Quality-aware user data forwarding in mobile communications systems

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that includes a set of instructions which, in response to execution by a processor of a first computer system, cause the processor to perform a method of quality-aware user data forwarding in a mobile communications system, wherein the method comprises:

• establishing, by the first VNF instance, a user plane tunnel with a second VNF instance to provide user plane connectivity between a mobile user equipment and a packet data network;
• learning, by the first VNF instance, path quality information associated with multiple paths over the user plane tunnel, wherein the path quality information specifies (a) a first mapping between a first outer source port number and a first quality metric associated with a first path, and (b) a second mapping between a second outer source port number and a second quality metric associated with a second path;
• and
• in response to receiving, by the first VNF instance, a packet that includes user data for forwarding in an uplink direction from the mobile user equipment towards the packet data network, or a downlink direction from the packet data network towards the mobile user equipment,
• selecting, by the first VNF instance, the first path over the second path based on at least the path quality information;
• and
• generating and forwarding, by the first VNF instance, an encapsulated packet towards the second VNF instance over the user plane tunnel, wherein the encapsulated packet includes the packet and an outer header specifying the first outer source port number in the first mapping such that the encapsulated packet is forwarded via the first path.

A computer system to perform quality-aware user data forwarding in a mobile communications system, wherein the computer system comprises:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to implement a first virtualized network function (VNF) instance and to perform the following:
• establish a user plane tunnel between the first VNF instance and a second VNF instance to provide user plane connectivity between a mobile user equipment and a packet data network;
• learn path quality information associated with multiple paths over the user plane tunnel, wherein the path quality information specifies (a) a first mapping between a first outer source port number and a first quality metric associated with a first path, and (b) a second mapping between a second outer source port number and a second quality metric associated with a second path;
• and
• in response to receiving, by the first VNF instance, a packet that includes user data for forwarding in an uplink direction from the mobile user equipment towards the packet data network, or a downlink direction from the packet data network towards the mobile user equipment,
• select the first path over the second path based on at least the path quality information;
• and
• generate and send an encapsulated packet towards the second VNF instance over the user plane tunnel, wherein the encapsulated packet includes the packet and an outer header specifying the first outer source port number in the first mapping such that the encapsulated packet is forwarded via the first path.