Quality of service provisioning framework for a SDN-based cellular network architecture

A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing program instructions for causing one or more processors, associated with a network device for a cellular communication network, to:

• in response to a service request from a mobile device:
• determine, based at least on the service request, a plurality of traffic flows corresponding to the service request;
• determine a flow profile for each of the plurality of traffic flows, each of the flow profiles including a flow identifier and Quality of Service (QoS) parameters relating to the corresponding traffic flow;
• determine, for at least some of the plurality of traffic flows and on a per-traffic flow basis, routing information relating to routing of the plurality of traffic flows in the cellular communication network;
• and
• provide the routing information to a plurality of data gateways.

Radio Access Network (RAN) node for a cellular communication network, the RAN node comprising:

• a plurality of user plane interfaces to connect to a corresponding plurality of data gateways of the cellular communication network;
• a control plane interface to connect to a network controller of the cellular communication network;
• and
• processing circuitry to:
• cause forwarding of a service request, for data services, from a mobile device to a network controller, via the control plane interface;
• process, in response to the service request:
• flow profiles corresponding to a plurality of traffic flows that are used to fulfill the service request, each of the flow profiles including a flow identifier, and
• routing information that includes routing rules relating to the plurality of traffic flows, the routing rules including, for each of the plurality of traffic flows, an indication of a corresponding source data gateway, of the plurality of data gateways;
• and
• cause forwarding, of received packets corresponding to the plurality of traffic flows, towards the source gateway indicated by the routing rules for each of the plurality of the traffic flows.