4G/5G Mobile Core User Plane

upf-epc

Overview

UPF-EPC is a revised version of ngic-rtc’s dp. It works seamlessly with all NFs available in the omec-project’s EPC. Like ngic-rtc’s dp, it communicates with cp and conforms to Control User Plane Separated (CUPS) architecture. The prototype is based on the 3GPP TS23501 specifications of EPC and functions as a co-located Service and Packet Gateway (SPGW-U). This branch is compatible with Aether’s control plane.

The dataplane is built on top of Berkeley Extensible Software Switch (BESS) programmable framework, where each submodule in the SPGW-U pipeline is represented by a BESS-based module. As a result, the pipeline built using BESS can visually be interpreted as a directed acyclic graph, where each module represents a graphical node. The revised dataplane is not just more flexible to use but also configurable and operator-friendly.

Please see the ONFConnect 2019 talk for more details. You can also see demo videos here and here.

BESS tools are available out-of-the-box for debugging and/or monitoring; e.g.:

• Run tcpdump on arbitrary dataplane pipeline module

localhost:10514 $ tcpdump s1uFastBPF
  Running: tcpdump -r /tmp/tmpYUlLw8
reading from file /tmp/tmpYUlLw8, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet)
23:51:02.331926 STP 802.1s, Rapid STP, CIST Flags [Learn, Forward], length 102
tcpdump: pcap_loop: error reading dump file: Interrupted system call
localhost:10514 $ tcpdump s1uFastBPF
  Running: tcpdump -r /tmp/tmpUBTGau
reading from file /tmp/tmpUBTGau, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet)
00:03:02.286527 STP 802.1s, Rapid STP, CIST Flags [Learn, Forward], length 102
00:03:04.289155 STP 802.1s, Rapid STP, CIST Flags [Learn, Forward], length 102
00:03:06.282790 IP 0.0.0.0.bootpc > 255.255.255.255.bootps: BOOTP/DHCP, Request from 68:05:ca:37:e2:80 (oui Unknown), length 300
00:03:06.291918 STP 802.1s, Rapid STP, CIST Flags [Learn, Forward], length 102
00:03:07.175420 IP 0.0.0.0.bootpc > 255.255.255.255.bootps: BOOTP/DHCP, Request from 68:05:ca:37:d9:e0 (oui Unknown), length 300
00:03:07.489266 IP 0.0.0.0.bootpc > 255.255.255.255.bootps: BOOTP/DHCP, Request from 68:05:ca:37:d9:e1 (oui Unknown), length 300
00:03:08.130884 IP 0.0.0.0.bootpc > 255.255.255.255.bootps: BOOTP/DHCP, Request from 68:05:ca:37:e1:38 (oui Unknown), length 300
00:03:08.294573 STP 802.1s, Rapid STP, CIST Flags [Learn, Forward], length 102
00:03:10.247193 STP 802.1s, Rapid STP, CIST Flags [Learn, Forward], length 102

• Visualize your dataplane pipeline

Demo

Feature List

Complete

• IPv4 support
• N3, N4, N6, N9 interfacing
• Single & Multi-port support
• Monitoring/Debugging capabilties using
  • tcpdump on individual BESS modules
  • visualization web interface
  • command line shell interface for displaying statistics
• Static IP routing
• Dynamic IP routing
• Support for IPv4 datagrams reassembly
• Support for IPv4 packets fragmentation
• Support for UE IP NAT
• Service Data Flow (SDF) configuration via N4/PFCP.
• I-UPF/A-UPF ULCL/Branching i.e., simultaneous N6/N9 support within PFCP session

In Progress

• Usage Reporting Rules (URR)
• Downlink Data Notification (DDN)
• Application Detection and Control (ADC) configuration via N4/PFCP.

Pending

• PCC (Policy Control and Charging) rules configuration.
• SDF and APN based Qos Metering for MBR.
• Sponsored Domain Name support

Installation

Please see INSTALL.md for details on how to set up CP and UPF-EPC.