tun/tap drivers
• DPDK poll-mode device drivers
 UPF-C
UPF-C redunda
nt UPF-U..n
N3 193.x.x.1 N3 193.y.y.1
N6 193.z.z.1
N4 193.x.x.2 N4 193.y.y..2

10.x.x. 10.x.x.2 10..x.x.3

1

Deployment
Host kernel
Architecture
N6 193.z.z.n

SR-IOV SR-IOV
10..x
 DB
Availability DB sync DB sync

UPF-C UPF-C redundant

Towards NIC Towards NIC

 UPF-U redundancy will be N+1 . Availability can be increased by increasing the no of
redundant UPF-Us

Redundant
UPF-U1 UPF-U2 UPF-U3
UPF

Towards
Towards Towards Towards NIC
NIC NIC NIC

Availability
 10K – 100 K subscribers per UPF-U
scalability 1 million subscriber per UPF-C

VPP Pointers
https://wiki.fd.io/view/VPP/What_is_VPP%3F
UPF – C
design
 SMF UPF-C (N4 agent) UPF-U (Prov Engine) UPF-U (Forwarding)

N4 Session Mgmt
Procedure xxx

Session provisioning
msg
Provision VPP
UPF-C
call flow Provisioning ACK

Session Provisioning
Ack
N4 session
mgmt. response
UPF-U
SR - IoV
 FD.io
SR-IoV
KVM
Open Source Linux
OVS/OpenApp
ONAP+TOSCA model
ODL+netconf
Backup Slides
Orchestration Tosca+ONAP
 Sub PDU
session states
New UPF instance (2) creation -
Sub FAR
session state
Sub BAR
Key = session states
subscriber
identity
Sub QER
SMF session states
Sub URR
session states
N Sub traffic
4 Data from UPF instance 1 Usage details
N and related
Local cache 4 states

UPF 1 D/B Sub PFD

N3 session states,
(Stateless) Data to UPF instance 2 (RAM etc
Local cache
Cloud
UPF 2 Cluster)
N9 (Stateless)

N6
References –

https://conferences.sigcomm.org/sigcomm/2015/pdf/papers/hotmiddlebox/p49.pdf

https://www.metaswitch.com/knowledge-center/reference/what-is-the-5g-user-
plane-function-upf
Orchestration Tosca+ONAP
ODL
netconf

UPF-C1 UPF-C2
 UPF1-C UPF2-C UPF1-C UPF2-C
Active Active Standby Standby

UPF-U UPF-U UPF-U UPF-U UPF-U UPF-U UPF-U UPF-U

Availability
TOR TOR

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