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)

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

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)

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

UPF Placement Options

API Structure

To be added

UPF  Interconnect Options

UPF Hardware Selection / Orchestration

UPF Configuration Orchestration - Local Break-Out Options

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

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

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