5G Connectivity Platform of the 2020s

3GPP Summit in CEATEC2018 - Makuhari, Japan, October 17, 2018

© 3GPP 2012

© 3GPP 2018 1

5G – Connectivity Platform of the 2020s

Georg Mayer

3GPP CT Chairman

Huawei

Atsushi Minokuchi

3GPP CT Vice Chairman

NTT DOCOMO


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5G – a Flexible Enabler

New Stakeholders …› Critical Communications (MCC)

› Internet of Things (IoT)

› Tactile Internet, Ultra-HD Media

› Automotive (e.g. 5GAA, AECC),

› Railways (e.g. UIC), Maritime

› Autonomous Systems (robots, drones, …)

› Smart Cities, Smart Factories (e.g. 5G-ACIA), …

› Water & Energy Providers,

› Broadcast Agencies,

› Satellites, …

… require a flexible enabler platform› Exposure of Core capabilities to 3rd parties

› On-demand resource allocation – local and end-2-end

› Core Architecture needs to be service centric

› Guarantee certain capabilities exclusively

› Ultra low latency & high reliability


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Software & Service Centric Transformation

One CoreNetwork fits all Open & Flexible Enabler

Telecom Operators Multiple Stakeholders

Phones Things

Procedures Services

Static Topology On-demand Resources

Dedicated Hardware Orchestrated Resources

• Network Function Virtualization

• Single Network Slice

4G


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Internet

Enterprise

5G Landscape

W

H

A

A

R

R

E

D

NB-IoT

LTE

A P I

Healthcare

Agriculture

Smart City Automotive

Factory Control


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5G – Core Technologies

Virtualization (NFV) – de-couple logical function from hardware

Slicing – logical end-2-end networks tailed to customer needs

Edge Computing (MEC) – resources where they needed (URLLC)

Orchestration – programmable flexibility (SON)

Exposure (API) – 3rd party access to 5G services

Service Based Architecture (SBA) – stateless, open, flexible

Harmonized Protocols & Access Agnostic – generic solutions


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Integration3

Technology Integration

› 5G unifies state-of-the-art techs to the single worldwide connectivity platform

Integration into the Infrastructure of the 2020s

› The new techs in the 5G Core are already widely used in many industries

› 5G speaks the language of the vertical industries

Integration of Vertical Services

› Variety of verticals will communicate via same communication techs

› 5G enables communication between different services

› 5G offers deep-integration of cross-industry services


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C-plane features - SBA (1/6)1. SBA (Service Based Architecture)

Objective: to adopt the state of the art technologies from Web and Cloud area, to improve the process of development and operation, to engage relevant engineers into the industry.

Outcome: R15 established the base of SBA. R15 defined each NF as a combination of mono-functional NF services. NFs provide and consume services to and from each other using a unified protocol. Stateless NF was specified for AMF.

Progress: R16 might treat NF service as the main granularity and make other NFs stateless.

The scope of SBA Each Namf… is an NF service. AMF is an

NF.

Stateless

(separation of process and storage）

UDM

PCF

NEF

UDRUDSFNamf_Communication

Namf_EventExposure

Namf_MT

Namf_Location

AMF

Nudm

Nudr

Npcf

Nnef

Namf

Conceptually, the

same as UDC of EPC


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C-plane features - SBA (2/6)2. SBI (Service Based Interface)

Objective: to adopt widely-used Web protocols, to bridge a gap to the development.

Outcome: R15 adopted HTTP/2, JSON, taking a RESTful approach in general. R15 adopted OpenAPI 3.0.0 and decided to create YAML format files as a part of specification.

Progress: R16 considers QUIC.

L2

IP

TCP

TLS

HTTP/2

JSON

L2

IP

JSON

HTTP/QUIC

R15 R16 (under consideration)3GPP specific aspects

• R15 added a custom HTTP header for

message priority.

• Based on R15, NF service consumer may

provide an identity that indicates itself in the

message body, in case NF service producer

subsequently consumes NF service(s) which

the NF service consumer can provide.

5GC uses HTTP instead of GTP-C and Diameter in EPC.


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C-plane features - SBA (3/6)3. SF (Service Framework)

Objective: to allow quick creation and deletion of NF service instances, which is a fundamental nature of the Cloud technology.

Outcome: R15 specified NRF. NRF copes with NF’s registration and discovery.

Progress: R16 is studying from a perspective that (i) NF service is targeted, (ii) the business logic of NF service itself does not engage in registration and discovery, and (iii) open source software can be used as an implementation option instead of NRF.

NRF

NF

Registration

NRF

NF

Discovery of

target NF

R15

Instance creation

and management

NF service

R16 (an example)

Agent

e.g. open source

software

Information for

target discovery

Health-

check NF

e.g. open source

software


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C-plane features - SBA (4/6) 4. Stickiness control

Objective: to ensure continuity of the state-full process, while load-balancing among a group of NF service instances.

Outcome: R15 conceptually introduced between RAN and AMF. (R15 allowed multiple TNL associations between RAN and AMF, and separated TNL association and UE’s NGAP association.)

Progress: R16 is studying for combinations between NF services in SBA.

RAN

R15 R16 (an example)

AMF

UDSF UDSF

Instance of

Namf…

UDSF

Instance of

Nsmf…

Process can continue when

the context is found.

(A UDSF covers

an AMF set)


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C-plane features - SBA (5/6) 5. Unified data base

Objective: to specify a unified data base with a data model.

Outcome: R15 achieved this goal and introduced UDR. For UDSF, the data model was left to implementation due to emphasis on performance.

Progress: -

In EPC, data bases were not clearly separated from functions responsible for processing. UDC of EPC did not specify a data model.

UDM

PCF

NEF

UDRUDSFNamf_Communication

Namf_EventExposure

Namf_MT

Namf_Location

AMF

Nudm

Nudr

Npcf

Nnef

Namf

Specified to the

data model

Data model is left to

implementation

R15


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C-plane features - SBA (6/6) 6. Start to enrich northbound APIs

Objective: to enrich northbound APIs to enhance collaboration with 3rd parties and verticals.

Outcome: R15 specified NEF and added an API to allow AF to influence on traffic routing e.g. to MEC. The interface is the same as internal SBIs except that HTTP/1.1 is mandatory.

Progress: R16 is making IoT related APIs at least comparable to those of EPC SCEF. Other works might add APIs.

L2

IP

TCP

TLS

HTTP/1.1 or HTTP/2

JSON

R15

Supported procedures

• Monitoring

• Device Triggering

• Resource management of Background

Data Transfer

• CP Parameters Provisioning

• PFD Management

• Traffic Influence

The same

as EPC

New to

5GC


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C-plane features - CP/UP7. The same interface between CP and UP

Objective: -

Outcome: R15 slightly modified the interface between SGW-C/PGW-C and SGW-U/PGW-U and uses it for N4.

Progress: R16 might consider HTTP-based N4.

L2

IP

UDP

PFCP

R15


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U-plane features 8. Ethernet PDU Session type

Objective: to allow a flexible setup of the industrial Ethernet utilizing 5GC and NR, in order to cater to vertical’s needs and to create a new business opportunity.

Outcome: R15 added Ethernet frame as a PDU session type. Packet filters can be created based on e.g. MAC address and VID. QoS can be differentiated based on those.

Progress: R16 is studying this use case extensively.

Envisaged future use case

(Features are to be enhanced to realize this scenario.)

Ethernet packet filter

QoS


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Summary5G integrates well-accepted technologies to a enabler platform

Many of these technologies are based on existing open standards and have been successfully deployed by businesses of all sizes

This is a chance for 5G to become the universal harmonization and integration platform for services of very different kinds of stakeholders

3GPP CT has taken great efforts to make 5G an open, future-proof and flexilbe enabler platform by basing the system on state-of-the art technologies such as virtualization, open APIs and edge computing.


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Georg Mayer3GPP CT ChairmanHuawei [email protected]+43 699 1900 5758

Thank You!

http://www.3gpp.org

Atsushi Minokuchi3GPP CT Vice ChairmanNTT [email protected]+81 46 840 3245

mailto:[email protected]

http://3gpp.org/

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

5G Connectivity Platform of the 2020s