User Plane Function Distribution and Local Break-Out

UPF Distribution/Shunting capability -- distributing User Plane Functions in the appropriate Data Center Facilities with qualified compute hardware for routing the traffic to desired applications and network/processing functions/applications.
Local Break-Out (LBO) – Examples: video traffic offload, low latency services, roaming optimization.

The UPF Distribution use case distinguishes between two scenarios:

UPF Interconnection. The UPF/SPGW-U is located in the MNO network and needs to be interconnected on the N6/SGi interface to 3PE and/or PCE/PCC.
UPF Placement. The MNO wants to instantiate a UPF/SPGW-U in a location that is different from their network (e.g. Customer Premises, 3rd Party Data Center)

UPF Interconnection Scenario

Assumptions:

MNO hosts UPF/SPGW-U in their network.
MNO provisions all UPF functions.
MNO may request UPF Interconnection for Sgi/N6 interface in a required Metro to 3PE/PCE via APIs (on P2)
Bare Metal Orchestration Provider and Interconnect Provider expose Data Center Location / Metro to PCEI Enabler via APIs (on P3 and P4)
3PE and PCE providers expose Data Center Location / Metro to PCEI Enabler via APIs (on P5 and P8/P7)
PCEI Enabler may request Bare Metal Orchestration for Distributed UPF via APIs (on P3)
PCEI Enabler may request Interconnect for MNO UPF (L2/L3) via APIs (on P4)
PCEI Enabler may request PCC/PCE and/or 3PE Controller to instantiate workload instances for LBO processing via APIs (on P8/P5)

Akraino > PCEI Use Case Development > image2020-7-14_11-42-5.png

UPF Interconnection (N6/SGi) Call Flow Sketch

Notes:

Does not include interconnect to 3PE/PCE/PCC - to be added
Does not include 3PE HW Orchestration - to be added
Does not include UPF LBO Orchestration - to be added
Does not include 3PE/PCE Workload Orchestration - to be added

Akraino > PCEI Use Case Development > image2020-7-14_11-37-27.png

UPF Placement Scenario

Assumptions:

MNO supports CUPS (5G NSA) and/or UPF (5G SA).
MNO may request UPF Placement / Metro, and 3PE/PCE Access / Metro, via APIs (on P2)
Bare Metal Orchestration Provider and Interconnect Provider expose Data Center Location / Metro to PCEI Enabler via APIs (on P3 and P4)
3PE and PCE providers expose Data Center Location / Metro to PCEI Enabler via APIs (on P5 and P8/P7)
PCEI Enabler may request Bare Metal Orchestration for Distributed UPF via APIs (on P3)
PCEI Enabler may request Bare Metal Orchestration for 3PE via APIs (on P3)
PCEI Enabler may request Interconnect for Distributed UPF N3/S1 and N6/SGi traffic (L2/L3) via APIs (on P4)
PCEI Enabler may expose UPF management access to MNO
MNO may provision the Distributed UPF over management access
PCEI Enabler may provision UPF connectivity and LBO configuration (based on the UPF provisioning model) over P2’ using appropriate protocols
PCEI Enabler may request PCC/PCE and/or 3PE Controller to instantiate workload instances for LBO processing via APIs (on P8/P5)

Akraino > PCEI Use Case Development > image2020-7-14_12-2-16.png

UPF Placement Call Flow Sketch

Notes:

Does not include interconnect to 3PE/PCE/PCC - to be added
Does not include 3PE HW Orchestration - to be added
Does not include UPF LBO Orchestration - to be added
Does not include 3PE/PCE Workload Orchestration - to be added

Akraino > PCEI Use Case Development > image2020-7-14_12-8-27.png

UPF Placement Options

Akraino > PCEI Use Case Development > image2020-6-21_23-18-10.png

API Structure

To be added

UPF Interconnect Options

Akraino > PCEI Use Case Development > image2020-6-21_23-12-36.png

UPF Hardware Selection / Orchestration

Akraino > PCEI Use Case Development > image2020-6-21_23-14-24.png

UPF Configuration Orchestration - Local Break-Out Options

Akraino > PCEI Use Case Development > image2020-6-21_23-16-23.png

3PE/PCE Workload Instance Distribution

To be added

Location Services

Location Services -- location of a specific UE, or identification of UEs within a geographical area, facilitation of server-side application workload distribution based on UE and infrastructure resource location.

Assumptions:

MNO provides a Location Service (LS) compliant with OMA Zonal Presence API (OMA-TS-REST_NetAPI_ZonalPresence)
MNO may expose the Location Service via the Network Exposure Function (NEF)
A Public Cloud Edge (PCE) instance is associated with a Zone (collection of Access Points such as small cells) provided by an MNO
A 3rd-Party Edge (3PE) instance is associated with a Zone (collection of Access Points such as small cells) provided by an MNO
An application/workload in the PCE requires Location Information (e.g. coordinates of the Access Point) for the UE/subscriber
An application/workload in the 3PE requires Location Information (e.g. coordinates of the Access Point) for the UE/subscriber
PCEI Enabler facilitates Zonal Presence API Request/Response routing between PCE and the MNO LS and between the 3PE and the MNO LS

Akraino > PCEI Use Case Development > image2020-7-8_18-56-7.png

Akraino > PCEI Use Case Development > image2020-7-8_18-57-51.png

Azure IoT Edge

Assumptions:

MNO hosts UPF/SPGW-U in their network.
MNO provisions all UPF functions.
MNO may request Deployment of IoT Edge on Bare Metal or NFVi via APIs (on P2)
PCEI Enabler IoT Edge Deployer may request HW or Virtual resources (e.g. VM/Container) (on P3)
PCEI Enabler IoT Edge Deployer may provision IoT Edge (install runtime, deploy standard modules, register with IoT Hub) via APIs/Deployer Code (on P8/P5)
PCEI Enabler may request Interconnect for IoT Edge between MNO and Azure (L2/L3) via APIs (on P4)
PCEI Enabler may request UPF LBO for MNO to direct customer traffic to IoT Edge (on P2/P2’)
PCEI Enabler may facilitate deployment of custom IoT Edge modules

Akraino > PCEI Use Case Development > image2020-9-8_19-47-12.png

Akraino > PCEI Use Case Development > image2020-9-8_19-49-18.png

PCEI Enabler IoT Edge Deployer Functions

Deploy a base Ubuntu VM
Download and Install Microsoft GPG public key to apt config
Install moby engine and cli
Install azure iot edge
Modify iot edge config file using customer defined parameters (azure hub url, keys, scope id, etc)
Deploy iot edge agent
Deploy iot edge hub module
Install certificates if edge is used as a gateway
Restart iot edge

PCEI Enabler IoT Edge Interconnect Functions

Request virtual connectivity to MNO
Request virtual connectivity to Azure (e.g. ExpressRoute)

PCEI Enabler IoT Edge Software Distribution Functions

PCEI Enabler for Azure IoT Edge Implementation

Architecture and Interfaces

Akraino > PCEI Use Case Development > image2020-10-6_22-41-42.png

PCEI Enabler Structure

Akraino > PCEI Use Case Development > image2020-10-6_22-39-16.png

PCEI for Azure IoT Edge Call Flow (High-level)

Akraino > PCEI Use Case Development > image2020-10-6_22-43-47.png

Openstack HEAT Example

HEAT Template and Environment Files

Template (pcei_base.yaml)

#####

heat_template_version: 2013-05-23

description: Heat template that deploys PCEI IoT Edge VM in Openstack

##############
# #
# PARAMETERS #
# #
##############

parameters:
pcei_image_name:
type: string
label: Image name or ID
description: Image to be used for compute instance
pcei_flavor_name:
type: string
label: Flavor
description: Type of instance (flavor) to be used
os_private_net_id:
type: string
label: os management network name or ID
description: Private network that connects os components and the VNF
os_private_subnet_id:
type: string
label: os management sub-network name or ID
description: Private sub-network that connects os components and the VNF
os_private_net_cidr:
type: string
label: os private network CIDR
description: The CIDR of the protected private network
pcei_private_ip_0:
type: string
label: VNF IP Address
description: IP address that is assigned to the IoT Edge
pcei_name_0:
type: string
label: VNF name
description: Name of the vPacketGenerator
key_name:
type: string
label: Key pair name
description: Public/Private key pair name
pub_key:
type: string
label: Public key
description: Public key to be installed on the compute instance

#############
# #
# RESOURCES #
# #
#############

resources:
random-str:
type: OS::Heat::RandomString
properties:
length: 4

my_keypair:
type: OS::Nova::KeyPair
properties:
name:
str_replace:
template: base_rand
params:
base: { get_param: key_name }
rand: { get_resource: random-str }
public_key: { get_param: pub_key }
save_private_key: false

# Instance behing vRouter
pcei_private_0_port:
type: OS::Neutron::Port
properties:
network: { get_param: os_private_net_id }
fixed_ips: [{"subnet": { get_param: os_private_subnet_id }, "ip_address": { get_param: pcei_private_ip_0 }}]

pcei_0:
type: OS::Nova::Server
properties:
image: { get_param: pcei_image_name }
flavor: { get_param: pcei_flavor_name }
name: { get_param: pcei_name_0 }
key_name: { get_resource: my_keypair }
networks:
# - network: { get_param: os_private_net_id }
- port: { get_resource: pcei_private_0_port }
user_data_format: RAW
user_data: |
#cloud-config
password: pcei
chpasswd: { expire: False }
ssh_pwauth: True
runcmd:
- [ sh, -xc, "sed -i 's,#UseDNS yes,UseDNS no,' /etc/ssh/sshd_config" ]
- systemctl restart sshd.service

Environment (pcei_base.env)

#########

parameters:

pcei_image_name: ubuntu1604

pcei_flavor_name: l3

os_private_net_id: provider

os_private_subnet_id: provider

os_private_net_cidr: 10.121.11.0/24

pcei_private_ip_0: 10.121.11.91

pcei_name_0: PCEI-IOT-EDGE

key_name: maskey1

pub_key: ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1y

Openstack HEAT Command

openstack stack create -t pcei_base.yaml -e pcei_base.env