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EP-3788746-B1 - USER PLANE GROUP

EP3788746B1EP 3788746 B1EP3788746 B1EP 3788746B1EP-3788746-B1

Inventors

  • GHADGE, AMIT
  • CHITTA, NITHIN
  • PANEM JAYA, SANJEEV
  • ALSHI, Anand, Arun

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20190425

Claims (7)

  1. A method performed at a device including a non-transitory memory and a processor coupled with the non-transitory memory: detecting a plurality of user planes, UPs (255); grouping a first subset of the plurality of UPs into a first UP group, wherein each UP in the first UP group is associated with a first set of features (260), wherein the first set of features indicate respective Access Point Name, APN, associations of the plurality of UPs; allocating the first UP group to a first network service of a plurality of network services based on the first set of features associated with the first UP group and a first set of requirements of the first network service (265); as a result of the grouping, using an Sx protocol to push APN profile configuration information from a control plane, CP, managing the UPs of the first UP group, to a UP of the first UP group wherein APN profile configuration information for only APNs that serve the UP are pushed to the UP.
  2. The method of any preceding claim, further comprising assigning a secret key to a first UP of the first subset of the plurality of UPs in the first UP group, wherein the first UP utilizes the secret key to register to a control plane, CP.
  3. The method of any preceding claim, wherein each of the plurality of UPs resides on one or more of a server, a virtual machine and a distributed cloud platform.
  4. The method of any preceding claim, further comprising: grouping a second subset of the plurality of UPs into a second UP group, wherein each of the second UP group is associated with a second set of features; and allocating the second UP group to a second network service of the plurality of network services.
  5. The method of any of claims 1 to 3, further comprising grouping a remaining subset of the plurality of UPs into a second UP group; and allocating the second UP group to a second network service of the plurality of network services.
  6. A non-transitory computer storage that stores executable program instructions that, when executed by one or more computing devices, configure the one or more computing devices to perform the method of any preceding claim.
  7. Apparatus arranged to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 6.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure generally relates to user planes, and in particular, to grouping user planes in 4G/5G packet cores in order to simplify user plane discovery and/or registration. BACKGROUND Since the launch of LTE (Long-Term Evolution) networks, Evolved Packet Core (EPC), the converged packet core for 3GPP/Non-3GPP access types and an all-IP mobile packet core, has undergone multiple evolutions. These evolutions have been done without impacting the way the network has defined EPC architecture. However, the adoption of virtualization/cloud computing has led EPC to undergo several evolutions to keep pace with requirements of the mobile operators. EPC was introduced as the next generation of evolved packet core for the 2G/3G packet core. Mobility Management Entity (MME), Serving Gateway (SGW) and Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW) are some of the network functions of the EPC network. Initial LTE deployments worldwide were done with network functions deployed as monolithic applications on physical purpose-built hardware. The traditional 3GPP 2G/3G and EPC architecture allows for easy migration from one generation to the next, with minimal disruption to the back-end systems. WO2016150623 is directed to a method, apparatus and computer program product for enabling improved coexistence of Software Defined Network, Network Function Virtualization, and legacy networks. Thereby, information about characteristics of available core network nodes is obtained, it is determined, upon receiving a signaling request from a network node, which type of network node the signaling network node is, among at least a legacy network node, a virtualized network node and a software defined networking network node, and at least one network node to be used as gateway is selected from the available core network nodes, according to the determined type of signaling/originating network node and a policy set in advance for minimizing traffic load. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS So that the present disclosure can be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art, a more detailed description may be had by reference to aspects of some illustrative embodiments, some of which are shown in the accompanying drawings. Figure 1 is a block diagram of a system configured to group detected User Planes (UPs) based on a set of features in accordance with some embodiments.Figures 2A & 2B are flowchart representations of a method of grouping a plurality of detected UPs based on sets of features in accordance with some embodiments.Figure 3 is a block diagram of a system of UP groups in which the UPs and Control Planes (CP) are geographically distant in accordance with some embodiments.Figures 4A-4C illustrate different redundancies in a UP group in accordance with some embodiments.Figure 5 is a block diagram of a server system enabled with UP group selection in accordance with some embodiments. In accordance with common practice the various features illustrated in the drawings may not be drawn to scale. Accordingly, the dimensions of the various features may be arbitrarily expanded or reduced for clarity. In addition, some of the drawings may not depict all of the components of a given system, method or device. Finally, like reference numerals may be used to denote like features throughout the specification and figures. DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS Numerous details are described in order to provide a thorough understanding of the example embodiments shown in the drawings. However, the drawings merely show some example aspects of the present disclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting. Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that other effective aspects and/or variants do not include all of the specific details described herein. Moreover, well-known systems, methods, components, devices and circuits have not been described in exhaustive detail so as not to obscure more pertinent aspects of the example embodiments described herein. OVERVIEW The invention is set out in the independent claims. Further embodiments are set out in the appended dependent claims. Various embodiments disclosed herein enable a network operator to detect a plurality of User Planes (UPs) and group a first subset of the UPs into a first UP group. A method is performed by a device including a non-transitory memory and a processor coupled with the non-transitory memory. The method includes sequentially detecting a plurality of user planes (UPs). The method includes grouping a first subset of the plurality of UPs into a first UP group. Each UP in the first UP group is associated with a first set of features. The method includes allocating the first UP group to a first network service of a plurality of network services based on the first set of features associated with the first UP group and a first set of requirements of the first network service. EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS Control and User Plane Separation (CUPS) is the evolution of 3GPP EP