Arijit Banerjee
ABSTRACT
In addition to growth of data traffic, mobile networks are bracing for a significant rise in the control-plane signaling. While a complete re-design of the network to overcome inefficiencies may help alleviate the effects of signaling, our goal is to improve the design of the current platform to better manage the signaling. To meet our goal, we combine two key trends. Firstly, mobile operators are keen to transform their networks with the adoption of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) to ensure economies of scales. Secondly, growing popularity of cloud computing has led to advances in distributed systems. In bringing these trends together, we solve several challenges specific to the context of telecom networks. We present SCALE - A framework for effectively virtualizing the MME (Mobility Management Entity), a key control-plane element in LTE. SCALE is fully compatible with the 3GPP protocols, ensuring that it can be readily deployed in today's networks. SCALE enables (i) computational scaling with load and number of devices, and (ii) computational multiplexing across data centers, thereby reducing both, the latencies for control-plane processing, and the VM provisioning costs. Using an LTE prototype implementation and large-scale simulations, we show the efficacy of SCALE.
- Qian et al. Periodic transfers in mobile applications: origin, impact, and optimization. In ACM WWW, 2012. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Forecast: The Internet of Things. http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2636073.Google Scholar
- Signaling is growing 50% faster than data traffic. http://goo.gl/89RtYs.Google Scholar
- Managing LTE Core Network Signaling Traffic. https://goo.gl/2nxq0X.Google Scholar
- Angry Birds Ruffle Signaling Feathers. http://goo.gl/Xqj6ti.Google Scholar
- Charting the Signaling Storms. http://tinyurl.com/k7qqeeb.Google Scholar
- AT&T Domain 2.0 Vision White Paper, 2013. http://tinyurl.com/p4uv3s3.Google Scholar
- Amazon Elastic Cloud. http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/.Google Scholar
- G. DeCandia et. al. Amazon DynamoDB: A Seamlessly Scalable Database Service. In ACM SIGMOD, 2012. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Why distribution is important in NFV? http://tinyurl.com/kyewvqq.Google Scholar
- Karger et al. Consistent hashing and random trees: Distributed caching protocols for relieving hot spots on the world wide web. STOC '97. ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- OpenEPC. http://www.openepc.com/.Google Scholar
- GPRS enhancements for E-UTRAN access. http://www.3gpp.org/DynaReport/23401.htm.Google Scholar
- MME Functions. http://goo.gl/1BuKpB.Google Scholar
- Path to 5G. http://tinyurl.com/kgqe76t.Google Scholar
- Nguyen et al. Towards Understanding TCP Performance on LTE/EPC Mobile Networks. In All Things Cellular: Operations, Applications, & Challenges. ACM, 2014. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Huang et al. Close Examination of Performance and Power Characteristics of 4G Networks. In MobiSys. ACM, 2012. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Zeljko Savic. Lte design and deployment strategies. http://tinyurl.com/lj2erpg.Google Scholar
- Shafiq et al. A first look at M2M traffic: Measurement and Characterization. In ACM SIGMETRICS, 2012. Google ScholarDigital Library
- RAN Congestion Analytics. http://tinyurl.com/nlhqg96.Google Scholar
- VidScale Mediwarp RAN. http://www.vidscale.com.Google Scholar
- Lakshman et al. Cassandra: A Decentralized Structured Storage System. ACM SIGOP, 2010. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) over IP Problem Statement. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4297.txt/.Google Scholar
- Netem. http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/networking/netem.Google Scholar
- R. Nishtala. Scaling Memcache at Facebook. In NSDI 2013. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Zhang et al. Load balancing of heterogeneous workloads in memcached clusters. In Feedback Computing, 2014.Google Scholar
- NEC Virtual EPC. http://tinyurl.com/nuefq28.Google Scholar
- The Journey to Packet Core Virtualization. http://resources.alcatel-lucent.com/asset/174234.Google Scholar
- Jin et al. Softcell: Scalable and Flexible Cellular Core Network Architecture. In ACM CoNext, 2013. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Moradi et al. SoftMoW: Recursive and Reconfigurable Cellular WAN Architecture. In ACM CoNext, 2014. Google ScholarDigital Library
- An et al. DMME: A Distributed LTE Mobility Management Entity. Bell Labs TR, 2012. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Scaling the LTE control-plane for future mobile access
Recommendations
MMLite: A Scalable and Resource Efficient Control Plane for Next Generation Cellular Packet Core
SOSR '19: Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Symposium on SDN ResearchWith increase in cellular-enabled IoT devices having diverse traffic characteristics and service level objectives (SLOs), handling the control traffic in a scalable and resource-efficient manner in the cellular packet core network is critical. The ...
Virtualization-Based Scaling Methods for Stateful Cellular Network Nodes Using Elastic Core Architecture
CLOUDCOM '14: Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE 6th International Conference on Cloud Computing Technology and ScienceThis paper describes a novel scheme which enables scaling of cellular node applications without disrupting session continuity. With this scheme, states of node applications, including User Equipment (UE) states and transport protocol states, are ...
An evaluation of vertical handovers in LTE networks
WWIC'12: Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Wired/Wireless Internet CommunicationOne of the key requirements of the LTE core network is to provide seamless mobility and session continuity at the IP layer across multiple access networks - 3GPP and non-3GPP. Although this can be achieved in LTE networks using Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6)...
Comments