Wireless communication network to serve a user equipment (UE) over a user plane function group (UPFG)

A wireless communication network to serve a User Equipment (UE) over multiple User Plane Function Groups (UPFGs), the wireless communication network comprising:

• a Session Management Function (SMF) to receive UPFG performance metrics from the wireless communication network;
• the SMF to identify a Packet Data Flow Group (PDFG) for the UE and responsively select one of the UPFGs for the PDFG based on the UPFG performance metrics wherein the selected UPFG comprises at least three User Plane Functions (UPFs) and the PDFG comprises at least two Packet Data Flows (PDFs);
• the SMF to transfer network signaling to the selected UPFG to deliver the PDFG to the UE;
• and
• the selected UPFG to receive the network signaling and responsively exchange user data for the UE to deliver the PDFG which comprises the SMF to identify UPF functions for the user data and route the user data through the UPFG based on the identified UPF functions for the user data and based on individual functionalities of the at least three UPFs, and wherein the UPF functions and the individual functionalities comprise at least one of border security, cryptography, edge processing, packet inspection, emergency, and lawful intercept.